NewsWrapfor the week ending August 2, 2003
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #801, distributed 8-4-03)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon]
Anchored by Jon Beaupré and Cindy Friedman
 
  Legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples came under fire this week from 
two of the world's greatest powers -- the Vatican and U.S. President George Bush.
The Vatican officially published in 7 languages a previously leaked 12-page docuument 
called "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions 
Between Homosexual Persons" that's been called its strongest statement on any 
subject in decades.  It particularly targets politicians of the Roman Catholic 
faith, saying they have a "moral duty" to oppose any legislation recognizing 
gay and lesbian partners.  It declares, "Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts 
go against the natural moral law. ... There are absolutely no grounds for 
considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous 
to God's plan for marriage and family.  To vote in favor of a law so harmful 
to the common good is gravely immoral. ... Those who would move from tolerance 
to legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to 
be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different 
from the toleration of evil."  It also says that allowing children to be adopted 
by gay and lesbian couples "would actually mean doing violence to these children, 
in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an 
environment that is not conducive to their full human development."Indeed the 
language of the document is so strong that the Irish Council for Civil Liberties 
warned that its distribution could lead to prosecution under Ireland's law against 
incitement to hatred, which provides for up to six months in jail.
 
  But Catholic bishops in several countries, including Scotland, the Philippines 
and the Pope's native Poland, were quick to join the campaign.  Particularly vocal 
were some Canadian bishops, including Calgary's Fred Henry, who warned that Prime 
Minister Jean Chretien -- a Catholic -- is jeopardizing his "eternal salvation" 
with his move to open the national definition of marriage to include  gay and 
lesbian couples.  Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais has also both publicly and 
privately chastised Chretien over the marriage bill, but Chretien has previously 
emphasized that Canada has a division between church and state.  The head of the 
Catholic Bishops Conference in the province of Ontario, Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe, 
took aim at Chretien's likely successor Paul Martin, who's well known as a devout 
Catholic, saying, "I would expect a Catholic politician would not push away his 
Catholic convictions because he's a politician," suggesting the alternative would 
be to be "totally schizophrenic."  Martin responded that as a lawmaker he "must 
take in a wider perspective" than his own faith.  Canada's national Conference of 
Catholic Bishops decided this week to seek to argue against the Government's 
marriage bill before the Canadian Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing a 
draft at the Government's request.A review of European press reactions by Germany's 
"Deutsche Welle" found editorial opinion and op-eds largely critical of the Vatican's 
stance.
 
  Of course gays and lesbians around the world howled in protest, including those 
who are Catholics and those who are elected officials.Openly gay Irish Senator 
David Norris expressed fear that what he called a "hate-filled message" 
would lead to discrimination and violence, and said the Vatican should be 
ashamed.Openly gay Australian Senator Brian Greig called the Vatican document 
"an appalling interference by the church into domestic politics" and "an abuse of power".

  However, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson said the national 
Government agrees with the Vatican's opposition to recognizing gay and lesbian 
couples.Openly gay German MP Volker Beck described the publication as "a sad 
document of narrow-minded fanaticism."Chris Carter, a gay Catholic who was New 
Zealand's first openly gay MP, was incredulous that the church wasn't concentrating 
on more significant issues such as poverty, child abuse and violence.Italy's openly 
gay MP and long-time activist Franco Grillini shrugged off the church document 
as "just the latest move in their homophobic crusade."The head of the Czech 
Republic's activist group Czech Gay Initiative Jiri Hromada was one of many 
who suggested the church's attack on gays might be a distraction from the 
Vatican's own scandals of priests abusing children.One Brazilian gay activist 
group, GGB, promised a campaign of protest letters against Catholic dioceses.

  Separate from the Vatican attack, U.S. President George W. Bush this week 
chose to take a stand for legislation to specifically prevent legal same-gender 
marriages, something he'd indicated just a few weeks earlier was premature.At a 
press conference, he was asked, "Many of your supporters believe that 
homosexuality is immoral.  They believe that it's been given too much acceptance 
in policy terms and culturally.  As someone who's spoken out in strongly moral 
terms, what's your view on homosexuality?"The President responded:George W. Bush:  
"I am mindful that we’re all sinners. And, uh, I caution those who, uh, may 
try to take the speck out of their neighbor’s eye when they got a log in their 
own.  I think it’s very important for our society to respect each individual, 
to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country.  On the other 
hand that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on the issue 
such as marriage.  And that’s really where the issue is headed here in 
Washington and that is the definition of marriage.  I believe in the sanctity 
of marriage.  I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman.  And I think 
we ought to, uh, codify that one way or the other and we’ve got lawyers 
looking at the best way to do that."There's little doubt that the President's 
statements represent an effort to appease religious conservatives in his 
Republican Party and to create a "wedge" issue for next year's elections.
 
  The party's Senate Republican Policy Committee -- a group that researches 
issues toward developing legislative strategies -- this week issued a policy 
paper entitled, "The TThreat to Marriage from the Courts".  That paper emphasizes 
an amendment to the U.S. Constitution as the only way to stop the courts from 
legalizing gay and lesbian marriages.  Such an amendment has already been 
introduced in the Congress for the second time, and support for it is growing 
since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state sodomy laws in June.  At the end 
of June Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spoke strongly in support of that 
amendment, but the President indicated that it was "too soon" and "unnecessary".
 
  Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle still believes that the federal Defense 
of Marriage Act is adequate.  That 1996 measure, signed into law in the dead 
of night by Democratic President Bill Clinton, both prohibits any federal 
recognition of gay and lesbian couples, and allows the states to refuse to 
recognize any gay or lesbian marriage another state may someday perform.
 
  But a Senate Judiciary subcommittee will start next month reviewing the 
Defense of Marriage Act to "take care to do whatever it takes to ensure that 
the principles defined {...there...} remain the law of the land," in the words 
of Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.

  Openly gay Democratic Congressmember Barney Frank denounced the President's 
statement as a political ploy.  He said, "With President Bush's popularity 
dropping and the serious problems confronting America worsening, the 
Administration seeks to divert attention by demagoging on the issue of same-sex unions."
 
  At least 15,000 people marched for pride this week in London's 31st Pink 
Parade and more than 60,000 attended the subsequent Party in the Park, 
despite rainy weather.  Leading the procession were about 80 members of the 
Metropolitan Police Authority's Gay Police Association, half of them wearing 
full uniforms in this first year that's been allowed.  At least one officer 
on-duty for the event threw them a salute from the sidelines.
 
  In New York City, the Harvey Milk High School -- a program for lesbigay 
and trans youth to receive their education without fear of harassment and 
violence that was set up iin 1984 by the Hetrick-Martin Institute -- will 
open this year for about 100 students as a free-standing school with city 
funding.  The move has sparked a variety of criticism, from religious 
conservatives who are planning a lawsuit, from the principals' union demanding 
it should be open to all potentially victimized students, and from various 
individuals who don't believe that segregation is the answer to the problem 
of school harassment.  But city officials including the mayor and City Councilmembers 
are proudly defending the school, whose upgrade was developed under New York's 
previous administration.
 
  And finally... August 1st was a little-noticed landmark in European history.  
As Armenia's revised criminal code went into effect that day, the European political 
sphere was free of laws criminalizing private, non-commercial homosexual acts between 
consenting adults for the first time in perhaps 1,500 years.The European section of 
ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association -- which worked hard to reach 
this goal -- dates the continent's sodomy laws back to the legal code established 
by the Byzantiine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century.  While repeal began 200 
years ago with the Napoleonic Code, in 1950 two-thirds of today's 48 European 
countries still criminalized homosexual acts.ILGA-Europe Executive Director Ailsa 
Spindler said, "This is an important milestone in the achievement of LGBT rights in 
Europe. But it is just the beginning."A number of countries - Albania, Bulgaria, 
Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Serbia/Montenegro, and the United Kingdom -- still have 
discriminatory provisions in the criminal law.  33 European countries provide no 
legal recognition whatsoever for same-sex partners."And, of course, legal equality 
is itself only one element in the fight against discrimination".