NewsWrap for the week ending June 7, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #793, distributed 6-9-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, Graham Underhill, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman A lesbian couple this week contracted Belgium's first legal same-gender marriage. Belgium is only the second nation in the world to open legal marriage to gays and lesbians, following the Netherlands, although Belgian marriages do not provide for same-gender couples to co-adopt each other's children or to adopt an unrelated child together. Newly-weds Marion Huibrechts and Christel Verswyvelen have lived together for 16 years. Huibrechts told the "De Morgen" newspaper, "Marriage is the most profound promise of faith and love." While typically gay and lesbian couples compete to be the first to gain official recognition of their relationship, in Belgium it reportedly took some weeks to identify a couple who were willing to bear the publicity. Not at all shy about proclaiming their relationship are two newly elected members of the Aberdeen City Council. As the Scottish Parliament wrestles with a proposal to create legal partnerships open to same-gender couples, Liberal Democrats Neil Fletcher and John Stewart announced their dream of holding a ceremony in Aberdeen's council chambers. They've never hidden their relationship of more than a decade, but with legal recognition the subject of heated public debate, they felt this was the time to make it "perfectly clear." Stewart added, "First and foremost, we are councillors serving all the people in our wards. We are just two councillors who happen to be gay." Jerusalem this week elected open gay Saar Netanel to its city council. The Meretz Party member was running at large. Open lesbian Michal Eden, also of Meretz, was elected to the Tel Aviv city council five years ago, but Netanel is the first openly gay man to win an elected municipal office in Israel. While gays and lesbians celebrated his victory, he cautioned that the same elections had given religious conservatives both Jerusalem's mayoralty and a strong presence on the council, making immediate progress on gay and lesbian issues unlikely. Another openly gay elected official, New Hampshire state Representative Corey Corbin, has switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. His move was sparked by recent anti-gay comments by U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, which he said, "truly summed up for me the attitude of the [Republican Party] toward the millions of gay men and women who work, raise families, pay taxes, and contribute to our society. We are hated, we are marginalized and are basically unwanted by a party that has forsaken the principles of Abraham Lincoln and become dominated by a right wing that falls far short of representing mainstream America." Right-wing Republican U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft has effectively blocked the gay and lesbian pride observance at the Department of Justice, an annual tradition since at least 1997 which last year featured the department's deputy leader as a speaker. The group DOJ Pride had planned a mid-June awards ceremony but was advised this week that it could not be held at department headquarters. The notification cited a new, as-yet-unwritten policy of Ashcroft's office that department sponsorship is now restricted to commemorations officially proclaimed by the President. Unlike Democratic President Bill Clinton, Republican George W. Bush has declined to proclaim Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. And while Ashcroft's policy may sound generic, it just so happens that pride is the only commemoration it excludes. According to the Human Rights Campaign and Federal GLOBE -- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Federal Employees -- this is the first time any federal agency has barred a pride observance. The move has generated praise from the religious right and criticism from gays and lesbians and their allies, and it could end up in court. Where the Department of Justice failed for years despite one of the most massive manhunts in U.S. history, a rookie cop in a small North Carolina town succeeded, and long-sought serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph was arrested last week. The targets included Atlanta, Georgia's Otherside Lounge, a now-defunct lesbigay and trans bar, where five people were injured in 1997. Rudolph is also charged with bombing two family planning clinics and a public celebration in connection with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, for a total of two deaths and more than 100 people injured. He's believed to be associated with a hate group, although he denies it. But in Britain -- where a gay bar was also once a tragic target in a series of hate bombings -- the Government has rejected an amendment to its Criminal Justice Bill that would have increased sentencing for anti-gay and other bias-motivated crimes. The national gay and lesbian advocacy group Stonewall and a coalition of groups representing likely victims of hate crimes had lobbied hard for the measure, and will try to get it back on the table. The Church of England and its 77-million-member global Anglican Communion are showing deep fissures on two gay issues. One is the appointment of Britain's newest bishop, Bishop of Reading Jeffrey John, a vocal advocate for gay and lesbian rights who is openly gay. He was formerly in a relationship with a man for more than 20 years despite the Anglican requirement that clergy abstain from sex outside of legal heterosexual marriage. His supporters within the church hierarchy are confident that he "is personally committed ... to a personal lifestyle of sexual abstinence." While his consecration as bishop is reportedly "not in doubt," conservatives are lining up to demand he leave the clergy. Those conservatives are led by the Anglican Primates of Nigeria and the West Indies, who are also among 7 primates to issue a "call to action" against Canadian Bishop Michael Ingham for authorizing rites to bless gay and lesbian couples in his Vancouver-area New Westminster diocese. Other signatories are the primates of South America, Central Africa, Kenya, South India, and Papua New Guinea and South East Asia, but Ingham's most vocal opponent is Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, which is second only to Britain itself with more than 17 million Anglicans. Three of the primates have already taken the strongest action they can, declaring themselves "out of communion" with Ingham. Some believe that the heads of more than half of the 38 Anglican provinces will follow suit. Gay and lesbian couples in California celebrated the state Assembly's passage this week of a bill to expand the state's registered partnerships to carry most of the state-level legal and financial status of marriage. The 41-to-29 vote was the minimum to send openly lesbian Democratic Assemblymember for Los Angeles Jackie Goldberg's bill on to the state Senate. In debate, opponents declared the bill would violate California's voter-passed constitutional amendment restricting legal marriage to "one man and one woman". A proposed similar amendment to the U.S. Constitution, The Federal Marriage Amendment, was reintroduced by three Republicans and three Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives last week. If enacted by a supermajority of both the House and the Senate and by ratification of three-fourths of the states, it would add to the U.S. Constitution a statement that, "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." Last year's version died with no action taken. There was good news for transsexuals in Lithuania and South Africa last week, as each nation's Government approved the introduction of bills to legally recognize gender change following sex reassignment surgery. Those bills will be considered in the national parliaments. In Uzbekistan, three journalists active for media freedom have been arrested and one charged for homosexuality. New York-based Human Rights Watch has called attention to the situation, saying it has grounds for "strong suspicions" that the charges against Ruslan Sharipov are politically motivated persecution. Its spokesperson added, "That the authorities would charge him with committing homosexual acts, violating his fundamental rights to nondiscrimination and privacy, makes it doubly egregious." According to the Associated Press, the sodomy law is rarely prosecuted in Uzbekistan. Around the world, the pride season is well underway. Among the highlights this week: The 13th annual Gay Pride Parade in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where some 4,000 people marched to demand repeal of the sodomy law and inclusion of same-gender couples in the Law Against Domestic Violence... Pride in Aberdeen, one of only two pride events in Scotland, where a record 2,500 visitors enjoyed an open-air festival... South Africa's Pink Loerie Carnival in Knysna, where about 5,000 visitors and many locals packed Main Street 6-deep to watch a parade featuring 20 floats and numerous colorful dancers... The first and hopefully annual anti-Homophobia Day, officially proclaimed and partially funded by the government of the Canadian province of Quebec, began with the ceremonial raising of the rainbow flag in Montreal alongside the city and provincial flags, and launched a public education campaign by the group Gai Ecoute that features pictures of gay and lesbian couples on flyers, posters and billboards across the province. And finally... openly lesbian French tennis pro Amelie Mauresmo was knocked out of the French Open this week in a quarter final match against Serena Williams. Hopes had been high for Mauresmo, who went in ranked #5 in the world and the only one to have defeated both Williams sisters this year. But while Mauresmo is still looking for her first Grand Slam title, she's already been granted a form of immortality: last week she was unveiled as the only tennis player represented by a wax figure in Paris' Grevin Museum. Already a big celeb in France, she also gained a new level of exposure in May, appearing on the cover of "Paris Match" -- topless.