NewsWrap for the week ending November 4, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #658, distributed 11-06-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Chase Schulte Namibia's Home Secretary Jerry Ekandjo led a shameful homophobic outburst on the floor of the parliament during discussion of a human rights bill this week. Member of Parliament Rosa Namises of the Congress of Democrats party was urging the National Assembly to enact the Ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Establishment of African Court of Human Rights and People's Rights. She criticized the SWAPO government's human rights record and warned that the rights of minorities, including gays and lesbians, "faced extinction in Namibia." The reference to gays and lesbians was enough to set off Ekandjo and his allies in the ruling SWAPO party. They repeatedly disrupted the debate with shouted insults despite repeated warnings from Assembly Speaker Mose Tjitendero. Tjitendero asserted that all human rights were respected in the House and that name-calling and "offensive expressions" were unacceptable. Ekandjo was entirely undeterred and unashamed, justifying his outbursts with Namibia's law against sodomy. In Brazil, an anti-gay campaign failed to prevent a near-landslide victory for sexologist Marta Suplicy in a run-off election for mayor of Sao Paulo. Former mayor Paul Maluf had used posters showing Suplicy in a photo with men in drag captioned, "Don't let these women win!" Gays and lesbians unfurled a giant rainbow flag above the huge crowd who gathered in the streets to celebrate Suplicy's victory. During her term in Brazil's Congress of Deputies, Suplicy sponsored and fought a losing battle for a bill to give full legal recognition to gay and lesbian couples. California's gay and lesbian non-biological co-parents can qualify for an income tax break under a first-in-the-U.S. ruling published this week. The state provides a "head of household" category for unmarried couples with children where one partner provides for most of the cost of a child's upkeep. The state's Board of Equalization ruled 3-to-2 that it was only fair to extend this category to gay and lesbian families, particularly since they lack the option to marry. The state's Franchise Tax Board can still appeal this ruling, but its publication means that a precedent has been set. The victory went to Helmi Hisserich, who has been the sole support of her partner of 14 years and the daughter her partner bore by artificial insemination. Hisserich has not yet been able to legally adopt the girl. Hisserich had to do most of the legal work for herself, but was driven to fight for respect after a tax board attorney told her, "You can't claim your friend's child as your own." Legal recognition was denied this week to an English transwoman and her husband of almost twenty years. Elizabeth and Michael Bellinger actually had an official civil marriage by a registrar who did not examine their birth certificates. The London High Court judge who heard their case appeared understanding and sympathetic to the plight of transsexuals in Britain, who can only marry someone of the sex opposite the one shown on their birth certificates, which cannot be amended. The court seemed to agree with the Bellinger's argument that the thirty-year-old definition of sex in the marriage law is "outdated and unreliable." But the judge found the issues involved to be so complex as to require comprehensive reform by the Parliament rather than piecemeal change through court rulings. With elections expected in about six months, politicians are in no hurry to take up the issue. Israel's Parliament reformed its age of consent laws about three months ago, but the measure was buried so deep in a sweeping update of the criminal code that even the chair of the Knesset's Law Committee didn't realize it was there. The national Association of Gays and Lesbians agreed that this had been the best strategy for enactment but issued a press release this week to advise gay and lesbian youth that their situation had changed. The age of consent for all sex acts is now 16, while previously acts other than heterosexual intercourse were legal only for those at least 18. Also extended for the first time to acts other than heterosexual intercourse is a provision that cases involving 14- and 15-year-olds will not be prosecuted for age of consent violations if their partners' age is no more than three years' different from their own. Hawai’i's Board of Education braved political consequences this week by adopting a new anti-harassment policy just days before most board members faced reelection. An amendment to delete "sexual orientation" from the protected categories of the new policy was defeated by a single vote. Board member Keith Sakata cast that swing vote with tears in his eyes, his commitment to protecting students having barely prevailed over his deep religious objections to homosexuality. But the crowd of citizens attending the meeting greeted the new policy with cheers and applause. Although it all began with more general legal advice that the Board needed to adopt a stronger policy against sexual harassment to avoid liability, that goal was soon obscured by controversy over the explicit protection for gay and lesbian students. For months the board had been flooded with testimony with the same sentiments and many of the same players as the state's bitter 1998 campaign against gay and lesbian marriage. Romanian gay Gabi Ragman this week lost a legal appeal for asylum in the UK. The court agreed with the Home Secretary's office and a special adjudicator that his experiences at home did not rise to the level of "persecution" as defined by the Geneva Convention. Ragman was in his senior year of university education towards becoming a physical education teacher when his sexual orientation became known. He was called up before a student assembly and pronounced to have brought shame to the school. Administrators said he could complete his degree but would never be allowed to teach because he posed a "danger to children." Once "outed," he became the target of taunting every time he left his home, becoming a regular source of public entertainment in what was described as "free theater." Publicly identifying as gay also continues to prove costly in two high-profile cases in the U.S. Charles Coppinger, the chaplain of the Arizona state legislature who used National Coming Out Day to declare he is gay, has had his longstanding clerical ordination withdrawn by the Church of Christ. Although the unsigned one-page letter advising him of the decision did not explicitly refer to his sexual orientation, it did mention his "theological U-turn." Coppinger is protesting the revocation by refusing to return his certificate of ordination as requested. He's also seeking a new ordination from his new affiliation, Phoenix' gay-friendly Community Church of Hope. Coppinger had already lost his chaplain's salary from the non-profit he himself founded to fund it and may well lose his chaplaincy after the legislature reconvenes in January. Len Lanzi, the executive director of a Southern California Council of the Boy Scouts of America who mentioned he is gay while defending the Scouts before a County Commission, has been fired after fourteen years of exemplary employment. Despite his lifelong love of Scouting, his attorney says he will pursue every avenue to reinstatement. Legal experts are divided as to whether June's U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Scouts to exclude gays as volunteer leaders and members will extend to paid employment. There was a happy ending for the story of West Australia's annual pride celebration, which has been a political football all year. Last year's lack of support from the Perth City Council nearly drove organizers to move the event to Subiaco but public protest turned them back. The legally questionable addition of pride to a Perth ballot turned out to show strong support for the march in its traditional home, but that didn't seem to shake the opposition of Lord Mayor Peter Natrass. Yet none of this seemed to matter as the 11th annual parade went off this week bigger and better than ever, with more than 3,000 marchers and 54 floats. The crowd was well in excess of last year's 100,000. Lesbian and Gay Pride co-president Kerry McGuckin called on the Perth City Council to "embrace the parade in the same way Sydney has embraced Mardi Gras" and to market it as a major tourism event. It's already the biggest night of the year for the shops of the Northbridge neighborhood, and pride organizers are commissioning an economic impact study to drive the point home. And finally... more than 15,000 people marched in Johannesburg this week in the African continent's main gay and lesbian pride event. But the show was stolen by the unexpected participation of two officers from the city's Traffic Department. It's not so long ago that police were present to harass marchers instead of protect them. But these two officers put a poster on their vehicle reading "Come out, come out wherever you are!" And rather than detaining suspects, they used their loudspeaker to play the late Freddie Mercury's "I Want to Break Free".