NewsWrap for the week ending February 23, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #726, distributed 2-25-02) [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 Brian Nunes In the U.S., Massachusetts' highest court this week threw out a legal challenge to two state sodomy laws, but in the process made comments that are expected to limit or even eliminate their enforcement. The group Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, GLAD, believes those laws have been selectively enforced against gay men in police raids on cruising areas. GLAD brought the lawsuit on behalf of nine plaintiffs, including a married heterosexual couple, seeking clarification on their possible prosecution if they had oral or anal sex in "[a] wooded outdoor area, vehicles parked in parking lots, and secluded areas of public beaches". The state's Supreme Judicial Court technically rejected the case because none of those plaintiffs are currently facing prosecution. But the justices unanimously endorsed a decision stating for the first time that the laws should not be applied to consensual acts, as long as the individuals involved attempt to avoid being seen by others. The two laws were first adopted more than 300 years ago. One prescribes sentences of up to five years for an "unnatural and lascivious act" -- including oral sex -- while the other punishes what it calls the "abominable and detestable crime against nature" -- anal sex -- with up to 20 years' imprisonment. Some local authorities in the UK are reportedly very interested in a new approach to stopping sex in public restrooms. Healthmatic is marketing a system of weight sensors for cubicle floors to detect the presence of more than 24 stone -- 336 pounds or about 740 kilograms. While weight distribution supposedly allows the sensors to pass on a parent assisting a child, individuals who exceed the weight limit must obtain a key to override the system. One system has already been installed at a beach in the Scottish city of Ayr. Britain's Queen Elizabeth shook hands with the world's first transsexual Member of Parliament as she began a visit to New Zealand this week. For the receiving line at Wellington airport, Georgina Beyer wore white raukura feathers in her hair, as women of the native Te Atiawa tribe do to signify peace, love and goodwill. Beyer, who has met the Queen twice before, said she was proud to be part of the group welcoming her. An aide to New Zealand's Governor-General was overheard telling Prince Philip of Beyer, "Yeah, she's had the full chop!" U.S. transgender activist Sylvia Rivera died this week of liver cancer at age 50. She was a high-profile participant in the 1969 uprising at New York City's Stonewall Inn that's considered the birth of the modern movement for lesbian and gay rights, and she continued to be a strong voice demanding full inclusion of transgenders in that movement. Rivera founded two shelters for transgenders and worked at a community food pantry. She is survived by her partner Julia Murray. The Presbyterian Church USA will retain its ban on ordination for non-celibate gays and lesbians, as a proposal to amend it was defeated this week. In 1997, the 3.6-million-member church officially adopted the requirement that its clergy, deacons and elders maintain "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." Last year, the church's General Assembly voted to strike it. But ratification of that amendment by the church's 173 regional presbyteries failed this week when South Louisiana became the 87th presbytery to vote against it. Jesse Helms, long the U.S. Senate's leading homophobe, announced an astonishing turnaround on AIDS this week. At a conference organized by the global Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, Helms said, "[I'm] so ashamed that I've done so little... I have been too lax too long in doing something really significant about AIDS. I'm not going to lay it aside on my agenda for the remaining months I have." Helms will be retiring at the end of the year. He credited his change to a meeting with Bono of the band U2. Previously the North Carolina Republican had vehemently opposed federal funding for AIDS, blaming the disease on what he called gay men's "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." That kind of rhetoric led two of his constituents whose sons had died of AIDS to found the group Mothers Against Jesse in Congress. One of them, Patsy Clarke, said she was "knocked off [her] seat" by the news and that, "I really never thought I' would live to see the day." Also making a big about-face this week was Northern Ireland's Gerry Adams. Adams told London's "Sunday Times" that he is urging the Sinn Fein party to join the campaign for gay and lesbian civil rights, after years of vocal opposition to them. He said, "I think people of the same gender have the right to marry and to have a family." He specifically called for equal inheritance rights for gay and lesbian partners and for equal treatment of gay men by insurance companies. The Justice Minister of the Canadian province of Quebec this week called for full parental rights to be included in his Government's bill to create registered partnerships for gays and lesbians. Quebec Justice Minister Paul Begin said he would be proposing parental rights to the Parti Quebecois Government because "No children should ever be ashamed of their parents." Parental rights were a key demand in public hearings on the bill. Coalition of Gays and Lesbians of Quebec director Claudine Ouellet called the announcement historic. However, some gays and lesbians in the province oppose registered partnerships as counter to their demands for full equal marriage rights. Canada's national group EGALE, Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, this week presented petitions for marriage rights signed by 15,000 people to five Members of Parliament, including open gays Svend Robinson of the New Democratic Party and Real Menard of the Bloc Quebecois. An openly gay President would be acceptable to nearly 3/4 of French citizens, according to a major opinion poll released this week. None of the Presidential candidates in upcoming elections are believed to be gay, although Paris elected open gay Bertrand Delanoë as its mayor last year. The findings of the SOFRES poll of a representative sample of 1,000 French adults were remarkable for their contrast with previous similar polls. This year 73% said they would accept a gay President, while just five years ago that number was only 46%. Twenty years ago, 30% were accepting. On the flip side, this year only 26% were "shocked" by the idea of a gay President, while five years ago 52% were. Twenty years ago, 61% were "shocked". No one expects an openly gay politician to succeed anytime soon in Panama, but gays there do enjoy a brief moment of visibility in February during Carnival. In Panama City's Carnival parade, their floats included the feathered carriage of their own Carnival queen, drag artist Ana Carolina. And although the nation's lesbian and gay organization Asociacion Hombres y Mujeres Nuevos de Panama was denied legal registration, the government this year approved gay Carnival floats and queens in two provincial cities as well. There's also been a growing gay representation in Panamanian television, with several soap operas introducing gay characters last year and the open gay known as Harold hosting a weekly current affairs show. Partying is on the upswing as well in the Polish capital, Warsaw. In the last six months five new gay and lesbian clubs have opened, where there had been only two before. Slovenia will be represented at May's EuroVision Song Contest by a trio of transvestites. The group Sestre, The Sisters, won that honor by a single point in this past weekend's national EMA contest, as they performed their song "Only Love" while clad in red stewardess outfits. [*"Only Love" excerpt plays for about :25, then down and under:] At least one Slovenian activist believes the song addresses gay love, with its lyric, "There are many ways in life, don't look for happiness where there is none, just listen to your heart. ... Look into my eyes and stop worrying. I know you feel the same way as I do. What you desire is not a sin. It's love." This year's EuroVision, expected to draw a TV audience of 70-million, will be staged in Estonia, making it the first to be held in a former Iron Curtain country. But it won't be the first to have a transgender entry -- Israel's Dana International won the contest in 1998. And finally... staff at the New York Aquarium have learned that what they called "one of the most dedicated couples in the penguin enclosure" are both male. Black-footed penguins Wendell and Cass are 14 years old and have been a couple for eight years. There's no way to distinguish the birds' sex from the outside, so it had been assumed they were a heterosexual pair since the more aggressive Cass had always been the top. After a staffer observed Wendell taking the lead instead, a blood test was ordered that "outed" the couple. The devoted couple sleep in the same nest, and like many other New Yorkers they've had to defend it -- the penguin keeper said that "It seems to be one of the most desirable places in the penguin enclosure."