NewsWrap for the week ending April 15, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #629, distributed 04-17-00) [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 Brian Nunes Canada's Bill C-23 to give same-gender couples equal standing with unmarried heterosexual couples this week passed its second and third readings in the House of Commons. The Commons final approval came by a two-to-one margin, despite 17 members of the ruling Liberal Party breaking ranks to oppose the measure. While the opposition Alliance Party couldn't stop the bill, it did its utmost to stall it, proposing about 100 amendments which were all defeated. Other parties proposed some 20 amendments which were also defeated, including openly gay Member of Parliament Svend Robinson's attempt to remove a definition of marriage from the bill's preamble. The Liberal majority in the Senate should guarantee passage there. Bill C-23 will amend 68 federal statutes to make them gay-inclusive, providing for equality on a range of issues from taxation to inheritance to the right not to testify against a partner charged with a crime. Also in Canada, the Justice Department this week revealed plans to introduce a bill next year to equalize the age of consent for anal intercourse with that for other sex acts. Currently anal sex is a criminal act unless both parties are either married or at least 18 years old, while other sex acts are legal if both parties are at least 14. Although it's not final, an equal age of consent of 16 is currently under consideration. Equalization of the age of consent was before Britain's House of Lords this week, where its Conservative Party opponents allowed it to pass on to the committee stage in an unusual bit of strategy. In each of the last two years the Lords have blocked the Labour Government's bid for equalization despite approval by large majorities in the House of Commons. But the Government has promised the European Court of Human Rights that it will change the law, and this year invoked the rarely used Parliament Act to override the Lords if necessary. Had the Lords voted down the bill, it would have triggered the Parliament Act to enact the law. By letting it proceed, opponents bought some time. They're also planning amendments when the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act returns to the floor. Currently the age of consent for sex between men is 17 in Northern Ireland and 18 in the rest of the UK, while the age of consent for heterosexual acts is 16. The Government's bill would make 16 the age of consent for all. The strategic move to allow passage did not forestall now familiar but still impassioned debate. Opponents of equalization declared they were protecting children, while the Government claimed it was acting against discrimination. After months of vacillation, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Texas Governor George W. Bush this week met with a handpicked dozen of his gay and lesbian supporters. Bush's campaign was careful to contact his right-wing supporters in advance to reassure them his policies would not change, and intentionally omitted from the gay guest list the national leadership of the largest gay and lesbian Republican organization, Log Cabin Republicans -- but the gathering was still a first for any Republican Presidential nominee or nominee-apparent. Bush emerged from the confab to hold a news conference where he said, "I want the conservative Republicans to understand that we judge people on their heart and soul. I say to them, I welcome gay Americans into my campaign." Of the meeting itself, he said, "There were areas where we did not agree. One is gay marriage, where I have a difference of opinion." But he went on to declare, "I'm a better person for the meeting. I enjoyed it. I heard some compelling life stories. ... It's important for the next President to listen to people's real-life stories. These are people from our neighborhoods, people with whom all of us went to school. ... I appreciate them sharing their stories with me. I'm mindful that we're all God's children." Gay former Congressmember from Wisconsin Steve Gunderson said of the meeting, "The goal was not to change his mind. It was to start a conversation." The conversation was a wide-ranging one. The eleven gay men and one lesbian involved left feeling reassured that Bush would support continued funding for services to people with AIDS and expanded funding for AIDS research. They tried to clarify Bush's position on hiring gays and lesbians into his administration, and felt they received a firm statement that sexual orientation was "not a factor" in selecting his staff. They also found him supportive of their wish to keep anti-gay speeches and signs out of the Republican National Convention, and even interested in the idea of an openly gay speaker there. They said Bush ended the meeting saying, "We'll do this again. I'm comfortable with the discussion, and I hope you are too." Meanwhile, the Bush campaign has also renewed its behind-the-scenes contacts with Log Cabin and those fences seem to have been mended. Yet to most observers the meeting was much less about gays and lesbians per se than about demonstrating to moderates that Bush is tolerant and, as he likes to say, a "uniter." In the heat of his contest with Senator John McCain, Bush's outreach to the right wing of his party had created a perception of intolerance that his aides feel he must overcome to win the Presidency. The Republican Party of Texas this week announced a policy that excludes the state's chapter of Log Cabin. The group won't be able to get a booth at the state party convention because it once sued the party, something only one other potential exhibitor has done. But the reason the club sued the party in 1996 was because it took away a convention booth Log Cabin had already paid for and had confirmed. That lawsuit failed before a Texas Supreme Court packed with conservative Republicans. In 1998, Log Cabin sought a booth again but was denied without explanation. The group had not yet applied this year. The party denied it adopted the new policy specifically to exclude Log Cabin. It expects exhibit space to be limited because it's actively marketing for corporate sponsors to pay for its state convention. 139 A City Council runoff vote in Florida this week made Patty Sheehan the first open lesbian or gay ever to win elected office in Orlando. With a turnout two to three times bigger than expected, Sheehan ousted an incumbent by a 4% margin in her second bid for City Council. It's a non-partisan election, but Sheehan has been active in the Democratic Party. And in Pennsylvania, open gay Ron Strouse officially became the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress from the 8th District, although he was running unopposed. He'll have an uphill battle in November against his friend the popular four-term Republican incumbent Representative James Greenwood. In the Australian state of Victoria, the Government has introduced a bill to add "gender identity" to the state's Equal Opportunity Act. Attorney-General Rob Hulls called the measure "long overdue" and said that transgender people "are subject to the most extreme forms of discrimination and harassment." The measure is expected to pass in the current session, although it won't be easy. The group TransGender Victoria believes the law will make a big difference. There were significant honors for some gay men this week. Openly gay Spanish director Pedro Almodovar won Best Director as well as Best Foreign Language Film at Britain's version of the Oscars, the BAFTA Awards, for his film "Todo Sobre Mi Madre," "All About My Mother". Other films with gay elements reaping BAFTA trophies were "American Beauty" with six top awards, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," Franco Zeffirelli's "Tea With Mussolini," "Topsy-Turvy," and "East Is East". The Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Reporting went to gay Mark Schoofs of the New York City weekly "The Village Voice". Schoofs won the most prestigious award in journalism for his series on AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, which the Columbia University judges called "provocative and enlightening." To write it, he spent six months in nine countries visiting remote villages where no journalist had gone before, and had to weather a bad bout of drug-resistant malaria. Schoofs said, "Even though I have covered AIDS for 13 years, nothing prepared me for the devastation the disease has caused in Africa. It's the worst catastrophe since slavery. The fact that 'The Village Voice,' an alternative newspaper, could make this kind of impact sends out a message: Anyone anywhere can do their part to help end this crisis." Schoofs himself is contributing half of his $5,000 prize to AIDS charities in southern Africa. And finally... April marks the anniversary of London's series of three nail-bombings in two ethnic neighborhoods and at Soho's gay Admiral Duncan pub. The pub bombing killed three people and injured 86 more, some very sever ely. But it would have been even worse if the pub's manager Mark Taylor had not interposed his own body between the bomb and some of his patrons as he escorted them out the door. For that heroism, he was honored with a Pride of Britain award by Prime Minister Tony Blair and a host of celebrities including U.S. diva Diana Ross. Ross had written to Taylor while he was hospitalized for burns and shrapnel wounds, and was delighted at the chance to meet him and present his award for courage. Taylor said his mother always used to think he was "a bit of a wimp," but no more. Even before medical help arrived at the horrific scene of the bombing, Taylor was already joking that, "Looks like that facial I had this morning was a waste of money."