NewsWrap for the week ending February 10, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #672, distributed 02-12-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Matt Alsdorf, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon The gay and lesbian festival season kicked off this week with events in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand's 11th annual HERO Festival held a two-hour grand opening in Auckland’s central square, which was draped with pink flags for the occasion. Among about one thousand spectators were Prime Minister Helen Clark, Auckland Mayor Christine Fletcher, and transsexual Member of Parliament Georgina Beyer. Dykes on bikes rumbled into the square followed by drag queens singing "We Are Family". Then with a fanfare, a colored banner dropped, three rainbow flags were raised and 250 doves were released. A sampling of festival performers gave a preview of a week of events to climax with a parade and a party at Auckland Town Hall. After several years of struggling with debt, HERO is back stronger than ever after its organizers made their first serious and successful campaign for corporate sponsorship. More than 20,000 people gathered at the Sydney Opera House to open the three-week Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. Although entertainment was pa rt of it, the speakers made powerful political statements. Mardi Gras president Julie Regan gave particular attention to the national controversy over access to fertility treatment for women not partnered with men. In the wake of a Federal Court ruling that forced the state of Victoria to allow that access, Prime Minister John Howard's Government moved to amend the national Sex Discrimination Act to give states the option to ban it. That bill will come before the Parliament in March. Author David Marr denounced a number of anti-gay laws and predicted that gay and lesbian voters will make their displeasure known as they go to the polls in five states this year. He vehemently criticized Catholic and Christian leaders, saying churches are the only organizations spreading homophobia in Australia. Uganda's House of Bishops called on the government to deny official recognition to Integrity, a group of gay and lesbian Anglicans. The bishops called the group unbiblical and immoral, and charged that its formation is an attempt by U.S. gays to establish an African base in Kampala. Integrity/Uganda is affiliated with Integrity groups in the U.S., but it was founded partly in response to a series of arrests of gay men in Uganda in 1999. Those arrests followed homophobic exhortations by President Yoweri Museveni after newspapers reported two gay weddings. Religious leaders in the Cayman Islands are petitioning for reinstatement of the sodomy law there. Just before the new year, Britain forced repeal of laws criminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults in all its Overseas Territories to comply with international treaty obligations. Britain had first spent two years trying to persuade the Territories to repeal their own laws, but without success. The petition to recriminalize homosexual acts is directed to Britain's governor in the Caymans and the islands' own legislature. The drive is spearheaded by the Cayman Ministers Association, which calls homosexuality immoral and contrary to local culture. Some local authorities in the Highlands of Scotland took offense at plans to promote the area as a romantic destination for gay and lesbian couples. Inspired by Madonna's recent wedding there, the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board had received a grant for outreach to honeymooners of all kinds. But in the face of protests, the Board dropped the "pink" part of its campaign. Beijing gays and lesbians recently celebrated what may have been China's first TV program to give serious and sympathetic discussion to their lives and issues. But a scheduled rebroadcast of that edition of "Talk It Easy" was replaced by one on an entirely different topic. Hunan Star TV told callers only, "Sorry, we had no choice." One of "Talk It Easy's" directors was not surprised by the substitution, indicating that the original broadcast had been possible only because it was not promoted. Anti-gay protest took a more tangible form in Taiwan in late January as someone threw a brick through the window of Taipei's gay and lesbian bookstore Gin Gin's. Since nothing was taken from the store, gays and lesbians believe it was a hate crime. The incident drew the city's gay and lesbian organizations together for a joint statement warning that, "If the attack with a brick is tolerated today, we might see attacks with petrol bombs in the future. ... We need to denounce such violence and make sure it will never happen again." In Missouri, open gay Stanley Lingar was executed this week for the brutal 1985 murder of 16-year-old. Some gay and lesbian groups joined death penalty opponents in seeking a life sentence for Lingar instead of death. They maintained that Lingar's sexual orientation had been intentionally used by prosecutors to inflame a rural jury against him. They also believe that Lingar's defense was incompetent, that his IQ bordered on mental retardation, and that it was more likely his partner David Smith who led the attack on the teen. Smith made a plea bargain agreement for a ten-year prison sentence on the condition that he testify against Lingar. Lingar had said he was too drunk to remember what happened that night. Missouri Governor Bob Holden declined requests to commute Lingar's sentence and courts rejected appeals on his behalf. Lingar's execution came at a time when there was evidence that gays and lesbians often do not get a fair shake in U.S. courts. Illinois' Judicial Inquiry Board this week filed an 8-count complaint with the Illinois Courts Commission against a Cook County judge, which was the board's first-ever complaint based on anti-gay bias. Judge Susan McDunn, who has already been reprimanded by the Illinois Appellate Court, allegedly acted out of personal bias to try to block second-parent adoptions by two lesbian couples. And a week before Lingar died, the Judicial Council of California issued a report of a first-of-its-kind study that found significant anti-gay bias in the state's courts. A series of studies conducted over six years found that more than half of court users -- such as witnesses, attorneys and jurors -- reported experiencing or observing anti-gay comment or action, most often by a lawyer or court employee. One-fifth of court employees responding to a separate survey reported hearing in open court derogatory terms, ridicule, snickering, or "jokes" about gays and lesbians. The Judicial Council unanimously adopted the report's recommendations and resolved to work for the appointment of more gay and lesbian judges. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund senior counsel Jon Davidson said, "California should be proud that it is the first state to have its judiciary take up these issues," but he called the report's findings "disturbing." Davidson, who worked on the report during all six years of its development, noted that, "California is one of the most progressive states when it comes to lesbian and gay equality. If the problems are this severe here, imagine what they must be like in other parts of the country." The U.S. Bush administration made a curious U-turn on AIDS this week. First Chief of Staff Andrew Card told "USA Today" that the Clinton Administration's White House Office of National AIDS Policy and the office on race relations would be closed down. Just hours after the newspaper hit the stands, Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer said both would be kept open. Fleischer did not explain Card's mistake except to say he had not been aware "that staffers were pursuing those initiatives." Bush himself said later, "We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House, make no mistake about it." The gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans said the new and as-yet unfilled position of AIDS coordinator for the Domestic Policy Council would actually move the issue to a significantly higher position in the administration. But for some the turnaround raised doubts about the administration's commitment to fighting the disease. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is leaving its birthplace in San Francisco for a new home in Atlanta, Georgia. Its parent organization the NAMES Project Foundation lost its lease as San Francisco property values continue to soar. The NAMES Project Foundation itself is relocating to Washington, D.C. for easier access to federal lawmakers, while the Quilt's new proximity to the Centers for Disease Control is also viewed as strategic. The new space in Atlanta will offer light and climate control that should help to extend the life of the quilt, which has grown to 44,000 panels and some fifty tons. Some San Francisco participants are demanding to keep their panels in that city, but a City of Atlanta spokesperson said, "For [the Quilt] to be housed in Atlanta honors the city and we'll do whatever we need to do to help get it here." And finally... Britain's Advertising Standards Authority is reviewing an ad campaign mounted by Interflora before Valentine's Day. It was a little too racy for some, but a company spokesperson said, "As far as we're concerned, this is a very tasteful campaign." It included an item directed specifically towards gay men. Showing a male torso with three discreetly placed but very suggestive roses, it's captioned, "Floral Sex".