NewsWrap for the week ending April 13, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #733, distributed 4-15-02) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Dean Elzinga The United Nations Commission on Human Rights for only the third time in its history heard testimony this week on the abuse of sexual minorities. At issue was recent police sweeps of parks in India, which have netted AIDS prevention outreach workers. Indian attorney and gay activist Aditya Bondyopadhyay charged that police there use the sodomy law to harass and extort money from gays, to arbitrarily arrest and imprison them, and that those detainees are tortured while in custody. He said that while he was representing a group of arrested AIDS workers known as the "Lucknow 4", he himself was closely monitored by city police and received a number of death threats. He said that while his clients were in jail, they were repeatedly abused and beaten, denied food and medical treatment, and forced to drink sewer water. Bondyopadhyay's appearance was sponsored by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, Switzerland's Pink Cross, the World Organization Against Torture, Amnesty International, and the International Service for Human Rights. His testimony was well attended and three of the UN's human rights Special Rapporteurs also spoke. Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, said, "[T]here are lesbians and gays in every country of the world, and I believe there is no country in which they do not face abuse." Human rights watchdog Amnesty International this month issued an extensive report on police abuse of gays, lesbians and transgenders in Ecuador, despite the national constitution there explicitly prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination. Amnesty documented harassment of activists, arbitrary deten tions, and torture of sexual minorities while in custody. Most of the cases cited occurred in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil. Amnesty charges that authorities in Ecuador have taken no action to end police abuses, and notes that the new chief of police for Guayas and Galapagos Province has publicly expressed homophobic views. A Muslim leader's anti-gay remarks were protected religious speech, a Rotterdam court found this week. In May, Moroccan immigrant Imam Khalil el-Moumni told a Netherlands national TV audience that homosexuality is a contagious disease that threatens society. That broadcast was directly linked to a sharp increase in complaints of anti-gay discrimination last year, according to the Netherlands' National Association of Anti-Discrimination Bureaus and Reporting Points. More than fifty groups and individuals filed complaints that el-Moumni's remarks were inciting hatred. That spurred prosecutors to file criminal charges against him even though he had later made a public apology. The Rotterdam judge agreed that the remarks were discriminatory, but declared the imam should not be convicted because he spoke as a cleric and based his remarks on the Koran. Prosecutors intend to appeal the ruling. If convicted, el-Moumni could face a fine equivalent to US$1,000. The Netherlands parliament is currently considering a bill to increase sentences for bias-motivated crimes. In what's believed to be a national "first" for Canada, a school board has been officially held responsible for failure to protect a student from anti-gay harassment. British Columbia's provincial Human Rights Tribunal ordered the North Vancouver School District to pay C$4,000 to former student Azmi Jubran, who was repeatedly abused by other students throughout grades 10, 11 and 12. The Handsworth High School principal called Jubran's harassment the most extensive he'd ever seen, but the vice principal said the school lacked the resources to stop it. The Tribunal agreed that the school district lacked tools and training to cope with the problem, but noted that it had never sought expert assistance until after Jubran filed his human rights complaint. In the northern Nigerian state of Jigawa, a gang of students last week beat to death a classmate they believed had had sex with younger boys. State police have so far arrested 14 suspects from the Government Science Secondary School in Birnin Kudu for the death of 22-year-old Inuwa Yakuba. To date the investigation has determined that the group rousted Yakuba from his bed and dragged him to a bush for the fatal beating. To raise awareness of harassment and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, nearly 1,800 high school and college campuses in each of the 50 United States this week observed the seventh annual Day of Silence. Participants vowed to remain silent for nine hours including the school day, making their point by distributing cards with statistics on campus homophobia that read, "My deliberate silence echoes that silence which is caused by harassment, prejudice and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step towards fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?" Some demonstrators amplified the message with T-shirts, signs hung from their necks, and even face-painting. On many campuses, there were additional actions and educational forums, and most celebrated the end of the silence with a group shout. Begun by then-University of Virginia student Maria Pulzetti, the Day of Silence has been entirely student-run until this year. Now organized by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, GLSEN, this year's observance was the biggest and best publicized yet. With that increased visibility came increased protests from the religious right, including counter-demonstrations at schools in perhaps a half-dozen states. A 1994 U.S. federal hate crimes law was applied for the first time this week to a crime motivated by homophobia, as a grand jury handed down an indictment in the widely-reported 1996 murder of two young women hikers on the popular Appalachian Trail. The law providing for increased sentences for bias-motivated crimes could only be applied because the killings occurred on federal land, in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Other federal hate crimes laws do not yet recognize anti-gay bias motivation. While the indictment of Darrell David Rice for the murders of Julianne Williams and Lollie Winans was welcomed by those who knew the victims, it was most surprising for being announced by Attorney General John Ashcroft, a religious right activist whose appointment was vigorously opposed by most gay and lesbian political groups. He said, "[W]e will pursue, prosecute and punish those who attack law-abiding Americans out of hatred for who they are. Hatred is the enemy of justice, regardless of its source." He said prosecutors will seek the death penalty. Defendant Rice, currently in federal prison in Virginia for attacking another woman, reportedly said that he hates gays and found women to be more vulnerable targets. Mississippi's Supreme Court included a prohibition against bias or prejudice based on sexual orientation in new rules of conduct for state courts that it adopted last week. The new code of conduct represents the most extensive revision in nearly 30 years. This week Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a complaint against George County Judge Connie Glenn Wilkerson, whose letter saying gays and lesbians belonged in mental hospitals, was published in a newspaper last month. Also acting to protect civil rights was the Allentown, Pennsylvania City Council, which last week added sexual orientation and gender identity as categories protected under its local human relations ordinance. The ordinance, which prohibits bias in areas including employment and housing, is the first in the state to protect transgenders. There've been legal advances on the adoptions front in Canada and Scotland. The Canadian province of Newfoundland, which includes Labrador, has approved sweeping reforms to its adoptions law. The reforms will open adoptions to single people and to unmarried couples including same-gender couples. The reforms are expected to be in place in June. The Adoption Council of Canada praised the reforms as progressive and suggested they could serve as a model for other provinces. And in a ruling that breaks new ground for Scotland, a court in Edinburgh has allowed a lesbian couple to co-adopt each other's biological children. One child resulted from artificial insemination after the women's relationship had begun. The other was conceived during a failed heterosexual marriage, and although his father did not contest the case, that boy now has 3 legal parents. The legal decision recognizes the couple and their children as a family unit, unlike a Glasgow court's recent ruling that gave a sperm donor precedence over a lesbian co-parent. The Edinburgh ruling will support the pending appeal of the Glasgow decision. While gay and lesbian groups hailed the Edinburgh ruling, religious conservatives protested vocally, often from pulpits at Sunday worship services. And finally... openly gay British-born singer-songwriter Sir Elton John testified before a U.S. Senate committee this week. As a long-time leading world AIDS philanthropist through his Elton John AIDS Foundation, he made an impassioned plea for the U.S. government to use its unparalleled wealth to do more to help poorer nations to end the epidemic. To underscore his very serious message, the usually flamboyant entertainer appeared in a conservative black suit and simple tinted glasses. Yet Sir Elton wasn't entirely able to escape his usual role. After welcoming him with a kiss on both cheeks, Democratic Senator from New York and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton remarked, "I asked [committee] Chairman [Ted] Kennedy if we couldn't just get a piano in and he could sing his testimony."