NewsWrap
for the week ending January 19, 2002
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #721, distributed 1-21-02)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon]

Anchored by Brian Nunes and Cindy Friedman

  Open gay Per-Kristian Foss, appointed earlier this month as Norway's 
Minister of Finance, may be the world's first cabinet member to legally 
register a same-gender partnership.  This week Foss publicly confirmed that 
he and his long-time partner Jan Erik Knarbakk had registered at the 
Norwegian embassy in Stockholm, Sweden on January 4th -- but he added that, 
"Beyond that, it is a private matter."  Registered partnerships for gays and 
lesbians with nearly all the legal benefits of marriage were established in 
Norway in 1993, following Denmark.

  An administrative tribunal in the Canadian province of Quebec has ruled 
that an unmarried couple need not live together to qualify as a common-law 
couple for survivor benefits.  Since 1999, Quebec has recognized both 
heterosexual and same-gender couples as common-law spouses based on three 
considerations:  shared finances, public recognition of their relationship, 
and cohabitation.  But now, in the case of a heterosexual couple, the 
Tribunal Administratif du Quebec has issued what's described as a 
precedent-setting decision saying that, "If the fact of cohabitation is one 
of the necessary elements to demonstrate marital life, the fact of 
non-cohabitation is not necessarily proof of an absence of marital life."  
The plaintiff's lawyer Andrew Mongrain said it was "the first time an 
administrative tribunal has recognized that people can be spouses even if 
they don't live together."  

  In the U.S., a California bill to create civil unions for same-gender 
couples died in committee this week amidst a flurry of protest from the 
religious right.
But another California legislative committee voted 8-to-3 along party lines 
to reject a bill that read in its entirety, "The promotion of homosexuality 
in public education is prohibited."

  Also in California, a federal appeals court upheld the San Francisco Board 
of Supervisors' right to pass a resolution condemning anti-gay ads placed by 
religious right groups.  A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 
decided 2-to-1 against the claim of Donald Wildmon's Mississippi-based 
American Family Association that the city had violated its constitutional 
right to religious freedom.  In 1998, the AFA had been part of a coalition of 
religious right groups to place an ad in the "San Francisco Chronicle" that 
denounced gays and lesbians as sinful, self-destructive and at high risk for 
sexually transmitted diseases, while promoting programs claiming to change 
their sexual orientation.  The Board responded by blaming such rhetoric for 
hate violence and urging TV stations not to air the broadcast version.  The 
appellate court's majority found that because the resolution did not include 
any threat of action against either those proclaiming anti-gay views or media 
disseminating them, it was itself a legitimate exercise of free speech by the 
Board of Supervisors.

  On the flip side of the free speech issue, a federal trial court judge 
upheld a Minnesota high school student's right to wear a "Straight Pride" 
sweatshirt.  Woodbury High School Principal Dana Babbitt had told Elliott 
Chambers that his sweatshirt violated the school's dress code.  But the judge 
found the dress code violated Chambers' constitutional rights, saying the 
school had failed to demonstrate that the sweatshirt would be disruptive.
Yet U.S. schools' responsibility to protect students from anti-gay harassment 
was affirmed for the first time in Pennsylvania, where the Titusville Area 
School District settled a federal lawsuit by Timothy Dahle with a payment of 
$312,000.

  Censorship issues are looming large in South Korea, where 15 gay groups are 
jointly suing the government for shutting down several gay Web sites.  The 
gay sites are hardly alone as victims of South Korea's new Internet Content 
Filtering Ordinance -- more than 12,000 sites have been blocked or shut down 
in the last 7 months, ostensibly to protect children.  But the Korean 
Information and Communications Ethics Committee had specifically classified 
homosexuality as an "obscenity and perversion" to make gay Web sites "harmful 
media" under the "Criteria for Indecent Internet Sites" used by the Ministry 
of Information and Communications.  The plaintiff gay groups expect their 
lawsuit to fail in South Korean courts but hope it will bring international 
attention to the situation.

  In Canada, British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal has ordered its 
largest-ever discrimination award – and it goes to a transwoman who was 
rejected from volunteering at a rape crisis center.  Kimberly Nixon will 
receive C$7,500 from the Vancouver Rape Relief Society, which had acted in 
the belief that Nixon could not be an effective rape counselor because she 
lacked the experience of growing up female.

  Gays and lesbians will continue to face ejection from the U.S. Marine Corps 
for violations of the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, despite the 
Corps' adoption this month of a "stop loss" policy halting most 
administrative discharges.  Like the Army, Navy and Air Force "stop loss" 
orders issued since combat began in Afghanistan, so-called "gay discharges" 
are specifically excluded from the Marines policy.  There was no such 
exemption in any stop loss orders of the preceding 50 years.

  "Sexual orientation" is not a protected category under a new executive 
order against discrimination in state employment issued by Virginia's new 
Democratic Governor Mark Warner.  Warner defeated an explicitly anti-gay 
Republican campaign in November, but he's now the subject of criticism by 
both Democratic and Republican gay and lesbian activists.

  But neighboring Maryland's first "out" lawmaker has become the Majority 
Leader of the state House of Delegates.  Baltimore Democrat Maggie McIntosh 
is also the state's first woman to serve as House Majority Leader.  She first 
publicly identified herself as a lesbian in October.

  And Massachusetts has another openly gay Republican hopeful for statewide 
office, as Dan Grabauskas declared his candidacy for state Treasurer.  
Previously, Acting Governor Jane Swift announced her selection of open gay 
Patrick Guerriero as her candidate for Lieutenant Governor.  Both Grabauskas 
and Guerriero still face Republican primary elections.

  Political participation by India's gay and transgender hijra continues to 
increase.  Their political party, generally referred to as the Indian Eunuchs 
Federation, has announced it will be fielding 30 hijra candidates in upcoming 
elections in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. 

  Peter Tatchell, long the most visible gay activist in Britain, has been 
denied a visa to his native Australia even to attend the funeral of his 
stepfather.  Tatchell was originally denied a visa several months ago when he 
sought to attend a Commonwealth meeting in Brisbane.  Presumably, Australian 
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock had concerns about Tatchell's on-going 
efforts to bring Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to justice for human 
rights violations.  Tatchell appealed that ruling but after 11 weeks has 
received no response, while the usual time is two weeks.  Four weeks ago 
Tatchell renewed his request for a visa on compassionate grounds, hoping at 
first to see his stepfather before he died, and then to attend his funeral.  
Now it's too late, and Tatchell notes bitterly that Australia is no longer 
under any legal obligation to grant him compassionate admission.

  Also in Australia, Melbourne this weekend is the site of the world's first 
official gay and lesbian pride celebration of 2002, with a crowd of 60,000 
expected for the 14th annual Midsumma Festival Parade.  This year for the 
first time there will be a contingent of Victoria state and Federal Police 
appearing in their uniforms, with non-gay Christine Nixon becoming the first 
police commissioner ever to appear in an Australian pride event.  Nixon and 
Victoria's Government are determined to take the step for "equity and 
diversity," despite loud criticism from the Opposition that the police 
marchers are not only appearing in uniform but being paid for it.

  And finally... The University of Florida at Gainesville this week observed 
its third annual Same-Sex Hand-Holding Day, when students of all sexual 
orientations are encouraged to publicly hold hands with someone of the same 
gender.  Organizer Mike Malecki of the Gator Gay-Straight Alliance told the 
campus paper "Independent Florida Alligator" that the purpose of the day "is 
for people to feel what it's like to be gay.  It's making it more comfortable 
for gay people and also letting the straight people know what it's like to be 
in our society."  Support and participation have noticeably increased since 
the first year.  But who could resist the invitation of the promotional sign 
posted in the school's Turlington Plaza:  "Shake it, grab it, swing it, hold 
it, squeeze it."