NewsWrap for the week ending September 23, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #652, distributed 09-25-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Mark R. Kerr, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Chase Schulte Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats, this week voted overwhelmingly to make creation of "civil partnerships" for gay and lesbian couples a plank in the party's election platform. The move on the first day of the party's annual convention made the LibDems the first mainstream party in the UK to endorse legal recognition of same-gender couples. The proposal by failed London mayoral candidate Susan Kramer would allow registration for any unmarried couple in England and Wales if both parties were at least 16 years old. Although Kramer insisted the partnerships would not be "gay marriage," they would confer many of the legal benefits of marriage, including property, inheritance, immigration, taxation, adoption, and fostering rights. Kramer called it "an issue whose time is overdue." In a U.S. primary election this week, open gay Jim R. Morrison, just 21 years old, won the Democratic nomination for a seat in the Washington state House of Representatives. His father Jim L. Morrison was a candidate for the same seat, but lost his bid for the Republican nomination. Incumbent Republican Representative Mary Skinner, having beaten the father in the primary, will now face the son in November. Also, the Oakland, California City Council this week voted in Taiwan-born attorney Danny Wan to fill a vacant seat, making him the San Francisco-area city's first openly gay Councilmember. Arizona Republican state Representative Steve May was recommended this week for an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army Reserves because he is openly gay. The Army referred in particular to Lieutenant May's first-person advocacy for domestic partnership benefits in a state House floor debate last year as a violation of the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. May's attorney Christopher Wolf argued that what May said in the legislature is protected by the "speech and debate" clause of the U.S. Constitution. May intends to appeal all the way up the military chain of command and then file a federal lawsuit if necessary. The new leader of Canada's Alliance Party, Stockwell Day, was sworn in as a Member of Parliament this week. Almost all the Members of Parliament welcomed him with a hearty standing ovation, and many shook his hand as he walked down the center aisle for the very first time. But a few members of the New Democratic Party declined to cheer his arrival, and openly gay NDP Member Svend Robinson refused to shake Day's outstretched hand. Robinson later told reporters, "Why would I join in welcoming a man to the House of Commons who stands for everything that I fought against for my entire political career? I'm not going to applaud on my feet, vigorously, at the arrival of a leader in the House of Commons who is profoundly opposed to equality, who has said that gay and lesbian people are second class citizens, that there should be no human rights protection, and that AIDS is a sign of the depravity that God is punishing. No way. I'm not talking about Stockwell Day's personal religious beliefs. That's not the issue. I'm talking about Stockwell Day's public political record." Day, whose charisma has been steadily cutting into the ruling Liberal Party's lead in the polls, wasn't bothered. He told reporters, "I am certainly open to shaking his hand at any time and working with him on issues related to improving legislation in this country. And if he's refusing to shake my hand because I happen to be pro-life and because I happen to support the federal Liberal government definition of marriage in the tax law, then I guess he's refusing to shake the hands of millions of Canadians. That's regrettable for somebody who claims to represent all the people." Canada's Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan has put forward a bill to make HIV and hepatitis B tests mandatory for all prospective immigrants, and to exclude from the country those who are HIV-positive or chronic carriers of hepatitis B. Both of those viruses disproportionately affect gay men. Currently Canada tests prospective immigrants for tuberculosis and syphilis, with HIV testing at the physician's discretion. But while people with TB and syphilis can be treated and cured and allowed to immigrate, those with HIV would be permanently "medically inadmissible." Canada is one of the world's leaders in receiving immigrants and refugees, and Caplan's health consultants estimated that some 200 people with HIV are accepted into the country each year. They further projected that immigrants unknowingly pass on HIV to about 37 Canadians each year, and called Caplan's proposal the "best public health option." But other medical experts and activists immediately objected that there is no public health justification for mandatory HIV testing of immigrants, any more than there is for mandatory testing of current citizens, because the virus is not transmitted through casual contact and people can protect themselves from infection. One public health expert noted that there's no screening for risks of developing heart disease, which is actually more costly to treat than AIDS. Opponents maintained that the HIV ban would be discriminatory, particularly against non-whites from some of the world's poorest nations. At least one group is recommending that instead of a blanket ban on immigration by people with HIV, Canada should follow the Australian model of considering HIV status as just one factor in assessing the contributions an individual can make to the nation. Caplan said there would be further discussion of her proposal in the provinces. Rock star Melissa Etheridge and her partner of more than a decade filmmaker Julie Cypher issued a statement this week saying, "With the utmost of love and respect for one another, we have decided to separate. As committed parent s, our top priority continues to be what is in the best interests of our children. Though elements of our lives will change, our family will always remain intact." The couple has two children, 3-year-old Bailey and 21-month-old Beckett, who were birthed by Cypher with sperm donated by musician David Crosby. The couple and their representatives have refused any further comment on the matter. However, their friend actress Kathy Najimy told reporters that the women were moving into houses with adjacent backyards so the children could easily visit back and forth, and hinted that the separation might not be permanent. But John Paulk's visit to a Washington, DC gay bar may well have a permanent impact on his career as a poster boy and leader of the "ex-gay" movement. Paulk was spotted by one staff member of the Human Rights Campaign, who called another who came over armed with a camera. Paulk's story is that he came in search of a bathroom without knowing it was a gay bar until he was inside. He said he stayed and had a glass of water and chatted with some patrons out of curiosity, to see if anything had changed in the 15 years since he'd last been in a gay bar. He said later that it was poor judgment and he should have left immediately. The HRC staffers insist there were many more appealing venues on the same block that anyone looking for a bathroom would have chosen instead. They say that Paulk stayed for forty minutes and even offered to buy one of them a drink, leaving only when the other started taking photos of him. Paulk said later that he still had the support of his wife, self-identified "ex-lesbian" Anne, and of his employer, the religious right media empire Focus on the Family. But he may well lose his post as North American Board chair of Exodus International, the coalition of about 100 groups claiming to change gays and lesbians into heterosexuals. Other board members conferred by phone after the story broke and will make a decision within two weeks. It was a night of terror at a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia this week. A man bought a beer at the Back Street Cafe and then pulled a handgun from his pocket and opened fire. Of about 25 people in the bar, he wounded 6 and killed one, Danny Overstreet. Police have charged 53-year-old Ronald Edward Gay with the murder and are considering the attack a hate crime. They say that earlier in the evening, Gay told people at another bar that he wanted to shoot some gay people and asked where the gay bar was. One person gave him directions and then called police. Anti-gay top-rated U.S. radio talk show host "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger's new syndicated TV show is stopping production for a week, just two weeks after its on-air debut. Producer and syndicator Paramount insists the break has been planned all along, but many in the industry find it surprising. Various spokespeople have said the time is for planning, making adjustments and retooling the show. Critics have uniformly panned it. The show has done so badly in the ratings that ad sales have had to be discounted, and at the urging of activists, more than 45 companies have demanded that their ads not be run during the program. And finally... Camilla Andersen of Denmark and Mia Hundvin of Norway registered their partnership in Denmark earlier this year, but this week they were opponents at the Olympics. Andersen is a major star of Denmark's defending Olympic champion handball team, while Hundvin's Norwegian handball team is ranked number one in the world. A preliminary match this week was an exciting seesaw battle that ultimately went to Norway by 19 to 17, with Andersen disappointing her fans by scoring on only about 20% of her attempts. Previously, a Danish Olympic official had remarked that, "I don't object to the marriage or to them fraternizing before the match as long as they are fiercely competitive during it." Hundvin said of her partnership, "When we talk it's definitely not about handball, it's too boring."