NewsWrap for the week ending September 14, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #755, distributed 9-16-02) [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 & Dean Elzinga South Africa is the first nation in Africa to grant adoption rights to gay and lesbian couples, following a ruling this week by the country's highest court. The Constitutional Court struck down laws prohibiting those adoptions as violating the equality rights of gays and lesbians. South Africa's 1996 constitution was the first in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Constitutional Court also found that those laws failed to give top priority to the best interests of the children. Its decision said, "Family life contemplated in the constitution can be lived in different ways... stability, support and affection...can be provided by people in permanent same-sex relationships." The ruling gave final confirmation to a September decision by the Pretoria High Court. The challenge to South Africa's Child Care Act and Guardianship Act was brought by Ann-Marie de Vos and Suzanne du Toit, two judges who have been a couple for 13 years. Their aim was for du Toit to be able to co-adopt de Vos' two children. As de Vos said, "I needed to know that if something happened to me, Suzanne would be able to take care of the children." du Toit told BBC Network Africa of the ruling, Suzanne du Toit: "You know, if you look at it from the child’s perspective, then what is important is to find a loving home for children who need homes... I think that makes the issue about whether it’s a homosexual or a heterosexual couple rather less important." Their legal victory also opens the door for other gay and lesbian couples to adopt unrelated children together. du Toit believes those adoptions have become more acceptable to South Africans because of the increasing number of children orphaned by AIDS. She called legal unions for gays and lesbians the next step. Canada continues to wrestle with equal marriage rights for same-gender couples. The federal Government has announced that it will appeal last week's Quebec Superior Court ruling, that restricting marriage to heterosexual couples is illegal discrimination under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A similar ruling by an Ontario Superior Court in July is already being appealed by the federal Government. A Justice Ministry appeal is also pending on a British Columbia decision last year which found the marriage law to be discriminatory but justified. Like the judges themselves, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said the issue should not be decided solely by the courts and that the government must show "leadership". He's developing a discussion paper and hopes that a Parliamentary committee will present recommendations to the House of Commons before the end of the year. But the Montreal presbytery of the United Church of Canada voted this week to hold religious ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples contracting Quebec's new civil unions. Those first-in-the-nation civil unions grant unmarried couples --- including same-gender couples -- all the provincial-level benefits of marriage, which in Canada is partly controlled by federal laws. A spokesperson for the 15,000-member presbytery said, "We're the first major denomination that's saying 'yes' to the government. [We] wanted to put out the message [to gay and lesbian couples] that we're there for them." The resolution passed by an overwhelming majority calls it proper for the presbytery's congregations and ministers "to give Christian recognition to...civil unions on the same basis as marriages. The presbytery welcomes the opportunity to celebrate with all couples their marriages and unions in a Christian context." It also strongly recommends pre-union counseling for couples and allows any ministers not wishing to perform union ceremonies to opt out. In the U.S., the anti-gay religious right appears to have failed where its political activism first manifested -- in Dade County, Florida. Back in 1977, singer Anita Bryant led a successful campaign for a referendum that repealed a county ordinance prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination. That campaign had lasting national impact, mobilizing both supporters and opponents of gay and lesbian civil rights to a new level of political struggle. It wasn't until 1998 that the Miami-Dade County Commission reenacted protections from sexual orientation discrimination. This year the Christian Coalition-affiliated group Take Back Dade was able to mount a repeal initiative, in a second attempt that featured several arrests amidst allegations of fraud in its signature-gathering process. This week voters apparently upheld civil rights and rejected repeal by a margin of about 6% in unofficial results. But the issue is far from decided. Despite -- and in many cases because of -- the reputedly error-proof computerized voting system installed after the 2000 Presidential vote debacle, there were numerous irregularities at the polls. Many polling places opened so late that the President's brother Governor Jeb Bush extended the voting day, some voters were unable to vote on initiatives at all, others said their votes against repeal registered in favor of it. Take Back Dade will challenge the outcome and has also vowed to put repeal before the voters again until it succeeds. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force mounted a major campaign against repeal, in concert with the local group that spurred the passage of the civil rights ordinance, SAVE Dade. Armed with a new $1-million-dollar grant from the Arcus Foundation for organizing and training, NGLTF could be fighting as many as 5 anti-gay ballot initiatives in November. Gay and lesbian civil rights repeal measures will definitely appear on ballots in Tacoma, Washington and Ypsilanti, Michigan, and the Christian Coalition of Maine appears to have submitted enough signatures to win a vote on repeal of a new Westbrook ordinance. But there's new hope for civil rights in Pennsylvania -- as the small town called New Hope became the state's first borough to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination, with a unanimous vote of the town council this week. Not only was there no opposition on the council -- there was no opposition from the public in posh Bucks County, with all in attendance celebrating the new ordinance. The measure protects gays and lesbians from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. Similar ordinances are in place in Pennsylvania in six much larger cities and one county. However, in Topeka, Kansas -- home base of peripatetic anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church -- the City Council this week rejected by a 5-to-4 vote the addition of lesbigays and transgenders to local anti-discrimination ordinances. The Topeka council also passed a hate crimes measure only after deleting "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression" from among 11 protected categories. Only one councilmember opposed that amendment. The council was heavily lobbied, mostly against the measures, and the issues are expected to be significant in Topeka local elections in April. In a number of primary elections in the U.S. this week, openly gay and lesbian candidates prevailed. The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund claimed 10 victories for its 15 endorsed candidates, with one outcome still undetermined. One of the biggest wins was Rhode Island state Representative David Cicilline's, as he became the Democratic candidate for Mayor of Providence -- and will almost certainly go on to make heavily Democratic Providence the largest city in the U.S. with an openly gay or lesbian mayor. The best-known loser was Ed Flanagan, who was the first open gay in the U.S. to hold an elected statewide office. But he stepped down as Vermont's State Auditor to make a failed U.S. Senate bid, and now he's lost the Democratic primary for Vermont State Treasurer. One of the higher-profile winners was Danny O'Donnell, winner of a Democratic candidacy to represent a heavily Democratic New York state Assembly district. Open gay O'Donnell just happens to be the brother of now-openly lesbian megastar Rosie O'Donnell. A heavily Democratic Arizona state House district could make Democratic candidate and Navajo Nation member Jack Jackson Junior the first openly gay Native American in the U.S. ever to win elected office. In Maryland Democratic incumbent Maggie McIntosh will return to the state House, where she's the Majority Leader, while Democrat Rich Madaleno is expected to join her as that body's first openly gay man. A heavily Democratic Wisconsin state Senate district is likely to make Democratic candidate Tim Carpenter the first open gay ever to serve there. And finally... neither the first nor the last TV entertainment to seek a ratings boost with a "gay wedding" -- but a rather surprising one -- is World Wrestling Entertainment's "Smackdown". In promoting this week's onscreen commitment ceremony between tag team Billy and Chuck -- a.k.a. Monty Sopp and Chuck Palumbo -- WWE made it more than clear that the men are non-gays acting out a storyline. It opened with Chuck proposing on bended knee with a diamond ring, and Billy tearfully accepting. The wedding scene was lavish, but to the crowd's chants of "just say no," both men had second thoughts in the course of their vows. Then the Justice of the Peace revealed himself to be Eric Bischoff and the whole wedding revealed to have been a plot, with Chuck and Billy's hairstylist Rico as a co-conspirator. Naturally this ended with all the crowd ever wanted, a mass brawl among a whole slew of WWE regulars... but not before Billy and Chuck had declared themselves to be heterosexual. If there's a plus side, it's that many have seen WWE fandom as very much more tolerant of Billy and Chuck's ongoing flirtation than any past evidence of gayness among wrestlers.