NewsWrap
for the week ending October 19, 2002
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #760, distributed 10-21-02)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill,
Chris Ambidge, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon]


Anchored by Jon Beaupré & Cindy Friedman


  The American Academy of Family Physicians this week adopted resolutions in 
support of gays' and lesbians' parental rights and of spousal health benefits 
for same-gender couples.  The vote came at the annual meeting of the Congress 
of Delegates of the Academy, representing well over 93,000 physician and 
medical student members across the U.S.
The resolution on adoptions urged the Academy to "establish policy and be 
supportive of legislation which promotes a safe and nurturing environment, 
including psychological and legal security, for all children, including those 
of adoptive parents, regardless of the parents' sexual orientation."
Academy president Dr. Warren Jones issued a statement saying, "This policy 
advocates for the family in all its complexities and particularly for 
children."
Since 1996, the Academy has held that "families" can be defined by "legal, 
genetic or emotional relationships."
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics also adopted a 
resolution supporting gay and lesbian parents.


  But this week Britain's House of Lords rejected a move to open adoptions to 
unmarried couples, both heterosexual and same-gender, by a margin of less 
than 10%.  With 5,000 children currently awaiting adoption, the U.K.'s Labour 
Party Government had set a goal of increasing adoptions by 40% by 2005, and 
had hoped to enact its proposed reforms quickly.  In May, the House of 
Commons approved the Adoption and Children Bill by a ratio of more than 
2-to-1, after adding the unmarried couples clause with an amendment by a 
Labour backbencher.  But in the House of Lords the Conservative Party quashed 
that move with a countering amendment of its own, which after a passionate 
3-hour debate won support from a number of independents and from individuals 
from all of the parties.  The Lords' version of the bill would maintain the 
status quo, which reserves couples adoptions for the legally married, but 
does allow individuals to adopt, including gays and lesbians who live with 
their partners.  The Government will continue to try to enact the bill, 
apparently including unmarried couple adoptions, but the Lords' opposition 
could keep it ping-ponging between the Houses for years.


  The Christian Institute's public lobbying against equal adoption rights 
included distribution of a wallet card similar to those authorizing organ 
donations, which reads "In the event of my death I do not want my children to 
be adopted by homosexuals."  This tactic was denounced by the British 
Association of Adoption and Fostering.
The Conservative Party's traditional opposition to equal treatment of gays 
and lesbians came despite the party's annual conference last week taking a 
softer line on the primacy of marriage.  
That opposition, which had long been spearheaded in the Lords by the late 
Baroness Janet Young, this time was led by Lady O'Cathain, who said Young had 
asked her to do so just 12 hours before her death.


  Britain's Conservative Party has been steadily weakening in the polls, and 
all three leading parties appear to be losing ground at the local level as 
more municipalities gain the right to directly elect their mayors.  This week 
gay activist Mike Wolfe became the first directly elected mayor of 
Stoke-on-Trent, narrowly beating out a Labour Member of Parliament.  But 
while Wolfe proclaims multiculturalism as a strength of the city, the 
candidate for the far-right British National Pary came in third with nearly 
one-fifth of the vote.


  Britain has granted asylum to two gay men fleeing homophobic violence in 
Jamaica, it was revealed this week.  They presented evidence of anti-gay 
threats, machete attacks and murders, in a country where homosexual acts are 
punishable by up to ten years imprisonment at hard labor.  They are among the 
first gays to win U.K. asylum since a 1999 ruling qualified so-called 
"particular social groups" for refugee status.  Britain's Home Office said 
that Jamaican gays could be eligible for asylum if they could prove their 
government was failing to provide adequate protection.  Another Jamaican gay 
has been granted a special disposition to stay in the U.K., while at least 
seven more have requests for asylum now in process.  
One of those says his last two partners were both killed by gay-bashers, one 
of them inside a church.
The BBC has suggested that hundreds of Caribbean gays and lesbians may be 
relocating to Britain to escape abuse in their homelands.  


  Openly gay Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë continues to recover from a known 
homophobe's assassination attempt two weeks ago.  Delanoë was able to leave 
the hospital this week, although it will be at least a week more before he 
can return to work.  


  Openly gay Netherlands political hopeful Pim Fortuyn died from an 
assassin's bullet in May, and now pundits are declaring the political death 
of his LPF party, Pim Fortuyn's List.  The national elections held 9 days 
after his death gave LPF 26 seats in the parliament and a share of national 
rulership in coalition with the Christian Democrats and the VVD.  But after 
just shy of three months, that uneasy coalition dissolved this week, its 
fallen Government becoming the Netherlands' shortest-lived administration 
since 1939.  New elections will probably be held in January, and polls 
suggest that LPF will come out of them with only 4 seats in parliament, 
leaving its former coalition partners in a position to easily rule without 
it.  Already LPF, which had held 4 of the 14 Cabinet posts, has only 2 in the 
interim Cabinet of the caretaker Government led by the CDA.  Ironically, as 
media proclaim the death of the LPF, the young party's official founding 
ceremony is being held this weekend.


  Activist Dr. Uzi Even's new role as Israel's first openly gay Member of the 
Knesset has led the House Committee chair to propose full spousal benefits 
for his partner.  Labour MK Yossi Katz called anything less "unacceptable" 
discrimination, noting the House had not been forced to deal with the issue 
until now.  Although a contentious debate is expected, Katz hoped the 
proposal would serve as an example to the nation's other employers.


  Taiwan's President Chen Shui-ban this week declared that his government 
will "eradicate discrimination based on sex or sexual preference."  Chen was 
speaking to an international seminar on human rights.


  But while saying she opposed all forms of discrimination, Italy's Minister 
for Equal Opportunities dashed hopes for legal recognition of same-gender 
couples in an interview with the gay.it Web site.  Minister Stefania 
Prestigiacomo said, "It is not part of this Government's plan to allow for 
marriage between gay couples. ... Today gay couples do not have the same 
rights as married couples, nor do they have the same responsibilities.  I 
don't think the family concept can be changed, as it is institutionally 
understood and a norm."  She also rejected adoption rights for gays and 
lesbians.
Her remarks came in the midst of numerous reports that activist gay couple 
Alessio De Giorgi and Christian Panicucci will be contracting a French Pact 
of Civil Solidarity at the French Embassy in Rome in the coming week.  The 
so-called PACS carries many legal rights in France, but Italy's Minister for 
Parliamentary Relations Carlo Giovanardi told the Italian parliament this 
week that "it is not a marriage" but just "an administrative act" which "has 
no legal effect or relevance for our legal system."


  South African lesbian couple Marie Fourie and Cecilia Bonthuys hoped to be 
able to win legal marriage this week, but instead they saw their lawsuit 
dismissed by the Pretoria High Court.  Before Judge Pierre Roux made his 
ruling, he had decided that as presented their brief could not be considered 
as a test case for all same-gender couples, but only narrowly as to whether 
the couple should be given a marriage license.  He ultimately declared the 
matter to be a constitutional issue in which he was not prepared to exercise 
his own discretion, while noting that current law restricts marriage to a man 
and a woman.  Although disappointed, the couple intends to continue to pursue 
their legal case.  South African's Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, which 
agrees that the nation's constitutional guarantee of equal status for gays 
and lesbians should grant full marriage rights, was admitted as a 
friend-of-the-court in the case.


  It's generally believed that Alexander the Great was gay, but now some 
historians have suggested that his father King Phillip II of Macedonia was 
bisexual and ultimately assassinated by his jealous male lover Pausanias.  
The idea was hotly debated at a scholarly international conference in 
Macedonia, and dozens of locals insulted by the suggestion staged an angry 
protest.


  And finally... scaling new heights to promote the upcoming Gay Games, 22 
drag queens climbed to the top of the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge this week 
to unfurl a logo banner at the summit.  Although they turned out in glitter 
and sequins, before beginning their trek they were required to don jumpsuits 
and to trade their high heels for sneakers.  Most had been up all the 
previous night at a Sydney Mardi Gras fund-raiser -- and as a result two more 
were dropped from the event when they badly flunked a Breathalyzer test.