NewsWrap for the week ending May 24, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #791, distributed 5-26-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, Graham Underhill, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Ralph Radebaugh and Cindy Friedman With a majority of more than 60%, the Parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales this week gave initial approval to lowering the age of consent for sex between men to match that for other couples. An amendment to the Government's bill removed a clause making it retroactive, but it's state policy not to prosecute former violations once they're decriminalized. The bill moves next to the state's upper house, where it's expected to pass by just a few votes. Among the Australian states, only NSW and the Northern Territory still have age of consent laws that differentiate by the gender of the parties. NSW makes sex between men legal only if both are 18 years old compared to 16 for heterosexual and lesbian acts. Age of consent violations in NSW are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. Free to vote their consciences, about 80% of the Members of the ruling Australian Labor Party were joined by 40% of the Opposition Liberal Party Members and half the independents in supporting equalization. But in the long and spirited debate, the biggest drama was provided by Russell Turner, who voted in favor despite his National Party's determination to oppose as a bloc. Turner told the Parliament that his son Scott is gay, and said, "I would hope in supporting this bill today ... that slowly some of the ignorance and some of the fear that we have in our community will dissipate [and] we will accept these people as a section of the community that deserves to be treated equally and we will get rid of most of the discrimination that they are suffering at the moment." National Party Leader Andrew Stoner, a vigorous opponent of equalization, said Turner had been given permission to break ranks. He said, "Russell's shown a lot of courage. He's also shown a lot of love for his two sons and daughter and that's what it's all about -- a man who loves his children no matter what." Scott Turner told reporters, "I am so proud of him -- particularly the way he has put his party politics aside to vote with his conscience ... I am so proud of him as a man, a father and a politician." Turner's office in the rural Orange district was flooded with calls supporting his vote. Equalization has long been a top target of NSW's gay and lesbian activists. One colorful action this week was staged in Sydney by a group of gay and lesbian university students. With banners reading "16 for all," they smooched at length in front of a statue of Queen Victoria. More than 100 people rallied in Saint John, New Brunswick this week to protest anti-gay remarks by their Member of the Canadian Parliament Elsie Wayne. The Conservative Party's Deputy Leader had ranted against same-gender marriages on the floor of the Commons, saying, "Why do they have to be out here in the public, always debating that they want to call it marriage? ... [D]o not expect us to endorse marriage because they live together. If they are going to live together, they can go live together and shut up about it. There is not any need for this nonsense whatsoever and we should not have to tolerate it in Canada." Wayne later issued a statement saying she hadn't intended to offend anyone but only to state her "support for the historic definition of marriage." The Tory caucus has rejected calls to strip her of her deputy leader role. A further protest is planned for Toronto's upcoming pride parade. Enza Anderson, who last year ran for the leadership of the right-wing Canadian Alliance Party, said she's heard from a number of fellow drag artists who want to respond to Wayne's rhetorical query, "Why are [gay men] dressed up as women on floats?" In the great Mardi Gras tradition, they're planning to impersonate Wayne on a float in the pride march -- or as one headline put it, "Floatload of Queens to Wayne on Elsie's Parade". Noting Wayne's penchant for sequined sweaters, Anderson said, "I think she's impersonating us." A Member of the Scottish Parliament previously denounced for reported anti-gay remarks this week signed his support for a bill to extend marital rights to domestic partners, including same-gender couples. 72-year-old Central Region MSP John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party told the BBC that he doesn't recall making the remarks attributed to him at a public meeting last week -- including proudly labeling himself "homophobic" and calling gays "sick" -- and said he would "humbly apologize" to anyone upset by them. He says he has a "live and let live" position towards gays and lesbians. He said that if he were homophobic, he wouldn't have signed the Civil Partnership bill introduced by openly gay Green MSP Patrick Harvie. Swinburne's outburst followed the coming out of MSP Margaret Smith. Amid numerous rumors, Smith released a statement saying she was involved with a woma n who recently left her husband. The Edinburgh West MSP herself has been separated from her own husband for about 3 years, but had previously denied any other relationship. Smith's gay-supportive Liberal Democratic Party colleagues issued a statement saying they all gave her their full support. But gay-supportive Republican U.S. Congressmember from Florida and Senate hopeful Mark Foley had a different response to being "outed" this month by a columnist in the Broward-Palm Beach "New Times", an alternative weekly. Bachelor Foley, who represents West Palm Beach, has faced similar rumors for a decade but now expected major mainstream Florida media to follow up. Foley has refused to answer reporters' questions about his orientation, saying it's irrelevant to his work, that he was raised to believe some things shouldn't be discussed in public, that he's entitled to a personal life, and that people can draw whatever conclusions they wish. This week he told reporters he believed the gay-baiting was a "revolting tactic" of Democratic activists. Florida's Democratic Party chair not only denied but denounced Foley's accusation, while openly gay Democratic activist David Mixner suggested that if anyone is attacking Foley, it's conservative Republicans. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, no friend to gays, called the "rumor-mongering campaign ... despicable" and hailed 5-termer Foley as "an invaluable member" of the Republican caucus. Also in Florida this week, the state Senate almost unanimously passed a bill to empower the attorney-general to file civil rights lawsuits against businesses. The bill moves next to Republican Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother, who's expected to sign it. The lone Senate opponent, Leesburg Republican Anna Cowin, struggled hard against the measure saying it posed a threat to religious groups and the Boy Scouts for discriminating against gays, lesbians and transgenders. California transgenders have what's believed to be their first statewide legal aid group in the U.S. with the official launch this week of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. It began as a project of, and continues to operate in conjunction with, the National Center for Lesbian Rights. And in Connecticut, Wesleyan University has announced that in the coming school year it will offer what's believed to be the first special housing area for transgenders on any U.S. campus. Up to a dozen students will share one floor of a dorm in what's called a "gender-blind" facility. C.A. Tripp, author of the influential 1975 book "The Homosexual Matrix", died last week of cancer at the age of 83. After working with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, New York City psychologist Tripp wrote the comprehensive scholarly review of the activities and treatment of gays across cultures, which argued that homosexuality was not an illness nor subject to cure. The pioneering book sold about a half-million copies. Shortly before his death Tripp completed work with Lewis Gannett on an upcoming biography of Abraham Lincoln which considers if the Civil War President was gay. Fa Si Roong, the Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand, announced that it's about to become that nation's first officially registered gay group. Founded in 2001, the Bangkok-based group with branches in Chiang Mai and Pattaya describes its goals as "HIV/AIDS prevention among [the] men-who-have-sex-with-men population and to promote love, understanding, equality and dignity for the Thai gay community." Rainbow Sky provides public education on gay and lesbian issues in cooperation with the national lesbian group Anjaree. And finally... Washington, DC's Kennedy Center this week announced that the winner of the prestigious annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is lesbian Lily Tomlin. Tomlin first came to national attention in the late '60s on TV's "Laugh-In" with her snippy telephone operator Ernestine. She went on to win six Emmys, a Grammy, and an Oscar nomination in 1975 for her supporting role in the film "Nashville". Currently, in addition to a recurring role on NBC's "The West Wing," Tomlin is appearing in a revival of her one-woman show "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," written by her long-time partner Jane Wagner, one of two shows that won her Tony Awards on Broadway. The Kennedy Center announcement of the award to be presented at a televised gala in October said, "Lily Tomlin, like Mark Twain, offers her genius wholeheartedly, as she levels the playing field all across society and evokes the most healing of all responses: laughter. Her comedy is meaningful because, like Twain's, it expresses truths we already recognize unconsciously, and she allows us to embrace our frailties without shame or embarrassment."