NewsWrap
for the week ending May 5, 2001
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #684, distributed 05-07-01)
[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 Donald Herman

  Namibian President Sam Nujoma's repeated calls for the arrest and 
deportation of gays and lesbians were rebutted this past week by one of the 
largest civil rights demonstrations since the nation gained independence in 
1990.  Despite threats by some members of the ruling SWAPO party, hundreds of 
people marched through Windhoek in an action organized by the Southern 
African Human Rights Non-Governmental Organization Network, a coalition of 18 
organizations known as SAHRINGON.  Demonstrators accused the government of 
ignoring Namibia's democratic constitution in its attacks on the judiciary, 
media and minorities, particularly sexual minorities.  
Elizabeth Khaxas, director of the gay-supportive feminist group Sister 
Namibia, told the crowd that "lesbian-baiting"
was being used to divide the women's movement and civil society.
Rainbow Nation spokesperson Ian Swartz called for the Government to stop its 
hate speech against gays and lesbians and "to admit that homosexuality is not 
a problem in Namibia or anywhere else."  He demanded Government attention to 
"burning issues" including poverty, unemployment, violence against women and 
children, and treatment for people with HIV and AIDS.
In the wake of Nujoma's pronouncements, many Namibian gays and lesbians had 
reportedly contacted European nations regarding the possibility of asylum.
A statement in their support was issued by the U.S. Black Radical Congress, 
which warned that Nujoma's remarks could "signal ... a new wave of genocidal 
crimes against gays and lesbians in Africa."

  But the only gay and lesbian periodical in Belarus is free to publish once 
again.  The national State Publishing Committee had revoked "Forum Lambda"'s 
registration in early March, alleging its content was erotic rather than 
educational.  Publisher Edward Tarletski denied the allegation and filed a 
complaint with Belarus' highest court.  Just as the court took up the case, 
the State Publishing Committee backed down and lifted its ban.

  There has been a 5th arrest in Egypt of a man using the Internet to seek 
gay sex partners.  19-year-old student Ahmed Ibrahim Abu el-Dahab was nabbed 
by a vice officer pretending to answer his invitation.  The first two men 
arrested were given jail terms that were reduced on appeal, while the second 
two have yet to be prosecuted.

  Internet giant Yahoo! this week dropped its efforts to censor so-called 
"adult content" in the UK in the wake of protests from gay, lesbian and 
transgender activists.  Yahoo! had removed all search facilities for 
discussion groups that included the string "s-e-x" regardless of content or 
context.  This had not only barred transsexuals from finding support groups, 
but blocked information on groups of all kinds in the counties of Essex and 
Sussex.

  France this week observed its national Day of Remembrance for victims of 
the Holocaust and officially invited the participation of gay and lesbian 
groups for the first time.  The inclusion of those groups in ceremonies in 
Paris, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon and Montpelier followed years of lobbying and 
rejections from a number of remembrances.  But Prime Minister Lionel Jospin 
had specifically included "homosexuals" in urging a week before that "No one 
should be left out of this act of memory" and underscoring the importance of 
recognizing the minorities persecuted during Germany's Occupation of France.  
While the Paris ceremony itself did not mention specific groups targeted by 
the Nazis, the gay and lesbian groups placed a wreath at the memorial and 
wore the pink triangles that once identified gays in the concentration camps>.
In Montpelier, police blocked gays and lesbians from laying a wreath until 
Mayor Georges Freche intervened on their behalf.
Overall, the Nazis may have arrested 150,000 gay men and sent 15,000 to the 
camps.  
Germany's Gay and Lesbian Federation this week renewed its campaign for a 
monument in Berlin to specifically memorialize the gay victims of the 
Holocaust.  They have already won the support of some Jewish community 
leaders and city council members, but Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen opposes 
adding a series of monuments for other groups to the huge Memorial to the 
Murdered Jews of Europe already under construction.

  Gay and lesbian relationships topped the news in Australia this week.
The Lower House of Victoria's state legislature passed the Government's 
omnibus bill to amend more than 40 laws to give gay and lesbian "domestic 
partners" the same status as heterosexual ones in areas including 
inheritance, guardianship, dissolution, pensions, medical care, and accident 
compensation.  Passage of the Statute Law Amendment (Relationships) Bill 
required the Government's acceptance of some amendments from the Liberal 
Party Opposition, which has vowed to seek still more changes as the bill 
progresses.  The amendments primarily served to tighten the requirements for 
couples to qualify for recognition.
In the state of New South Wales, which had led the nation in adopting a 
similar law recognizing so-called "de facto relationships," a ruling was 
handed down in the first gay "palimony" lawsuit filed since its passage in 
1999.  Daniel Dridi had sought more than A$300,000 and half-interests in two 
properties from his former partner Donald Fillmore.  But his effort backfired 
when a Sydney court agreed with Fillmore that the relationship had ended two 
years before the law went into effect, rejecting Dridi's claim that it had 
extended into 1999.  The court ordered Dridi to pay A$110,000 to Fillmore for 
credit card charges and furniture.  

  The German state of Bavaria made good on its threat to sue to block a new 
federal law recognizing gay and lesbian couples from going into effect.  The 
law is scheduled to come into force on August 1, but Bavaria this week filed 
its complaint in the nation's highest court, charging that it violates the 
special status of marriage guaranteed in the national constitution.  The 
state of Thuringia plans a similar lawsuit.

  In the U.S., a proposal to deny legal recognition not only to gay and 
lesbian marriages but to their civil unions and domestic partnerships as 
well, failed for the second time this term in the Louisiana state Senate.  
Both times only 17 Senators supported the bill by Republican Clo Fontenot, 
while 20 votes are required for passage.

  Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's effort to extend health care benefits to 
the gay and lesbian partners of state employees was blocked this week in the 
Republican-controlled state House.  The prohibition against the benefits was 
passed 78-to-54 as an amendment to a state funding bill that passed more 
narrowly, 69 - 62.  Also this week, the state Senate had first voted against 
the benefits by 37-to-29, only to move the next day to allow Ventura to 
negotiate for them by a vote of 36-to-31.

  Unmarried couples in Arizona, including gay and lesbian couples, could soon 
be able to take tax deductions for dependents.  That's one section of a bill 
to repeal archaic sex laws which made misdemeanors of all non-procreational 
sex acts and "cohabitation".  The Arizona state Senate this week followed the 
state House in approving it.  Openly gay Republican Representative Steve May 
sponsored the bill; its fate at the hands of Republican Governor Jane Hull is 
not clear.

  Hawai’i's gay-inclusive hate crimes bill cleared its final hurdle in the 
state legislature this week, gaining Senate approval by a vote of 22-to-3.  
Democratic Governor Ben Cayetano is expected to sign it.  The final version 
of this bill was years in the making, and itself underwent 11 different floor 
and committee votes over the last year.  Hawai'i will become the 26th U.S. 
state to increase penalties for crimes motivated by homophobia, the first 
time a majority of U.S. states have done so.

  The Rhode Island state House this week passed by a vote of 46-to-41 a bill 
to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on "gender identity or 
expression".  Both political parties' representatives were split on the 
transgender civil rights measure, which will face an uphill battle in the 
more conservative state Senate.  Only Minnesota and Connecticut offer similar 
protections.

  San Francisco will become the first city and the only government in the 
U.S. to contribute towards its employees' sex changes.  The Board of 
Supervisors voted 9-to-2 this week in support of health care benefits up to 
$50,000 for qualified transsexual employees' psychotherapy, hormone 
treatments and sex reassignment surgery.  Mayor Willie Brown is expected to 
sign the bill, which would become effective July 1.  The neighboring cities 
of Berkeley, Oakland and San Jose are considering similar moves.

  In Hong Kong, singer-actor Leslie Cheung identified himself as bisexual in 
an interview with the Asian edition of "TIME" magazine.  In fact, he said he 
had specifically chosen to use the name "Leslie" because it is used by both 
men and women.  Cheung is best-known internationally for his gay role in the 
celebrated film "Farewell, My Concubine".  More recently he appeared in "He's 
a Woman, She's a Man", in which he had a line he's used since in his own 
life: "I love you too, whether you're a boy or a girl."  He recently scored 
in the top ten in a Hong Kong Internet poll of favorite gay icons.

  And finally... New Zealand's Georgina Beyer, who became the world's first 
transsexual mayor in 1993 and the world's first transsexual Member of 
Parliament in 1999, has announced she will be retiring from politics at the 
end of her term.  Beyer said she never intended to spend more than three 
terms in politics, describing herself as an "accidental politician who loved 
every minute of" her "brief and meteoric political career."  Having been 
deluged with requests for interviews since her election to Parliament, her 
plans include serving as an independent international goodwill ambassador for 
the gay, lesbian and transgender community.  She also hopes to revive her 
acting career, saying, "I am sure my skills have slipped dramatically, though 
some say I have been living in the longest-running show in New Zealand -- 
Parliament."