NewsWrap for the week ending May 22, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #843, distributed 5-24-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Cindy Friedman and Dean Elzinga The United States' first civil marriages of gay and lesbian couples were performed this week in Massachusetts, thanks to a split decision by the state's highest court six months ago. More than a thousand same-gender couples obtained their marriage licenses on the first day they could, May 17th. The licensing began in Cambridge, where the city had decided to open its office at one minute past midnight, and Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd ensured they were first in line by spending a full 24 hours outside the door. There were crowds and celebrations outside city halls around the state. Most of the couples had to wait another 3 days before their marriages became official, but some went before judges for waivers of the standard waiting period. Among those were plaintiff couples in the lawsuit that won marriage equality, including the couple whose name it's known by, Hillary and Julie Goodridge. They had already waited three years since their application for a marriage license was first rejected to set the lawsuit in motion. They married at a Unitarian Universalist church in Boston with their daughter Annie as flower girl and ring bearer. Sitting in the front row was the lead attorney in the "Goodridge" lawsuit, Mary Bonauto of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders -- who also led the similar lawsuit that resulted in Vermont's pioneering civil unions -- and she caught their bouquet. Opponents of marriage equality for same-gender couples chose not to stage protest demonstrations at licensing sites, so the celebrations were unmarred for couples and their allies. But that's in no way a signal that the struggle is over -- in many ways it's just begun. Massachusetts' own Governor, Republican Mitt Romney, is determined, as he has put it, to avoid "exporting marriage confusion" to the other U.S. states. He's relied heavily on a Massachusetts law passed in 1913 that stops marriages of non-residents that would not be recognized in their home states. This week the Massachusetts state Senate voted 28-to-3 to repeal that law. But Massachusetts Speaker of the House Thomas Finneran wants to keep it off the floor of his chamber, ostensibly so as not to interfere with work on the state budget, and the governor has promised to veto repeal should it reach his desk. Republican U.S. President George W. Bush issued a statement on May 17th saying, "The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges. All Americans have a right to be heard in this debate. I called on the Congress to pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman as husband and wife. The need for that amendment is still urgent, and I repeat that call today." Proposed amendments to state constitutions against legal standing for gay and lesbian marriages continue to advance. This week in Louisiana, both the House and Senate gave overwhelming approval to slightly different proposed amendments, while Tennessee's Senate followed the House in approving one with only a single dissenting vote. Such measures are still in process in several other states and are already approved to go on statewide ballots in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Utah. Massachusetts wasn't the only place in the U.S. to license a lesbian marriage this week -- one couple obtained the equivalent document from the Cherokee Nation, within the geographic borders of the conservative state of Oklahoma. The women are Cherokees themselves, and it seems tribal marriage law does not specify gender. The Cherokee Nation procedure is to obtain a marriage application, as they did, and then file it with the tribe with the signature of the person conducting the wedding ceremony, which in their case has yet to occur. The tribal Chief Justice issued an immediate moratorium on issuing more marriage applications while officials scramble to determine if gay and lesbian couples can legitimately obtain them -- and whether the lesbians in question are considered married already or only after certification of their application. Should the couple -- who wish to remain anonymous and private -- succeed in winning legal recognition from the Cherokee Nation, the question will move on to Oklahoma. While state and federal law currently allow Oklahoma to ignore Massachusetts marriages, many believe that the Cherokee status as a sovereign nation will force it to recognize a tribal marriage. Of course three Canadian provinces have been legally marrying same-gender couples for nearly a year now, and this week Canada's government confirmed that it's recognizing those marriages for purposes of immigration. So far the expedited processing of applications applies only to foreign spouses of gay and lesbian Canadian citizens or permanent residents who marry in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario or Quebec. Those marriages were legitimated by court rulings similar to the one in Massachusetts -- the Canadian Parliament is still months away from enacting a federal law to open marriage to same-gender couples. The Slovakian Parliament voted this week to adopt a broad anti-discrimination bill that includes sexual orientation among its protected categories, CTK reported. The protections for gays and lesbians had been a matter of contention within the governing coalition for months, with the dominant KDH, the Christian Democrats, seeking to remove them. But their junior partner SMK, the Hungarian Coalition Party, won the internal debate. When the bill finally reached the floor, it won support from most of the deputies of the ruling parties and even from some of the KSS Communist Opposition for a triumphant 80% victory. SMK Deputy Premier for Ethnic Minorities Pal Csaky declared, "From this very moment, Slovakia is ready to fulfill all obligations ensuing from its European Union membership in the fight against discrimination. The new Slovak anti-discrimination bill has a real chance to become a pattern also for other EU member states." Free speech took a blow in Yemen this week with the conviction of three journalists just for writing about homosexuality. More than a year ago the magazine "al-Usbou" -- "The Week" -- published their interviews with gay inmates and reporting of lesbian activities in girls' schools. The Yemeni information ministry filed a complaint, and this week a court found that the material violated the Islam-dominated nation's morals and customs. The magazine's former editor-in-chief was sentenced to three months' incarceration and its two former reporters to five months each. The court also prohibited the three men from writing during those terms. Those sentences have been suspended, but all three are appealing the ruling. The national press union has called on Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to intervene to annul the sentences. Censorship hit the airwaves in Taiwan, as the Government Information Office slapped a substantial fine on the island's only radio station devoted to women's issues. "Lez Talk", a regular feature on Sister Radio, is Taiwan's only radio show considering lesbian issues. But one two-minute segment on Valentine's Day has been deemed to have "adversely affected good social customs". That night host "Wei-Wei" played with vocal sounds women make during sex, comparing them between countries by imitating film performances. Sister Radio believes their punishment represents a double standard, since no similar action was taken against Meg Ryan's faked orgasmic sounds in the film "When Harry Met Sally". However, the government did back off from its original warning against the rest of Wei-Wei's Valentine's show, which detailed how lesbians can use traditional condoms for safer sex. Sister Radio is standing behind "Lez Talk" and refusing to censor future shows even though government warnings endanger its future licensing. Gloria Anzaldua, the United States' first openly lesbian Chicana writer, died this week at 61 from diabetes complications. The pioneering feminist cultural theorist wrote essays, short stories, poetry, and even children's books as well as editing anthologies, but is best known for two books: "This Bridge Called My Back" and "Borderlands/La Frontera". Her many honors from both the mainstream and from her communities included the American Studies Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Award. This year's Olympic Games in Athens could be the first to include an openly transsexual competitor. This week the executive board of the International Olympics Committee finally approved a new set of regulations opening eligibility to those athletes if they have undergone sex reassignment surgery and at least 2 years of post-operative hormone treatment, and if their self-identified gender has been legally recognized. Those born intersexed who underwent genital surgery before puberty are also eligible. Although the IOC vote had been delayed from its originally scheduled date in February, it comes in time for athletes to qualify for Athens. The new rules are a great step forward for the IOC, which only ended more than 3 decades of embarrassing "gender verification tests" for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. And finally... openly lesbian comic Ellen DeGeneres is definitely back on top. She's had quite a roller coaster ride since both she and the ABC sitcom lead character she played came out in 1997, in a pioneering first for U.S. television that made headlines around the world. That coming-out episode won her a share of a primetime Emmy award for writing. But the show itself was cancelled the following season and her next sitcom, on CBS, didn't last long. She was back on the primetime Emmy stage as host of the awards show in 2001, winning widespread admiration for her handling of that event in the wake of the " 9/11" terrorist attacks. But it's only this past year that she seems to have found solid ground in her career once more, with an increasingly popular daytime talk show distributed by NBC. This week, with kisses for her girlfriend and ever-supportive mother Betty, she ascended an Emmy stage once more, as -- in its very first season, facing legions of competitors -- "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" won the daytime award for Best Talk Show.