NewsWrap for the week ending September 4, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #858, distributed 9-6-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Cindy Friedman Dashing the hopes of activists in India, the High Court in New Delhi this week dismissed a constitutional challenge to the nation's colonial-era sodomy law. That law provides for tem years' imprisonment and the possibility of a life sentence. While rarely enforced in cases of consenting adults, opponents argue that the law allows police to harass gay men. Activists' hopes were raised 2 years ago when the two justices sitting on the case warned the Indian government that a defense of the law based solely on public distaste for homosexuality would not be adequate to override individuals' constitutional rights. But after three years of proceedings on the petition filed by the Naz Foundation, those justices declared this week that the group had lacked standing to file the petition in the first place. Their decision described the HIV/AIDS charity as "not affected" by the law, and so not in a position to petition to test its validity. Even legal experts are unclear what the court meant, but some believe the justices were indicating that such public interest petitions should be filed by affected individuals rather than groups representing them. It certainly could be argued that the Naz Foundation itself has been affected by the law. The charity's AIDS prevention work has been hampered by the law more specifically than just its general stigmatizing of gay men. The group filed its petition only after four of its outreach workers were arrested in police sweeps of public cruising areas. Charged with conspiracy to commit sodomy and possession of obscene materials, those safe-sex educators were held six weeks before their release on bail. Previously, the government's brief defending the law had indeed relied heavily on the Indian public's intolerance of homosexuality. It also cited public health and safety, and warned that striking down the law would be seen as granting license for all sorts of delinquent behavior. One of the world's most famous sodomy defendants was freed this week, as Malaysia's high court overturned the conviction of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The justices rejected the chief witness' inconsistent testimony as unreliable. Anwar had spent the last six years in prison on corruption charges which reflected an alleged cover-up of sexual misbehavior. He was facing another five years behind bars for the remainder of the sodomy sentence. Until his sudden 1998 arrest, Anwar was widely expected to be the successor to long-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and he enjoyed considerable popularity both within Malaysia and in the international community. Probably due to differences on economic policy, Mahathir came to view Anwar as a threat, and abruptly fired him both from office and from their political party. Anwar's arrest and trials sparked huge street demonstrations in Malaysia despite increasingly violent police measures against the protestors. International observers generally viewed the trials as kangaroo courts on trumped-up charges. Anwar, a husband and father known for his strict religious observance, staunchly denied all the charges against him. It's no coincidence that the success of his final appeal comes only after Mahathir's retirement 6 months ago. Mahathir responded to the high court action by reaffirming his belief that Anwar was guilty as charged. An allegation of homosexuality may have ended the career of a politician in the U.S. This week Republican Congressmember from Virginia Edward Schrock announced he's dropping his bid for a third term. Schrock himself did not specify the nature of the allegation that led to his withdrawal, saying only that it would not allow his campaign "to focus on the real issues". But it's widely believed that the allegation in question was a mid-August posting on gay activist Michael Rogers' Web site Blogactive.com. The site offered a recorded message he attributed to Schrock, which was placed several years ago on a phone service for men seeking male sex partners. Schrock is married and a father. He notably supported continuing the U.S. ban against gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, as well as more recently supporting a bill to keep lawsuits for same-gender marriage out of the federal courts. Meanwhile, New Jersey's Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey, who recently announced both his gay orientation and his upcoming resignation, passed two milestones this week. One was the last chance for him to resign in time for a general election to select his replacement, as many had urged. Instead McGreevey's sticking to his chosen mid-November date so the state Senate President, a Democrat, will serve the rest of his gubernatorial term. The other was the last date that a lawsuit could have been filed against him for the sexual harassment alleged by his former appointee Golan Cipel. It's widely believed that it was the threat of that lawsuit that sparked the coming-out of McGreevey, who is married and a father. In the media firestorm that followed McGreevey becoming the United States' first openly gay governor, Cipel -- who denies he is gay -- fled home to his parents in Israel. A little earlier he'd announced that he would not file the lawsuit if McGreevey made a public statement taking responsibility for the alleged sexual harassment and apologizing for it. No such apology has been forthcoming, but now Cipel says that McGreevey's resignation adequately represents the acknowledgment he'd sought. [following chants of "four more years!"] U.S. President George W. Bush: "I am running with a compassionate conservative philosophy: that government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives." The U.S. Republican National Convention in New York City this week was hardly the anti-gay hatefest it was in 1992, when the term "culture war" was popularized. While there were several instances of "culture war" rhetoric in smaller gatherings, the main stage speakers were careful in their occasional references to preserving marriage from the possibility of gay and lesbian participation. For example, in accepting his party's nomination for another term, President George W. Bush said: "Because the union of a man and woman deserves an honored place in our society, I support the protection of marriage against activist judges. And I will continue to appoint federal judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law." The convention delegates agreed to a party platform which not only endorses amending the U.S. Constitution to restrict marriage to "one man and one woman" but opposes all marriage-like legal recognition of same-gender couples. The gay and lesbian group Log Cabin Republicans was unable to muster enough opposition to stage a floor fight on the point. Instead they turned to the media, airing a 30-second TV spot featuring a clip from Republican icon the late President Ronald Reagan saying he hoped history would "record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears." The ad poses a choice for the party between inclusivity and a religious-right-led exclusivity. There were at least 26 openly gay or lesbian delegates to the convention. That's up from 19 at the 2000 Republican convention, but only about one-tenth the representation at this year's Democratic National Convention. Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary Cheney and her partner Heather Poe sat in the front row of the family's box as her father addressed the convention. But they did not join him onstage when he finished, as did his other daughter Elizabeth and her four children. Mary Cheney has a leading role in managing her father's campaign. Dick Cheney had caused a stir shortly before the convention by publicly appearing to disagree with the President's support for the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. An eight-year legal struggle for domestic partner benefits at the University of Pittsburgh this week saw victory for its gay and lesbian employees. The controversy drew national attention when the university challenged the gay-inclusive civil rights ordinance of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- and again when a student group staged a two-and-a-half-week hunger strike in support of the benefits. The university's opposition to the benefits was primarily motivated by fears that the state legislature would retaliate by cutting its state funds. Those funds are crucial to its operations, although the university is state-affiliated rather than state-owned. In announcing this week that the benefits will go into effect in the coming year, the university did not refer to the legal proceedings at all, citing instead only its concern to be competitive in attracting the best workers. And finally... U.S. hardware chain Home Depot advised its employees this week that it will extend spousal health insurance benefits to their domestic partners. It's probably no coincidence that the memo was issued later on the same day that the Human Rights Campaign publicly criticized Home Depot and three other Fortune 500 companies -- Ecolab, Sprint, and Waste Management. All four have policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation. But although none had offered domestic partner benefits, all four were offering health insurance coverage... for their employees' pets.