NewsWrap for the week ending March 31, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #679, distributed 04-02-01) [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 This weekend the Netherlands becomes the first nation in modern times to recognize same-gender couples under the same marriage law as heterosexual couples. One lesbian couple and three gay male couples are scheduled to be married at Amsterdam City Hall by Mayor Job Cohen at the stroke of midnight on April 1, as the new law goes into effect. The historic ceremony organized by the Netherlands' newspaper "De Gay Krant" will be broadcast live on national television in the Netherlands. Although this is the strongest legal recognition of same-gender couples to date, there are still some differences from heterosexual marriage. A child born to one member of a gay or lesbian couple is not automatically recognized as the other partner's child, although the non-biological parent can legally adopt a partner's child. At least one member of the couple must be a citizen of a European Union member nation or a permanent resident of the Netherlands. And the Netherlands' gay and lesbian marriages are not expected to be recognized by other countries. The European Union bureaucracy need not extend spousal benefits to its employees' registered partners, according to a preliminary opinion by the EU's advocate-general submitted to the European Court of Justice. In a long-running case, a Swedish gay man who works at the EU's Brussels headquarters has been seeking the benefits for his partner. One key benefit at issue is support for travel so couples can spend time together when EU employees are posted outside their home countries. A final ruling will come later this year. New Zealand's parliament this week gave its final approval to a bill recognizing property rights of unmarried couples, whether gay or lesbian or heterosexual. The final vote on the controversial bill was 65 to 54, with four parties opposing the Labour Government's bill and the Alliance and Green parties supporting it. Beginning in February 2002, when couples break up, the Property Relations Bill will give status equal to married couples to unmarried couples who have cohabited for at least three years. The law prescribes a 50-50 division of property and allows access to the courts to determine the split. Opponents foresee an eightfold increase in family court cases as a result. Couples can opt out of the new law's provisions by developing legal contracts of their own similar to prenuptial agreements. In San Francisco, 44 gay and lesbian couples joined up this week in the city's fifth annual mass commitment ceremony at City Hall. Mayor Willie Brown and members of the Board of Supervisors presided. Elsewhere in the U.S. this week, the victories for gay and lesbian couples were defensive ones. The New Hampshire House of Representatives rejected by a resounding 3-to-1 margin a bill to deny legal recognition to civil unions for gay and lesbian couples like those in neighboring Vermont. A Maine House committee rejected a second attempt this session to block health insurance benefits for the domestic partners of state employees. In both cases, Republicans sponsoring the anti-gay measures said they wanted to preserve the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. But it was a week of advances for gay and lesbian civil rights laws in three U.S. states. Maryland will become only the 12th state to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation as a bill pushed by Democratic Governor Parris Glendening passed both houses this week. Conservative opponents in the Senate who had blocked similar bills in the past staged a ten-hour filibuster before the measure won through with a 32-to-14 vote. In the House, the bill passed by 88-to-50 after its supporters fended off hostile amendments proposed by opponents. Once Glendening has signed the bill and it has gone into effect, sexual orientation will become a category under the state's human rights law protected from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. Gay and lesbian activists have lobbied for the law for a decade. Civil rights bills were also passed this week in the Illinois and Delaware Houses of Representatives. The Delaware bill squeaked through by a vote of 21 to 20, and the state Senate vote is also expected to be close. The bill would prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, insurance, and state contracts. Should it pass the state Senate, Governor Ruth Ann Minner has promised to sign it. The Illinois House vote was also close, 60-to-55, and the bill will face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled state Senate. However, state Senate President Pate Philip has promised the bill will at least be heard in committee. Gay-supportive Republican Governor George Ryan supports the measure, which was sponsored in the House by Illinois' only openly gay state lawmaker, Democratic Representative Larry McKeon. The importance of civil rights laws was also underscored this week as the most liberal of the U.S. federal appellate courts rejected a Nevada gay man's claim of sexual harassment in the workplace. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that federal law against sexual harassment can apply where the perpetrator and victim are of the same gender, these cases have proven hard to win. The problem is to prove that the harassment was in fact based on the victim's gender rather than sexual orientation, which is not protected under federal law. As several other federal appellate courts have found in other cases, a divided panel of the liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Nevadan Medina Rene had experienced sexual orientation-based harassment rather than gender-based harassment and rejected his claim -- even though the judges found his treatment "appalling". Medina's harassment ended five years ago, before Nevada prohibited anti-gay employment discrimination in 1999. Gays and lesbians in Britain face a similar legal barrier despite the nation's new Human Rights Act. This week a lesbian teacher appeared in the Court of Appeal seeking compensation from her former school, where she says five years of harassment by students forced her to leave. Employment tribunals had previously rejected her claim under the Sex Discrimination Act on the grounds that she was harassed based on her sexual orientation rather than her gender. That's the position argued for the school by attorney Cherie Booth, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who in the past has represented gay and lesbian civil rights activists. Teacher Shirley Pearce's attorney argued that the word "sex" in the law should be understood to include "sexual orientation". British gays' battle for an equal age of consent reached its final chapter this week, as the nation settled gay Euan Sutherland's six-year-old lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights. Sutherland was 17 years old when the legal action was initiated, still a year too young to legally have sex with another man. It was the likelihood of his EuroCourt victory that forced Britain's Labour Government to enact equalization in December over the heated opposition of Conservatives in the House of Lords. The amount of Britain's final settlement with Sutherland has not been made public. Back in the U.S., a so-called "Defense of Scouting" Act was killed in the closing minutes of the Georgia state legislative session this week. Such bills are designed to prohibit government entities from denying funds and facilities to Boy Scouts of America groups because of the Scouts' policy of discrimination against gays. A similar measure was voted down by the Arizona House of Representatives earlier in March, and another known as the Scouts Honor Act was introduced in the U.S. Congress last year. And finally... "Doctor Laura" Schlessinger's much-protested and little-watched TV show taped its final episode this week. The successful talk radio host's move to the small screen was hotly protested from its conception in what became a continuing year-long campaign across the U.S. and Canada. Many sponsors refused or withdrew support from Schlessinger's shows after learning of her history of defamatory remarks against gays and lesbians. But it was low ratings that sent the show first to late-night timeslots and then to oblivion in many markets. Producer Paramount has now admitted defeat although some episodes may air over the next few months. While numerous groups were involved in the campaign against the show, the Web site StopDrLaura.com played a unique role in organizing individual discontent into tens of thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters. Celebrating the victory, co-founder John Aravosis said, "In this era of dot-com failures, I like to think we were one of the pure success stories." He jokingly added, "Too bad we didn't go public."