NewsWrap for the week ending October 27, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #709, distributed 10-29-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Christopher Gaal and Cindy Friedman Berlin voters this week elected Germany's first major openly gay politician, Klaus Wowereit, to a full term as Mayor. Wowereit was not widely known until June, when he publicly identified himself as a gay man as his Social Democratic Party nominated him to serve as interim mayor. The Berlin Assembly then voted him into the interim post. In this week's election, Berlin's SPD took about 30% of the vote, up about 1/3 from Berlin's last election in 1999. The previously dominant conservative Christian Democrats lost nearly half of their 1999 votes with a mayoral candidate who had described Wowereit as having a "deformed character". Wowereit said, "The signal from this election is that Berlin is a tolerant city, an international city, and it doesn't matter which skin color or religion or life orientation a person has." Lacking a majority in the Assembly, Wowereit must now form a governing coalition. One option is a partnership with the Party of Democratic Socialism, the former rulers of post-communist East Germany, whose votes swelled to nearly equal the Christian Democrats'. The other option is to join with both the fast-growing Free Democrats, described as a pro-business party, and the Greens, the coalition partners of the national SPD. Wowereit said that "tolerance" would be a factor in his decision. While serving as interim mayor, Wowereit personally congratulated Berlin's first gay and lesbian couples to contract Germany's new "registered life partnerships" on August 1st. Almost 3 months later, those partnerships will finally become available in the conservative state of Bavaria, following a vote of the state parliament this week. Bavaria had sued and lost in Germany's Constitutional Court to try to overturn the national partnership law as damaging the special status of marriage. Bavaria will only take up its state responsibility to implement the national law beginning November 1st. Germany's registered partnerships confer legal recognition on same-gender couples in areas including inheritance, social security benefits, co-adoption of a partner's child, and the right to use a partner's surname. Legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples came to the floor this week in the parliaments of both Britain and the Czech Republic. Although the votes went in opposite directions, neither bill is expected to be enacted in the current legislative session. The first vote ever on the subject in Britain's House of Commons supported Labour Member of Parliament Jane Griffiths' Relationships (Civil Registration) Bill by a 3-to-1 margin. But as a private members bill rather than part of the ruling party's legislative agenda, only ten minutes of debate was allowed, and passage is unlikely. During that brief debate another Labour MP, Stuart Bell, said the registry should be put to a nationwide vote because it would serve to redefine marriage. The proposed civil registration would confer recognition as next-of-kin and rights in areas including inheritance, pensions, social security, and accident compensation. It has the active support of Britain's national gay and lesbian advocacy group Stonewall. The Czech Republic's Chamber of Deputies didn't outright reject the Government's bill for registered partnerships, but has probably effectively stalled its passage until after 2002 elections by returning it to the Government for revision. The Czech national group Gay Initiative, which supported the bill, was encouraged that the current bill didn't get the same parliamentary thumbs-down as its two predecessors. With 21 abstentions, 85 votes to return the bill topped 60 to debate it as presented, with the conservative Christian Democrats and Civic Democratic Party opposing the bill and the Social Democrats and Communists supporting it. The Catholic Church has also actively lobbied against the bill. The proposed registered partnerships would confer rights in areas including inheritance and health care. And in the U.S., although California has just enacted a law greatly expanding the legal benefits of its partnership registry, a bill to create even broader Vermont-style "civil unions" for gays and lesbians was heard in a state Assembly committee this week. Democratic Assemblymember Paul Koretz of West Hollywood introduced the bill called the Family Protection Act, AB 1338, describing it as "the final frontier in equal rights." One legal expert told the committee the bill would not violate the state constitutional amendment passed by voters last year to restrict legal marriage to "one man and one woman," since the word "marriage" would not be applied. But two anti-gay religious right groups warned that civil unions would damage traditional marriage. Even sponsor Koretz estimated it could take six years to enact his bill. The Family Pride Coalition warns that a California state appellate court decision this week threatens gay and lesbian second-parent adoptions. For 15 years, California courts have allowed gay and lesbian co-parents to co-adopt their partners' biological children. It's been the only means by which those co-parents could gain legal recognition, although when the new partnership law goes into effect in 2002 they'll be able to use the simpler stepparent adoption procedure. But in the San Diego case called "Sharon S. versus Superior Court", a California appeals court overturned two adoptions by the co-parent known as "Annette F.," finding that trial courts had never had the authority to grant second-parent adoptions. The unprecedented ruling reportedly could affect thousands of children. It's expected to be appealed to the California Supreme Court. But a partnered gay father in Brazil has won custody of his 2-year-old daughter in preference to her mother, in what's believed to be the nation's first court decision to recognize a gay couple's parental rights. Gay biological father Jose Dias has lived with his male partner for 15 years. In Taiwan, a transsexual was allowed to legally adopt an unrelated child for the first time this week. The family laws of the Republic of China do not explicitly refer to transsexuality. It's taken transwoman Chang Chia-ling five months to become the legal mother of a now-six-month-old baby, as the Chiayi District Court at first looked askance at her sexual history and her occupation as an entertainer. The court was finally convinced after additional investigation that Chang has adequate family support to raise the boy. The baby was born by an "unknown" father to Chang's next-door neighbor, who is currently incarcerated. The grandfather who is raising him supports Chang's adoption. Chang plans to name her baby Chang Tah-wen. South African gays and lesbians have won an apology from the national census agency for its failure to recognize same-gender couples, and a promise that they will be counted. One item in the Census 2001 questionnaire explicitly prohibits gay and lesbian couples from identifying their status as "unmarried yet living together," while another item denies them the automatic right to decide whether to indicate the nature of their relationship, according to a complaint filed with the South Africa Human Rights Commission. This week Statistics SA head Pali Lehohla said that the problem has been fixed, saying that, "In both the actual training of enumerators and in the census questionnaires itself, it is made clear that same-sex couples are to be enumerated in the same way as any other couple living together as part of household." Australia's upcoming federal elections feature yet another "first" as the Australian Democratic Party selected both members of a Perth gay male couple as candidates for office. Well-known activist and lobbyist Damian Meyer is nominated for Australia's Senate and his partner Rod Swift for the House of Representatives. Swift told the "Sydney Star Observer" that, "Standing as a couple ... has a strong symbolic message for people... We've moved the goal posts and said our relationships are a reality, not an argument." Controversial legislation to recognize same-gender couples is currently in process in the legislature of Meyer's and Swift's home state of Western Australia, whose current laws are the least favorable to gays and lesbians of any state in Australia. As organizers in Sydney, Australia announced plans this week for the cultural festival associated with the 2002 Gay Gaymes, international organizers were already looking ahead to 2006. Meeting on the African continent for the first time, in Johannesburg, the Federation of Gay Games announced its selection of Montreal as the site for the 7th quadrennial Olympics-style competition. The hotly contested site selection won mainstream international media attention because the Gay Games have become big business. The Montreal Games are projected to draw more than 23,000 competitors. The Sydney Games, expected to have 14,000 participants, have already set a record with more than 4,000 registrations received more than a year ahead of time. And finally... New York City's 10% Productions this week launched a million-dollar ad campaign for Ten, a fragrance marketed specifically for gay men and claimed to contain "natural attractants". Ten's slogan is, "Gain confidence ... seduce the senses ... get the man." But New Zealand's Maruia Nature Catalogue is seeking gay male customers for more unusual merchandise: thongs and nipple warmers made of possum fur. The company compares the fur to mink, but it's politically correct. It's taken from the Brushtail Possum, a pest whose use for fur is reportedly advocated by all New Zealand's environmental groups.