News
State Pulls OUtright from In-School Presentations
Supreme Court Split Decision Bodes Ill for Community
National Groups Cautious about Bush Presidency
The Rest of Our World ...
the rest of our world...
Dutch marriage
AMSTERDAM,Netherlands—The Dutch parliament’s upper house has cleared the final hurdle to legal marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.
Parliament will strike the words “mother and father” and “man and woman” from civil law, amending them to read “partners” and wiping out the last references distinguishing gays from heterosexual couples.
An overwhelming majority of parliament members stood by their desks Tuesday in the First Chamber to register their vote in favor of the bills, and no count was needed. The lower house passed the bills Sept. 12 by a vote of 109-33.
The legislation, expected to take effect next April, will affect some 20,000 Dutch children with parents of the same sex. But the laws will not allow nonresident gay couples to marry in the Netherlands or register adopted children here.
“As far as possible, homosexual marriage will have the same consequences as heterosexual marriages,” said the Justice Ministry in a statement Wednesday. “The normal rules on maintenance obligations will apply to same-sex marriages.”
Mattachine leader dies
SAN FRANCISCO — Hal Call, an early leader of the original Mattachine Society, died on Dec. 18. He was 83.
“As president of the National Mattachine Society, (Call) made his mark and helped to lay the indispensable foundation,” Frank Kameny, a long-time gay activist told GayToday.Com, “providing the impetus for the astonishing cultural changes which we are witnessing today.”
Historian James T. Sears of Harvard University is writing a biography of Call to be published in 2002. “A champion of sexual freedom,” said Sears, “Hal Call refused to downplay his sexuality, or apologize for his sexual behavior.”
LIFE Magazine featured Call in a 1964 article about homosexuality in America, and in 1967, Mike Wallace interviewed him for a national CBS TV documentary, The Homosexual. Call was one of the first openly gay individuals seen nationwide.
Clemency denied
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 on Dec. 15 to deny clemency to a lesbian scheduled to be executed in January for the death of her lover.
“Her time is up,” Assistant Attorney General Sandy Howard told the board, cautioning them not to see the impending execution as a milestone. Wanda Jean Allen would be the first woman put to death since Oklahoma gained statehood.
Eight civil rights, minority, and anti-violence organizations have joined the American Civil Liberties Union to work for Allen’s clemency. Citing questionable legal representation and Allen’s reduced mental capacity along with general opposition to the death penalty, they will focus on Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating.
Eric Ferrero of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said the plan is three-pronged. “We will encourage public pressure, urging people to call and write to Gov. Keating,” he said.
Political pressure may also factor into the picture. Keating is said to be on the shortlist of candidates for United States Attorney General, an appointment that requires Senate approval. The ACLU believes action in Allen’s favor by Keating might help his chances in that evenly divided chamber.
Finally, Ferrero said, although the Roman Catholic governor has publicly disagreed with the church’s position on the death penalty, religious pressure might have some effect.
Keating could issue a stay of execution and ask the Pardon and Parole Board to reconsider Allen’s case based on specific issues. Only the board, however, can ultimately spare Allen’s life.
“Although Gov. Keating does not have the outright power to grant clemency,” said Ferrero, “he does have the power to see that Wanda Jean Allen is not executed on Jan. 11. We will be asking him to exercise that power.”
Appeal set
A gay man on death row in Texas will have another chance to plead his case to a federal appeals court.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case of Calvin Burdine, convicted of stabbing his lover, W. T. Wise, to death with a butcher knife, in spite of the fact that his attorney, Joe Cannon, slept through a significant portion of the trial. The defense also said the prosecuting attorney used anti-gay slurs in the original trial.
A three-judge panel of the court ruled 2-1 in October that Burdine’s rights were not violated, and that he could not prove Cannon, who has since died, slept during important court proceedings.
It is rare, Burdine’s current attorney told the Associated Press, for the full court to review a decision of one of its panels. “It’s safe to say the majority of the full court has serious doubts about the correctness of the panel opinion in this case,” he said.
A spokesperson from the Texas Attorney General’s office agreed that it was an unusual move.
Burdine was sentenced to death in 1984. His latest appeal will be heard in New Orleans on Jan. 22.
Canada customs
OTTAWA—A Canadian Supreme Court ruling will force the country’s customs officials to prove material is obscene before it can be seized at the border. Until the Dec. 15 decision, the burden was on intended recipients to prove that there was no obscenity.
In the 6-3 decision, the Court said officials can now hold material for up to 30 days, after which it must be released if no obscenity is proven. The three dissenting judges favored completely striking down the legislation barring the import of obscene material.
The Court also found that Vancouver gay and lesbian bookstore Little Sisters suffered “excessive and unnecessary prejudice” in dealings with Canada Customs. Nearly 300 packages intended for the store have been destroyed in its 16-year battle with the customs agency.
“When Customs officials prohibit and thereby censor lawful gay and lesbian erotica, they are making a statement about gay and lesbian culture, and the statement was reasonably interpreted (by Little Sisters) as demeaning gay and lesbian values,” wrote Justice Ian Binnie in the opinion. “The message was that their concerns were less worthy of attention and respect than those of their heterosexual counterparts.”
The decision is hailed as a major step forward in the fight for lesbian and gay rights in Canada.
Toronto banns
TORONTO—A church with a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation plans to make Canada the first country to legally marry a same-sex couple.
The Metropolitan Community Church is using a centuries-old Christian practice of publishing marriage banns to circumvent laws prohibiting issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Ontario Marriage Act accepts banns as common law, but contains no reference to the gender of the individuals being married.
Any church that has been in existence for 25 years or more may legally marry a couple after publishing intent to do so for three weeks.
If no legal reasons are raised as to why the two people cannot marry, a ceremony is performed and documentation is sent to the registrar general, who would then issue a marriage certificate.
Opponents maintain Canadian federal common law prohibits issuing a marriage certificate to couples of the same gender. “In order to contract a legally valid marriage,” Lisa Hitch, senior counsel with the federal Justice Department, told the Vancouver Sun, “you must comply with provincial law and comply with federal law.”
Doug Elliott, an attorney for the MCC, said Hitch is wrong. He said the common law to which she points has been superceded repeatedly in recent cases. Also, he told the Sun, “There is nothing in the marriage act that says the marriage isn’t valid unless it’s registered by the registrar general.”
MCC pastor Brent Hawkes announced the church’s plans from the pulpit on Dec. 3. “Until now, we have felt restricted from acting on our beliefs by what we thought was a legitimate impediment regarding same-sex weddings,” he said. “Being called by God to marry same-sex couples, we recently sought legal advice and as a result we have changed out position on the legality of same-sex marriages.” The congregation, 85 percent of which is gay and lesbian, according to the National Post, responded with cheers and applause.
Hawkes said he isn’t worried about the “any objections” portion of the banns requirement. “I don’t expect to get any objections,” he said. “The objections must be based on legal grounds.” According to the legal advice he has received, there are none.
Radio suit
A jury in Cobb County, Ga. has ordered Todd Wolff to pay a former co-worker, Anthony Middlebrooks, $280,000 in damages for supposedly outing him on a local radio show.
Middlebrooks is not gay said he was “deeply offended” when Wolff, the man who had fired him the day before, called radio station 99X to tell host Jimmy Baron—on the air—that Middlebrooks had claimed to have had an affair with Baron.
“Basically, he was accusing me of promiscuous adultery,” Middlebrooks, a married father, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
There’s more to the story, though, said Kevin McClellan of the Atlanta office of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Jimmy Baron is notorious, McClellan said, for his anti-gay commentary. “We get at least a call a week from people complaining about things he says about gays on the air,” he said. “That anyone would believe it [Wolff’s story] is shocking because of Baron’s history.”
More likely, McClellan said, is that Middlebrooks saw a way to get back at the man who had fired him.
Middlebrooks’ attorney, Christopher J. Moorman, focused on the insinuated adultery in claim rather than the homosexuality. “I was not there to label homosexuality as wrong,” he told Law.com.
There’s a strong likelihood, said GLAAD’s McClellan, though, that the gay issue played into the jury’s decision. “There are still many bastions of that kind of thinking here,” he said. He said Middlebrook made it clear in early press coverage that being accused of being gay angered him as much as anything else.
According to Kent Middleton, a professor of journalism and communications law at the University of Georgia, slander is defined by the community in which it takes place. “Anything that causes a person to be shunned or humiliated” can pass that test, he told Law.com. Being called gay in San Francisco, he suggested might not be seen as terrible as in other places.
Episcopal schism
ROSEMONT, Pa.—Conservative Episcopals are going their own way in opposition to the church’s stand on gay issues.
Anglican archbishops from overseas who oppose the Episcopal Church USA’s liberal views on homosexuality challenged the American denomination’s leadership by staging their own confirmation service.
“The day of reckoning has begun,” said the Rev. David Moyer, the rector at the Church of the Good Shepherd, where the confirmation of more than 70 youths and adults took place.
The presiding bishops of Kenya, Uganda, Congo, and Sydney, Australia, attended or sent delegates to the confirmation by Archbishop Maurice Sinclair of Argentina. They oppose the practice by the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, of ordaining gay men and lesbians and allowing clergy to bless same-sex unions.
Bishop Charles Bennison of the Diocese of Pennsylvania called the move a “canonical crisis.” Foreign intervention into the affairs of a national church runs counter to Anglican tradition.
“It’s a breach of custom and canon and courtesy,” he said. “I’m disappointed they would do this.”
Love me, says Ricky
NEW YORK—For all you gay boys out there who think music star Ricky Martin’s hot, it’s OK by him.
He says the persistent rumors about his sexuality don’t bother Martin.
“I can’t get hung up on people whose lives are that empty,” he said in the Dec. 4 issue of People magazine. “I’m an artist and you can fantasize about me however you want.”
Martin, whose “Sound Loaded” album was released this month, won’t confirm or deny rumors that he’s gay. He simply says he’s happily single.
Shepard play
LARAMIE, Wyo.—An emotional play dealing with the death of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard finally has made it to his school.
The audience—some of whom appear in the drama as characters—cheered and gave a two-minute standing ovation after the inaugural performance of The Laramie Project.
“Certain wounds attack so deep they can never fully heal but this certainly helps the healing a lot,” said Matt Galloway, one of the last people to see Shepard alive.
The play, produced by New York’s Tectonic Theater Co., offers a vast array of characters based on interviews cast members and production staff conducted with residents after the University of Wyoming student’s beating two years ago. It opened Feb. 26 in Denver and had its off-Broadway opening May 18 in New York.
“For such a difficult topic and subject it was so well done,” said Susan Stoddard, a Laramie counselor. “I’m just so glad I was here.”
AIDS infections
ATLANTA—There’s still a lot of ignorance about how AIDS is transmitted.
A survey of what people know about AIDS found that four out of 10 mistakenly believe it is possible to get the disease by sharing a drinking glass or being coughed or sneezed on by an infected person.
“It’s scary that so many people are still so ignorant of what causes HIV-AIDS,” said Marty Algaze, a spokesman for the gay Men’s Health Crisis.
“Almost 20 years into this epidemic, it’s disturbing that people think you could still get it from casual contact.”
About 40 percent of more than 5,600 participants in the nationwide survey, conducted for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it was very likely, somewhat likely or somewhat unlikely that HIV could be transmitted by sharing a glass.
Researchers included the “somewhat unlikely” response in the 40 percent because that choice includes the possibility of transmission. “Very unlikely” and “impossible” were the other choices.
Forty-one percent said transmission is possible by being coughed or sneezed on by someone with the virus.
Nearly 19 percent of those surveyed said they agreed with the statement, “People who got AIDS through sex or drug use have gotten what they deserve.”
The survey found that those with more knowledge about how the virus is spread were less inclined to agree with the statement.
Gay sex in Britain
LONDON—British law now treats gays and straights the same way when it comes to the legal age of consent to have sex.
But it took a Herculean effort by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government to force the law through Parliament.
The House of Lords three times blocked the law lowering the age of consent for gay sex from 18 to 16.
So House of Commons speaker Michael Martin invoked the Parliament Act to force through a Sexual Offenses Bill that makes the age of consent the same for both homosexuals and heterosexuals. It became law after being given Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II.
Lawmakers in the House of Commons overwhelmingly approved the bill earlier this year, but the House of Lords this month rejected it for the third time.
The Lords’ powers, however, are limited to delaying legislation by blocking it and bouncing it back to the House of Commons. The Parliament Act was created to ensure that the will of the country’s elected lawmakers prevails.
The bill brings Britain in line with most other European Union nations.
“It is a reform which, in my personal view, is long overdue and is only right for a country that has a history of reform and challenging prejudice,” said Home Secretary Jack Straw, Britain’s top law enforcement officer
Duke ceremonies
DURHAM, N.C.—Gay and lesbian couples will be permitted to conduct commitment ceremonies the famous gothic chapel at Duke University, despite opposition.
Duke President Nan Keohane and the Rev. William Willimon, dean of Duke Chapel, announced that they agree with the change recommended by a committee of faculty, staff, students, and trustees.
“We ought to allow these unions to be celebrated by those clergy who are allowed, by their religious communities, to officiate at such ceremonies,” wrote Keohane and Willimon.
Duke currently allows same-sex unions on other areas of the campus, including in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens and at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life.
Duke is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, which prohibits same-sex ceremonies. But the school said the chapel is a “university facility” not tied to any particular denomination.
Like marriages, same-sex unions will be limited to students, staff, alumni and faculty.
Bishop Marion Edwards of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church said Tuesday that the chapel has never been bound by church policies. But he said the decision conflicts with the church’s official stance on homosexuality.
Leaders in the Duke Conservative Union student group opposed the move, saying the school is undermining the family and violating the rights of religious students.
Unrepentant minister
CHICAGO—A Methodist minister who got into hot water last year for presiding over same-sex unions has found a way around the problem: Just hold the ceremonies themselves outside the church and then go inside and celebrate what just happened.
In a twist on the traditional wedding ceremony, couples at the Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago exchange vows at a ceremony with friends and family outside of church and then return to the church to celebrate their unions, the Rev. Gregory Dell said.
All weddings at the church now are conducted in the same manner in ceremonies for both heterosexual and homosexual ceremonies under a policy adopted Sept. 12. Several ceremonies have been held since then, and more are planned, Dell said.
Bishop C. Joseph Sprague said the ceremony and service appear to satisfy church law.
Dell was suspended last year after a church trial found that he had violated United Methodist law by presiding over the “holy union” of two Chicago men in 1998. He returned to the pulpit in July.
Gay priests
ROME—An Italian who cowrote a biography of Pope John Paul II has broken a taboo with the publication of a non-fiction book about homosexuality in the ranks of Italy’s Roman Catholic clergy.
Marco Politi’s newly published book La Confessione presents the testimony of a priest struggling to balance his homosexuality with his commitment to a church that considers homosexual acts a sin.
The priest, who is never identified, discloses that a network of homosexual priests is active in the Italian church. It is described as an informal “self-help group” that lives in the “catacombs” of the church—the underground.
“There are always those who fear being discovered by superiors and listed as partners in a homosexual corporation. It’s incredible how the fear is so widespread,” the priest says through the author in the nonfiction account, written in the first person.
Mexican unions?
MEXICO CITY—It may soon be legal for gay and lesbian couples to register their unions and adopt children in the largest city in the Western Hemisphere.
Lawmakers from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, the party of Mexico City’s mayor, are working with gay and lesbian rights groups to put finishing touches on the legislation. Mexico City is a federal district with its own legislature.
“It is very significant from our point of view to advance the human and civil rights of these people that are supposedly born free and equal under the constitution,” Armando Quintero, Democratic Revolution leader in the legislature, was quoted by the Reforma newspaper as saying.
It was not immediately clear what chances the bill had of passing, but it could face resistance from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the socially conservative National Action Party, or PAN, of President Vicente Fox.
No party has a majority in the 66-seat assembly for the independent federal district: Democratic Revolution holds 19 seats, the PAN has 17 and the PRI, 16.