NewsWrap for the week ending March 23, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #730, distributed 3-25-02) [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 Greg Gordon Australian Prime Minister John Howard this week dismissed Senator Bill Heffernan from his Cabinet, in the wake of Heffernan's allegations from the floor of Parliament last week that openly gay High Court Judge Michael Kirby had paid young men for sex. What Heffernan had claimed to be new evidence against Kirby not only added nothing to allegations New South Wales police had dismissed as unfounded in 1998 -- it included a federal car driver's record that was apparently falsified and is now the subject of an investigation by Australian Federal Police. After NSW state police this week again rejected the claims against Kirby, Heffernan recanted from the Senate floor: [Heffernan:] "I want to extend to Michael Kirby my sincere apology and deep regret for the allegations I made in this place. I withdraw them unreservedly... Despite some speculation in some quarters to the contrary, I do not believe in discriminating against homosexuals. I do not think there’s an automatic link between homosexuality and pedophilia... The physical abuse of children, whether by heterosexuals or homosexuals, is an appalling crime." In a brief media release, Kirby said he "accept[ed] Heffernan's apology ... in a spirit of reconciliation." He called the "wrong" suffered by himself and his family "insignificant in comparison to the wrong done to Parliament, the High Court and the people." He added that, "I hope my ordeal will show the wrongs that hate of homosexuals can lead to. Out of this sorry episode, Australians should emerge with a heightened respect for the dignity of all minorities." The federal Senate voted narrowly this week to censure Heffernan. While Heffernan will no longer serve as the Cabinet's Parliamentary Secretary, the Prime Minister does not believe his close friend should leave politics altogether. He said Heffernan will continue to represent him within their Liberal Party, yet Heffernan withdrew from playing that role at an NSW state party executive session this week. It's even possible Heffernan's own party will take action against him at its NSW state convention now in progress, where Howard is expected to speak in his defense. Heffernan's allegations forced the Prime Minister to deny to reporters that he and his Government are homophobic, but it remains to be seen if they will prove that in the legislative arena, where the ruling coalition has previously blocked gay-friendly measures. After Heffernan's allegations but before his demotion and apology, the Government announced that it will reconsider amending its major pension reform bill to include equal treatment of gay and lesbian couples. In direct response to the Heffernan scandal, the third-party Australian Democrats, led by their openly gay Law and Justice spokesperson Senator Brian Greig, are seeking to advance their federal bill against discrimination based on sexual orientation, with clauses specifically to outlaw vilification and incitement to hatred against gays and lesbians. Greig's home state of West Australia set the pace for the rest of the nation with the passage this week of a sweeping omnibus bill to establish equal treatment of gays and lesbians. West Australia has had the country's worst state laws for gays and lesbians, but will now have some of the best. Reforms include lowering of the age of consent for sex between men from 21 to 16, equalizing it with the heterosexual age; and establishing legal standing for gay and lesbian domestic partners equal to that of unmarried heterosexuals in areas including adoption, fertility treatment, medical treatment, property transfer, and inheritance. The state's Lower House had passed the state's Australian Labor Party Government's controversial bill in December, and debate leading to this week's passage in the Upper House was no less strenuous, with the Opposition Liberal Party calling division on every one of the bill's 120 clauses. The Australian Family Association, the Roman Catholic Church, and tennis great Margaret Court all vigorously opposed the bill. The WA Liberals are already promising repeal of some sections should they take power in a future election. And at the other end of Australia, the state of Victoria this week gained its second-ever openly gay mayor, the first in nearly 20 years. The newly-elected Council of the City of Port Phillip unanimously agreed to make open gay Darren Ray its Mayor. Ray, who was first elected to the Port Phillip Council three years ago, is believed to be the only openly gay city councilor now serving in the state. France's two leading Presidential candidates' first interviews with a gay-identified publication were published this week. The magazine "Tetu" used the headline, "Chirac and Jospin come out of the closet," although of course both the incumbent President and the Prime Minister are non-gay. In fact, neither actually offered much to gay and lesbian voters. Both opposed adoptions by same-gender couples saying that children should have a mother and a father, although Jospin said he would not object to a single gay or lesbian adopting. Chirac declared he had always disagreed with his conservative RPR party's vigorous opposition to the domestic partnership contracts known as "PACS" -- Pacts of Civil Solidarity -- that Jospin's Socialists pushed through to enactment. Jospin said he has close friends who are gay, while Chirac said sexual orientation "has never been a dimension I have taken into account in any of my personal contacts." Presidential elections will be held in two rounds in April and May, followed by legislative elections in June. Surviving same-gender partners of South Africa's state civil servants will be receiving full government pension benefits. After two years' of foot-dragging by the Finance Department, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has agreed to an out-of-court settlement of a class action lawsuit filed with the Pretoria High Court by the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project with financial support from the Ford Foundation. The settlement is expected to impact about 100,000 gays and lesbians, including both partners of state employees who have already died and those who can now be registered as beneficiaries. Private pensions had already been extended to same-gender partners in South Africa with a law passed in 1999. But a domestic partnership legally registered in Germany was rejected this week by a family court in Israel. The Israeli lesbian couple of seven years' standing had hoped that their German registry would convince the Israeli court to legally recognize them as a couple. Instead, the court said it lacked authority to go beyond current Israeli law, which does not provide for civil marriage for either gay or lesbian or heterosexual couples. The high-profile San Francisco dog attack case that advanced same-gender partners' legal standing passed a milestone this week. Last year Sharon Smith won a landmark California court ruling giving her the right to sue for wrongful death damages after her partner Diane Whipple was killed by two of her neighbors' dogs. The dramatic incident and Smith's testimony encouraged the California legislature to expand the legal status of the state's registered domestic partnerships so that other gays and lesbians will have similar standing. The separate criminal prosecution of the dog's owners ended this week with a jury convicting them on five counts including murder and involuntary manslaughter. The criminal verdicts will certainly support a finding of liability in Smith's civil lawsuit, for which no date has yet been set. Smith has said that any winnings in that case would go to a charity fund memorializing Whipple. Also in the U.S., the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in its annual report on treatment of gays and lesbians in the military has found the highest level of discharges for homosexuality in 14 years -- and an increase of nearly one-fourth in incidents of anti-gay harassment. The findings are particularly disappointing after the 1999 murder of Private Barry Winchell spurred the U.S. military to bring a new level of attention to the issues. Winchell's base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky accounted for more than one third of the Army's so-called "gay discharges" in the reporting year. In fact 30% of those "gay discharges" were of women, although they comprise only 14% of U.S. military personnel. SLDN leader Dixon Osburn called the findings "an affront to liberty, unity and military readiness" and charged that, "There's been no political will in the Bush administration to carry through on the promises the Pentagon has made." And finally... score one for lesbian visibility: the Encyclopedia Britannica has given "lesbianism" its own listing for the first time in its 334 years of publication. The newly-released 2002 edition defines lesbianism as "the quality or state of intense emotional and usually erotic attraction of a woman to another woman," and goes on to offer some history and current political issues. This will doubtless prove helpful to questioning youth who often turn first to reference books. Compared to the days when Queen Victoria declared to her advisers there was no such thing as a female homosexual -- you've come a long way, baby.