NewsWrap for the week ending April 27, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #735, distributed 4-29-02) [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 Jon Beaupré There were clear anti-gay strains among public remarks by several leading clergy this week in connection with U.S. Roman Catholic Cardinals' meeting with the Pope to discuss sexual abuse of minors by priests. The theme was generally represented by Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida's calling the issue "not truly a pedophilia-type problem but a homosexual-type problem" and saying that the U.S. church needed to address the "homosexual element" in seminaries. He did later attempt a clarification, saying that, "Homosexuals are not pedophiles" although labeling the current crisis "mostly an issue of adolescents and priests". Head of the U.S. Conference of Bishops Wilton Daniel Gregory reported that homosexual priests had been an explicit topic in the discussions with the Pope and said that, "It is an ongoing struggle ... to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men." Chicago Cardinal Francis George echoed that sentiment in somewhat more subtle terms. While New York Cardinal Edward Egan was attending the meeting, Monsignor Eugene Clark gave a sermon at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral in which he declared that admitting gay men to seminaries is "a grave mistake," citing Church doctrine that "the tendency to homosexuality is a disorder" and "the practice of homosexuality is truly sinful." The archdiocese later insisted that Clark was "speaking for himself" without prior approval from Cardinal Egan, and Clark himself later insisted that, "I did not associate homosexuals with the illness of pedophilia, although some priests had fallen, sadly, into man-boy relationships." The official report issued after the meeting with the pope was also widely understood to target gay priests with its vaguely-worded prescriptions for a crackdown on dissent and an investigation of seminaries and their admissions requirements. An actual U.S. Catholic policy on sexual abuse of minors by priests will come from a bishops' meeting in June. Conservative Catholic activists joined the call to eliminate those of homosexual orientation from the priesthood, but the clerics' comments were widely criticized as scapegoating and a deflection from the issue by victims of priests' sexual abuse, Catholic moderates, and the mainstream press. Gay and lesbian Catholic activists were outraged and have planned a protest demonstration in New York City. Russian gays and lesbians demonstrated in the streets of Moscow this week dressed as inmates of Nazi concentration camps with the pink triangle, protesting introduction of a bill to re-criminalize private consensual homosexual acts. Russia had repealed its sodomy law 9 years ago following the breakup of the USSR, but the right-wing People's Deputy Party's new proposal would provide for 1-to-5 years' imprisonment. Party leader Gennady Raikov called homosexuality "an abnormality" which "should be punishable by law." A number of other Russian politicians have spoken out in opposition to the bill, some calling it a blatant publicity stunt. The Russian Orthodox Church appeared to support the bill when its top foreign relations official called homosexuality a "transgression against moral foundations" and that "viewing this practice as normal behavior backed by law is dangerous." The bill could come up for debate in the lower house of the state parliament in May or June, but is not expected to pass. Thousands of demonstrators marched in at least four French cities after far-right-winger Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front surprisingly knocked gay-friendly Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin off the May Presidential ballot in a primary vote. Le Pen is expected to fail by a landslide in the upcoming head-to-head race against incumbent president Jacques Chirac, but his reputation for racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia led some demonstrators to declare with signs, "I am ashamed to be French." AIDS activists are particularly dismayed since Le Pen in the past called for jailing people with HIV and AIDS, although he disclaims that idea now. In Canada, Quebec's provincial Government this week officially introduced its bill to create legal registered partnerships open to gay and lesbian couples as well as unmarried heterosexuals. The so-called civil union registry would grant the same rights as traditional marriage, including adoption and access to assisted reproduction treatments. The state of West Australia's sweeping legal reform package to recognize same-gender couples and establish civil rights protections for gays and lesbians has reportedly received its final assent from the Governor, although the official proclamation has yet to be made. The omnibus bill also includes repeal of the state's anti-gay Gross Indecency law and equalization of the age of consent for homosexual acts with that for heterosexual ones. West Australia had previously had Australia's worst state laws for gays and lesbians, but will now have some of the best. There've been several advances in the U.S. for legislation to protect the civil rights of sexual minorities. The federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, was passed this week by a voice vote of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. Majority Leader Tom Daschle promised to schedule a Senate floor vote before adjournment in October. ENDA sponsors are confident that at least a bare majority of U.S. Senators support the measure, but aren't sure they have the votes to block a possible filibuster by opponents. There's little hope for ENDA in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. An earlier edition of ENDA failed by a single vote when it reached the Senate floor in 1996. That was the only time a U.S. national gay and lesbian civil rights bill has reached the floor of either house in more than a quarter-century of lobbying. The New York City Council this week voted 45-to-5 to extend its human rights ordinance to explicitly protect transgendered people from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised to sign the measure, despite having argued previously that the existing law adequately protected transgenders. The Tacoma, Washington City Council this week voted 8-to-1 to add both sexual orientation and gender identity to its human rights ordinance. The move would prohibit discrimination in employment and housing, but a repeal campaign is anticipated. The Leon County, Florida Commission last week voted 6-to-1 to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy. The county currently has no human rights ordinance, but will probably adopt one next year following a change in the county's own legal status. And Savannah, Georgia's City Manager Michael Brown this month added sexual orientation as a category protected under that city's equal employment policy. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary Cheney generally refused to speak to reporters during the 2000 election campaign, but this week she issued an announcement that she's joining the board of directors of the Republican Unity Coalition. That's the self-described "gay-straight alliance" of politicians and activists seeking to build bridges between the gay and lesbian community and the Republican Party. Cheney wrote that, "RUC is an organization that reflects my fundamental beliefs and principles. Working together... we can make sexual orientation a non-issue for the Republican Party, and we can help achieve equality for all gay and lesbian Americans." Cheney is expected to make appearances to help RUC's fund-raising, which has reportedly already been quite successful. Two notable openly gay show business figures died this week. Popular BBC TV and radio host Christopher Price was found dead at the age of 34. While police have ruled out foul play, the exact cause of his death has not yet been established. Price once described himself as "fat, bald, homosexual -- not ideal television material at all," but his sharp wit and journalistic skills had made him a rising star at the BBC. Indian activist and internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker Nishit Saran died in an auto accident in New Delhi at the age of 25. His best-known works include "50-50", "Perfect Day", "Digital Talkies", and "Summer in My Veins", which documented Nishit's own coming-out to his mother. In what "Variety" called the biggest upset of the Hong Kong Film Awards, open gay Stanley Kwan's "Lan Yu" came up empty despite nominations in 11 categories including Best Film. The recognition it did receive -- including five wins at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards in December -- has been considered a landmark in Chinese culture because it not only centered on a gay couple but was set against the backdrop of the 1989 massacre in Tianenman Square. And finally... the long-running debate regarding Shakespeare's sexuality gained new fuel this week with a story one tabloid dubbed "Shakesqueer". A four-centuries-old portrait, presumed for generations to depict a woman, was publicly proclaimed by its owner Alec Cobbe to represent Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd Earl of Southampton. He was Shakespeare's friend and patron, and some scholars believe he was the subject of a series of Shakespeare's early sonnets, which described a "fair youth" as the "master-mistress of my passion." Experts date the portrait from the early 1590's, the period in which those sonnets were composed. The young Earl's long hair and earring were "effeminate and unusual" for the time, Cobbe said. But Alastair Laing, the art adviser to Britain's National Trust, who first suggested the portrait's subject was male, and is now completely convinced of that, denies that Southampton was cross-dressing. He says that the impression the portrait gives of lipstick and rouge is an artifact of the way some pigments age differently from others. Susan North, a fashion expert at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, adds that Southampton's frilly collar and jewelry, as well as his long hair, were "entirely appropriate for a man" at the time, calling them "signs of masculine fashion and not any sign of sexual preference." Some reporters' perception that Southampton's pursed lips and hand-on-the-heart pose are "camp" gestures is probably also an inappropriate modern projection onto Elizabethan times. With the painting now on display, the public will make its own judgments, doubtless in greater numbers thanks to the publicity.