NewsWrap for the week ending March 1, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #779, distributed 3-3-03) [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 New Mexico is on its way to becoming the 14th U.S. state to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, as both the House and Senate passed separate bills this week. Democratic Governor Bill Richardson has promised to sign into law a final version once both the House and Senate have passed the same bill. First about 60% of the House approved a bill introduced by Democratic Representative from Albuquerque Gail Beam, and then 53% of the Senate approved a bill introduced by Democratic Senator from Albuquerque Cisco McSorley. Both bills would amend the state's existing Human Rights Act to protect lesbigays from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and union membership. Now supporters, led by the Coalition for Equality in New Mexico, are hoping to get the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. The House debated only an hour before approving its bill, even though it's rejected all similar bills beginning in 1991. Senators spent 5 hours in an emotional tussle between supportive Democrats and opposing Republicans. That struggle between the parties then continued another 3 hours before more than 58% of the Senators went on to pass a gay- and trans-inclusive hate crimes bill the following day. That bill introduced by Democrat from Las Cruces Mary Jane Garcia will next go to the House. New Mexico is currently one of only a handful of states with no law expanding penalties for any form of bias crime -- its last Governor, Republican Gary Johnson, vetoed two of them. Illinois activists who've been lobbying for civil rights protections for almost 30 years are also hoping to win enactment, now that Democrats control both houses of their state legislature. Their hopes were fired this week when the state Senate Executive Committee -- which the group Equality Illinois calls the most conservative committee in the Illinois Senate -- for the first time ever approved a bill to add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state's Human Rights Act. That law covers employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations. It was strictly a party line vote, with 8 Democrats supporting and 5 Republicans opposing the bill introduced by Democratic Senator from Edgewater Carol Ronen. The bill will move next to the Senate floor, where its success is by no means assured. Democratic Governor Rod Blagjevich has been a vocal supporter. But civil rights bills have failed in Nebraska and Hawai'i. Gay-supportive Nebraska state Senator from Omaha Ernie Chambers last week reintroduced a bill to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, only to see it rejected immediately in committee. Chambers plans to try again this legislative session, vowing to do "whatever it takes" to win passage. Hawai'i bills in both the state House and Senate, to add "sexual orientation" to the state's law against discrimination in housing and real estate transactions, fell victim to a legislative deadline this week. Another Hawai'i bill, to add "gender identity or expression" to the victim categories in the state's hate crimes law, passed a Senate committee this week and moves next to the Senate floor. And remarkably, the Utah state House of Representatives this week narrowly passed a hate crimes bill including "sexual orientation" among its victim categories. The margin of success was just 3 votes, and the very next day a move to reconsider the same bill succeeded by a single vote. For six years similar bills have failed in a state legislature which has enacted specifically anti-gay laws. And surprisingly, the powerful Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- commonly known as the Mormons -- broke with its long history of combating gay-friendly legislation to actually issue a formal statement that it did not oppose the bill introduced by Democratic Representative from Salt Lake City David Litvack. The statement said, "The church abhors all hate crimes. The Church's well-known opposition to attempts to legalize same-gender marriage should never be interpreted as justification for hatred, intolerance or abuse of those who profess homosexual tendencies, either individually or as a group." A church-owned radio station, television station and newspaper went even farther, editorializing for prompt passage. In California, suspects entered guilty pleas this week in two notorious murder cases that are emblematic of hate crimes against gays and transgenders. One of the four suspects charged with the grisly October murder of young Newark transwoman Gwen Araujo, has struck a deal with prosecutors. Jaron Nabors pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter this week and will be sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in exchange for testifying against his friends, the other 3 suspects, in their murder trial. It was Nabors who led police to the body of Araujo, who was 17 when she was beaten, bound, strangled, and buried in the Sierra foothills after the men who had engaged in sex with her learned that she had male genitals. Araujo's death was marked by a number of demonstrations and created a new level of awareness of transgender issues in her conservative San Francisco Bay area. Tyler Williams admitted to shooting gay couple Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder in 1999 as they slept in their home in Happy Valley. In return for pleading guilty, Williams will be sentenced to 25-years-to-life, rather than facing a possible death penalty. White supremacist Williams was joined in that slaying, as well as in the massive firebombings of three synagogues, by his brother Matthew Williams, but Matthew killed himself while in jail. Victims Matson and Mowder were well-known and well-liked in their rural Northern California community, and their deaths sparked active organizing against hate violence in the Redding area. Domestic partners of Iowa's state employees, including same-gender partners, are set to receive spousal health and dental coverage for the first time in July. That's part of the union contract the state ratified this week with the state's branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The Iowa legislature can't change the contract terms, although it may not approve full funding for the plan when it comes up later this year. The ratification was made public on the same day that an Iowa Senate committee considered a bill to specifically prohibit gays and lesbians from serving as adoptive or foster parents. No vote was taken, and it's not clear if one will be scheduled before the end of the legislative session. Back in Illinois, Tom Tunney became the first open gay to be elected to Chicago's Board of Aldermen, winning 59% of the 44th Ward vote this week against 4 challengers. Tunney had become Chicago's first openly gay city councilor when he was appointed by Mayor Richard Daley to fill a vacancy in January. Last week, openly gay President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tom Ammiano announced he'll be running for mayor of San Francisco in November. Long-time gay-friendly Mayor Willie Brown -- whom Ammiano forced into a run-off in 1999 with just a write-in campaign -- won't be running again because of term limits, but at least 8 others will, including openly lesbian city Treasurer Susan Leal. A more surprising declaration of candidacy came this week in Tokyo, where transwoman Aya Kamikawa is running as an independent for a seat in the Setagaya Ward Assembly. Her campaign is in large part an effort to raise public awareness of the status of transsexuals in Japan, who cannot legally alter their official registration to show their post-surgical gender. And there's another openly gay Member of Parliament in Britain, after Clive Betts publicly came out this week in an exclusive interview with the tabloid "The Star". Betts, a former Labour Party whip who has been representing Sheffield Attercliffe for more than a decade, has a gay-supportive voting record and his sexual orientation was already known to many of his friends and colleagues. But after Betts' announcement, the tabloid "Sun" printed a luridly detailed front-page story that some activists labeled homophobic and which led a number of MPs to criticize the press for intruding on his privacy. Betts had applied for a House of Commons pass for his boyfriend José Gasparo, a young Brazilian he had hired as a research assistant. The "Sun" reported that Gasparo's photo appears on the Web site of a gay escort service and said Betts had hired him through the service; Betts' version is that he met Gasparo socially and learned later on that he had previously worked as an escort. Betts also said he'd terminated Gasparo's research job when they became close. Metropolitan Police routinely perform security checks on applicants for Commons passes, but reportedly MI5 is investigating Gasparo as well because of the security risk presented by his foreign citiz enship. In the wake of the controversy, Betts dropped the application for Gasparo's pass. And finally... despite last year's bankruptcy and reorganization, despite the recent name change and its recanting, despite the lack of the accustomed live TV coverage, and despite a high terror alert forcing intensive security measures, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras held its 25th annual march this weekend before hundreds of thousands of cheering spectators. While Mardi Gras organizers continue to pursue serious political goals of equality legislation in the state of New South Wales, the glitz and fun stole the spotlight. Openly gay rugby star cum actor Ian Roberts led off the march with the traditional dykes on bikes and their less traditional gay male counterparts. Even with a much smaller budget than recent years' parades, there were 5-to-6,000 marchers and 140 floats. A group of Virginia Woolf impersonators with outrageous fake noses poked fun at Nicole Kidman's performance in the film "The Hours". And a colorful mock tank surrounded by mustachioed dancers was entitled "Madam Saddam and her Weapons of Mass Seduction".