NewsWrap
for the week ending February 2, 2002
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #723, distributed 2-4-02)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon]

Anchored by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman

  New Zealand's new Property (Relationships) Amendment Act went into effect 
this week, amidst grumbling from Opposition politicians.  The law establishes 
community property for all couples who have lived together for at least three 
years, including gay and lesbian couples, providing for the same equal 
division of property on dissolution that had previously applied only to 
legally married couples.  About a quarter-million New Zealanders are 
affected.  While elsewhere unmarried couples must register to be recognized, 
in New Zealand cohabitants must create a legal contract of their own to avoid 
co-ownership of property.  Reportedly there was a last-minute rush of couples 
seeking to "contract out" of co-ownership at a typical legal fee of NZ$1,000, 
with some couples breaking up under the stress of considering property 
division.

  Also in New Zealand, a government-funded fertility clinic has extended its 
services to gays and lesbians.  The Family Planning Association's St. Luke's 
clinic in Auckland is offering them the same information, referral and 
screening services it gives non-gays.  A government contract means clients 
pay nothing for the initial consultation, which can help gays and lesbians 
avoid the potential medical risks of do-it-yourself insemination and to 
understand the legal consequences of parenthood.

  Those legal consequences came home to roost this week for a Swedish man who 
donated sperm to a lesbian couple, resulting in three children.  When Anna 
Bjurling's lesbian partnership broke up a year ago, she sought child support 
from sperm donor Igor Lehnberg.  This week the district court in Oerebro 
awarded her 3,000 kronor per month (about US$280), finding a signed 
acknowledgement of Lehnberg's fatherhood to be legally binding.  Lehnberg, 
who had intended only that the children know where they came from and had 
agreed that the women would bear all parental responsibility, will appeal the 
ruling.  The artificial inseminations in the case were private and non-legal 
-- although Sweden's registered partnerships carry most of the legal benefits 
of marriage, they do not allow gay and lesbian couples either to adopt or to 
receive artificial insemination through the state health system.

  In Australia, a gay man in Melbourne this week pleaded guilty to assisting 
in the death of his HIV-positive partner, who had a brain tumor.  The late 
Daryl Colley had publicly announced his intention to "die with dignity," left 
a suicide note and a will, and took an overdose of drugs and alcohol after a 
goodbye party attended by a score of friends and family members.  But when 
the overdose didn't seem to be fatal, Colley's partner of about ten months, 
Raymond Hood, smothered him with a pillow, although an autopsy showed the 
drugs had actually caused Colley's demise.  Hood was originally charged with 
murder, but under a plea agreement he admitted to aiding and abetting 
Colley's suicide, the first time that charge has been used in the state of 
Victoria.  The maximum penalty is 5 years, compared to a life term for 
murder, but Hood won't be sentenced until late March.

  British "life partners," including same-gender couples, will be able to 
officially register a partner's death for the first time, under reforms the 
Government is now reportedly developing.  Currently only martial partners and 
close blood relatives can do so.  The proposed change is part of a large 
package of civil registration reforms intended both to recognize 
non-traditional families and to create civil alternatives for religious 
ceremonies associated with significant life events.  The package is expected 
to include the Government's proposal for registered partnerships, for which a 
private member's bill is currently under consideration in the parliament.
Also expected to be introduced shortly is the British Government's long 
awaited sex offenses reform package, including repeal of the "gross 
indecency" and "buggery" statutes used against gay men from Oscar Wilde's 
time through the present. 

  Jamaica's Government announced last week that it will not even consider 
repeal of the sodomy law there, which provides for a sentence of up to ten 
years' imprisonment at hard labor.  A parliamentary committee had recommended 
repeal of the rarely enforced law as part of a legal review of the national 
Charter of Rights bill.  The recommendation was immediately denounced by a 
group of Caribbean Roman Catholic bishops.

  The Law Commission of Canada this week capped its review of equal marriage 
rights for gay and lesbian couples saying, "There is no justification for 
maintaining the current distinctions between same-sex and heterosexual 
conjugal unions in light of current understandings of the state's interests 
in marriage."  The Law Commission is an independent entity that is funded by 
the government to advise the Parliament.  Introducing publication of its 
study, Commission president Nathalie Des Rosiers said that denying marriage 
"amounts to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation" that is 
prohibited under the national constitution, adding that, "If governments are 
to continue to maintain an institution called marriage, they cannot do so in 
a discriminatory fashion."  Lawsuits seeking equal marriage rights are 
already in progress, but the Law Commission called on the federal government 
to take action.  Same-gender couples in Canada are already recognized for 
most legal purposes.

  Toronto drag artist Enza Anderson this week announced the end of her 
celebrated campaign to become leader of Canada's right-wing Opposition 
Canadian Reform Alliance Party.  She said her campaign had succeeded in 
highlighting the homophobia and racism within the party, but that she had 
failed to raise the C$25,000 required to formally place her name on its 
leadership ballot.  Her team considered a legal challenge to the financial 
requirement, but rejected it as too costly and time-consuming.  Any of her 
campaign funds that remain after bills are paid will be contributed to 
Toronto's GLBT Youth Phone Line.

  In Toronto, the notorious police raid on an annual women's bathhouse event 
was roundly denounced by an Ontario court this week as charges against the 
event's organizers were dismissed.  Police had justified the raid as a 
routine inspection for compliance with the liquor license obtained for the 
occasion -- the same kind of special liquor license required for weddings and 
other parties.  Organizers JP Hornick and Rachel Aitcheson had each faced 
five charges for license violations at the September 2000 event.  But the 
Toronto lesbian and gay community was outraged that five male police officers 
spent an hour or more thoroughly touring the bathhouse, where about 
two-thirds of the 350 women were topless.  Judge Peter Hyrn in his lengthy 
ruling equated the move to having male officers strip-search female suspects, 
calling it not only an unreasonable search but a clear case of violation of 
privacy rights that brought the justice system itself into "disrepute".

  In the U.S., the New York State Assembly this week overwhelmingly approved 
civil rights protections from sexual orientation discrimination.  The Sexual 
Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, known as SONDA, won a vote of 113-to-27.  
A similar bill was first introduced in New York more than 30 years ago, and 
it's passed in the state Assembly in each of the last ten years only to be 
blocked by the leadership in the Republican-controlled Senate.  Some believe 
this could be the year SONDA is finally allowed to reach the Senate floor, 
where it has the votes for passage.  Republican Governor George Pataki also 
supports the bill.

  The American Red Cross announced this week that it will be assisting the 
same-gender partners of gay and lesbian victims of the September 11th 
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The Red Cross 
has already distributed close to $500-million in the wake of the attacks, and 
expects to collect $850-million for what it calls its "Liberty Fund".  It was 
announced that $15-million will be set aside to assist extended families and 
"non-traditional family members," including gay and lesbian partners.

  British gay and lesbian Internet portal Queercompany.com was shut down and 
put up for sale this week.  It was launched in November 2000 with what had 
been the biggest capital funding for any gay and lesbian business in Europe, 
3.5-million-pounds.  While there's some hope for new backing, declining ad 
revenues forced the closure of both the Web site and its print magazine 
"Fable".  Britain is still served by Rainbownetwork and the UK branch of 
Gay.com.  But Queercompany leaves behind indelible memories of its own 
controversial ad campaign that featured large billboards showing two women 
kissing.

And finally... Jose Mantero of the rural Andalusian village of Valverde del 
Camino has become the first Roman Catholic priest in Spain to publicly 
identify himself as a gay man -- and a non-celibate one at that.  A priest 
for ten of his 39 years, Mantero first acknowledged his gay orientation to 
himself when he was 12, but he faced a personal crisis when he fell in love 
eight years ago.  Although he had previously accepted his priestly vow of 
chastity, he says his "life was full of contradictions" and he was "drowning 
in a pit."  He now maintains that "no one is [sexually] continent."  He says 
that those who view their homosexuality as a burden rather than a pleasure 
"are doomed psychologically," but now he "gives thanks to God for being gay."
Mantero said in his coming-out interview with the Spanish gay magazine "Zero" 
that, "I don't feel resentful or" -- as Church doctrine maintains -- "morally 
defective.  On the contrary, I feel fine.  I love the Church and love has to 
be belligerent."  Although he is disgusted by what he called the "silence and 
guilt" the Church imposes on Catholic gays and lesbians, he said, "You have 
to defend such issues from the inside.  It's impossible from outside.  And 
the love of the institution is an essential factor in this internal struggle."
Mantero went on to tell a radio audience that, "It's my humble wish that this 
[interview acts] as a seed, so that one day homophobic declarations disappear 
from the Church."  He likened his impulse to contact "Zero" to his "calling 
from God to become a priest".  But now after a firestorm of publicity he 
awaits a different sort of call -- he said, "I still haven't spoken to the 
bishop... But I don't think it will be long before he calls."