NewsWrap
for the week ending August 10, 2002
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #750, distributed 8-12-02)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon]

Anchored by Jon Beaupré & Cindy Friedman

  In the wake of a landmark Ontario Superior Court ruling requiring equal 
marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, Canada's Prime Minister Jean 
Chretien has referred the issue to a parliamentary committee.  Justice 
Minister Martin Cauchon, who is appealing the court's decision, will present 
a discussion paper to the committee next month.  Public comment and hearings 
will follow, and Cauchon hopes the committee will reach a conclusion quickly. 
 The Ontario court suspended its ruling for two years to give the government 
time to comply.
While Chretien staunchly refuses to reveal his personal position on 
same-gender marriage, three members of his Liberal Party cabinet this week 
told reporters they support it: Industry Minister Alan Rock, Foreign Minister 
Bill Graham, and Heritage Minister Sheila Copps.  The national group EGALE, 
Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, expects support from at least four 
other cabinet members.  However, the cabinet was unable to reach a consensus 
this week in its first meeting since the court ruling.

  Chretien also appointed a new Justice this week to the Supreme Court of 
Canada, where it seems inevitable the marriage question will eventually be 
considered.  Marie Deschamps has served a decade on the Quebec Court of 
Appeal, where in 1999 she supported spousal pension benefits for gay and 
lesbian partners in Canada's first favorable ruling on that issue.  She's 
expected to continue the strong civil rights positions of the Justice she's 
replacing, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé.

  A recent survey of 1,200 Canadians commissioned by the ruling Liberal Party 
found 48% in support of equal marriage rights and 43% opposed.  That led 
pollster Michael Marzolini to declare, "The writing is on the wall for this 
issue.  It will become more popular.  It will become more acceptable.  
Government can lead public opinion or it can follow it and this is an 
opportunity to lead it rather than follow it."

  Another survey has found even stronger support for gay and lesbian marriage 
in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong Polytechnic University questioned more than 500 
people by phone and found that 80% supported not only same-gender marriage 
but full adoption rights for those couples.  Respondents were somewhat less 
enthusiastic about personal contact, however, with 70% declaring they would 
have no problem with open gays and lesbians as friends, classmates or 
colleagues, and only a slim majority willing to accept them in positions of 
authority.

  Scotland's Law Commission this week called for a legal reclassification of 
gay and lesbian domestic partners as "immediate family," to give survivors 
status to sue when their partners die.  The Law Commission had taken up the 
issue at the behest of the Scottish Executive, and concluded that, "The 
deceased's immediate family should consist of those relatives who are likely 
to have had a close tie of love or affection with the deceased in the context 
of contemporary family structure."

  But recognition of gay and lesbian partnerships remains problematic for 
most religious groups.
The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has indicated it will fire any of its 
employees who contract Germany's new legal registered "life partnerships".  
Germany's top Catholic, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, has vocally opposed the 
partnerships law enacted last year... and the German Bishops Conference 
appears to have concluded that partnerships are "incompatible" with Church 
employment.  The diocese of Limburg has gone on record, with a letter to 
church groups made public this week, saying, "Since entering a registered 
life partnership is considered a serious violation of loyalty obligations ... 
dismissal is in principle justified, and can only be disregarded in special 
cases."

  And hopes for advances for gays and lesbians in the Anglican Church when 
Dr. Rowan Williams takes over as Archbishop of Canterbury were dashed this 
week.  Despite his history of support for non-celibate gay and lesbian 
priests, it was made public this week that Williams has sent a letter to the 
world's 38 Anglican Primates which affirms anti-gay resolutions adopted in 
1998 by the decennial Lambeth Conference of all the world's Anglican bishops. 
 At that conference, more than 80% of bishops rejected homosexual acts as 
sinful and rejected both blessing of same-gender couples and ordination of 
non-celibate gays and lesbians.  Williams wrote that that Lambeth Resolution 
"declares clearly what is in the mind of the overwhelming majority in the 
Communion and what the Communion will or will not approve or authorize."  In 
what was clearly a response to a Vancouver area diocese's June decision to 
bless gay and lesbian couples, Williams added that, "I accept that any 
individual diocese or even province that officially overturns this resolution 
poses a substantial problem for the sacramental unity of the Communion."
The first public response came from Britain's Gay and Lesbian Humanist 
Association, whose leader called the letter "a shocking betrayal."

  The one gay-positive item that emerged from the conservative-dominated 1998 
Lambeth Conference was a resolution for further study of the issues.  But 
after 3 years of discussion, an international panel of Anglican bishops has 
failed to find common ground.  The panel was appointed by conservative 
outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, led by gay-friendly U.S. 
Anglican leader Bishop Frank Griswold, and included Dr. Williams.  It 
announced last week that it has failed to reach agreement on what it called 
"a single pattern of holy living" for gays and lesbians, on how to interpret 
certain Bible texts some believe condemn homosexuality, or how to handle the 
relationships among Biblical authority, tradition, reason, and experience.  
On the one hand, the panel called for still more discussion as to whether 
homosexual acts in committed relationships could be compatible with Christian 
holiness.  On the other hand, it called the heated division on gay issues "a 
burden and distraction" for the church.

  Meanwhile, gay and lesbian pride celebrations continue around the world.
This week's included Amsterdam's unique water parade, where despite pouring 
rain more than 75 decorated barges sailed down the Prinsengracht canal before 
tens of thousands of applauding spectators.  A large number of countries were 
represented by boats sporting their national flags, including one bearing 
both Israelis and Palestinians.  U.K.-based international watchdog Amnesty 
International participated as well, affirming that gay rights are human 
rights.

  Stockholm's pride parade this week drew some 50,000 spectators to watch 
6-to-12,000 participants.  Gay police officers in uniform created a stir, as 
a former national police commissioner declared in a radio interview that it's 
illegal for off-duty police to wear uniforms.  Current management seems to 
have a different point of view, though, as a statement from headquarters said 
the force should reflect "the whole population."

  Other recent pride events included a parade in the Swiss town of Neuchatel, 
where about 4,000 people marched before some 30,000 spectators.  Marriage and 
adoption rights were among marchers' leading demands.

  In the U.K., the city of Hull celebrated pride for the first time at the 
end of July, with 200 people marching through town and 500 turning out for a 
rally.  But despite strong corporate sponsorship, Bournemouth cancelled plans 
for a weeklong Mardi Gras to have culminated in a parade this week, with 
organizers blaming community apathy and the City Council's refusal to stop tr
affic for a street party.

  Canadian gays and lesbians have been celebrating pride from coast to coast.
This week's march in Vancouver featured 150 entries and a total of perhaps 
120,000 observers and participants, but its sole grand marshal was 
represented only by a picture and a wreath: Aaron Webster, victim of a 
notorious fatal gay-bashing in a city park in November that organizers called 
"the single most galvanizing event in our community this year."  Also in 
British Columbia, a month earlier, thousands of people turned out to watch 
pride in Victoria, the provincial capital.

  Also this week, Montreal's Divers/Cité parade drew a crowd of some 750,000. 
 The march set off with the announcement that construction is about to begin 
on a new gay and lesbian community center, with governments contributing 
about half of the projected C$7.5-million cost.

  Last month, pride in Ottawa, the national capitol, saw a turnout of 
55-60,000, a jump of about 60% higher than last year's.  Also in Ontario last 
month, more than 2,000 people marched for pride in the town of London.

  And in the east last month, more 2,000 people cheered on pride marchers in 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, while about 300 people marched in the second pride 
parade of the Prince Edward Island capitol Charlottetown.  In St. John's, 
Newfoundland, only 80 marchers were willing to brave the bitter cold -- as 
the local newspaper "The Telegram" noted, "There were no feathers and 
fishnets to be seen."

  Among a number of U.S. pride events of the last month, probably the largest 
was in San Diego, California, where more than 100,000 people turned out to 
watch 215 entries in the 28th annual parade.

  But there will be no gay and lesbian Carnival parade in New Orleans' Mardi 
Gras, as the mayor and City Council agreed this week that their budget 
couldn't handle a 35th parade for the 2003 schedule.  The gay-inclusive krewe 
of La Cage aux Folles had already invested $50,000 in planning a 19-float 
procession they believed would generate income far in excess of any costs to 
the city, and krewe captain Chad Williams charges that the city's budget 
argument is just a smokescreen for anti-gay discrimination.  That's despite 
his declarations that their parade would be not "a gay pride, Southern 
Decadence parade" but "a Disney-style, G-rated production."

  And finally... comic book fans who once had to content themselves with 
reading between the lines of "ambiguously gay duos" like Batman and Robin can 
now find a full-on gay wedding.  Superheroes Apollo and The Midnighter avow 
themselves "husband and husband" in the latest issue of DC Comics' "The 
Authority", and even adopt a child together.  Alas, it's the final edition of 
the series.