NewsWrap for the week ending October 5, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #758, distributed 10-7-02) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lyle Henry, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon] Anchored by Christopher Gaal & Cindy Friedman The Australian Democratic Party has replaced its first openly gay leader. Senator from West Australia Brian Greig served six weeks as an appointed interim party leader after infighting forced his predecessor to resign. But this week he lost a mail-in vote by ADP members to Senator from Queensland Andrew Bartlett by what the party described only as "a clear majority". Greig took his defeat philosophically, saying, "Everybody who runs in a competition likes to win, but life is a journey not a destination." Greig expressed pride in the "peace and stability" he was able to bring as leader to the contentious ADP Senators, whose meetings during his tenure he described as "awkward but civil." He extended his support to Bartlett, and indeed the two appeared to agree on most issues during a month of debates around the country in what the party called a "consensus" campaign. In the course of that campaign, an elderly Melbourne woman tucked a note in his pocket that said she'd enjoyed his talk but he really needed a new suit and should shorten his trousers. Greig listens to the electorate -- he bought a new suit the next day. Another vote in Australia -- by the creditors of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras -- agreed this week to an arrangement to put the world-famous pride celebration into the hands of a coalition of local community groups. Devastating debt had forced the former Mardi Gras organization into voluntary administration earlier this year. Now the AIDS Council of New South Wales, NSW's Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby, Queer Screen, and the group Pride will take over as a coalition officially named "New Mardi Gras", with a board composed of two representatives from each organization. The creditors agreed to allow that group to purchase the former organization’s real and intellectual property with a series of payments over the next 18 months to total no more than A$350,000. The first payment of A$150,000 is due in late October so fund-raising began immediately. But the arrangement further improves the chances of the 25th Mardi Gras Parade taking place on March 1st, as already arranged with the NSW Police and the South Sydney Council. Although the parade will have to be less expensively staged than in recent years, the traditional Launch, Party, Fair Day, and Festival events are also being planned. South Africa's 13th annual Gay Pride Parade and its 30 floats drew a crowd of some 20,000 in Johannesburg this past week. Originally a daring protest against both anti-gay discrimination and apartheid, the parade is now described by the head of the Gauteng Tourism Authority as part of the country's heritage. For the first time since South African President Thabo Mbeki took office, his spokesperson provided an official letter of greeting, as what it called "a matter of pride and pleasure". There is no annual pride celebration in Greece, but in late September the second International Rainbow Cultural Festival was held on the island of Mykonos, long a popular gay tourist destination. More than 35,000 people turned out for Wales' fourth Mardi Gras parade and festival in the capital city Cardiff in early September. Wales' First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the event marked the Welsh Assembly's support for equality of opportunity. Also in the U.K., thousands turned out for Manchester's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras despite pouring rain in late August, after local authorities backed off at the last minute from plans to stop liquor sales at the festival's main street party. September saw the opening of a government-supported community center in the Philippines that offers arts training for Manila's impoverished gays and lesbians, particularly youth. It's named for the late prize-winning filmmaker Ishmael Bernal. The Paris City Council and openly gay Mayor Bertrand Delanoë voted without opposition last week to grant 100,000-euros for France's first gay and lesbian archive. With a goal of increasing understanding and tolerance, the archive is planned to house publications, film screenings, a Web site, forums, and exhibits, with a section devoted to the treatment of French gays and lesbians under Nazi occupation. But German federal government funding for a foundation to advance the civil rights of gays and lesbians appears to have been stalled indefinitely in an Upper House committee. In June Germany's Lower House had approved annual grants of 3.75-million-euros to support a foundation named for pioneering researcher and advocate Magnus Hirschfeld. The move had been intended in part as compensation for the Nazi regime's destruction of the burgeoning gay and lesbian civil rights movement of the 1930's. Tel Aviv this week gave final approval to regulations prohibiting marital status discrimination in city services. Any two cohabitants, including gay and lesbian couples, can file a declaration that will qualify them for discounts and benefits previously reserved for married couples and blood kin. Those benefits apply at city events and institutions such as cultural facilities and swimming pools. This modest legal recognition of unmarried couples is all that's within the city's power to extend, anything more being controlled by Israeli national laws which give no status even to unmarried heterosexual couples. Nearly 400 couples have registered their relationships in Finland in the first six months since the creation of legal partnerships there. 211 male couples and 178 female couples have formalized their relationships, gaining legal status equal to traditional marriage for most purposes except parental rights. Catholic bishops in Switzerland this week stood aside from the growing movement towards legal recognition of same-gender couples there. In a formal statement, the Swiss bishops conference said it was not opposed to civil status for gay and lesbian relationships of the kind established last year in the Geneva canton or approved by a landslide public vote last week in the Zurich canton. The bishops even said that such status would "do away with discrimination over inheritance and in other areas." They were concerned only to reserve marriage services exclusively for heterosexual couples, denying blessing ceremonies to same-gender couples. They also affirmed that the priesthood is open to gay men who remain celibate, although each case would be considered individually. They even suggested that "A predisposition toward homosexuality ... can even give them a particular charisma." The bishops' statement went on to deplore "injustices carried out against homosexuals in the past" and even asked forgiveness for "those cases where there was discrimination in the name of the Christian faith." It continued, "While [the bishops] reprove homosexual acts, they repeat emphatically that they do not reject homosexual people, [who are] valuable individuals who are often pushed aside." Catholic schools in Scotland will be including homosexuality in their sex education programs, under new curriculum guidelines from the Catholic Education Commission. The new "Guidelines for Teaching Relationships and Moral Education to Catholic Children in Scotland", developed over two years of discussion, updates sex ed for the first time in 30 years. The guidelines admit that "sexual orientation is not the same for everyone" and allow discussion of homosexuality by students at least 16 years of age. In the civil sector, the Scottish Executive is warning judges and sheriffs to avoid the use of anti-gay, sexist and racist language in a handbook to be distributed later this year. Among other things, it prohibits the use of opposite-gender terms to describe gay men and lesbians, and the assumption that HIV infection equates with homosexuality. Edinburgh's leading HIV service for gay men was hit by arson this week. The attack on the Gay Men's Health Centre came at a time when no one was in the building but did thousands of pounds worth of damage, despite quick and effective response by firefighters. Police suspect the attack was motivated by homophobia. Centre staff will continue to offer services, which ironically include a hotline for gay-bashing victims. And finally... a romantic tragedy in southeastern India was reported this week by the Tamil newspaper "Dina Thanthi". Both police and the Indian lesbigay and transgender civil rights group Sangama are investigating the discovery of two apparent suicides in Tamilnadu's Satyamangalam forest. 27-year-old Geethalakshmi and 26-year-old Sumathi had lived together for 3 years at a Yoga Center in Coimbatore until their lesbian relationship was discovered and they were thrown out. They had to return to their separate family homes but each arranged to visit the Bannariamman Temple on the same day in late September. In a forest nearby they took poison together and their bodies were discovered four days later. They left two heartbreaking letters. Their joint letter to the Yoga Center's guru said, "After coming out we thought and realized we committed a big mistake. We cannot survive in this society... Please forgive us." Sumathi's letter to her father said, "This society will not accept our relationship. We cannot live apart from each other. That is why we made this decision. Whether you bury us or burn us do not separate us from each other." Their grieving families respected their last wish, burning their bodies together in a single pyre. ------- and immediately following "NewsWrap" ------- Bertrand Delanoë, the openly gay mayor of Paris, was stabbed in the stomach as he was greeting the public during an all-night party at City Hall on Oct. 6th. He was participating in the French capital’s "Sleepless Night" festival, with museums and tourist attractions staying open all night for special concerts and other artistic events. The suspect is described as a 39-year-old devout Muslim who reportedly told police that he doesn’t like politicians or gays, and that he has strong religious views that homosexuality is unnatural. The man has a criminal record and has previously been treated for psychiatric problems. Deputy Mayor Christophe Girard called him a "clearly…deranged person." Delanoë required 3 hours of surgery and was to be hospitalized for about a week, but is expected to make a full recovery.