NewsWrap for the week ending August 18, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #699, distributed 08-20-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman Four AIDS activists arrested in the Indian city of Lucknow about six weeks ago were finally freed on bail this week. The men work for the AIDS groups Naz Foundation International and Bharosa Trust. In the wake of a police sweep in a park that netted two AIDS outreach workers, police raided both groups' offices on July 7th, closed them down, and arrested two more key staff. The charges pending against the men include possession of obscene materials and conspiracy to commit sodomy. This week several groups held a sit-in at India's capital in New Delhi to demand that those charges be dropped and India's colonial-era sodomy law, Section 377, be repealed. Last week 26 organizatios demonstrated in Bangalore, and further actions are planned in other cities. International human rights groups have also denounced the arrests, with IGLHRC, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, leading a letter-writing campaign. International protest is the only hope, human rights groups on 5 continents agree, for 52 men arrested in a May raid on a riverboat club in Egypt. Human rights groups there have stood aside in fear for their own credibility. As a second day of trial was held under heavy police guard in Cairo this week, protest actions were staged in Antwerp, Bucharest, Geneva, London, Manila, Stockholm, and 4 U.S. cities. The Egyptian government was reportedly overwhelmed with phone calls and faxes, and it shut down its e-mail addresses which had been published by IGLHRC. Also, 35 U.S. Congressmembers, led by openly gay Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, have written to the Egyptian government in protest. The 52 arrestees could face up to 3 years in prison if convicted of "practicing debauchery," and there is no appeal from decisions by the national security court where the trial is being held. This week's hearing was largely devoted to defense requests to reduce the charges to misdemeanors and move the cases to the regular courts. Prosecutors presented nearly 900 photos allegedly showing the defendants engaging in sex. Trial was adjourned until August 29th, when further protest demonstrations are planned. In the U.S., 48 people were arrested this week in a civil disobedience action protesting the unequal treatment of gays and lesbians in the 5-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ELCA was holding its General Assembly in Indianapolis, where -- rather than deciding such hot-button issues as blessing same-gender relationships and ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians -- the denomination voted by a 9-to-1 margin to spend the next four years studying its gay-related policies. While some hailed the study plans as unprecedented, the study was just a delaying action in the eyes of activists both within the denomination and from the national group Soulforce. They responded by kneeling on the sidewalk outside the convention center and refusing police orders to move. Each of the 48 was fined $100 and released. Activists take heart, though, that by a narrow margin the denomination elected a very gay-supportive leader. Also wrestling with recognition of gay and lesbian couples is the state of Massachusetts. Religious conservatives are trying to place before voters a constitutional amendment against same-gender marriages, a move which activists and some liberal politicians are seeking to block. Republican Governor Jane Swift has consistently maintained that marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples. She was publicly criticized for that position this week by her openly gay stepson Brian Hunt, who currently lives in California. Swift denied his charges of hypocrisy, but announced afterwards that her administration had extended a few domestic partner benefits to some of the state's civil servants, and that similar benefits would be extended to other state workers in the course of contract negotiations over the next few years. The benefits do not include health insurance, which would require a vote by the state legislature, but provide for leave in the event of a partner's illness or death and for support for victims of domestic violence. A Texas gay man sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of his ex-lover won a new chance to live this week. The case of Calvin Burdine won national attention because his court-appointed attorney was asleep for portions of the trial. That attorney made no objection to inflammatory use of anti-gay slurs by the prosecution. Burdine has admitted to going to his former partner's trailer on the night of the murder, but insists that it was another man who went with him who did the stabbing. That man was released after 8 years in a plea bargain that included his testifying against Burdine. In 1999 Burdine won a federal trial judge's order to release or retry him. But last year a panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided 2-to-1 to uphold his conviction and death sentence, on the grounds there was no way to prove that the parts of the trial his attorney slept through had been significant. Burdine then appealed to the full bench of the same court, which ruled 9-to-5 this week that he had been inadequately represented and overturned his conviction. State prosecutors must now decide whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, hold a new criminal trial for Burdine, negotiate a plea bargain with him, or release him. The U.S.' nationwide manhunt for a suspected spree killer preying on gay men ended with his arrest this week in Reno, Nevada. 19-year-old Adam Ezerski will be extradited to Florida to be prosecuted for the late July murders of 2 gay men there, Irving Sicherer and Anthony Martilotto. He is also suspected of attacking another gay man in San Francisco earlier this week. Czech police acted quickly this week to arrest and charge 2 of 8 skinhead youth who attacked a gay club in the Bohemian town of Liberec. Although the skinheads failed in their attempt to force their way into the club, they did about 10,000 korunas worth of damage to its door and windows. The two arrestees, ages 15 and 18 years, are charged with supporting and promoting a movement aimed to suppress the rights and freedoms of citizens, which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years' imprisonment. Britain's Scotland Yard this week issued new guidelines for London's Metropolitan Police employees to behave more sensitively towards lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. The new "Policing Diversity Handbook", a year in the making, was welcomed by the Lesbian and Gay Police Association. It calls on staff to "question and challenge wherever possible ... the myths and stereotypes" of LGBT communities. Most widely reported was the handbook's rejection of the word "homosexual," which it said is "a medical term used to criminalize lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in the 19th cen tury." It recommends that, "The term should generally be avoided," while noting that some older lesbigay people "may describe themselves this way." And finally... the flamboyant gay character "Jack" on NBC's hit gay-led sitcom "Will & Grace" is remarkably self-centered -- but not so the actor who's won an Emmy for playing him. Sean B. Hayes stopped to help a man he saw lying on the ground as he drove through Los Angeles last week. The man had been shot in the leg by two men attempting to rob him outside his home. Hayes took off his own shirt and pressed it to the bleeding wound until an ambulance arrived. Hayes -- who's grown increasingly coy about discussing his own sexual orientation since he first drew notice for his starring gay role in the film "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" -- has tried to minimize publicity about the incident, so it took about 5 days for word to get around.