NewsWrap for the week ending February 22, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #778, distributed 2-24-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon Spain's Parliament this week rejected a move to legally recognize same-gender couples. Although the ruling People's Party was the only party opposing the package of five separate bills introduced by five different parties, its absolute majority sufficed to kill it. A People's Party spokesperson said the proposals were unconstitutional. But the full bench of Australia's Family Court this week upheld the legality of a transman's marriage to a woman, even though he retains female genitalia. The Federal Government has been challenging the marriage of the Sydney transman known in court as "Kevin" ever since it was contracted in 1999. In late 2001 one Family Court judge declared the marriage valid, and this week the full Family Court dismissed the Government's appeal of that ruling. Australia's Attorney-General Daryl Williams is already seeking to further appeal this week's ruling to the Australian Supreme Court. The Government has argued that the marriage was invalid because Kevin was identified as a female on his original birth certificate -- even though he was granted a revised birth certificate in 1997. The court found it more significant that "Kevin" was generally recognized by the community as a man at the time of his marriage. It may be the world's first such ruling to recognize a sex change without genital surgery. Although Kevin underwent breast reduction, a hysterectomy and hormone treatment in 1995, the court recognized that it was too risky and expensive for him to have male genitalia constructed. Kevin told reporters after the ruling, "Our marriage has been described as a transsexual marriage, but in fact it is just an ordinary marriage, a mix of challenges, triumphs and joy as other marriages are. We are a typical Australian couple, an average man and woman, raising our precious children responsibly in a loving home." His wife, known as "Jennifer," bore two children after their marriage by artificial insemination with donated sperm. And that's just one of several recent victories for transgenders in Australia and other nations. In Australia, it was made public last month that an unnamed Brisbane 17-year-old had become the youngest person in the nation to begin a gender reassignment program. The biological male has begun hormone treatments and publicly presenting as a female, after undergoing physiological and psychological testing. She hopes to undergo sex reassignment surgery in two or three years. Her family is supportive, but although officials at her school also stood behind her, the harassment she suffered from other students drove her to leave school. Also last month, Perth area resident Alex MacFarlane received what's believed to be Australia's first passport recognizing intersex status. MacFa rlane has both a Y chromosome and two X chromosomes, although genital surgery was performed shortly after birth for a male appearance. The Department of Foreign Affairs initially claimed that passports can only show "F" or "M" in the box identifying "sex," but MacFarlane countered that either would be fraudulent. After months of correspondence, the Department finally sent MacFarlane a passport showing "X" for the sex, a third option allowed by the International Civil Aviation Organization for machine-readable passports to signify either intersex or unspecified sex. MacFarlane had previously obtained from his native state of Victoria what's believed to be Australia's first birth certificate to identify sex not as "male" or "female," but as "indeterminate -- also known as intersex". MacFarlane told the "West Australian" newspaper, "Intersex individuals should not have to break the law by pretending to be male or female in order to vote, marry, hold a license, or own property." A Canadian Federal Court last week ordered the national prison system to provide sex reassignment surgery for inmates, in cases where doctors believe it is essential. Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson rejected Corrections Canada's appeal of transgender inmate Synthia Kavanagh's 2001 victory in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The federal judge upheld that tribunal's finding that the prison system's blanket ban on SRS constituted illegal discrimination based on sex and disability. In Kavanagh's case, doctors had already approved the surgery before her incarceration. Corrections Canada based its policy on the high cost of SRS, but Justice Layden-Stevenson wrote that, "The right of government to allocate resources as it sees fit is not unlimited." On the other side of the law, Scotland Yard this week announced its first hire of a transsexual police recruit. The unnamed transman had been a civilian employee of London's Metropolitan Police before applying to become an officer. A police spokesperson said, "We welcome this opportunity as this is an under-represented group in the Met." That's despite anticipated legal issues should the transman perform a search on a suspect, since Britain does not yet revise birth certificates following sex reassignment surgery. Legislation for amended birth certificates is now in progress, spurred by recent rulings by the European courts. Also because of those European rulings, Britain's Government is in the process of asking the nation's sports groups to reconsider their treatment of transsexuals. Without revised birth certificates, UK transsexuals have been restricted to competition in their gender as identified at birth. But now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has written to more than 300 sports governing bodies that, "The whole thrust of the judgments of the European court is that transsexual people should acquire the status, rights and responsibilities of the acquired gender. The implication may be that transsexual people, recognized in the acquired gender, will be able to compe te in that gender." The U.S. state of Florida has also recognized a transman's sex change and the legal validity of his marriage to a woman, as a circuit court judge this week issued a ground-breaking ruling granting him parental rights. Florida law explicitly prohibits both adoptions by gays and lesbians and same-gender marriages. But Judge Gerard O'Brien broke new ground for the state as he awarded Michael Kantaras primary custody of both the children borne by his estranged wife Linda Kantaras. The decision confirms both Michael's legal adoption of Linda's son born before their marriage and his listing as the father of the daughter she bore after their marriage by artificial insemination with sperm donated by Michael's brother. In the process, it affirms that Michael is legally a male and that his ten-year marriage was valid until its 1999 dissolution. Judge O'Brien spent more than a year writing a ruling that runs to more than 800 pages. It says that "...[t]he marriage law of Florida clearly pro vides that marriage shall take place between one man and one woman. It does not provide when such status of being a man or woman shall be determined... [T]here is no statutory requirement that the [marriage license] applicants shall prove their gender by producing a birth certificate." Actually an Ohio court had ordered an amended birth certificate for Texas-born Kantaras. One of Michael Kantaras' attorneys, Karen Doering of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, "To our knowledge this is the first transgender marriage case in the U.S. in which extensive medical evidence was presented, giving the court a full and fair opportunity to really understand the contemporary medical consensus about transsexual people." But after more than four years of bitter legal battling since he filed for divorce in 1998, Kantaras himself said, "I'm so relieved. Now my kids and I can get on with our lives in peace. ... The most important thing to me is for the kids to know they are safe and can love both their mother and their dad. They shouldn't have to decide." Linda Kantaras was granted "liberal visitation". But heterosexual couples won't be able to get their marriages licensed -- at least not by two Unitarian ministers in Massachusetts. In a sermon earlier this month, Reverend Fred Small told the First Unitarian Church in Boston, "I will joyfully perform religious weddings for heterosexual or same-sex couples. But I will not sign the license unless and until the Commonwealth of Massachusetts extends to same-sex couples the benefits, protections, and responsibilities of marriage. If heterosexual couples wish to legalize their bond, I will direct them to a justice of the peace." The congregation responded with a standing ovation. This week, Reverend Jay Deacon of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence made a similar announcement in a press release, and he believes more Unitarian ministers will follow suit. And finally... Thailand's famous cross-dressing volleyball team has moved beyond acceptance to become a marketing asset. A film based on the real-life "Iron Ladies" -- called "Satree Lek" in Thailand -- was a big hit there in 2000. Now the sequel "Satree Lek II" is about to debut in Bangkok and Singapore, and Pizza Hut is going along for the ride in an unusual joint promotion. It's a first for both the fast food and movie industries in Thailand. Pizza Hut, the world's largest pizza chain, is shelling out more than 2 million U.S. dollars for a campaign including "Satree Lek" collector cards and figurines. At Thailand's 83 Pizza Huts, that's expected to boost sales by twenty percent.