NewsWrap for the week ending October 20, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #708, distributed 10-22-01) [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 The U.S. Navy has issued a rare apology to the nation's gays and lesbians. Last week the Associated Press distributed a photo of a bomb earmarked for Afghanistan which clearly showed graffiti reading "High Jack {sic} This Fags", sparking protest from gay and lesbian groups in the U.S. and Britain. This week Rear Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli wrote a letter to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay and lesbian group in the U.S., with the handwritten postscript, "Appreciate your help in letting folks know our regret on this!" Describing the graffiti as "an inappropriate comment," he wrote that Navy leaders "understood and shared" HRC's concern about it. When the photo came to their attention, he said, "We immediately notified Navy commanders ... to ensure steps were taken to prevent a recurrence of this unfortunate incident. They have done so." He went on to say that, "The U.S. Navy does not tolerate discrimination of any kind" and described the graffiti as an "isolated incident". He also wrote that, "{T}here is no written Defense Department guidance governing spontaneous acts of penmanship by our fighting forces" although the Navy "expect{s} oversight and leadership on the scene to ensure such actions are appropriate." California's domestic partnership registry will confer about a dozen significant legal rights after January 1st, thanks to Democratic Governor Gray Davis' signature this past week. Although California's new law is far narrower than Vermont's civil unions, activists note that it was adopted entirely through the political process, without the lawsuits and judicial rulings that forced recognition of gay and lesbian couples by state lawmakers in Vermont and Hawai'i. Hawai’i's pioneering "reciprocal beneficiaries" law has since expired. Davis, who last year vetoed 3 much less sweeping domestic partner bills, signed this one saying, "This bill is about responsibility, respect, and, most of all, family -- and it's about time." He acted despite intense lobbying against the measure by California's religious right. Those opponents included many of the groups which succeeded in amending the state constitution to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples with a landslide popular vote last year. The California bill by San Francisco's openly lesbian Democratic state Assemblymember Carole Migden recognizes registered partners as equivalent to legally married spouses with respect to a number of issues relating to death and disability: standing to sue for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress; standing to make medical and financial decisions for an incapacitated partner, including filing for state disability benefits; the right to use sick leave to care for an ailing partner or partner's child; and the right to use the state's standard will for bequests and to administer a partner's estate. Domestic partner health benefits will no longer be taxed as income by the state, as they are by the federal government. State unemployment benefits will be available to those who lose their jobs when relocating with a partner. Very significantly, registered partners will be able to adopt their partners' biological children through the same simple expedited process by which married spouses become legal stepparents. California's domestic partnership registry is open to same-gender couples of all ages but only to those unmarried heterosexual couples over age 62. And while the California law will ease stepparent adoptions, it was revealed this week that a Delaware court has authorized that state's first adoption of an unrelated child by both members of a gay male couple. In fact the court granted the couple adoption of two brothers in June, but the unusual written opinion in the confidential proceedings was only published this week. One member of the couple, who have been together for more than 20 years, had adopted one boy in 1999 and his brother in 2000, and the other partner then applied to become a second legal parent to both. The legal representative appointed for the boys said the men provided them with a loving and stable environment, and the judge wrote that "The fact that [the men] are gay men in and of itself is of no concern to the court." The boys, ages 6 and 1, had been labeled "difficult to place" because they were born premature and cocaine-addicted, but they have thrived in the gay couple's care. In Canada, four lesbian co-parents are suing the province of Manitoba to legally co-adopt their partners' biological children. Although Manitoba granted gay and lesbian couples equal standing under ten provincial laws earlier this year, adoption rights were among 70 other discriminatory laws set aside for further study. The lesbian couples are hoping they can spur faster action by the provincial government without having to go through a lengthy court action. Legislation is not likely to come for several months, but Manitoba's Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh has said he'll ask his legal review committee to deliver their report before its planned December completion. Finland's Supreme Court this week awarded custody of two children to their non-biological lesbian co-parent rather than their biological father in the wake of their lesbian mother's death. The high court's ruling overturned lower court rulings and marked its first award of custody to someone with no blood relation in preference to blood kin. The children, ages 12 and 14, had been living with their mother and her partner since 1993 and wanted to remain with the partner. Their father has been living outside Finland through those years, and the court said the children could not be forced to join him against their wishes. A spokesperson for the high court said the ruling reflected the children's wishes rather than their step-mother's sexual orientation. While the Finnish gay and lesbian group SETA agreed, they also believe it reflects a change in public attitudes, saying that a decade ago no lesbian co-parent would have even tried to contest the father's custody. Finland's parliament enacted legal registered partnerships only last month. Czech gays and lesbians and their supporters turned out 400 strong last week to demonstrate for partnership rights. The colorful gathering in Prague's Namesti Miru Square included the Government's human rights commissioner and a leading Social Democrat as well as several celebrities. The Czech Parliament will soon be debating the Government's bill to create registered partnerships. Australia's transsexuals are celebrating a landmark legal decision affirming the validity of a marriage between a transman and a woman. Although the transman known as "Kevin" had obtained a revised birth certificate a year before his wedding to "Jennifer," Australia's attorney general disputed the birth certificate and claimed the marriage was illegal because Kevin was not considered a male at birth. But Sydney Family Court Justice Richard Chisholm upheld the marriage, maintaining that contemporary thinking about gender should override guidelines based on 30-year-old British precedent. Kevin has been living as a male for 7 years and underwent sex reassignment surgery 3 years ago although without having male organs constructed. He and Jennifer already have one child with medical assistance and are beginning treatment for another. Back in the U.S., transgenders are protected by Massachusetts' civil rights law, the state's Commission Against Discrimination has decided. Although neither the state law nor the legislature has yet dealt explicitly with the question, the Commission has the authority to interpret and apply the civil rights law, and in two decisions last week it accepted transgender discrimination complaints for investigation. In Florida, Broward County's civil rights protections for gays and lesbians appear to have escaped a voter challenge for the second time. The group Equal Rights Not Special Rights had sought to place a repeal initiative on a special ballot, and had apparently turned in more than the number of signatures required. But civil rights supporters in the group Empower Broward challenged the validity of the signatures, and an official review threw out more than 12,000 of them, according to unofficial reports this week. That would leave the petitions nearly 8,000 signatures short of the minimum to qualify the repeal measure. Repeal advocates say they'll examine the rejected signatures and vow to continue their efforts. And finally... New York City's Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave New York City one of the strongest domestic partnership ordinances in the U.S., and he's stood firmly behind the gay and lesbian victims and survivors of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. In fact he's going way beyond the call of duty to support them: he's agreed to make a drag appearance on the Showtime cable TV series "Queer As Folk". That fundraising idea came from one member of the gay couple he's roomed with since moving out of the mayor's mansion in the course of his divorce, and Giuliani responded, "If it means more money for relief funds, sure." The group Empire State Pride Agenda has raised almost all of the targeted $200,000 to put Giuliani in the show. "Queer As Folk" producers are said to be excited at the prospect and a script will be developed to include the mayor's drag cameo wit hout him having to visit Toronto for the filming. We hope the "Queer As Folk" staff will do a better job of outfitting the mayor than he had for his 1997 drag debut at a local press dinner -- that pink dress just wasn't right for him.