NewsWrap for the week ending April 3, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #836, distributed 4-5-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Kathy Sanchez and Rick Watts Brazil has asked for a postponement of its proposal that the United Nations protect the civil rights of sexual minorities, citing a lack of consensus on the UN Commission on Human Rights. Vehement opposition from the Vatican and the Islamic bloc had already stalled the motion at last year's Commission session. The group Human Rights Watch claims it was the opponents' threats to boycott a summit meeting Brazil is hosting later this year for Arab and Latin American leaders -- and even to break off trade relations -- that forced the withdrawal. Brazil has yet to comment on that claim. Numerous non-governmental organizations from around the world signed a joint statement expressing disappointment at the further delay. Twenty-six Western nations had supported Brazil's original introduction of the resolution, and activists are lobbying its eighteen co-sponsors on the Commission to bring it back to the table. Openly gay Member of the European Parliament from the U.K. Michael Cashman labeled the united opposition of the Islamic bloc and the Vatican an "unholy alliance". That same alliance is also currently attacking the UN's new policy of extending spousal benefits to those of its gay and lesbian employees whose partnerships are recognized in their home nations. This week they won a resolution from an administrative and budgetary committee that the Secretary-General reconsider the new policy. A spokesperson said that review will take place, but added that any revised policy will still be guided by the employees' national laws. The U.S. has not been a supporter of lesbigay civil rights at the UN, and its own lack of national protections from sexual orientation discrimination was highlighted in two ways this week. The Office of the Special Counsel is a small federal agency tasked with protecting US civil servants from retaliation for their claims of discrimination or whistle-blowing activities. Its new head Scott Bloch, a Bush appointee, has removed from its materials all references to protections from sexual orientation discrimination. The administrations of five Presidents over more than 20 years have protected equal treatment of gay and lesbian civilian employees. Yet Bloch has claimed that his reading of relevant laws does not protect those workers based on what he calls their "status" as gay or lesbian, only their "conduct". A number of Democratic lawmakers held a press conference this week to protest Bloch's move and called on the President to take action to reverse it. White House spokesperson Trent Duffy told reporters, "The President believes that no federal employee should be subject to unlawful discrimination. That's long-standing federal policy that prevents discrimination based on sexual orientation." At the prodding of openly gay Democratic Congressmember from Massachusetts Barney Frank as to what the President was actually going to do about his apparent difference with Bloch, Duffy added only that, "The federal agencies will fully enforce the laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace." By its nature the Office of Special Counsel is granted considerable independence, and grounds are very limited for removing its head before the expiration of his five-year term. Bloch's language of "status" and "conduct" are more familiar from the U.S. military, although there at least in theory it's "conduct" that leads to discharge. Military discrimination against gays and lesbians has in the past led some colleges and universities to deny campus access to military recruiters, as they do by policy to other employers who discriminate. That particular form of protest was essentially quashed several years ago by the so-called Solomon Amendment, which denies federal funding to schools that bar military recruiters. This week the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to bolster the Solomon rule by explicitly requiring "equal" access for military recruiters and requiring schools to submit an annual report to that effect to the Secretary of Defense. Activists are lobbying to try to block the bill in the U.S. Senate. Numerous U.S. state legislatures continue to wrestle with bills regarding recognition of gay and lesbian relationships. This week Georgia lawmakers approved for the November elections ballot a proposed state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-gender marriages. The Georgia House okayed by just 2 votes more than the necessary minimum the same measure that had fallen 3 votes short there in a February floor vote. Massachusetts' voters are a step closer to seeing a proposed constitutional amendment -- their state lawmakers this week gave the first of two required endorsements. The stakes are higher in Massachusetts, since a ruling by the state's highest court requires the state to begin licensing same-gender marriages in mid-May. The procedure for amending the state constitution -- the nation's oldest -- is more cumbersome there as well, requiring that a second legislative session approve the same proposed amendment before it can appear on the general ballot. Moved by a sense that they had to advance something, and powerful arm-twisting by political leaders including Republican Governor Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts legislators sitting as a constitutional convention agreed on what's been called a compromise but is highly distasteful to both sides. On the one hand, the proposed amendment states that "only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in the Commonwealth." But it goes on to state that, "Two persons of the same sex shall have the right to form a civil union if they otherwise meet the requirements set forth by law for marriage. Civil unions for same-sex persons are established by this Article and shall provide entirely the same benefits, protections, rights, privileges and obligations that are afforded to persons married under the law of the Commonwealth." The proposal also "recogniz[es] that under present federal law same-sex persons in civil unions will be denied federal benefits available to married persons." Since there's no way this measure can be enacted before late 2006, Romney wants the state's Supreme Court to stay its earlier marriage ruling. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that won the marriage ruling say the governor has no legal basis to request that stay, and Democratic state Attorney-General Thomas Riley has refused to file the request. However, Riley has also affirmed that a 1913 Massachusetts' law will not allow non-residents to contract marriages their home states would not allow. He believes that will prohibit marriages for gays and lesbians from all but a dozen states, although the group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders believes a case could be made for a few more. Rhode Island's legislature is considering bills both for and against same-gender marriages -- and a rally in support of those marriages moved the state's House Majority Leader Gordon Fox to publicly identify himself as a gay man for the first time. Democrat Fox has been in a committed relationship for 6 years. He went on to refer to his personal situation again in testimony before a House committee. Britain's Government this week unveiled its Civil Partnership Bill to create legally recognized same-gender relationships. While not entirely equivalent to marriage, civil partnership features financial responsibility for a partner and the couple's children, the option to become a legal parent for a partner's child, and recognition in areas including hospital visitation, immigration, inheritance, tenancy succession, life insurance, and social security and pension benefits. Deputy Minister for Women and Equality Jacqui Smith said the bill "underlines the inherent value of committed same-sex relationships" and "opens the way to respect, recognition and justice for those who have been denied it for too long." Britain's Foreign Office -- and its Queen -- aren't even waiting for enactment of the bill to recognize at least one gay male couple. Britain's new ambassador to Luxembourg James Clark had registered his partnership with Anthony Stewart under the Foreign Office's five-year-old plan extending benefits to unmarried partners. When Clark was given a formal audience with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace this week, Stewart was by his side, as the first same-gender partner to be received by the Queen just as heterosexual ambassadors' spouses are. Clark is Britain's first openly gay ambassador and he and Stewart are the Foreign Office's first officially recognized gay couple to be sent abroad. They have already moved into the official residence in Luxembourg and will attend social functions there together. The Canadian province of Quebec legally married its first same-gender couple this week, following a March ruling by the province's top court. Michael Hendricks and Rene Leboeuf, the couple of more than 30 years who were the plaintiffs in the long legal battle for equal marriage rights, married at the Montreal courthouse with rings, vows, some passionate kisses, and even a thrown bouquet. They chose April 1st for their wedding date because it marked the third anniversary of the world's first legal same-gender marriages, in the Netherlands. And finally... April 1st also marked the first anniversary of the death of Leslie Cheung, one of the first celebrities in the Chinese world to speak publicly about being a gay man. He's best known to the Western world for his performances in the films "Farewell My Concubine" and "Happy Together," but in Asia his singing was at least as important as his acting. He committed suicide last year at the age of 46, a victim of depression. But he lives on in the hearts of his fans, who turned out in heavy rain by the thousands near his last residence in Hong Kong to leave flowers and sing his hits together. Most of the crowd came from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore. One memorial event sold out its 800 tickets in less than a month, "China Daily" reported. Hong Kong newspapers gave heavy coverage to the anniversary, while in one of them some fans paid for a 6-page color supplement.