NewsWrap for the week ending January 26, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #722, distributed 1-28-02) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Dean Elzinga A United Nations committee this week voted 8-to-6 to deny consultative status to ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association. ILGA had briefly been the first and only gay-identified organization to win that status with ECOSOC, the UN's Economic and Social Council, allowing the group to attend and make input to ECOSOC meetings. But ILGA lost its consultative status in 1995 as the result of a campaign begun by U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. It was alleged at that time that ILGA supported pedophilia, and those allegations again dominated this week's extensive debate in the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations. ILGA had always maintained a strong position against the exploitation of children, and since 1997 has required all its member groups to explicitly condemn pedophilia, in hopes of regaining its UN status. But that failed to satisfy the Sudan representative, while the Pakistan and Senegal representatives "expressed doubt that they could support any homosexual organization," in the words of the official UN report of the meeting. While some nations sought to delay a vote on ILGA's fate to allow more time for evidence gathering and consensus building, their move was rejected by a vote of 11-to-7. The nations voting to deny ILGA consultative status were China, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, and Tunisia; the minority supporting ILGA were Bolivia, Chile, France, Germany, Romania, and the US. Algeria, Colombia, Cuba, India and Turkey abstained. Several other nations participated in the debate as observers, with Canada's representative actively defending ILGA. Norway this week became the first nation in the world to have an open gay heading its government, albeit briefly. King Harald met with Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss to recognize him as acting Prime Minister while both Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik and Foreign Minister Jan Petersen were travelling outside the country. While Foss expressed a hope that the media attention would advance gay and lesbian civil rights in other countries, he modestly noted he was only doing his job. Foss, a veteran Conservative Party Member of Parliament, made international headlines last week when he confirmed that he is the first member of a Government to have registered a legal same-gender partnership. Hopes for legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples were dashed this week in Slovakia and Colombia. The Slovakian Cabinet unanimously rejected a bill to create registered partnerships carrying most of the legal benefits of marriage. Justice Minister Jan Czarnogursky of the Christian Democratic Party declared that, "There will never be a government in Slovakia which would pass such a law, and if there ever was, it would lead the country into decline... [and] devalue heterosexual families." The bill, developed in conjunction with gay and lesbian activists, was the first of its kind ever to be introduced in the Slovakian parliament, and is said to have had some support in each of the parliamentary parties. Colombia's legislature has stalled consideration of a bill to create registered partnerships until its next session. A legislative committee had already stripped the bill down to just a fifth of its original content before approving it, but the measure would still provide for inheritance and pension rights, social security benefits, and spousal support after dissolution. While disappointed at the delay, at least some activists are pleased that the issue has become a matter of public debate. In Britain's House of Lords a Liberal Democratic Party private member's bill to create registered partnerships was debated this week on its second reading. Although the Opposition Conservative Party leadership has taken a st and against it, a growing movement within that party to soften its traditional anti-gay stance has been able to win a free vote on the measure. Anglican bishops and more traditional Tories continue to oppose it on the grounds that it would undermine marriage. During the debate, open gay Lord Alli of the ruling Labour Party challenged his Government to support the bill. While the Blair Government has remained silent on that score so far, it's reportedly preparing a bill that would enable transsexuals to contract legal marriages, something they haven't been able to do because Britain refuses to revise their birth certificates following sex reassignment surgery. Meanwhile, Britain's leading lawsuit for transsexual marriages -- that of transwoman Elizabeth Bellinger, who actually was married to her husband of 20 years by a clerk who didn't question that she was female -- has been accepted for a hearing by the Law Lords, the UK's highest court. There were also developments regarding gay and lesbian couples in the U.S. this week. The Democratic Party's governing National Committee approved a resolution calling for federal Social Security benefits to be extended to same-gender partners. All working Americans are required to pay into the retirement system, but gay and lesbian partners do not benefit from it as such. This is the first time a major U.S. political party has called for formal recognition of and financial benefits for gay and lesbian couples. The Democratic National Committee also renewed its support for federal response to anti-gay hate crimes. Vermont is the only U.S. state to have created so-called "civil unions" carrying all the state-level benefits of legal marriage, but this week a first attempt to have another U.S. state recognize them failed in a Georgia appellate court. The Georgia Court of Appeals rejected Susan Freer's bid to sue for overnight visitation with her three sons from a previous heterosexual marriage. Her visitation has been limited for the last year by a court order denying overnight visits to a parent who is cohabiting with someone not related by blood or marriage. Freer argued unsuccessfully that the civil union she contracted with her partner in Vermont should qualify. Freer plans to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. In Chile, prison inmates can receive visits only from spouses or partners of the opposite gender. One gay man tried to sidestep this rule by donning women's clothing and borrowing a female friend's ID to visit his partner at the jail in Osorno. Although the "La Cuarta" newspaper said the man in drag attracted whistles as he waited in line, guards noted his hairy arms and strip-searched him. He was arrested for using a false identity and has been scheduled for a court appearance on that charge. Arrests of gay men on debauchery charges continue to spread in Egypt. Last week at least 8 more men were arrested in Damanhour, the provincial capital of Al-Beheira. Previous arrests had been in the Cairo area, including four men arrested in November whose scheduled trial was delayed this week, and the 53 arrests made in the infamous May police raid on a gay-inclusive Nile riverboat club, which resulted in 27 convictions. The latest arrests have so far been protested by Amnesty International/Australia and by IGLHRC, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. In the U.S., the Michigan Court of Appeals this week upheld the second-degree murder conviction and 25-year-to-life sentence in the notorious so-called "Jenny Jones" talk show case. In 1995, Jonathan Schmitz shot open gay Scott Amedure to death 3 days after a taping of the "Jenny Jones" show in which Amedure revealed his "secret crush" on Schmitz. Schmitz had previously won a retrial only to be convicted a second time. This week the appellate court rejected his claim that the trial court should have allowed more evidence of his history of mental problems that might have reduced his charge and sentence. In Canada, an Ontario court dismissed on technical grounds a gay and lesbian bookstore's constitutional appeal of provincial film censorship practices. Glad Day Bookshop and its owner John Scythes will be sentenced next month for selling "Descent", a video not approved by the Ontario Film Review Board. The fine could run as high as C$100,000, which Scythes says could bankrupt the store. He'll appeal the dismissal of the store's claim that the provincial Film Review Board's screening fee serves to tax free expression and to discriminate against those marketing to marginalized groups. And finally... also in Canada, Toronto drag artist and self-described "supermodel" Enza Anderson appeared this week in the first official debate among candidates for leadership of the right-wing Opposition Canadian Reform Alliance Party. As Enza remarked in her speech, "At its worst, voters believed the Canadian Alliance was a political shelter for closet racists, bigots and homophobes." There has been ample evidence for that point of view. But Enza went on to say that she does not believe that's what the Alliance is, but rather that "it is a party of all the people." She claimed that the "guy-in-a-dress thing" is "hardly worth a mention" by comparison to Alliance concerns for larger issues, and called on party members to stand with her for equality and human rights. It's doubtful anyone anticipated as uniformly serious-minded a speech as Enza gave. According to Toronto's gay and lesbian biweekly "Xtra!" the media were focused almost entirely on hopes of a photograph of Enza kissing incumbent Alliance leader Stockwell Day, a former preacher with an anti-gay record in Alberta's provincial government. In the past, Enza created a big photo-op when she kissed Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, whom she ran against in the last election. Although a Day advisor insisted that at some point he shook her hand, Day took care to spend the evening well out of Enza's reach.