NewsWrap for the week ending April 8, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #628, distributed 04-10-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Damian Meyer, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman "The era of discrimination against homosexual officers and soldiers has ended," Germany's openly gay Green Party Member of Parliament Volker Beck [Greens] proclaimed this week. He referred to the announcement that gay First Lieutenant Winfried Stecher will be reinstated as section head and instructor. Two years ago, when the military became aware of his sexual orientation, he was moved to a desk job. Germany's Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping is convinced that, as he once said, "Homosexuality raises serious doubts about suitability and excludes employment in all functions pertaining to leadership, education and instruction of soldiers." That position put him at odds with the rest of the gay-supportive ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Greens. It's also clearly contrary to the ruling of a German administrative court in the similar case of another soldier, and to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that ended Britain's ban on military service by gays and lesbians. Stecher had filed a lawsuit that would have been the first challenge to military discrimination to reach Germany's highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court. Stecher's reinstatement seemed intended to head off that case, which Stecher is now dropping. In the U.S., New Jersey's highest court this week unanimously and powerfully affirmed the rights of non-biological co-parents. The lesbian known as VC was granted visitation with the twins her former partner MJB bore by artificial insemination. The court would have also granted her joint custody -- the right to participate in decision-making for the twins -- except that nearly four years had passed while her case was in the legal system. That won't be the case for others in the future, though, because the court also laid down guidelines to define who may be considered a "psychological parent." Those guidelines include: the legal parent having consented to and fostered the co-parent's relationship with the child; the co-parent having shared a home with the child; the co-parent having taken care of the child to a significant degree; and the co-parent and child having established a bond. Once those criteria have been met, the "psychological parent" is considered to have equal standing with the legal parent, and may seek visitation and joint custody even if the legal parent objects. VC's case had been the first of its kind in New Jersey to reach both a trial court and the state appeals court. The trial court had ruled that she had no claim on the children, while the three judges on the appeals court reached three separate opinions. To add to the confusion, three other lesbian co-parents filed similar cases soon after VC, and one was granted equal standi ng with the biological mother in a trial court. Although the anti-gay Family Research Council accused the New Jersey Supreme Court of "making law" in the case, the precedent clarifies the situation for the future for both courts and families. The Canadian Government's bill to give same-gender couples legal status equal to unmarried heterosexual couples returned to the House of Commons this week for debate leading to the final vote. Bill C-23, "The Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act," would change 68 federal statutes that now use exclusively heterosexual definitions. Although C-23 won more than 70% of the Commons vote on its second reading, it is so controversial that MPs proposed about 160 amendments to it. About 100 of them came from the newly created Canadian Alliance Party, whose MPs had been members of the now-defunct right-wing Reform Party. This group has consistently opposed civil rights advances for gays and lesbians, and the plethora of amendments is primarily intended to express that opposition to the Government. Some of those Alliance amendments would narrow C-23 by reducing the number of statutes it would change. Almost all of them would add an exclusively heterosexual definition of marriage to each of the statutes C-23 would change. Late in the bill's committee process, in the face of intense lobbying, Justice Minister Anne McLellan had added a "one man, one woman" definition of marriage to C-23's preamble. That infuriated openly gay MP Svend Robinson of the left-wing New Democratic Party, and he proposed two amendments to remove it. But the marriage definition didn't pose any problem to openly gay MP Real Menard of the left-of-center Bloc Quebecois; he continued to urge others to support the bill. Another Bloc MP attempted to introduce amendments to extend legal recognition to other "relationships of dependency," but they were ruled out of order since they would have increased expenditures. New Zealand's Cabinet agreed this week to extend the law covering division o f property when marriages dissolve to apply equally to both heterosexual and same-gender domestic partnerships of at least three years' standing. This amendment to the Matrimonial Property Act is expected to be debated by the Parliament in May and ultimately to pass. It will replace the previous Government's De Facto Relationships (Property) Bill, which has long been stalled in a committee. Openly gay Labour MP Tim Barnett said the bill would mark the first recognition of same-gender couples in major legislation in New Zealand, and the first time they were given equal status with married and unmarried heterosexual couples. He said gay and lesbian couples are "invisible at the moment," but that the new law would create "a good precedent." But former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said that although her National Party supports extending rights to gay and lesbian couples, its members would like to see marriage kept in separate statutes, to recognize its "sanctity" and to avoid offending people. Mincing no words, Prime Minister Helen Clark called that idea "daft." She accused Shipley of pandering to the religious right, and said she'd been a hypocrite to have promised her support to the gay and lesbian community when attending Auckland's HERO pride parades. Clark's Government is giving serious consideration to legal same-gender marriages. The Ministry of Justice has extended the public comment period on its discussion paper "Same-Sex Couples and the Law" through the end of April. An Australian Senate committee this week urged passage of a bill to establish equal pension rights for same-gender couples, and called for a review of all federal legislation to identify discrimination against gay and lesbian couples. Pension plans -- known as "superannuation funds" -- have long been a particular concern for Australian activists, because gays and lesbians make the same contributions to pension funds as others but it's rare that their partners are able to collect the benefits. Even the few who do must pay substantially higher taxes on them. As openly gay West Australian Democratic Senator Brian Greig said, "Having been compelled to contribute our personal funds to superannuation ... we find that we are then directly and unashamedly discriminated against." The private members bill introduced by Sydney Labor MP Anthony Albanese would apply only to private pension plans, not government assistance benefits. It will be voted on by the Parliament. But while the committee's Labor and Democratic Senators gave approval in their majority report, Coalition Government Senators made a minority report in opposition. This was disappointing, since this same ruling Coalition had supported pension reform in its 1996 elections campaign. The Coalition Government's minority report echoed the concerns of religious right groups for the "traditional family." Out of some 1,300 submissions to the committee, only five opposed pension reform. Each of those five groups had also called for denying pension rights to the unmarried heterosexual couples who currently enjoy them. West Australia Lesbian and Gay Pride has decided to leave the City of Perth, where it's been held since its inception a decade ago. Last year the pride parade had asked for a modest grant from the City of Perth for the first time and was turned down in a display of homophobia, while a much smaller event was given a larger grant. This year the Perth City Council took the unusual step of overriding Lord Mayor Peter Nattrass to approve a $10,000 grant for pride -- but only after Nattrass had read an extended speech denouncing the parade as ugly, crass, undignified, borderline pornographic, divisive, and offensive. When the parade's 100,000-member audience was mentioned, Nattrass said the same size crowd could be gathered for a public execution. By contrast, the City of Subiaco is welcoming pride with open arms, and with a three-year deal providing at least $20,000 per year plus personnel. As Lesbian and Gay Pride co-president Kerry McGuckin said, "The City of Subiaco extended its hand of friendship to us while the Perth City Council put up barriers." The change of venue is a serious blow to the businesses of Perth's Northbridge area, where as the first or second biggest night of the year pride has often made the difference between a shop's success and failure. But an even more conservative city advanced gay and lesbian civil rights this week. Salt Lake City, Utah Mayor Rocky Anderson made good on a 1999 campaign promise by issuing an executive order prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in city employment. The Salt Lake City Council in 1997 passed a nearly identical ordinance, only to repeal it in 1998, and then went on to pass a "generic" civil rights ordinance that does not specify protected categories. Anderson said, "It's extremely important [to] ... confront the issue of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation directly." And finally... openly gay professional figure skater Rudy Galindo announced this week that he has HIV, but he intends to continue his skating career nonetheless. The former U.S. national men's and pairs champion has already lost two coaches and his brother George to AIDS, as well as many friends. But he takes inspiration from HIV-positive former basketball star Magic Johnson, and he hopes to pass that on. He said, "If my story can help people, anybody at all, it is positive. I've always tried to help people, whether it be as a gay man, or a Mexican-American or now, as someone who is HIV-positive." And for himself he says, "Physically, I feel great. I know this: I'm enjoying life so much, I'll do anything to survive."