NewsWrap for the week ending July 29, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #644, distributed 07-31-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Andres Duque, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes Britain's "no promo homo" law Section 28 won't be repealed this year, following its second defeat in the House of Lords this week. Although the composition of the House of Lords has been dramatically changed to favor the Labour Government more, this week's vote against repeal was almost identical to February's. Some Labour peers rebelled to vote with the Conservatives, while even more were absent, or the vote could have gone the other way. Prime Minister Tony Blair emphatically repeated his commitment to removing the law he called "a piece of prejudice, pure and simple," but how to go about it is still under discussion. The Government felt it was more important now to enact the larger Local Government Act that had included repeal than to let it be delayed by further ping-ponging between the supportive House of Commons and the opposing House of Lords. Activists are urging introduction of a free-standing repeal measure in November, but many believe the whole matter will be shelved until after general elections next year. Repeal might also be included in a larger human rights bill in the next session. There's also an ironic footnote to the successful repeal of Section 28 in Scotland in June. That move was mightily resisted with an unprecedented media campaign funded by Brian Souter, who became the richest man in Scotland as head of the multi-national Stagecoach transportation company. This week a top exec at Stagecoach, Souter's trusted adviser and hatchetman Barry Hinkley, was nabbed in a police sting in Houston, Texas trying to buy the services of a male prostitute. Hinkley immediately resigned from his job. Four people ousted from the British military for homosexuality will receive a total of more than of 400,000-pounds compensation. They are the lesbian and three gay men whose lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights forced Britain to end its ban on military service earlier this year. Now that court has ordered the government to pay each of them 19,000-pounds for the emotional and psychological pain of their investigations and dismissals, amounts from 40 to 95,000-pounds for lost earnings and benefits, and a total of 80,000-pounds for their legal expenses. According to one report, the government has gone on to offer 20,000-pounds in compensation to another 85 servicemembers fired for homosexuality. Britain's Home Office published two important reports on law reform for discussion this week. The first includes recommendations for a major overhaul of the criminal codes relating to sex that would eliminate most distinctions between men and women and between heterosexuals and gays and lesbians. Recommendations include repeal of the laws against buggery and gross indecency, as well as laws that make it a violation for same-gender couples to kiss or even hold hands in public. The Conservative Opposition has already signaled that it will strive to resist the changes. The second report makes recommendations for law reforms affecting transsexuals. While British transsexuals have made great strides in recent years, they are still unable to change their birth certificates. That also means they can only marry someone of the sex opposite their birth sex. The government's Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People did not really see any middle ground between maintaining the status quo and giving full legal recognition to their reassigned sex, including parental and marital rights. The report offered possible pre-conditions for recognition including dissolution of pre-reassignment marriages and sterilization. Those were strongly opposed by the six transgender groups who consulted with the working group. Puerto Rico's Supreme Court has approved changing a transsexual's birth cert ificate for the first time. The court ruled 4-to-3 that denying the change violated the privacy rights of transwoman Alexandra Torres Andino. The three dissenters were vehemently concerned about opening the door to what they viewed as same-sex marriages and violations of Puerto Rico's sodomy law. The American Civil Liberties Union has been challenging that sodomy law, and felt the court's deference to privacy rights in this case would help their own. The public is just as deeply divided over the Torres Andino ruling as the court was, and the government may ask the court to reconsider. Another controversial ruling came this week in the Australian state of Victoria, where a Federal Court struck down the state's restriction of reproductive services to women who live with men. The judge found the state ban on services for lesbian and single women violates the federal law prohibiting marital status discrimination, which took precedence. There may be an appeal as both the federal government and the state government are reviewing the decision. The state remained neutral while the case was being argued, but the Roman Catholic Church was allowed to argue in support of the ban as a friend of the court. Melbourne Archbishop George Pell complained bitterly that the ruling reflected the commodification of children. The case was brought by fertility specialist Dr. John McBain on behalf of patient Lisa Meldrum. Although Meldrum was seeking in vitro fertilization, the ruling extends to all reproductive treatments, including the much more common and much less expensive artificial insemination. For anyone other than a physician to attempt artificial insemination is a crime punishable with a jail sentence in Victoria. Victorian lesbians have been crossing the state line into more liberal New South Wales for reproductive services. Protests continue in Romania against law reforms for equal treatment of gays and lesbians. The government has been grudgingly trying to institute reforms to meet the human rights standards of the Council of Europe in hopes of gaining membership in the European Union. But the Baptist Church in Arad has begun a petition campaign to convince the Senate to retain harsher sentencing for gays for certain sex crimes. The campaign will be joined by the Orthodox Church to which some 80% of Romanians belong. Recently a large protest march was held in the same area by several different denominations. A gay and lesbian pride march in Ecuador was aborted by violent police intervention in early July. The Fundacion Amigos por la Vida -- Friends for Life Foundation -- had obtained authorization for the march from a police commander. But when some 300 gays and lesbians were gathered outside the Fundacion's Guayaquil offices waiting to march, about 60 police officers arrived, surrounded the group and tear-gassed them. The action was ordered by the same police commander who had authorized the march as well as by the governor. Officers told the demonstrators that mainstream society wasn't educated enough to accept them. The Fundacion has filed complaints with the Human Rights Commission and the Defense Court and hopes the international community will join in their protests. But the police commander has been retaliating by rounding up transgender prostitutes, testing them for HIV, and sending those who test positive to special detention centers. Canadian cities also continue to struggle with gay and lesbian pride, specifically with issuing proclamations. In British Columbia, the Terrace City Council has now twice rejected proclamation requests from the Rainbow Committee, which plans to file a complaint with the provincial Human Rights Commission. But gays and lesbians are even more offended in the BC town of Fort Saint John, where the City Council had issued a proclamation but this week was convinced by some local Christians to withdraw it. Earlier this year, Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray became the first to lose a BC Human Rights tribunal decision over a pride proclamation, after he edited out the word "pride" to declare simply "Gay and Lesbian Day." He was not fined as two Ontario mayors have been. A U.S. bill has been introduced to withdraw another ceremonial document -- the Congressional Charter of the Boy Scouts of America. Some ninety charitable, educational and patriotic groups hold these purely symbolic charters; the Scouts have had theirs since 1916. But to Democratic California Representative Lynn Woolsey, the charter appears to be a Congressional seal of approval, and she wants to send a message that the Congress does not support intolerance. The Boy Scouts of America recently went to the U.S. Supreme Court and won the right to bar gay men from serving as Scout leaders. Karla Drenner is set to become the first open gay or lesbian ever to serve in Georgia's state legislature after beating a three-term incumbent in a Democratic primary. There is no Republican candidate for her 66th District seat in the November elections. Drenner's top issues are education, the environment and equality. And finally... The rainbow has gotten a little too pink for the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. This week the school proudly introduced a new "H" logo to replace the rainbow symbol it's used for 77 years. At the ceremony, a coach joked, "I think the rainbow had something to do with a flight attendant giving me his phone number one time." Then another coach said in a radio interview, "That logo really put a stigma on our program at times in regard to it's part of the gay community, their flags and so forth. Some of the student athletes had some feelings in regard to that." He indicated that other schools had teased them. The university's male teams were known as the Rainbows until the 1970's, when the growing visibility of gay pride led the school to change their name to the Rainbow Warriors. Now the "rainbow" is being dropped and they'll just be the Warriors. But the University of Hawai'i at Manoa has not managed to completely eradicate gay symbols. They're not pink, but the new logo has patterns in the style of traditional Hawai'ian "kapa" which feature triangles.