NewsWrap
for the week ending June 14, 2003
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #794, distributed 6-16-03)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, John 
Frame, William B. Kelly, Evan Wolfson, Pradeep Singla, Graham Underhill, and Greg 
Gordon]


Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon


  June weddings are busting out all over Canada as a ruling by the Ontario 
Court of Appeals this week made gay and lesbian marriages legal.  Technically 
the decision actually strikes down the one man/one woman restriction in Canadian 
federal law, and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he will announce in 
the coming week whether to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, although he 
has until the end of June to do so.  Like the divisional court decision under 
review and recent appellate rulings in Quebec and British Columbia, Ontario's 
highest court found that denying marriage licenses to same-gender couples 
violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.


  Unlike those earlier rulings, the latest Ontario decision did not include a 
suspension to give the federal Parliament a chance to act: it ordered the 
province to immediately register legally the 2001 church weddings of a gay and a 
lesbian couple.  Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell and Anne and Elaine Vautour 
married in a double ceremony in Toronto's congregation of the gay-affirming 
Metropolitan Community Church.  Through the Christian tradition of "publishing the 
banns of marriage," their church weddings would have been automatically 
recognized as legal had they been heterosexual couples, and this week's ruling 
actually legalizes their unions retroactively as of their wedding date.  That 
back-dating serves to make them the world's first gay and lesbian couples to be 
married under laws governing heterosexual marriage, since their weddings 
preceded same-gender marriages in the Netherlands and Belgium.


  The court also ruled for seven other same-gender couples who'd been denied 
marriage licenses in Toronto, and the city responded by announcing that it 
would issue licenses to all gay and lesbian couples meeting the same basic 
qualifications as heterosexual ones.  One plaintiff couple, marriage activists 
Michael Leshner and Michael Stark, obtained a license that day and were the first 
in Toronto -- in fact the first in North America -- to be legally married by a 
judge.  By the end of the next day more than a score of other same-gender 
couples had applied for licenses in Toronto and 89 by the end of the week, while 
still more kept the Toronto City Clerk's Office phones ringing off the hook.  
The city of Ottawa also issued its first marriage license to a lesbian couple 
this week.
At the moment Ontario is the only province where gay and lesbian couples can 
be sure of obtaining marriage licenses and legal registration of their 
marriages at this time.  But there is no residency requirement there, so couples from 
all over Canada can do so, and many are planning for it.


  In fact couples from outside Canada can also marry in Ontario, although 
there's no guarantee that Canadian gay and lesbian marriages will be recognized 
elsewhere as Canadian heterosexual marriages are.  Already this week British, 
Cayman Island, and Chinese couples obtained licenses in Toronto.
Border-crossing marriages will definitely stir up the continuing U.S. 
controversy over recognition of same-gender couples.  While experts are still sorting 
out the Canadian situation's legal implications for the U.S., some have 
cautioned that U.S. gays and lesbians with foreign partners should not dash to 
Ontario just yet in hopes of solving their immigration problems.


  Canada's legislators remain split on full equal marriage rights for 
same-gender couples.  The Parliamentary committee charged with making recommendations 
to the Government after holding hearings across the country on the issue this 
week responded to the Ontario decision by declaring with a 9-to-8 vote that 
the Government should not appeal.  There's division in the Cabinet, where the 
ruling Liberal Party has concerns for how the issue will play out in its 
upcoming leadership change and anticipated federal elections.  The Liberals' leader 
in the Commons this week utilized a rarely-used Parliamentary rule to adjourn 
the session a week ahead of schedule, leaving numerous bills in limbo 
including openly gay MP Svend Robinson's move to add sexual orientation to the hate 
crimes bill, but also ensuring an empty House when the Government announces its 
decision whether to appeal.


  Not that even a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada will necessarily 
resolve all conflict.  That was amply demonstrated this week in British Columbia 
where the Surrey School Board has decided once again to keep 3 books 
featuring gay and lesbian families out of elementary school classrooms.  Canada's high 
court struck down the Surrey book ban in December because the school board's 
original 1997 rejection of the books was based primarily on religious 
concerns.  Now the board is claiming the books fail its standards for grammar and 
inconsistent spelling in the case of "Asha's Mums", for referring to dieting in 
the case of "Belinda's Bouqet", and for making fun of skin colors in the case of 
"One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dad", which was also cited for possibly 
raising questions about sexual orientation that kindergartners couldn't handle. 
 None of the books deals with sex at all.  The books' champion, openly gay 
teacher James Chamberlain, who hoped they would teach tolerance, claims that 
none of the books currently allowed in Surrey classrooms meet the standards the 
board is applying.  He may test that by bringing forward books about 
heterosexual families to see if they receive equal scrutiny, but he hasn't yet decided 
whether to return to the courts.


  With church blessings of same-gender couples in a Canadian diocese still 
making tidal waves in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a U.S. diocese this week 
became the first in that nation to select an openly gay man to be its next 
bishop.  But New Hampshire nominee Gene Robinson also lives openly with his 
partner of 13 years Mark Andrew, while church law requires that clergy can only be 
sexually active within heterosexual marriage.  This sets him apart from 
Britain's openly gay Anglican bishop-to-be Jeffrey John, who has long been and 
vowed to remain celibate, but is still the target of intense criticism and calls 
for resignation.  Robinson was previously a finalist candidate for bishop in 
liberal dioceses in New York and New Jersey, but he's long been based in New 
Hampshire and is widely known and very popular there.
Robinson's ascension will need to be confirmed by a majority of other U.S. 
Anglican dioceses, and that's expected to be highly controversial at the 
denomination's U.S. national General Convention next month.  South Carolina Anglican 
leaders have already formally objected.


  Yet one of the world's most famous Anglicans, retired South African 
Archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, renewed his call for legal marriage for 
gay and lesbian couples.  Speaking at a Massachusetts church as his daughter 
was ordained a deacon, he said, "I believe when you have a monogamous, committed 
couple, we should certainly uphold that and support them."


  At the other end of the spectrum is Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II, who 
twice this week blasted the notion of recognizing gay and lesbian partnerships. 
 First he called on a crowd of 100,000 in Croatia to actively oppose efforts 
to extend legal recognition to same-gender couples, insisting that's necessary 
to preserve what he called "God's authentic plan" for "the stable and 
faithful union of a man and a woman".  That sermon was reportedly his longest and 
strongest attack yet on same-gender couples.  Back at the Vatican, he followed up 
with an address to European bishops in which he labeled gay and lesbian and 
other unmarried couples as "erroneous alternatives" and referred to "a 
mentality encouraging lifestyles unworthy of humans."


  A leading gay activist couple in Mexico were beaten to death with a hammer 
in their Nogales home late last month.  Jorge Luis Armenta Penuelas was both a 
candidate for city council and president of Sonora's Colectivo Lesbico-Gay.  
His partner was Ramon Armando Gutierrez Enriquez.  Police are investigating.


  In Israel, a Palestinian's suicide bombing of a city bus that killed 16 and 
wounded more than 100 delayed Jerusalem's second Pride Parade for a week.  
Jerusalem Open House, the city's lesbigay and trans center and the organizer of 
its pride celebration, is in the heart of the city, so the bombing was quite 
close to it, and occurred on streets bedecked with rainbow flags.  The blast is 
not believed to be related to the six-day pride observance known as Love 
Without Borders, which had launched with jubilation a week before.  But after the 
bombing, JOH executive director Hagai Elad said, "We cannot joyfully parade in 
the heart of Jerusalem while funerals are taking place -- including those of 
neighbors and friends."  "Postponing the parade by a week is the only course 
of action we can take now, an expression of human sensitivity towards the city 
we live in."


  And finally... congratulations are due to 3 veteran activists of the 
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group who were honored for their work by Queen 
Elizabeth on her Birthday List.  Nick Toonen and Richard Hale were awarded Medals 
of the Order of Australia while Rodney Croome was advanced to the next rung 
up, becoming a Member of the Order of Australia...
[:30 sound byte of Croome speaking at Brisbane Pride]
All three were involved in an epic struggle to repeal Tasmania's sodomy law 
that went beyond their state to Australia's highest court and even to the 
United Nations in a precedent-setting human rights complaint.  Once that law was 
finally repealed, Tasmania moved quickly towards legal equality for gays and 
lesbians and is now debating recognizing their partnerships including full 
adoption rights.  As Croome told the "Sydney Star Observer", "In 15 years we have 
gone from being banned and jailed to being honored."  Hale added with a laugh, 
"The radicals will be challenged because we are receiving such a mainstream 
award.  The conservatives will be challenged by the recipients."  Poignantly, 
Toonen now lives in New Zealand, because his Filipino partner can't yet immigrate 
to Australia.