NewsWrap for the week ending May 3, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #788, distributed 5-5-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, Graham Underhill, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Ralph Radebaugh The British Columbia Appeal Court this week ordered the Canadian government to open legal marriage to gay and lesbian couples. If the federal government fails to act by mid-2004, the court will redefine the current hetero-exclusive definition of marriage to read, "the lawful union of two persons". The appellate panel's ruling overturned a BC trial judge's finding two years ago that restricting legal marriage exclusively to heterosexual couples was a legally justifiable exception to equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He had therefore dismissed the lawsuit by 8 gay and lesbian couples who had applied for marriage licenses. But the appellate decision said, "that the common law definition of marriage contravenes the Charter and it cannot be justified in contemporary Canadian society." It went on to emphasize that attitudes towards same-gender relationships have changed, saying, "These developments have substantial public support, although the matter remains controversial. This evolution cannot be ignored. Civil marriage should adapt to contemporary notions of marriage as an institution in a society which recognizes the rights of homosexual persons to non-discriminatory treatment." The B.C. appellate ruling is entirely in accord with last year's trial court decisions in Ontario and Quebec. The Canadian Government has appealed both of those provincial judgments, but had justified doing so based partly on the disparity with the B.C. trial result. Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon admitted he must take into account the new unity in judicial opinion. The Ontario Court of Appeal heard oral arguments on the marriage case there last week. The Government argued that the Charter doesn't apply to marriage, which its brief described as "a unique opposite-sex bond that is... a virtually universal norm... that predates our legal framework through its long existence outside it." It went on to declare that, "The unique opposite-sex nature of marriage does not imply that the human dignity of those other relationships is diminished." But the brief for the 8 gay and lesbian couples who won the original Ontario trial called the Government's arguments, "legally unsupportable, intellectually empty and discriminatory." A ruling there is not expected for several months. Surviving same-gender partners of deceased gay and lesbian civil servants in the state of South Australia will now enjoy their state pension benefits. The state's Upper House gave voice vote approval this week to the private member's bill the Lower House passed in September. The state Government supported the move, but the bill sparked a flurry of protest from religious conservatives. All the other Australian states have opened their pension schemes to gay and lesbian survivors, but the federal government has not. In the U.S., Texas' state House this week voted overwhelmingly to refuse legal recognition that another state may extend to same-gender couples, whether it's Vermont's pioneering civil unions or as-yet non-existent gay and lesbian marriages. After just a few minutes' consideration, the final vote was 118-to-9 to support the bill sponsored by Republican Representative from Pampa Warren Chisum, who reliably introduces a number of anti-gay measures every session. Previously a Democratic majority had prevented this bill from reaching the House floor, but now the Republicans are in control there. The Texas Senate had already approved the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" and Republican Governor Rick Perry is expected to sign it into law. There was also a ray of hope this week for gay and lesbian Texans, as House State Affairs Committee chair Kenny Marchant, a Republican from Carrollton, shelved a bill designed to prohibit gays and lesbians from serving as foster parents. Although the panel had held hearings on the bill, which continues several years of controversy on the issue, Marchant said it lacked enough support to pass. The Minnesota state House much more narrowly voted this week to bar spousal benefits for state workers' same-gender partners in any future union contracts. The benefits had been a contentious issue this year after they were approved in union negotiations only to be specifically excluded in the legislature's approval of the contract. The Republican majority in the House won the proactive ban for future contracts as an amendment to a major state spending reform bill, despite a lengthy filibuster by Minnesota's liberal DFL party, which controls the state Senate. At the municipal level though, the Covington, Kentucky City Council this week unanimously approved the addition of several categories -- including sexual orientation -- to the city's civil rights ordinance. That prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. The Council vote came despite vigorous opposition from the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, which included mailing to almost every household in Covington a 24-page booklet denouncing what it called "the destructive homosexual lifestyle". Japan has its first-ever transgender elected official, as Aya Kamikawa this week won a seat on the Setagaya Ward Assembly in Tokyo. Although she ran as an independent, she was the 6th-highest vote-getter of 72 candidates running for 52 seats. Kamikawa declared, "I will proudly attend the assembly as a woman." She is currently awaiting sex reassignment surgery, but even after it's completed, she won't be able to change her gender legally in Japan. Nonetheless, the home affairs ministry instructed the Metropolitan Election Administration Commission to allow her candidacy as a woman, in what may be Japan's first government approval of an official document referring to a gender not that registered at birth. Kamikawa -- who chose to run primarily to raise consciousness of the humiliation and discrimination that result from documents showing birth gender -- questions why it should even be necessary to list gender on candidacy application forms... especially since gender isn't shown on driver's licenses. Also winning a seat this week was openly gay civil rights and AIDS activist Patrick Harvie, who'll become a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Green Party. The Scottish elections increased the representation of parties smaller than the U.K.'s big three, including the Greens advancing from 1 seat to 7 and the Scottish Socialists suddenly a presence with 6 new MSPs. One of the losers in Scotland was Conservative Party candidate John Smart, who came in a weak third among vote-getters in the Edinburgh East & Musselburgh riding after declaring last week that pride marches should be outlawed because homosexuality is "morally wrong". Scots Tory leadership was quick to declare that Smart's opinion and not their party's -- and in fact, the party's leader David McLetchie sent a message of support to Edinburgh's pride march last year. Edinburgh's 2002 pride festival was a financial disaster for its organizing group, but local gays and lesbians are trying to put together a parade this year. In Northern Ireland, the Belfast City Council this week approved the use of City Hall for this year's pride march, despite vocal opposition from the conservative DUP. In Israel, organizers of pride in Jerusalem continue to struggle with their city over public financial support. For the first-ever Jerusalem Pride Parade last year, the city provided some services but rejected a request for cash. The parade organizing group JOH, the Jerusalem Open House community center, turned to the Israeli High Court, which ordered the city to disburse its so-called "joint activities" budget -- funds used to support public events organized by groups other than the municipality, such as religious pilgrimages -- in a non-discriminatory manner. This week the city grudgingly reached an agreement with JOH to fork over the equivalent of US$8,500 towards the 2002 parade. But at the same time, the city declared that its compliance with the court order did not mean it would fund JOH's application for funds for the second Jerusalem Pride Parade, scheduled for mid-June. Polish gays and lesbians marched for pride this week for only the second time. Warsaw's Parade for Equality had almost 3,000 participants, compared to just 200 last year. In Switzerland, Zurich's march is still to come, but the fourth edition of the month-long pride festival called "Warm May" kicked off this week. It includes more than 70 events ranging from workshops, performances and a zoo tour to parties and international sports competitions. And finally... if you're one of those men who suffer from "womb envy," take heart: research announced this week in the distinguished journal "Science" indicates that males can make eggs. An international team led by Hans Schoeler and Karin Huebner of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, starting with cells from male mouse embryos, was able to develop both egg cells and the follicular cells that support their development in the ovaries. In culture, not only did the eggs appear to mature normally, a number of them spontaneously began to develop into embryos. The follicular cells aided the eggs' development just as they do in the ovaries, including producing the female hormone estrogen. Scientists and bioethicists were quick to see that this could create someday a new kind of gay fatherhood, with one gay dad providing the sperm as usual and the other contributing his genes via so-called "designer" eggs. Ultimately, this line of research, as the "Washington Post's" Rick Weiss put it, "could blur the biological line between fathers and mothers." But although so-called "sperm farming" from female cells by a similar process is expected to be harder than creating male eggs, lesbians will still have an edge over gay men in their ability to actually carry an embryo to term. And researcher Schoeler himself suggested that "sperm farming" could raise interesting questions about the biological relevance of males.