NewsWrap for the week ending August 11, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #698, distributed 08-13-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Damian Meyer, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Dean Elzinga The Australian Government lost its major pension reform bill this week rather than meet the third-party Australian Democrats' demand for equal treatment for gay and lesbian couples. The Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill had been in process in the federal legislature for 3 years before its 35-to-31 defeat this week in the Senate. The bill was commonly known as "Super Choice" because it would have allowed workers rather than employers to choose where pension funds would be invested. The Australian Democrats had recently failed in 2 other efforts to extend equal pension rights to same-gender couples, one for federal government employees and one for Members of Parliament. Australia's pension industry strongly supports equal treatment for gays and lesbians but is limited in practice by discriminatory federal laws. Veteran gay activist Rodney Croome said that Prime Minister John Howard's Government's obstinacy this week had "thrown its economic credibility to the wind by putting prejudice before sound financial policy." In Croome's home state of Tasmania gay and lesbian couples won a victory this week, as the Tasmanian Industrial Commission determined that bereavement leave should be extended to unmarried survivors. Although the current decision applies only to certain medical personnel in Tasmania, the Health and Community Services Union will pressure the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to apply the same standard nationally. The Australian Government further riled activists this week by announcing it will join the nation's Catholic bishops in a lawsuit to allow states to deny fertility services to women not in relationships with men. Australia's highest court is expected to hear the case in September. The bishops are appealing a Federal Court ruling that struck down Victoria's state law limiting access to fertility services. That court found the law violated the federal Sex Discrimination Act's prohibition against marital status discrimination. The Howard Government had previously introduced an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act to authorize states to limit fertility treatment, but that bill is expected to fail if it reaches a floor vote. In Ireland, news that a Dublin gay couple had fathered triplets by a California surrogate mother sparked calls for government regulation of reproductive technology. Biological father Gerard Whelan and his partner John MacMahon are believed to be Ireland's first gay dads by means of surrogacy. Unlike Britain, Ireland currently has no laws covering surrogacy. But the Fine Gael party is now concerned that some may use surrogacy to sidestep Ireland's strict regulation of adoptions, and Independent Senator Mary Henry renewed her call for surrogacy legislation she had introduced 3 years ago. Both Henry and Fine Gael denied that their concerns related to the gay dads' sexual orientation. Returning to employment issues, in the U.S., Indiana Democratic Governor Frank O'Bannon this week signed into effect a new state employment policy prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination. It covers hiring, development, advancement, and firing decisions, and a promise that, "We will strive to maintain a working environment free of sexual harassment and intimidation." Indiana state government employees who feel they've experienced discrimination will have recourse through the administrative system. Indiana is the 9th state to adopt such an equal opportunity employment policy, in addition to 11 states barring discrimination in both public and private employment. Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan is actively lobbying for addition of sexual orientation as a category protected under that state's Human Rights Act from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and financial transactions. Ryan, who announced this week he will not seek a second term, wrote a 5-page letter to Illinois legislators urging them to pass the civil rights bill activists have sought for two decades. Ryan's letter was part of his amendatory veto of a bill intended to open public accommodations to motorcyclists. He told lawmakers he would sign their "bikers rights" bill if they added the words "sexual orientation". But August began with yet another U.S. appeals court finding that federal law against sex discrimination and sexual harassment does not extend to discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation. A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit upheld a trial court's dismissal of John Bibby's lawsuit against the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Bibby claimed his coworkers harassed and physically attacked him after learning he is gay. The appellate ruling said, "Harassment on the basis of sexual orientation has no place in our society. Congress has not yet seen fit, however, to provide protection against such harassment." Although there have been similar decisions by other federal appeals panels, this one received special attention coming as ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, was reintroduced in Congress. Opponents of civil rights protections for gays and lesbians have falsely claimed that they are already adequately covered by federal law. Gay men in Michigan breathed a sigh of relief this week as the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office announced it would no longer prosecute men charged as a result of undercover police stings. The announcement came in conjunction with a decision not to prosecute a county judge caught in a sting. But the decision came thanks in large part to persistent lobbying by Michigan's Triangle Foundation, which claimed that some 800 men had been charged for merely flirting with decoy cops in Detroit's Rouge Park. In many cases, police had impounded the men's cars, which could be recovered only by paying a $900 fee. Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan said, "I'm not going to charge people criminally for what they thought was a consensual act between adults. ... We do not send female officers into sports bars to come on to guys to see which ones respond and arrest them. We should not be sending undercover decoys ... to do exactly the same thing." California transsexuals were disappointed this week as Democratic Governor Gray Davis vetoed a bill that would have made it easier to obtain revised birth certificates. Davis' veto message said only, "I find no compelling reason to expand existing law and therefore cannot sign this measure." By contrast, the chair of South Korea's ruling party spoke out on the Internet this week in support of allowing transsexuals to change their official registration numbers to reflect their self-identified gender. Millennium Democratic Party chair Kim Joong-kwon said his opinion was a personal one and the issue should be publicly debated. Personifying the issue in South Korea is transwoman model and entertainer Ha Ri-soo, who sought to change her registration number. Lately she has captured the heart of Lotte Giants baseball star José Felix, who shows off the message "José Loves Ha Ri-Soo" on his arm. One South Korean wedding business is planning a public wedding ceremony at no cost exclusively for transsexuals and their partners. Hopes for legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples in Brazil are fading. A version of a bill first introduced in 1995 to create registered partnerships with many of the benefits of marriage was finally expected to come to a vote earlier this year. But opposition led by religious conservatives knocked it off the agenda once again. Leading gay and lesbian activists told Reuters this week that they don't expect a vote this year. They also agree there is no way the bill would pass in 2002, an election year. Activists in Argentina are petitioning to revitalize their similar 3-year-old national bill for "Civil Unions". It's been stalled for 16 months in a legislative committee of the national Chamber of Deputies. Canada extended asylum to a lesbian couple this week for the first time, although individual lesbians have been given refuge in the past from homophobic persecution. The couple had both experienced physical and sexual violence from police, strangers and family in their homeland of Mexico, and feared further persecution if they returned. They fled in 1999 to Toronto, where an immigration board approved their request for asylum this week. The Society for the German Language is inviting the public to suggest new words to describe gay and lesbian families, including terms for the partners, parents and in-laws. Officially the "registered life partnerships" that went into effect in Germany are known as Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft, which even Germans find unwieldy. More colloquially Germans are saying "Homo-Ehe" for "homo-marriage," but the Society objects on two grounds: partnerships are legally different from marriages, and in Germany, as elsewhere, the term "homo" carries negative connotations. And finally... those connotations of "homo" also became quite an issue for the "New York Times", whose Sunday crossword puzzle this past week was entitled "Homonames". The distinguished paper quickly put out a remarkable statement insisting the title referred solely to some answers being "homonyms of well-known names" and not to any gay slur or "outings". In case you've forgotten, homonyms are words pronounced alike but spelled differently. Yet four principal answers referred to widely-rumored-to-be-gay actor/singer Jim Nabors and critic Rex Reed, gay icon Bette Midler, and lifestyle reporter Robin Leach. Leach actually felt compelled to respond with a statement insisting on his heterosexuality. Correspondents of MSNBC's Eric Alterman identified 22 clues in the puzzle that might imply gay references, such as "people who live next to a Y" and "add more lubricant". If as the paper said that was all coincidence, an even bigger one came as the Monday puzzle included the answers "Excuse me, please," "I'm terribly sorry" and "I beg your pardon".