NewsWrap for the week ending February 19, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #621, distributed 02-21-00) [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 foreign partners of two Israeli gays have been granted permanent resident status, in what's believed to be a first for Israel. An Israeli gay man and his Swedish partner are being recognized for their partnership registered in the Netherlands. Another Israeli gay man and his Belgian partner are being recognized on the same basis as unmarried heterosexual couples, after living together several years in Israel. Under the previous administration, the ultraconservative Minister of the Interior refused to recognize even heterosexual marriages between Israelis and foreign nationals. But with the advocacy of Member of the Knesset Yosef Paritzky, Minister of the Interior Natan Sharansky agreed to grant the partners residency. Germany continues to develop its proposed domestic partnerships. Although the bill published last month by the Ministry of Justice was a disappointment to activists, other departments are moving to fill in some of the gaps. The Ministry of Finance has now recommended that registered partners should be allowed to file joint tax returns with all the deductions available to married couples. The Republic of Ireland could see its first state-level recognition of same-gender relationships as the Cork County Council is taking up a domestic partnership bill. Proposed benefits include hospital visitation, higher priority on waiting lists for housing and the right to buy joint graves. These partnerships are defined so broadly that they would be open to any two people or even a group of people who have a committed relationship and share a household. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Committee for Equal Treatment has announced that fertility clinics must serve lesbian couples. The Committee is a government-appointed advisory board that reviews complaints of discrimination, and while its findings are not legally binding, they do carry weight when cases go to court. The Committee found that four of the Netherlands' 13 in vitro fertilization clinics were discriminating against lesbians. Three had been rejecting lesbian couples because they wanted children to have a mother and a father. The fourth by policy does not use donated sperm, only sperm from the prospective father, which lesbian couples couldn't provide. A French court has granted visitation rights to a lesbian co-parent. The family law judge of the court of Bressuire in les Deux-Sevres recognized her as having the "status of a second mother" to the two children her former partner bore by in vitro fertilization during their relationship. He noted that the co-parent "was greatly involved in the daily life and the education of the two children." Some politicians are described as wooing the gay vote, but in Taipei a pair of independents took the next step and married them. As part of a gay and lesbian Valentine's Day demonstration in Taipei, presidential hopeful Hsu Hsin-liang officiated at the symbolic marriage of his running mate Chu Hui-liang and their supporter Sisy Chen. Chu called the "virtual wedding" an "important political announcement" that "we believe everyone should have equal rights, regardless of whether they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual." Chen added that, "Only hypocritical politicians dare not touch on the issue of gay and lesbian rights." Hsu wished for a future in which no one had to be afraid, and promised anti-discrimination laws and legal recognition for domestic partners. No other candidates have discussed gay and lesbian issues, and the current administration recently denied official registry to the Taiwan Gay and Lesbian Association. In Colorado, 82 couples turned out for the Valentine's Day opening of Denver's new domestic partner registry. The certificate carries no legal rights but can help to document a relationship. Mayor Wellington Webb and several City Councilmembers held a reception for the registrants with flowers, candles and a decorated cake. However, the Colorado state Senate this week approved a bill to deny legal recognition to gay and lesbian marriages another state may someday perform. If it also passes the House, Governor Bill Owens has promised to sign it. An appeals court in the state of Washington has denied a gay man the right to inherit from his partner, even though unmarried heterosexual couples are recognized for this purpose. Robert Schwerzler and Frank Vasquez had been partners in life and in business and shared their home and finances for 28 years before Schwerzler died at the age of 78. Because he did not leave a will, his brothers and sisters now stand to inherit his $230,000 estate while Vasquez will get nothing at all. But Vasquez had won in the trial court, and will be appealing to the Washington Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals said it found no precedent for recognizing same-gender couples and that extending the law to cover them was up to the legislature, not the courts. Whether same-gender couples can be blessed by Episcopal priests and whether openly partnered gays and lesbians can be ordained in that U.S. Anglican church are questions that each diocese will have to decide for itself awhile longer. The denomination's last General Convention had asked the national Commission on Liturgy and Music to consider these issues, but in the report it issued this week, it said it did not know enough scientifically or theologically to decide. It called on all groups in the church to continue dialog on these questions the denomination has been wrestling with for more than 20 years. Meanwhile, South African-born Robert Taylor has been installed as the U.S.' first openly gay dean of an Episcopal cathedral, St. Mark's in Seattle, Washington. Among those attending was Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, retired Archbishop of South Africa. Also visiting Seattle was the openly gay dean of St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, Rowan Smith, and it was a good time for him to be away from South Africa. When he was invested as dean in 1996, he said, "We must ask: How do we deal in a creative way to affirm people's human sexuality?" One thing he did in that regard was to appear in a 20-second video shown at Johannesburg's South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It shows Smith standing at the altar in St. George's, wearing white vestments and a gold cross, saying, "Some people say that homosexuals are the Devil's spawn, but I don't believe that." When he turns away from the camera, a devil's tail is peeking out from under his robe. The film festival audience was amused, but not so the public after the final shot was published in a major newspaper. At the next week's services, formal apologies were read from the archbishop, Smith and the producers of the video, but no one was mollified. A formal request for Smith's resignation was submitted to the archbishop by the three church wardens, although its stated concern was for the way he was managing the cathedral. The final decision on Smith's fate lies with the archbishop, who seems to want to keep him. British gays and lesbians converged on the Millennium Dome for an unofficial Gay Day. Some had special T-shirts printed up to identify themselves as "Domosexual." No problems of any kind were reported there on what proved to be the Dome's second-biggest weekend ever, although a few disgruntled visitors were angry not to have known in advance that it was Gay Day. Dome management did give notice to the 23 schools that had planned to visit that day, after one filed a formal complaint. Five schools decided to reschedule. One head teacher was concerned that seeing thousands of gays and lesbians would be unsettling for his young charges. Another felt it would distract his 6- to 11-year-olds from the exhibits, and his staff did not want to spend the day trying to explain what he called "alternative lifestyles." A $10-million lawsuit against openly gay British singer-songwriter George Michael was dismissed by a Los Angeles judge this week. The lawsuit had been filed by the police officer who arrested Michael in a Beverly Hills park men's room, forcing Michael out of the closet. The officer claimed physical and emotional suffering from Michael's claims of entrapment and especially by the mocking treatment of police in Michael's successful music video about the incident "Outside". The judge found that the law did not allow the police officer to claim damages in connection with his public role. And finally, Oscar nominations were announced this week. Open gay Alan Ball was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for "American Beauty," which has some gay content and led the field with a total of eight nominations including Best Picture. Open gay John Corigliano's music for "The Red Violin" was nominated for Best Original Score. Openly gay director Pedro Almodovar's sexually diverse "Todo Sobre Mi Madre" -- "All About My Mother" -- was nominated for Best Foreign Film. "Boys Don't Cry," based on the life of murdered Nebraska transgender Brandon Teena, won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominations for Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny. There were five nominations for the homoerotic "The Talented Mr. Ripley," based on a series of books by the late Patricia Highsmith -- who under the name Claire Morgan wrote the lesbian classic "The Price of Salt". The sexually quirky "Being John Malkovich" took three nominations. "Election," which has a lesbian character, was shortlisted in one category, and so was "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," which portrays Satan in bed with Saddam Hussein.