NewsWrap for the week ending February 5, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #619, distributed 02-07-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Leo Garcia The World Pride celebration planned for July in Rome has come under fire from the Vatican, but the city's government is defending it. The ten-day festival has been in development for nearly four years, including consultations with the City of Rome's Official Jubilee Committee. In mid-January, Rome approved a grant of 350 million lira, or about 180,000 U.S. dollars, thanks to lobbying by the Green and Left Parties. But the following week, Italian national newspapers began to run stories with headlines such as "City of Rome Money Goes to Gays Instead of to the Poor and Homeless" and "Gays March on the Vatican," including misinformation and misrepresentations about the event. The Catholic newspaper "Avvenire" called it a "provocation" that World Pride should occur in the Church's Jubilee Year, even though there are no major special events that week. At the end of January, the Vatican's Secretary of State called for cancellation of World Pride in the newspaper "Il Messagero", while a Vatican spokesperson in the parliament called World Pride a "moral and material slap in the face" for the Church and called on the Prime Minister to intervene. But Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli defended World Pride and its grant before the City Council, insisting there would be no disrespect to the Vatican, and saying, "You might not go along with the gay pride event, but it would be a mistake to ban it." Italy's Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini also came forward to say World Pride does not violate the Concordat, the treaty between Italy and the Vatican, and said, "We must show openness and tolerance towards all citizens, whatever their faith or orientation. ... I certainly don't think we can stop [World Pride]." World Pr ide organizers were angered by what they called "propaganda" against them, but insisted they have always advocated respect for religious beliefs, and that it will be a peaceful and non-violent event. As organizer Imma Battaglia, president of Circolo Mario Miele, said, "This event is against neither the Vatican nor the Pope. This is an important moment in which homosexuals, transsexuals, heterosexuals, atheists and believers will gather peacefully to ask for equal rights, respect for people's differences, and an end to discrimination. It's quite a different story in Australia, where Melbourne's gays and lesbians are winding up their 12th annual Midsumma festival. The month-long celebration featured a schedule of about 125 widely diverse events. Two of the biggest were the opening Street Party attended by about 15,000, and Melbourne's sixth annual pride march, whose participants and spectators may have totaled more than 50,000. In addition, Sydney's Chinese New Year parade this year included the group Asian Lesbian and Gay Pride for the first time. British gays and lesbians took to the streets in a different spirit this week, holding candlelight vigils in some 60 cities calling for repeal of Section 28. That's the never-enforced Thatcher-era prohibition against "promotion of homosexuality" by local governments or in schools. The Labour Party's moves to repeal it in both Britain and Scotland have caused great controversy in recent weeks as conservatives fear that would mean a flood of pornographic materials into classrooms. Those seeking repeal believe not only that the law is discriminatory, but that it has deterred educators from supporting gay and lesbian students or intervening in anti-gay harassment. School boards in Buffalo, New York and Leon County, Florida have adopted policies against discrimination and harassment that specify sexual orientation as a protected category. The Buffalo school board also adopted a resolution to develop programs to promote tolerance towards the goal of safer schools. But a Colorado bill against harassment in schools, including anti-gay bullying, was effectively killed this week as the state Senate Education Committee deadlocked on party lines. The same Committee on the same day approved a bill to post the Ten Commandments throughout every public school in the state, ostensibly to encourage moral behavior. Students at El Modena High School in Orange, California this week became the first in the U.S. to win a court order to allow them to form a Gay Straight Alliance club at the school. A federal law adopted when Christians wanted to form school clubs prescribes that any school receiving federal funds must provide equal access to its facilities for any student group not directly related to the curriculum, regardless of its viewpoint. But the extremely conservative Orange school board refused to allow the GSA to meet, unless it removed the words "gay" and "straight" from its name and promised in writing never to discuss topics relating to sex and sexuality. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the students by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the People for the American Way Foundation, and the law firm of Irell and Manella. The current preliminary injunction was sought to allow the club to meet during the months or years it may take for the lawsuit to be resolved. By issuing the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge David Carter was finding both that the students have a good chance of winning their lawsuit and that if they could not meet it would be harmful to them. While citing an earlier decision that, "public school students do not 'shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the school house gate,'" Carter went on to write that, "This injunction ... is not just about the student pursuit of ideas and tolerance for viewpoints... this case may involve the protection of life itself," given the students' risk for harassment and suicide. The Orange school board is appealing the injunction, and immediately held an emergency meeting to determine its next move. Some believe the board will decide to eliminate all non-curricular clubs rather than allow the GSA to meet. They've already spent nearly $50,000 on the case. Angry, frightened parents demonstrated outside the courthouse against the GSA, some threatening to remove their children from the school because of the club. There was another "first" in another Southern California courtroom this week as the state's 4th District Court of Appeal prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in jury selection. A man convicted of burglary appealed in the belief that his Orange County prosecutors had removed two women from the jury pool solely because it had become known they belonged to a lesbian group. The trial judge had rejected that challenge on the grounds that gays and lesbians are not what's called a "cognizable" group. As the state argued against the appeal, "What common perspective is, or was, shared by ... RuPaul ... Truman Capote, and Ellen DeGeneres?" But the appeals court found unanimously that, "It cannot seriously be argued in this era of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' that homosexuals do not have a common perspective -- a common social or psychological outlook on human events -- based upon their membership in that community. They share a history of persecution comparable to that Blacks and women share. ... having spent their lives in a sexual minority either exposed to or fearful of persecution. That perspective deserves representation... [and gays and lesbians] deserve to bear their share of the burdens and benefits of citizenship, including jury service." The appellate judges agreed that lawyers must be prohibited from asking prospective jurors about their sexual orientation. If one side in a case believes the other has rejected a prospective juror based solely on sexual orientation, the judge must assess if there is evidence to support that. If there is, the judge must ask the attorney who dismissed the prospective juror if there is any other explanation. While it has not yet been decided, it is likely that the state will appeal this case to the California Supreme Court, because the current ruling could mean numerous additional appeals and retrials. In one of the sadder demonstrations of the slogan "We are everywhere," the victims of the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 are known to include a transwoman and a gay male couple. Transsexual Toni Amanda Choate and her daughter Jacquelyn were returning home to San Francisco after a vacation in Puerto Vallarta. Craig Pulanco was a flight attendant on the plane and his partner Paul Pulanco was traveling with him. The Seattle, Washington couple had a holy union ceremony in 1997. Paul worked for the Northwest AIDS Foundation, and Craig volunteered there. And finally, another gay man who died an untimely death, died a hero. Belfast-born Canadian immigrant Tony McNaughton was a committed Buddhist who worked as manager of a Starbuck's coffee shop in Vancouver. When the ex-husband of one of McNaughton's employees entered the shop with a large butcher knife, McNaughton interceded to allow the employee to escape. His call to her to get out and save herself was McNaughton's last words, as her ex-husband inflicted a series of deep knife wounds that ended his life before an ambulance arrived. A Vancouver police sergeant who held McNaughton as he died said, "I've never seen a more unselfish act in all my life. This is heroism in the truest sense." McNaughton will be nominated for Canada's highest civilian honor, the Cross of Valour. He's survived by his partner of 12 years Bruce Anderson, who said of McNaughton, "He simply did what he felt he had to do. That was Tony."