NewsWrap for the week ending May 12, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #685, distributed 05-14-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Donald Herman and Cindy Friedman A gay activist and his partner of five years this week became Switzerland's first legally recognized same-gender couple. Yves de Matteis and Patrick Berguer were the first to take advantage of the canton of Geneva's new registered partnerships, which like those in France are known as Pacts of Civil Solidarity, or PACS. Geneva is the first of 26 cantons to create PACS, but Switzerland's Justice Minister is currently drafting similar legislation at the national level. The Geneva PACS are open to heterosexual as well as gay and lesbian couples. They carry rights to hospital visitation, inheritance and joint tenancy, but do not affect health insurance, taxation, social security benefits, adoption, or fertility treatments. Czech lesbians this week called on their government to enact a partnership bill. The parliament rejected a partnership bill last year. The letter drafted at a celebration of lesbian culture in Prague also called for research into the status of Czech gay and lesbian families, guarantees of the legal status of their children, and protection from discrimination to ensure status equal to heterosexuals'. In Australia, the Government of the state of Queensland proposed reforming domestic violence laws to cover gay and lesbian families. Provisions include temporary restraining orders and authorizing police to seize weapons. The announcement of the bill was timed for Domestic Violence Prevention Week, although there will be several months for public comment before the bill is introduced in the state parliament. In Canada, a major professional survey in April found 55% support for full legal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. The Environics Research Poll obtained responses from more than 2,000 Canadians at least 18 years old. As usual, the level of support varied with the age of respondents, with almost 3/4 of those under 30 approving and almost 2/3 of those over 60 disapproving. Gay and lesbian couples in Canada already have essentially the same legal recognition as heterosexual couples. A more surprising result of the poll was a sharp increase in approval of homosexuality. 21% of respondents said they "strongly approved" and 23% "somewhat approved". Compared to similar polls in the past, that total of 44% marked a 10-point increase from 1999 and a 22-point increase from 1996. In the U.S., a Kansas appeals court this week revived a transwoman's lawsuit to inherit her millionaire husband's estate. When the late Marshall Gardiner's son contested J'Noel Gardiner's inheritance, a trial court had declared the marriage invalid on the grounds that J'Noel was born male. But the appeals court rejected what it called "a rigid and simplistic approach". It found unanimously that the marriage may be valid, saying the lower court should determine J'Noel's gender at the time of the marriage rather than at birth. The appeals court sent the case back to the trial court for further proceedings which must recognize that "biology is no longer the sole organizing principle" involved. Protests forced the Home Depot hardware chain to reverse its position this week on including "sexual orientation" as a category in its equal employment policies. A shareholder group led by the gay-supportive Unitarian Universalist Church had proposed the category for a vote at the company's annual meeting. But the board of directors recommended against it in the annual proxy statement last month, saying there would be no end to additional categories if the policies were expanded beyond the requirements of federal law. A number of Home Depot employees joined gays and lesbians nationwide in protesting the negative recommendation. Now the company has announced it will make the move on its own, and the shareholder proposal has been withd rawn. A U.S. federal court ruled this week that employers cannot require health care workers to be tested for HIV. The case involved a non-gay ski patrol medic who had revealed that his wife had HIV when he sought expanded health care benefits for her. His employer, an Oregon ski resort, asked him to be tested. When he refused, he was assigned to a different job, leading to his resignation. Rejecting the resort's argument that his HIV status might pose a risk to others, the federal court found that his civil liberties were violated. Bills favorable to gays and lesbians were signed into law in three U.S. states this week. Arizona's Republican Governor Jane Hull signed a bill to repeal the state's archaic laws against non-procreative sex acts and heterosexual cohabitation. Almost 10,000 people had called and written to the governor about the bill, with repeal opponents outnumbering supporters by about 2-to-1. In a letter to the Speaker of the state House, she called the laws "unenforced and unenforceable" and declared that "government... does not belong in our private lives." She concluded, "People should not interpret my signature on this bill as a signal that I condone all of the conduct this bill makes lawful; I don't. But I choose not to judge the conduct of others, even when I know others will judge me." Texas Governor Rick Perry signed the hate crimes bill his fellow Republicans had kept off the desk of his predecessor, now-U.S. President George W. Bush. Until now Texas' hate crimes law has not listed specific protected categories, which has made it almost impossible to prosecute. In 1999, Texas Senate Republicans blocked a floor vote on a more specific bill that would have covered homophobic crimes, fearing it would damage the Bush Presidential campaign to take a position on it either way. This week the state Senate passed the current bill by a vote of 20-to-10 and the state House gave its final approval. Governor Perry's office received several hundred phone calls, with calls for a veto running ahead of those for approval by about 3-to-1. Although the original versions of the bill specified "sexual orientation" and "gender" as protected categories, the final version refers instead to "sexual preference" and "sex". The national lobby group GenderPAC fears that language change may serve to exclude hate crimes against transgendered people. Colorado's Republican Governor Bill Owen signed a bill requiring school districts to develop policies against bullying. Gay and lesbian students are disproportionately targeted for harassment in schools, but the new law was proposed largely in reaction to the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School by two non-gay bullying victims. The man who shot seven people at a gay-friendly bar in Roanoke, Virginia in September pleaded guilty this week to the first-degree murder of gay Danny Overstreet and six counts of malicious wounding. Shooter Ronald Edward Gay could face up to four life sentences plus sixty years. Prosecutors dropped seven firearms charges in exchange for the plea. Gay had previously complained of a lifetime's humiliation because of his name, but in court he denied that motivated his rampage. He also denied that the shooting was a hate crime, describing his attack on gay and lesbian strangers as a "mission". He expressed no remorse. Although Gay has a history of mental illness, he told the court, "If I'm insane, then God is too." He'd previously written that he is a "Christian soldier working for my Lord" and that "Jesus does not want [homosexuals] in his heaven." In the Netherlands, public prosecutors are investigating a Muslim leader's televised anti-gay remarks. Rotterdam imam Khalil el-Moumi called homosexuality a dangerous sickness and said, "Homosexuality does not remain restricted to the people who have this disease. If this disease spreads, everyone could be infected." He also said the Netherlands' new legal gay and lesbian marriages could destroy society. Other Muslim leaders made similar statements in newspaper interviews. About 1,000 gays and lesbians contacted the magazine "De Gay Krant" to express their distress. Should el-Moumi be convicted of defamation, he could be sentenced to a year in jail. Meanwhile, Netherlands Prime Minister Wim Kok denounced the imam's remarks as an incitement to violence and said that the Cabinet would meet with the imams. In Australia, anti-gay George Pell's installation as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney drew protests that resulted in five arrests. 50 to 100 demonstrators organized by a group called the Collective Action Against Homophobia countered Catholic choirs with chants of "Pell go to hell!" They held banners reading "The Church Kills Queers" and laid a coffin at the steps of Saint Mary's Cathedral to dramatize their belief that attitudes like Pell's contribute to a high rate of suicide among gay and lesbian youth. The demonstration was planned to be peaceful, but the arrests came in a clash with police that saw at least four protesters knocked to the ground and one of ficer kicked in the groin. Australian Prime Minister John Howard later criticized the media, saying that "far more publicity was given to their protest than the installation." Poland's first gay and lesbian pride march was held May 1st in Warsaw. The "Parade of Equality" set off 200 strong with drag queens in the vanguard from Castle Square to the Copernicus monument. There were stops at the Presidential Palace to demand a partnership law and at the University of Warsaw to denounce anti-gay discrimination. Among the marchers were Democratic Union party leader Robert Biedron and Socialist Member of Parliament and former Presidential candidate Piotr Ikonowicz, who promised support for legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples. And finally... congratulations are due 18-year-old Washington lesbian Krystal Bennett for her election as her high school's prom king. When the vote was announced at the Ferndale High prom, most couples clapped and cheered while others were stunned into silence. Non-gay prom queen Kara Johnson gave Bennett a high-five and a hug, but skipped the traditional royal dance. Bennett, the only "out" lesbian in the school, said she nominated herself to "defy the gender basis" of the competition -- or, as she later explained to her befuddled father, "It means I beat the boys, Dad."