NewsWrap
for the week ending April 21, 2001
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #682, distributed 04-23-01)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon]

Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon

  Gays and lesbians were notable at Easter observances in at least three 
countries.
In Australia, 30 to 40 gays and lesbians protested outside anti-gay Roman 
Catholic Bishop George Pell's Easter mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in 
Melbourne.  Pell will be installed as Archbishop of Sydney in May.  The 
demonstrators claimed that Pell's outspoken homophobia contributes to gay 
youth suicide.  But the protest did little to advance their cause, with 90% 
of respondents to a newspaper's telephone poll saying they were wrong to 
stage it at Easter.

  Patriarch Teoctist, head of Romania's Orthodox Church, denounced 
homosexuality in his Easter sermon.  He said, "The fact that evil threatens 
to take over the world and what is abnormal is increasingly being taken as 
normal, should be of concern to us all. ... Young people should struggle 
against violence, immorality, sins going against nature, alcoholism and the 
hell of drugs."  The patriarch has for years fiercely opposed 
decriminalization of homosexual acts.  More than four-fifths of Romanians are 
at least nominally members of the Orthodox Church.

  But the recently retired head of Scotland's Anglican Church, former Bishop 
of Edinburgh Richard Holloway, used his Easter message in a newspaper to laud 
leading London gay activist Peter Tatchell as one of five contemporary 
"Christ figures".  He wrote that Tatchell and the others resembled Jesus for 
their "challenge to the human conscience" in the face of intense opposition.  
Conservative Christian activist Adrian Rogers condemned Holloway's message, 
saying, "The whole point about Christ was there can only be one and then to 
anoint people like Peter Tatchell, who is by his own actions a very 
unpleasant, unruly homosexual is amazing."

  A notable Hong Kong gay and pro-democracy activist was identified this week 
as the victim of a murder in November in mainland China.  Gay bookstore owner 
Leung Wah was 44.  Identification was reportedly delayed because his body had 
been partially burned and badly disfigured before being dumped without papers 
outside a hospital in Shenzhen province.  Some Hong Kong legislators have 
joined activists in calling for further investigation into the slaying, and 
Hong Kong police have said they will work on it with their counterparts in 
Shenzhen.

  Ecuador's activist group Quitogay has received an e-mail death threat 
saying in part, "Our objective is to exterminate this plague of queers. ... 
We are well-organized to achieve this social cleansing."  British-based human 
rights watchdog group Amnesty International is convinced that Quitogay 
members are in "grave danger" and is lobbying police in Ecuador to protect 
them.  Ecuador is unusual among Latin America countries for explicitly 
prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution.

  The Boy Scouts of America's policy of excluding gays drove Oscar-winning 
producer/director Steven Spielberg to resign from its advisory board this 
week.  After ten years of service on the board, former Scout Spielberg said 
in a statement, "The last few years in Scouting have deeply saddened me to 
see the Boy Scouts of America actively and publicly participating in 
discrimination.  It's a real shame. ... I thought the Boy Scouts stood for 
equal opportunity and I have consistently spoken out publicly and privately 
against intolerance and discrimination based on ethnic, religious, racial and 
sexual orientation."  He said he would continue to lobby the BSA to "end this 
intolerance and discrimination once and for all.  Once Scouting fully opens 
its doors to all who desire the same experience that so fully enriched me as 
a young person, I will be happy to reconsider a role on the advisory board."

  Hilary Swank won an Oscar for portraying murdered transgender Brandon Teena 
in "Boys Don't Cry", and this week Teena's mother won a lawsuit in the 
Nebraska Supreme Court.  Joann Brandon had claimed that Richardson County 
Sheriff Charles Laux was in part responsible for Teena's death.  The two men 
who murdered Teena in 1993 had raped him about a week earlier.  When Teena 
reported the rape to Laux, he asked her more about her sex life than about 
the rape.  Then he told the rapists of the accusation, but stopped his 
deputies from arresting them and did not provide protection for Teena.  A 
lower court had awarded Teena's mother only about $17,000, finding the 
sheriff only 14% responsible for Teena's death.  But the state's high court 
found in her mother's favor on all her claims, ordering the county to pay the 
full $80,000, and ordering the trial court to determine compensation for the 
loss of her child and for Teena's suffering.  
The justices wrote that Sheriff "Laux's conduct was extreme and outrageous, 
beyond all possible bounds of decency, and is to be regarded as atrocious and 
utterly intolerable in a civilized community."  
Riki Wilchins, executive director of the national advocacy group GenderPAC, 
said, "This is a victory for gender rights and a victory for Brandon Teena. 
.. This finding sends a strong message that all Americans are entitled to 
equal protection under the law, regardless of their gender."

  Oscar and Grammy-winning openly gay composer John Corigliano won a 
prestigious Pulitzer Prize this week.  The Pulitzer music prize jury of 
composers honored Corigliano for his "Symphony #2 for String Orchestra".
Two other Pulitzer selections were also of interest to gays and lesbians.  
David Moats of Vermont's "Rutland Herald" took the prize for Editorial 
Writing for his series of pieces in support of civil unions, which extend all 
the state-level benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples.  Moats said, 
"I didn't write the editorials for people who wanted to scream and yell about 
the issue, but for people who wanted to think about it.  Editorials don't 
usually change minds, but they can help to create a climate."
Michael Chabon won the Fiction Pulitzer for his novel "The Amazing Adventures 
of Kavalier & Clay", in which one of two lead characters is gay.  Chabon may 
be best-known for "The Wonder Boys", which was made into a film, and also has 
an important gay character.  Chabon himself was once publicly assumed to be 
gay because his first novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" was a coming out 
story, and although he is actually heterosexual, he did not rush to correct 
the media's presumption.

  That was hardly the case for Turkish pop star Tarkan, who announced plans 
to sue a far-right lawmaker for saying he is gay.  The Nationalist Action 
Party's Mehmet Gul had told a newspaper, "If Tarkan were not gay, we'd like 
him more."  Gul said he'd fight the lawsuit, adding that Tarkan set a bad 
example for youth by "making homosexuality popular" and telling the singer, 
"If you are not a homosexual, then act like a normal man in your video 
clips."  The androgynous-appearing Tarkan seems to be wearing eye makeup in 
the videos.  His ad for Pepsi, now playing in Turkey, could appear later in 
Europe and Mexico.

  Out-and-proud French tennis pro Amelie Mauresmo won the Bausch & Lomb this 
week for her third consecutive tournament win.  She'd amassed 22 match wins 
against 1 loss for the year, with 16 match wins in a row, before world #1 
Martina Hingis took her down this week in the quarter-finals of the Family 
Circle Cup.  Mauresmo is now ranked #9 in the world.
Also at the Bausch & Lomb was the legendary Martina Navratilova, who came in 
second in the doubles playing with Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.

  Spain's Opposition Socialist Party this week introduced a bill to extend 
full marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples.  The party claims that the 
Spanish constitution's right to marry does not specify heterosexual couples.  
A leading Socialist lawmaker called on other parties to confront "reality, 
without fear and without taboos."

  Norway's coalition Government this week introduced a bill to allow gays and 
lesbians in registered partnerships to co-adopt their partners' children.  
The Ministry of Families and Children said in a statement that, "The goal is 
to ensure children a secure and predictable legal framework around growing up 
in their families."  As is the case for heterosexuals, the adoptive parent 
would have to be at least 25 years old and children over age 12 would have to 
consent to their own adoption.

  Puerto Rico's Justice Department has announced that it will apply domestic 
violence laws to gay and lesbian couples.  Former Governor Pedro Rossello had 
barred that move.  Current Governor Sila Calderon said that while she 
"respects" the Justice Department's decision, she will block any attempts to 
legalize gay and lesbian marriages.

  Britain's Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo told Parliament last week that 
the Labour Government will not recognize gay and lesbian couples for tax 
breaks with respect to inheritance or to property transfers between partners. 
 She said there were no plans to change current laws in this regard.

  In the U.S., the Colorado state Senate this week passed a bill to prohibit 
employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  It 
may be the first gay and lesbian civil rights bill ever to pass either house 
of the Colorado legislature.  The bill will face an uphill battle in the 
Republican-dominated state House.

  And finally... the current vogue for so-called "gay-vague" advertising has 
swept up Minute Maid Orange Juice.  The Coca-Cola subsidiary is running an ad 
in the U.S. that shows cartoon characters Popeye and Bluto ending their years 
of enmity to acquire "Buddies For Life" tattoos and riding off into the 
sunset on a bicycle-built-for-two to the neglect of the traditional object of 
both their affections Olive Oyl.  
In France and Belgium, Minute Maid is showing a young Army sergeant taking 
leave of his suburban home, wife and son to board a jeep for work.  But when 
a big red convertible drives up carrying the 1970s band The Village People bel
ting out "In the Navy", he hops into their back seat.  Minute Maid denies any 
gay intentions for the spots, but the adman who created them finds it 
"interesting" that they work "on all kinds of levels."