NewsWrap for the week ending January 20, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #669, distributed 01-22-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Matt Alsdorf, Mark Kerr, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Chase Schulte A double wedding in Toronto this week may have been the world's first legal gay and lesbian marriages -- but it will probably take years of legal proceedings to find out. The gay-affirming Metropolitan Community Church in the weeks before had three times "read the banns" for the couples, announcing their intent to marry. This ancient tradition empowers churches to perform legal marriages without the couples obtaining licenses from the province of Ontario, which officials have refused to issue to gay and lesbian couples. Because the relevant provincial law refers only to "persons" rather than men or women, the church is convinced the marriages of Kevin Bourassa to Joe Varnell and of Elaine Vautour to Anne Vautour are legal. Later in the week, after Ontario refused to register the marriages, the church and the couples filed a lawsuit against the province. A national tempest-in-a-teapot was triggered by a form letter Canada's Governor General Adrienne Clarkson's staff sent declining Bourassa's invitation to the wedding. The Governor General is the Queen's representative, a largely ceremonial office. A number of people were distressed that the brief message offered her "best wishes" to the couple, which her office has insisted was only the polite thing to do. But the right-wing Alliance Party considered it to mark her taking sides on a political issue, and one of its Members of Parliament said he'd introduce a bill to censure her for misusing her office. There may have been as many as 1,000 people who did attend the wedding, including dozens of reporters from all over the world. It also attracted protesters. There was a bomb threat that apparently proved baseless. At a service earlier in the day, one woman was arrested and charged with assault after pushing M.C.C. pastor Brent Hawkes as she sought to take over the pulpit. At the wedding itself, another woman was escorted out peacefully. Outside the church, a half-dozen demonstrators wearing devil masks, who said they were "concerned Canadian parents," proclaimed that gay and lesbian marriages threaten society. The Vermont Supreme Court this week officially closed the historic "Baker" lawsuit seeking equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. By terminating its jurisdiction in the case it decided more than a year earlier, the court signaled its satisfaction that the state's "civil unions", which give gay and lesbian couples all the state-level rights and responsibilities of marriage, meet the standards of the state constitution's equal benefits clause. It means the court will not act to force inclusion of gays and lesbians under the existing marriage law. But that's not enough for civil unions' many opponents. One of the most vocal, state Representative Nancy Sheltra, this week filed a bill to repeal the law enacted last year, and to void all the civil unions performed under it. Sixteen of her fellow House Republicans are co-sponsors. About a half-dozen more bills to repeal or modify the civil unions law are anticipated, but repeal cannot be expected to pass the Democratic majority in the Vermont Senate. To deal with those bills and concerns raised during the heated November elections campaign, the Vermont House Judiciary Committee will be spending one day each week throughout the legislative session on civil unions. The first of those meetings was held this week before any bill was put on the table. Although this is the same committee which last year created and almost unanimously supported civil unions, its membership has changed drastically. Of its eleven members, only three were on the committee last year, while now a majority of six are opposed to civil unions. New chair Peg Flory seems determined to extend civil unions to more kinds of cohabiting couples who cannot marry, such as blood relatives. In fact the existing civil unions law includes provision for them to form weaker "reciprocal beneficiary" relationships, but not one couple has used that provision to date. More than 1,500 couples have contracted civil unions since they became legal July 1st, almost four-fifths of them from out of state. A major demonstration in Hawai'i this week is seeking legal recognition for gay and lesbian relationships, as well as civil rights and hate crimes protections. The March for Equality has been making an 8-day, 110-mile trek circling the island of Oahu. The protest began in Honolulu with a program of speakers on the birthday of the late African-American civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior honoring his "Legacy of Love and Non-Violence," which was followed by a candlelight vigil memorializing sixty-six victims of hate crimes. The marchers set off after a rally at a statue of Mohandas Gandhi. When they reach Honolulu again, they'll present a petition to the state's Attorney General for a legal opinion "clarifying the government's obligations to provide the full rights and benefits of marriage to same-gender couples wishing to obtain a legal civil union." The closing event will be a commitment ceremony for seven gay and lesbian couples. In Australia, about 50 gay, lesbian and supportive heterosexual couples this week staged "The Great Kiss-Off" in a Queensland state park in Brisbane. They were protesting the expulsion a week earlier of a gay male couple who refused park officials' order to stop kissing. The demonstrators are convinced that no heterosexual couple has been booted from the park for similar behavior, but a park spokesperson said that non-gay couples had also been asked to "tone down" their public displays of affection in the family-oriented park. Some eighty Italian gays and lesbians shouted "Shame!" at Pope John Paul's window last weekend on the third anniversary of a gay man's dramatic suicide in Saint Peter's Square. In 1998, Alfredo Ormando set himself afire there, leaving notes behind that blamed his death on the Catholic Church's homophobia and its impact on Italian society. The protesters were prevented by police from entering the square, but they left a wreath at its edge and held up banners reading, "Catholic Morals Kill Gays". Some U.S. gays and lesbians were gearing up to protest the inauguration of incoming President George W. Bush, although most gay and lesbian organizations were not officially participating. The organizations instead turned their energies against some of Bush's Cabinet nominees. Christian conservative Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft was berated by gay-supportive Democrats in the Senate who believe he would not fairly enforce civil rights laws. In what many viewed as a so-called "confirmation conversion," Ashcroft denied that he had acted to block Senate confirmation of open gay James Hormel's appointment to the Luxembourg embassy, and said he had never discriminated against gays and lesbians in hiring and never would. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force joined environmental groups in denouncing Bush's selection of Gale Norton to head the Department of the Interior. As Colorado's Attorney General, Norton had vigorously defended Amendment 2, a successful 1992 ballot initiative to prohibit civil rights protections for gays, lesbians and bisexuals which was ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. While it was Norton's job to defend the initiative, she hired the virulently anti-gay defrocked psychologist Paul Cameron to help her effort with his long-discredited research. On the eve of the inauguration, liberal and conservative gays and lesbians held separate events in Washington. Republicans gathered for a "Unity Breakfast" launching an effort to make their party more accepting. R epublican Congressmember Jim Kolbe and other gays and lesbians were joined by New York Governor George Pataki, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Davis, and retired Senator Alan Simpson, who emceed. Meanwhile, facing what they called "an uncertain future," the National Stonewall Democrats and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force held a gathering to celebrate progress by gays and lesbians during the Clinton administration. The U.S. policy on military service by gays and lesbians that loomed large at the beginning of the Clinton administration had a curious coda at its end. The Army had spent two months seeking to discharge openly gay reservist and Republican Arizona state Representative Steve May, who had referred to his own relationship on the House floor when domestic partner benefits were under legislative attack. But in an unprecedented move this week the Army agreed to drop its proceedings and allow May to finish his current term in return for his promise not to re-enlist. May's attorney believes the Army's change of heart stemmed from his meeting with openly gay Congressmember Barney Frank and Clinton's chief of staff. The Army declined to state an official reason. And finally, Clinton did not forget gays and lesbians in his final week in the White House. On the birthday of the late African-American civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, Clinton issued a message to Congress, calling once again for laws against anti-gay job discrimination and hate crimes. He referred at some length to Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was bashed to death in October 1998, and said, "At Matthew's funeral, his cousin predicted that 'Matt will have made a difference in the lives of thousands.' I want to make sure he does." And in Clinton's televised farewell address, he said: U.S. President Bill Clinton: "…We must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into the fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity. We must work harder to overcome our differences, in our hearts and in our laws. We must treat all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, and regardless of when they arrived in our country; always moving toward the more perfect union of our founders' dreams."