NewsWrap
for the week ending August 20, 2005
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #908, distributed 8-22-05)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and 
Greg Gordon]


Reported this week by Cindy Friedman and Jon Beaupré


  The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island had its first legal 
same-gender marriage this week.  Lesbian partners of 28 years Dr. Chris Zarow and 
Connie Majeau were joined in a small ceremony in a garden in Vernon Bridge with an 
interfaith minister officiating.  Despite Canada’s new national law opening 
marriage to gay and lesbian couples, Prince Edward Island wasn’t ready yet when 
the couple hoped to hold the wedding in conjunction with a family reunion last 
week.  They were first denied a marriage license and the matter had to be 
taken to the provincial Cabinet and the Premier’s office before needed approvals 
were obtained from the Health Minister and a license finally prepared.  Staff 
from the Vital Statistics office agreed to come in on the Gold Cup Day holiday 
to hand it over to them.  Until the day before their ceremony it seemed they 
were actually going to marry in Nova Scotia instead.


  A member of one of Europe’s most successful bands publicly came out this 
week.  Westlife singer Mark Feehily told the U.K. tabloid "The Sun", "I am gay 
and I’m very proud of who I am.  I’m not asking for any sympathy, or to be a 
role model to anyone else. … I’m not worried about how peoplle react because 
I’m happy being who I am."  He was already "out" to his family and the band and 
said all of them had been very supportive.  Although he prefers to be a 
private person, he went public now in part because of his relationship with Kevin 
McDaid, formerly of the band V, whom he describes as "a real companion…who makes 
me laugh."
Westlife has had world sales totaling 34 million albums and won an MTV Europe 
Award.  In the U.K. the group has scored a dozen chart-topping singles, five 
multi-platinum albums and two Brit Awards.


  A non-gay Grammy-winning rapper spoke out against homophobia in hip-hop in 
an MTV interview broadcast this week.  Kanye West said, "[E]veryone in hip-hop 
discriminates against gay people.  [‘Gay’ is] the exact opposite word of 
hip-hop.  Not just hip-hop, but America just discriminates.  And I wanna just, to 
come on TV and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, ‘Yo, stop it.’"  
West said that being called a "mama’s boy" in his youth "made me kind of 
homophobic, ‘cause it’s like I would go back and question myself."  But he said 
that when he learned that one of his cousins is gay, "It was kind of like a 
turning point when I was like, ‘Yo, this is my cousin.  I love him and I’ve been 
discriminating against gays."
These experiences contributed to the song "Hey Mama" on West’s 
about-to-be-released album "Late Registration".
He won his Best Rap Album Grammy for "The College Dropout".


  An openly gay U.S. artist who confronted homophobia in punk rock, Biscuit 
Turner, died this week at the age of 56.  He was the gender bending frontman 
for the pioneering band the Big Boys until they broke up in 1984.


  Blues legend "Long John" Baldry died in late July at age 64.  He was a 
seminal figure in the 1960s U.K. blues and rock milieu, starting some of the 
biggest names on the road to fame, including Rod Steward, Mick Jagger and Elton 
John.  His gay orientation wasn’t particularly public but was known to his 
associates.


  Prolific composer of operas and musical plays, actor and minister Al 
Carmines died last week at the age of 69.  Recognized as a founder of the movement 
that’s now known as off-off-Broadway, he won 5 Obie awards including one for 
lifetime achievement.  He’s survived by his partner of more than twenty years 
Paul Rounsaville.


  New Zealand this week mourned the death of David Lange, who was Prime 
Minister when the 1986 Homosexual Law Reform Act passed.  The Labour Party leader 
supported that hotly-contested private member’s bill by Member of Parliament 
Fran Wilde, which decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults and 
equalized their age of consent with that for heterosexuals.


  But homosexual acts are still criminal in India, and more than one hundred 
people demonstrated this week in Mumbai to protest that.  Section 377 of the 
national Penal Code prohibits what it calls "carnal intercourse against the 
order of nature" and prescribes punishment ranging up to life in prison.  A 
lawsuit brought by the Naz Foundation to challenge the constitutionality of that 
law is currently in progress at the Supreme Court, and a key government argument 
supporting the law is that Indian society isn’t ready to accept sexual 
minorities.  With this week’s demonstration, repeal supporters launched a national 
petition campaign with a target of gaining one million signatures.
The demonstration ­ a rarity in India ­ was a colorful affaifair, featuring red 
balloons and rainbow facepaint.  Signs included "Love Knows No Gender" and 
"Same-Sex Love Is Not a Crime".


  Taking to the streets of downtown Tokyo this week were 1-to-3,000 marchers 
celebrating pride for the first time in three years.


  Estonia’s capital city Tallinn saw its second pride parade this week, with 
organizers counting 400 marchers despite heavy rain. 


  In Nepal this week, the 4th annual Gai Jatra Pride march filled the streets 
of Kathmandu.  Pride organizers the Blue Diamond Society said more than 500 
lesbigay and transpeople led with more than 5,000 very diverse supporters 
following, most in costume.  The ancient Gai Jatra holiday celebrated by Hindus and 
Buddhists is a time to recall the dead, but it’s a merry festival whose 
traditions include Mardi Gras-style satire, processions and costuming including 
cross-dressing.
Blue Diamond announced this week that it’s forming what may be Nepal’s first 
support group for lesbians, whose issues are not being addressed by the 
nation’s other women’s and human rights groups.  
The Blue Diamond Mitini Support Group can be e-mailed at 
Bluediamondmitini@yahoo.com.


  Also launched this week was a new national lesbigay lobby group Down Under, 
the Australian Coalition for Equality.  The last effort at Australian 
national organizing, the Equal Rights Network, lasted only about a year before 
splitting up, and the longer-lived Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights 
shut down before 2000.  But the new ACE, founded by veteran activists, hopes to 
last longer because it’s structured specifically for action on national issues 
rather than being a confederation of state-based groups or of state 
representatives.
More information can be found at the group’s Web site 
www.coalitionforequality.org.au.


  South Africa’s Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, which has been the 
nation’s leading voice for the community, has recently been silenced at least 
temporarily by financial problems and other internal issues.  The group has been key 
in a number of legal cases, including a lawsuit for marriage equality that’s 
still in progress.


  This week the South African lesbigay community’s only nationally heard 
radio voice has also been silenced after less than a year.  The weekly "Tuesday 
Night Show" is unable to meet the new contract demands of the public South 
African Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio 2000, where it was heard for the last time 
this week.  Producer Maciek Mazur claims that SABC did not negotiate with him 
in good faith and feels that it "bullied" him out of his 8 PM timeslot with 
unreasonable financial demands.  He’s looking for a new broadcaster.


  China will have its first "gay studies" course next month, as an elective 
for undergraduates at Fudan University in Shanghai.  Previously issues relating 
to homosexuality were dealt with in academic curricula only for medical and 
graduate students.  The course will draw on experts from outside Fudan’s 
faculty to look at health, legal and social issues.  Class size had been intended to 
be one hundred, but since several times that many students have already 
signed up for it, the faculty has agreed to expand it.


  And finally... in Sweden it’s a library that’s working to replace bigotry 
with knowledge.  The Malmö Library has begun a project some call "Borrow a 
Bias" in which ­ rather than taking out books ­ patrons can an "check out" a member 
of a minority group for a 45-minute chat in the library’s café.  That 
conversation is intended to give people an opportunity to confront their prejudices 
face-to-face.  The project’s current nine "offerings" include a lesbian and a 
gay man, plus an imam and a Muslim woman, a Romany, a journalist, an animal 
rights activist and ­ since this is Sweden ­ a Dane.  Actualually Danes pioneered 
this approach, with a similar project running in Copenhagen.