NewsWrap for the week ending July 12, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #798, distributed 7-14-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, Graham Underhill, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Christopher Gaal British Columbia this week became the second Canadian province to legally marry gay and lesbian couples. The province's highest court, the BC Court of Appeal, had already found for equal marriage rights for same-gender couples in May, but had also suspended that ruling until July 2004 to give lawmakers time to act. The plaintiff couples in that case appealed the suspension after Ontario's highest court put gay and lesbian marriages into effect there last month, and this week the BC high court agreed to allow marriages to proceed immediately. By the end of the same day, 11 marriage licenses had been issued to gay and lesbian couples in BC. BC's first legal same-gender marriage united Tom Graff and Anthony Porcino in front of the provincial courthouse, in a ceremony performed by openly gay Vancouver City Councilor and former Member of the BC Legislative Assembly and Cabinet Tim Stevenson, who is also the United Church of Canada's first openly gay ordained minister. The United Church, Canada's largest Protestant denomination, has no official policy on gay and lesbian marriages, but a number of its BC clergy are willing to perform them, as well as some Unitarian ministers and Reform Jewish rabbis. Like Ontario, BC has no residency requirement for marriage licenses and can marry couples immediately. Numerous U.S. couples are expected to cross the border from Washington state. However, U.S. legal experts continue to urge prospective spouses to first carefully consider possible consequences of their marrying, and to call for unity in any challenges to U.S. laws since the wrong test cases could hurt the larger effort. Meanwhile, the Canadian Government's draft bill to change the federal definition of marriage from "one man and one woman" to "two persons" was expected to reach the Supreme Court of Canada for review this week. The ruling Liberal Party would very much like to see its marriage legislation enacted before Prime Minister Jean Chretien's anticipated retirement in February. Canada's religious right is also turning to the nation's highest court in hopes of blocking legal same-gender marriages. The groups Real Women and Focus on the Family Canada, with the support of other organizations, announced this week that they're filing their own appeal of the Ontario ruling. The Canadian Government had decided not to appeal that decision, and it would be unusual -- but not unprecedented -- for the Supreme Court to take up the case for review solely at the request of an outside intervenor that wasn't a party to it. Zurich last week became the second Swiss canton to legally register same-gender couples, with 73-year-olds Ernst Ostertag and Robert Rapp the first to be officially recognized after 47 years together. Geneva was the first canton to adopt a partners registry in 2001, but Zurich's partnerships are notable on 3 grounds: they carry more legal rights, including taxation status equal to heterosexual couples; they're the first in the predominantly German-speaking part of Switzerland; and they were the first in the world to win a referendum, with support from 62% of voters. The British Government last week published its plan to create "registered civil partnerships" solely for gay and lesbian couples, carrying legal status similar to married couples in areas including property, tenancy, taxation, social security, government and private pensions, parental status, immigration, inheritance, and medical decision-making. In short, it appears to be civil marriage in all but name and official ceremony. The plan also includes dissolutions with the possibility of alimony payments and child visitation. Public input will be accepted on the discussion paper through the end of September, and a bill might be introduced in the next legislative session. The Opposition Conservative Party immediately announced that its lawmakers will be free to vote their consciences on the matter, which would seem to ensure its passage. The British Government this week published its long-awaited plans to allow transgenders to change their birth certificates to reflect their self-identification, and to legally marry a partner of the other sex. Almost alone among European nations, Britain had previously fought such amendments all the way through the European courts, and recently Britain's own highest court, the Law Lords, refused to recognize a transsexual's 20-year marriage. Indeed gay-supportive Liberal Democratic Member of Parliament Evan Harris said the government should apologize to transsexuals for taking so long to ensure their basic human rights. The proposed legislation does not require sex reassignment surgery for transgenders to change their birth certificates, but it does require them to apply to and appear before a new gender recognition panel, to prove their dia gnosis with "gender dysphoria" and to swear they will live in their chosen gender for at least a few years and plan to do so for the rest of their lives. The proposal includes an option for clergy to decline to perform marriages for transgenders. Also, transgenders who are already married to someone of their own self-identified gender will have to divorce in order to obtain revised birth certificates. Transsexuals are also winning the right to revised birth registrations in Japan, with a unanimous vote of the Lower House, the Diet, this week on a bill to go into effect next year. The revised registrations are open only to those who have had sex reassignment surgery, are unmarried, have no children, and are at least 20 years old, and require at least two doctors' diagnosis of "gender identity disorder". The quick passage of the bill is widely credited to the campaign of Japan's first openly transsexual elected official, Aya Kamikawa of the Assembly of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. Four Japanese cities, most recently Fujisawa in the Kanagawa Prefecture last month, had already determined to remove as many gender notations as possible from their official documents and forms, to avoid embarrassing transgenders. Back in Britain, activists celebrated this week as the path was finally cleared for repeal of the notorious Section 28, the 1988 Thatcher-era prohibition against local governments devoting resources to the "promotion of homosexuality" and of the acceptability of gay and lesbian families, which it labels "pretend". Although the Government has been trying to get the offensive clause off the books since the Labour Party took power in 1997, its efforts were repeatedly stalled in the House of Lords with the Conservative Party leading the resistance. This week, the Conservative's latest strategy to block repeal in the Lords -- an amendment to replace Section 28 with a chance for parents to veto all sex education in schools -- was defeated by a near-landslide. That vote leaves intact the Government's version of the Local Government Act, which repeals Section 28. Conservative Lady Blatchford, the point person for Tory anti-gay moves in the Lords, complained that only one of the 24 Church of England bishops there supported her amendment, and none joined the debate. Yet there will be no openly gay bishop in the Church of England soon. Canon Jeffrey John, partnered but long celibate, had been confirmed to be consecrated Bishop of Reading in October. But after an extended meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and his staff, Williams announced sadly that John declined the appointment. John's letter to Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries, who had appointed him and supported him through a media firestorm, cited "the damage my consecration might cause to the unity of the Church, including the Anglican Communion." Indeed 15 of the 38 primates, the regional leaders of the 70-million-member global Anglican Communion, had protested John's elevation. The Archbishop of Nigeria, with the church's largest regional membership, was the leading voice threatening schism if John became a bishop. The dissension was just as great within the Church of England, with conservative parishes threatening to withdraw their financial support. Actually as a celibate John was within the published 1991 guidelines of the Church of England, but conservatives there complained that he has never repented of his love. More widely, John's openness and civil rights activism were seen as making him unsuitable as a moral leader or role model. The threat of a split in the 400-year-old church was such that Queen Elizabeth herself reportedly expressed concern to Williams. Some of John's supporters insist that he only stepped down after serious arm-twisting by Williams, since John had been determined to take up his new role. Ironically, Williams is more of a theological liberal on gay issues than his predecessor George Carey, but after John's withdrawal Carey told reporters that he had knowingly ordained two celibate gays as bishops. To Britain's leading gay activist Peter Tatchell, who notoriously staged a protest demonstration in the middle of one of Carey's Easter services, the failure to promote John was nothing less than a victory for homophobia. As the Church of England's General Synod gathered soon after the announcement this week, church leaders agreed not to discuss the matter formally since the time pressure of the scheduled consecration was off and emotions were high. But Tatchell and a handful of other protestors broke in on the meeting to denounce the church at length, sending about half the audience out the door although Williams stayed to hear him out. To those who rely on the word of the Bible, Tatchell dared them to follow the prescription of Leviticus to put him to death for having sex with men. Particularly saddened by the turn of events was openly partnered gay U.S. Canon Gene Robinson, who was recently elected by the diocese of New Hampshire to become their next bishop, but awaits approval from the Episcopalian national leadership next week. And finally... openly lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova this week won a record-tying 20th Wimbledon title, becoming at 46 the oldest Wimbledon champ ever. She took the cup in mixed doubles with Leander Paes of India, who was born just a week before her first Wimbledon match 30 years ago.