NewsWrap for the week ending April 1, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #627, distributed 04-03-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Andres Duque, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Jon Beaupré The world's largest association of rabbis this week became the first major clergy group to affirm its members who bless same-gender couples, and made Reform Judaism by far the biggest religious group yet to endorse those rituals. With 1.5-million members, Reform is the largest Jewish sect in North America. The 1,500-member Central Conference of American Rabbis by an overwhelming voice vote at their annual convention adopted a resolution saying, "We do hereby resolve that the relationship of a Jewish same-gender couple is worthy of affirmation through appropriate Jewish ritual... We support the decision of those [rabbis] who choose to officiate at rituals of union for same-gender couples, and we support the decision of those who do not." Reform rabbis already had that choice, and some 500 had already signed a statement that they either already had or were willing to bless same-gender couples, but the Conference's president said the resolution gave it more force. Rabbis, couples and congregations can also choose how to conduct their union ceremonies, using any or all of the ritual traditions of marriage, but the CCAR will develop a sample liturgy. The rabbis are very proud of their stand and hope that other religious groups will use it as a model. However, leaders of the Orthodox and Conservative sects of Judaism were saddened by the move and called it a terrible mistake. The small Reconstructionist sect allows its rabbis to bless gay and lesbian couples. In 1996, the Reform rabbis group had adopted a resolution calling for equal *civil* marriage rights for same-gender couples. In that resolution they said that Biblical tradition's "teachings about homosexuality reflect the long-since-abandoned assumptions and prejudices of ages past." Also ready to inform religious tradition with more contemporary views are the eleven bishops who lead Norway's Lutheran state church. They agreed unanimously this week to attend a series of seminars on human sexuality later this year, with homosexuality an important topic. Norway offers civil registered partnerships for same-gender couples with almost all the legal benefits of marriage, but the state church has largely opposed allowing sexually active gays and lesbians to serve as ministers. Head of the bishop's council Odd Bondevik said, "We want to have more contact with the real world. The debate on homosexuality could easily become a war in the trenches. We need to see the homosexuality debate in a broader perspective." Also torn between traditional and contemporary approaches is the global Anglican Communion, whose 38 primates wound up a regular biennial meeting this week in Oporto, Portugal. Much of that meeting was occupied by what the group referred to as "sexual ethics," mainly the ordination of openly partnered gays and lesbians. In January, two conservative U.S. priests were made bishops by the conservative archbishops of Southeast Asia and Rwanda, with the plan to return to the U.S. as missionaries from those foreign "provinces," as the church calls its regional groupings. This was a serious violation of the structure of the denomination, and the elevations were declared void by its head, the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the rebellion actually forced the primates to consider the conditions for a schism in the denomination, although they decided the gay issue was not grounds for a split. The conservative bishops of the Third World nations now form a majority in the global church, and two years ago they overwhelmingly affirmed resolutions against blessing same-gender couples, against ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians, and restating that homosexual acts are "incompatible with Scripture." Conservatives are distressed that despite those strong statements, liberal clergy in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain have continued to advance equal treatment of gays and lesbians. A statement issued by the primates from their private gathering called on those liberals to recognize that their actions "strain the reality of mutual accountability in a global Communion, where what may seem obvious and appropriate in one context may be harmful and unacceptable in another." The statement also said that in some parts of the world, "the movement from darkness to light necessarily involves the recognition that homosexuality is part of the brokenness of human life which needs to be healed by the power of the Gospel" and that more liberal actions elsewhere "are experienced as actively hurtful to and undermining of mission." However, it also in strong terms denounced use of "overheated, politicized and polarized language in our conflicts" and renewed a call "to listen to the experience of homosexuals in the Church." The U.S. Department of Defense has not listened well to activists' years of reports of anti-gay harassment in the military, but a new report by its own Inspector General may prove more convincing. Defense Secretary William Cohen had ordered the study in the wake of the July bashing murder of Private First Class Barry Winchell at Fort Campbell, Kentucky by his co-worker Private Calvin Glover, who believed Winchell was gay. The Inspector General surveyed more than 70,000 servicemembers at a number of sites around the world. Even though activists criticized the survey's methodology, it found that four-fifths of the respondents had heard offensive anti-gay speech, and 85 percent of those respondents believed that it was tolerated to some degree. 37 percent of respondents reported either witnessing or experiencing anti-gay harassment, sometimes while a more senior servicemember watched without intervening. The size of the problem came as an alarming surprise to Cohen and to Pentagon leaders who had previously insisted that the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was being fairly and effectively carried out. Cohen ordered a high-level committee to produce a third report in three years on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," this time in the form of an action plan of recommendations. But while the U.S. military has been looking the other way, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seems to have been watching gays and lesbians very closely and liking what they saw. The 72nd annual Oscar award winners included open gays Alan Ball, Pedro Almodovar and John Corigliano. Corigliano won Best Original Score for the Canadian film "The Red Violin". Spanish writer-director Almodovar's already-much honored "Todo Sobre Mi Madre" -- "All About My Mother" -- was named Best Foreign Language Film. Ball won Best Original Screenplay for "American Beauty," which led all contenders with a total of five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography. In addition, Hilary Swank won Best Actress for her performance as murdered Nebraska transgender Brandon Teena in the docudrama "Boys Don't Cry." In accepting her award, Swank said: Hilary Swank: "I want to thank Brandon Teena for being such an inspiration to us all. His legacy lives on in our movie to remind us to always be ourselves, to follow our hearts, to not conform. I pray for the day when we not only accept our differences, but we actually celebrate our diversity." In Colombia, a family court in a landmark ruling found that a gay man must be recognized as the sole heir of his partner of five years. The names of the parties involved were not made public. The first-of-its-kind decision overruled the claim of the deceased partner's father and nephews, to award his entire estate to his partner, saying he "had been the man's partner by default after having lived in a gay relationship that had lasted for more than five years." The gay widower said in a statement simply that, "My companion's wishes have been honored by these developments." In South Africa, lesbian couple Marinda Jordaan and Elsje Prinsloo tried to obtain a marriage license from the Cape Town office of the Department of Home Affairs. With reporters looking on, identity documents division head Zelda Hansen gave them a "provisional" date for a legal marriage on May 29. She said the head office in Pretoria would have to approve the application, but told the women they should not assume it would be denied. That's despite an earlier public statement from the Home Affairs Department that the couple's application would be rejected. Although South Africa's constitution was the first in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gays and lesbians have had to struggle step-by-step to begin to win legal recognition of their relationships. A binational couple this week became the first in Scotland to register their relationship, by signing a Pact of Civil Solidarity at the French consulate in Edinburgh. Legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples has only begun to be discussed by Scottish lawmakers, so Scottish activists were pleased to have the issue brought to the fore. French activists were not completely satisfied by the so-called PACS that were finally enacted last year after a decade of lobbying, but nonetheless more than 6,000 couples reportedly used the registry in its first six weeks, with three-fourths of them believed to be gays and lesbians. And finally... a New Zealand lesbian made a protest demonstration out of marrying a man this week before a crowd of about 1,000 on the campus of Massey University in Wellington. Huia Welton said, "As a lesbian, I can marry some man off the street but I can't marry the woman I love." With the support of her lesbian partner, Welton married the unnamed man in order to collect a student stipend from the government which she could not qualify for otherwise. Despite her serious message, the vows the couple exchanged on campus were more light-hearted, closing with a promise to remain together "in sickness and [in] debt to the Government, until divorce do us part." Welton and her new husband will not be living together, and no, there will be no honeymoon.