NewsWrap
for the week ending October 25, 2003


(As broadcast on This Way Out program #813, distributed 10-27-03)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex 
Wockner, and Greg Gordon]


Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon


  Chicago's gay community is confronting a health crisis, as 3 men have died 
of meningococcal disease in the last 2 weeks.  Three others are believed to 
have the bacterial infection, with one of them in critical condition at last 
report.  While 15 to 50 cases appear in the city's general population each year, 
these constitute an unusual cluster, with the victims believed to have been in 
North Side gay social venues in the first half of October.  Meningococcal 
disease can be spread not just through sexual contact, but also through kissing, 
coughs and sneezes, or sharing eating and drinking utensils, pipes and 
cigarettes, or drug paraphernalia.
The Chicago Department of Public Health responded using the protocol it's 
developed for bioterrorism.  It started a free vaccination program this week at 
several gay sites, initially ordering 7,500 doses at $50 per shot.  In the 
first 6 days more than 12,000 men were inoculated.
Meningococcal disease can be treated with antibiotics but they must be 
administered promptly when symptoms appear.  Those symptoms -- a sudden fever and 
severe headache, often with a stiff neck and a rash -- usually appear 4 to 10 
days after exposure.  If you were partying in Chicago this month and experience 
such symptoms, don't assume it's the flu -- see a physician.  Meningococcal 
disease can result in hearing loss, brain damage or death.


  Of course AIDS remains the biggest gay health challenge, with new HIV 
infections increasing among gay men almost everywhere in the world.  But this week 
San Francisco's Department of Public Health announced a new initiative to 
fight another growing problem, methamphetamine addiction, earmarking $425,000 for 
programs serving lesbigays and transgenders, particularly youth.


  Meanwhile, the latest U.S. city to adopt civil rights protections for 
lesbigays and transgenders is Lake Oswego, Oregon, a suburb of Portland.  The City 
Council this week approved a bill introduced by openly gay Councilmember Karl 
Rohde, to prohibit discrimination in housing, employment and public 
accommodations, effective in January.  Those who feel they've experienced discrimination 
can file complaints with the state Bureau of Labor, and can also file civil 
lawsuits.


  But the headline issue in the U.S. remains legal recognition of same-gender 
relationships.  
In Wisconsin -- which was the first U.S. state to prohibit sexual orientation 
discrimination -- 70% of the state Assembly this week voted in favor of a 
so-called "Defense of Marriage" bill, which would define marriage exclusively as 
between a man and a woman.  Wisconsin's current law refers to "husband and 
wife" without specifying gender.  The bill will next be taken up by the state 
Senate.


  Also this week, Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court agreed to take up a 
legal challenge to Philadelphia's recognition of gay and lesbian "life 
partnerships," which includes spousal benefits for city employees' partners.  Opponents 
claim that only the state can define legal relationships, and Pennsylvania has 
no legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples.


  At the federal level, there was a foretaste of what promises to be some 
remarkably homophobic campaigning for 2004 elections, as Republican 
Congressmember from Tennessee and Senate hopeful Zach Wamp called for enactment of an 
amendment to the U.S. Constitution to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.  
Wamp, who identifies himself as a born-again Christian cited Old Testament 
values as the basis for his views, called homosexuality "not just a sin ... but an 
aberration," "unnatural," and "a sickness".  The Federal Marriage Amendment 
has so far gathered almost 100 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.


  And the anti-gay religious right group the Family Research Council this 
week claimed the first elected official to sign its pledge, which goes far beyond 
the Marriage Amendment to commit to preventing all legal benefits and 
privileges for civil unions, domestic partnerships and similar relationships.  It's 
not too surprising that Republican Colorado state Representative David 
Schultheis represents Colorado Springs, renowned as the headquarters of anti-gay media 
giant Focus on the Family and as the birthplace of Amendment 2, a statewide 
initiative to prohibit local lesbigay civil rights ordinances that was 
ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.


  On the flip side of the electoral coin, Switzerland has a record 16 openly 
gay and lesbian candidates running for Parliament, along with one openly gay 
incumbent.


  Britain's Conservative Party this week named its second openly gay 
candidate for Parliament.  Nicholas Boles will be running to represent Hove, along 
with Iain Dale's bid in North Norfolk.


  And in Canada, Ontario's first openly gay Member of the Provincial 
Parliament has become its first openly gay Cabinet member, as the Liberal Party's 
George Smitherman was sworn in this week as the provincial Minister of Health.


  Back on the couples front, an Israeli court has rejected a gay man's bid to 
inherit from the deceased partner he spent his life with, the "Yediot 
Aharonot" newspaper reported this week.  The partner had died at age 70 without 
leaving a will.  Had he lived with a woman, even if they were not married, she 
could have inherited under Israeli law.  But the court refused to extend that to a 
male partner, even though there was no other designated heir. 


  Legal recognition of same-gender couples was part of the election program 
of Poland's ruling party SLD, the Democratic Left Alliance.  But while the 
party caucus will be reviewing a just-completed draft bill, its Prime Minister 
Leszek Miller hedged, saying, "The question is whether to launch an initiative 
that has a rather slim chance ... of passing through parliament."  The proposal 
reportedly would allow gay and lesbian couples joint property and inheritance 
rights, but not the ability to adopt children.
Inevitably the idea is drawing howls from the religious leaders of the 
predominantly Roman Catholic country.  Poland's bishops were gathered for a meeting 
this week, and they issued a statement that the registered partnership plans 
"should not be supported by any Catholic" and would lead to an "inhuman 
society."
The head of the Church in Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, told a radio audience 
this week that, "[Homosexuality] depresses me a lot because it is against 
human nature.  I simply hate seeing men kiss each other.  Maybe I'm old 
fashioned."


  But New Zealand's Presbyterian Church announced this week that its highest 
court has greenlighted an open lesbian to train for the ministry.  While there 
are some gays and lesbians among that clergy, none of them were identified as 
such until after they'd been ordained.  Deborah Gordon, currently a lay 
preacher, is overjoyed to have her chance to train -- it's been five years since 
she submitted her application, and a church court ruling last year had gone 
against her.  This time, as she appealed that ruling, the church judicial 
commission determined that the denomination has no express objection in principle to 
ministerial training for gays and lesbians, and no specific regulations against 
their ordination.  Conservatives within the church immediately predicted that 
the ruling will tear the denomination apart, while its acting head 
anticipates that its future General Assemblies will take up the question.


  And finally... was history's most famous sodomy trial staged to cover up a 
top politician's own gay affair?  That's the contention of Neil McKenna's "The 
Secret Life of Oscar Wilde," a new biography of the great gay Irish 19th 
century writer.  Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sent to prison, an 
experience which broke his health and spirit and contributed to his death.  His 
partner in the "crime" was Lord Alfred Douglas, son of the Marquis of 
Queensberry.  But McKenna asserts that Queensberry's older son Viscount Drumlanrig in 
the last 2 years of his short life had a sexual relationship with Britain's 
Prime Minster, the Earl of Rosebery.  Rosebery made Drumlanrig his private 
secretary.  McKenna claims that Queensberry was ready to expose their liaison and 
bring down Rosebery's Liberal Party Government -- and that the government's 
prosecution of Wilde was the price paid for Queensberry's silence.  McKenna told 
the "London Times," "Oscar was sacrificed to save Rosebery and the Liberals."