NewsWrap for the week ending October 4, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #810, distributed 10-6-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Jon Beaupré Northern Ireland will be introducing a ministerial order allowing judges to increase penalties for crimes motivated by bias, including homophobia. In fact the move originated as a response to gay-bashing, although Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy emphasized recent incidents motivated by religious prejudice in announcing his Government's plan at a British Labour Party conference. Racial prejudice would also be covered. Sentencing enhancement for hate crimes is already established in the rest of the UK but that law does not include anti-gay attacks, although the addition is under discussion in Britain and Scotland. But Indonesia's Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is drafting major amendments to the criminal code that could lead to prison terms for consensual homosexual acts, it was announced this week. Current law in Indonesia largely reflects its former Dutch occupation and generally does not impose criminal sanctions on personal lives, but some of the country's large Muslim population have been demanding that the nation adopt Islam's Sharia law. The Ministry of Justice is attempting to add elements of both Sharia and some local customs to the code, criminalizing a number of what have been considered ethical or moral issues. Reports differ on the specifics of the sex crimes: the "Jakarta Post" cites Article 427 as punishing any homosexual act with up to 7 years' imprisonment, although foreign wire services claim that applies only when the participants are under age 18. The "Post" also cited Article 423 as treating sodomy and oral sex as acts of rape punishable by up to 12 years' imprisonment. The Ministry says its proposal is still in an early stage, although it will be submitted to the parliament soon and probably decided there after next year's elections. But South Africans marched by the hundreds and partied by the thousands in Johannesburg at the 14th annual national Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival. Once a daring and illegal demonstration, the celebration has become a global destination with commensurate support from the region's tourism authority. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, was reintroduced this week in the U.S. Senate. Some form of federal gay and lesbian civil rights protections have been introduced for about 30 years, but reached a floor vote only in 1996, when the Senate defeated ENDA by a single vote on the same day it overwhelmingly adopted the anti-gay so-called Defense of Marriage Act. In the last session ENDA won approval from a Senate committee for the first time but never reached the floor. A companion measure will be introduced shortly in the House. Despite active lobbying by the Human Rights Campaign, the current version of ENDA would not protect transgenders. Also introduced in the U.S. Senate this week was the Domestic Partner Health Benefits Equity Act. Currently the value of health coverage provided by employers to their unmarried workers' domestic partners is treated as the worker's taxable income, while similar coverage for legal spouses and other dependents is not. The employer also faces more federal tax liability. The new bill would equalize treatment of domestic partner and spousal health coverage for federal tax purposes for both workers and employers. Seventy-one gay and lesbian couples documented their relationships on the opening day of Cook County, Illinois' domestic partners registry. Cook County includes the city of Chicago, and it is more populous than 31 of the 50 United States with nearly 5-1/2-million residents. According to the 2000 Census, those residents include well over 13,000 same-gender domestic partners. Couple of 12 years' standing John Pennycuff and Robert Castillo waited outside the door half the night to be the first to sign up. They proudly displayed their certificate to the media along with a sign reading, "Just Partnered!" But while domestic partners go to the same desk, fill out similar paperwork, and plunk down the same $30 as couples obtaining marriage licenses, the Cook County registry carries no tangible benefits except to provide documentation for employers and others who choose to recognize domestic partnerships. Newly-enacted expanded legal standing for California's partnership registry is under attack, even though the latest provisions won't take effect until 2005. Two lawsuits have been filed against it claiming it violates the voter-passed state constitutional amendment that restricts marriage to "one man and one woman". One was filed by the religious right group Campaign for California Families, while the other was filed by the chief instigator of the marriage amendment, Republican state Senator from Palmdale "Pete" Knight. Knight has also co-authored a proposed ballot initiative to repeal the new partnership law. This week his repeal initiative won clearance to start gathering the nearly 374,000 signatures required for it to go before voters in March. South Korean actor Hong Suk Chong is appearing on television there this month for the first time since publicly declaring three years ago that he is gay. Before South Korea's most publicized coming-out to date, Hong was a regular on a leading children's show, a late night variety show, and a hit sitcom in which he played a swishy fashion designer. Once out, he was dropped from all those shows, and all the offers he'd received since were withdrawn before taping. He was also deluged with hate mail and his own mother suggested they take poison together. But tolerance has been growing in the interim, thanks in part to the dialogue Hong stimulated and the popularity of entertainer Ha Ri-soo, a transwoman who was one of the first South Koreans to win legal recognition of her self-identified gender. Now Hong is being seen once again playing a designer -- this time an openly gay one -- a main role in a star-studded mini-series running through December called "Perfect Love". National Coming Out Day is observed in the U.S. on October 11th, but two notables jumped the gun to publicly identify themselves as gay men this week. Kentucky state Senator Ernesto Scorsone is believed to be that conservative state's first elected official to come out. He told reporters it was "an independent, personal decision," that coming out "just seemed like the right thing to do for me" and that this week's Governor's Equal Employment Opportunity Conference "just seemed the right time to do it." Having been asked to discuss Governor Paul Patton's May executive order prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in state employment, he told the crowd of Kentucky civil servants, "As a public official I was proud that our government was taking this step toward fairness. As a gay Kentuckian, I was proud of the executive order because, while I personally may have been fortunate when it comes to job discrimination, other Kentuckians have not." The Lexington Democrat served 11 years in the Kentucky House and is now in his 8th year in the state Senate. He's running for reelection next year, although he may also campaign for a Congressional seat in the future. He's believed to be the 250th openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person among the 511,000 elected officials in the U.S. And finally... "Boston Herald" sports columnist Ed Gray played on baseball lingo as he wrote, "I'm out. I wasn't thrown out. And above all, I wasn't forced out. ... Frankly, I'm out because I can't come up with a single logical reason why I should have denied myself the right to live and work as openly and freely as everyone else." He continued, "I'm out because I no longer, in good conscience, choose to ignore the unabashed homophobia that is so cavalierly tolerated within the world of sports. I'm out, because the silence of a closeted gay man only serves to give his implicit approval to bigotry. I'm out, because I refuse to continue hiding from the truth that an openly gay man has as much right as a straight man to play sports or report on them." He noted that "No active player in a major professional team sport has ever come out." He believes it likely that there are gay pros who are tolerated because they are closeted, and remarked that, "Somehow, a gay teammate is only regarded as a threat if he is honest and a stand-up guy, qualities that are usually valued in team sports." Rejecting common locker room excuses for intolerance, Gray called on professional athletes to demonstrate team solidarity and send the message, "'We support our teammate and you should, too.'" He recounted some of this year's widely-reported anti-gay quotes from sports figures: from football, San Francisco 49er Garrison Hearst saying, "I don't want any faggots on my team" and New York Giant Jeremy Shockey calling an opposing coach "a homo"; and from baseball, then-Colorado Rockie Todd Jones response when asked how he'd feel about a gay teammate, "He's got rights or whatever, but he shouldn't walk around proud." Gray closed his column declaring, "I'm out, and I am exercising my right to walk around proud."