NewsWrap for the week ending December 20, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #821, distributed 12-22-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Jon Beaupre and Cindy Friedman Douglas Elliott: "This is the first class action decision awarding compensation to gays and lesbians for discrimination anywhere in the world." That's what attorney Douglas Elliott told reporters about an Ontario Superior Court decision this week awarding survivor benefits from the taxpayer-funded Canada Pension Plan to gays and lesbians whose same-gender partners have died. It's estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 potential beneficiaries could receive a total award of about 400-million-Canadian-dollars. It's not yet known if the Canadian Government will decide to appeal. Canada's Parliament had opened the CPP survivor benefits to same-gender survivors when it adopted the omnibus Bill C-23 of 2000, which extended all the rights and responsibilities of legal marriage to domestic partners regardless of gender. But that law is retroactive only to 1998, denying benefits to survivors whose partners died earlier. The national class action lawsuit argued that the cut-off was discriminatory, and that the benefits should extend back at least to the 1985 establishment of Canada's primary guarantee of equality, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As taxpayers, gays and lesbians had always been required to contribute to the CPP at the same level as heterosexuals. 76-year-old lead plaintiff and veteran activist for gay and lesbian civil rights George Hislop -- whose partner of 28 years Ronnie Shearer died in 1986 -- pointed out that the contested years included the decade in which the largest number of Canadian gay men had died of AIDS. A lesbian and 3 other gay men also represented survivors in court, while some 400 others so far have registered to join the lawsuit. Nova Scotia plaintiff Albert McNutt, whose partner Gary Pask died in 1993, expressed their shared sentiment about exclusion from the benefits when he told reporters: Albert McNutt: "I really felt as though our relationship didn't count, we didn't count as a couple. To have your relationship not thought of in a legitimate way and demeaned in that sense, it really tore me apart." Ontario Superior Court Justice Ellen Macdonald agreed that the government's time limit on the survivor benefits constituted illegal discrimination, and ordered the cut-off changed to the 1985 date of the Charter. Her ruling entitles the gay and lesbian survivors to back payments from that date plus interest accrued on payments beginning in 1993. Quebec is the only region not covered by the class action, because that province runs its own separate pension plan. Canada's new Prime Minister Paul Martin has also been thinking about the Charter. He told the CBC this week that he was willing to become the nation's first PM ever to invoke the so-called "notwithstanding" clause if that's what it took to protect churches from being forced to perform wedding ceremonies for gays and lesbians. Martin, a devout Catholic, admitted it was unlikely that the Supreme Court of Canada would impose that requirement. Religious freedom is one of the issues already put to the nation's highest court under Martin's now-retired predecessor Jean Chretien in preparation for the introduction of a federal bill to extend full equal marriage rights to same-gender couples. But it's appearing more likely that Martin's administration will further ask the court whether equal federal status under the separate name of civil unions will meet the marriage equality requirements of legal rulings by three top provincial courts. Activists fear that move could further delay federal marriage legislation by as much as another year. It's been suggested that Martin would benefit politically from putting off the court's scheduled April hearing on the marriage questions, allowing him to call an election at about that time without that issue in the spotlight. Massachusetts' top court is also fielding questions about its recent landmark ruling demanding marriage equality for same-gender couples. The Supreme Judicial Court had left the state legislature some time to meet its requirements, and the state Senate voted to ask the court if separate civil unions with the state-level benefits of marriage might suffice. State Assemblymembers agreed to hold off on their proposals for gay and lesbian unions until the Court has responded. The Court put out a call for submissions from interested parties. U.S. President George W. Bush criticized the Massachusetts ruling in an ABC TV interview this week and made his strongest statement of support yet for the Federal Marriage Amendment to constitutionally prohibit legal same-gender marriages, while also seemingly supporting state-level civil unions -- a tightrope walk that brought him criticism both from supporters of gay and lesbian equality and from their opponents. Bush told Diane Sawyer: President Bush: "If necessary I will support a constitutional amendment which would honor marriage between a man and a woman, codify that, and will -- the position of this administration is that whatever legal arrangements people want to make, they're allowed to make, so long as it's embraced by the state... Let me tell you, the court I thought overreached its bounds as a court. It did the job of the legislature. It was a very activist court in making the decision it made. And as you know, I'm a person who believes in judicial restraint, as opposed to judicial activism that takes the place of the Legislative Branch..." Diane Sawyer: "But Vice President Cheney has spoken out in favor of civil unions. In the 2000 election, you said pretty much it was a state issue." President Bush: "That's right. Except, uh, unless judicial rulings undermine the sanctity of marriage. In which case, we may need a Constitution... amendment... I do believe in the sanctity of marriage, but tolerance and belief in marriage aren't mutually exclusive points of view." The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force labeled Bush's remarks "a declaration of war on gay America," and Democratic Presidential hopeful Congressmember Dick Gephardt called on the President "to end his alliance with bigotry once and for all and speak out against the Republican Party's hostile election year attempt to polarize the election." But the anti-gay Family Research Council expressed concern at the President's seeming support of civil unions, viewing them as states' redefining of marriage. In fact the U.S. Constitution leaves the definition of marriage entirely in the power of the individual states. The conservative lobby group Citizen Outreach demanded clarification from the President on issues including whether he would support a constitutional amendment only if a court struck down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, whether he would support an amendment which denied legal status to civil unions as well as to same-gender marriages, and whether he would accept same-gender marriages if established by a state legislature rather than a court. Meanwhile, the New Jersey state Assembly this week approved with the minimum required votes a bill to create a statewide domestic partners registry carrying some significant legal status. Partners' rights would include hospital visitation, medical decision-making, inheritance tax exemption, dependent status for state income tax deductions, spousal benefits for partners of state employees, and a prohibition against discrimination based on having a domestic partner. One controversial point in an hour of heated floor debate was the bill's inclusion of heterosexual couples over age 62, which was also a sticking point as the state Senate Judiciary Committee green-lighted a very similar measure 6-to-1. If the bill passes the Senate, Governor James McGreevey has indicated he will sign it. A lawsuit seeking equal marriage rights in New Jersey is currently awaiting an appeal. But last week the Ohio state House of Representatives passed by a nearly 3-to-1 margin what's been called a "super-DOMA" -- a bill not only to deny legal recognition of same-gender marriages, but to prohibit recognition of all state employees' unmarried partners for purposes of health insurance and other benefits. Activists believe the language of the bill is such that it could open to challenge any spousal benefit extended to unmarried partners. If it's passed by the state Senate, Governor Bob Taft has indicated he'll sign it. In the state of Washington, the King County Council this week adopted an Equal Benefits Ordinance, requiring employers who contract with the county to extend the same benefits to their unmarried workers' domestic partners as they do to married workers' spouses. The vote was 8-to-5 to place the requirement on contracts worth at least $25,000. In Japan, a single vote tipped the balance on the Miyakonojo city assembly this week as it okayed an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against lesbigays and people with gender identity disorder. Civil rights protections based on sexual orientation are rare in Japan, with Miyakonojo the first city to adopt them in the Miyazaki Prefecture, although at least two cities in other prefectures have adopted them. But the Miyakonojo ordinance is believed to be the first in the nation to protect bisexuals and transgenders as well. And finally... gay activist and actor Harvey Fierstein found an unusual platform from which to take up the U.S. debate on marriage equality: a float in New York City's huge annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Fierstein won his seat in the pageant by picking up his fourth Tony Award as the heroine of the hit Broadway incarnation of "Hairspray," the role of "Edna Turnblad" created by Divine in gay John Waters' classic film. To make his point, Fierstein declared in advance that he'd appear as Mrs. Claus, and asked in a "New York Times" op-ed piece if America could accept Santa Claus' resulting gay marriage. This certainly succeeded in creating a buzz on the issue, but the romantic situation was even more complicated. Santa Claus as always rode at the end of the parade, accompanied by a female Mrs. Claus. Not only did this place St. Nick in a love triangle, but Fierstein was a kind of triangle in himself: he rode in Santa-less splendor on a separate float, dressed not just as Mrs. Claus, but as Edna Turnblad dressed as Mrs. Claus.