NewsWrap
                for the week ending August 3rd, 1996
          (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #436,
                            distributed 08-05-96)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Bill
Stosine, Jason Lin, Greg Gordon, Ron Buckmire, 
Bjorn Skolander and Mary Salome]

  For the group Gays & Lesbians of Zimbabwe -- or G.A.L.Z. -- it's been a
roller coaster ride this week, with changes every day in their struggle to
exhibit at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.  For the second year in a
row, the government of Zimbabwe acted to bar G.A.L.Z. from having a booth at
what's billed as sub-Saharan Africa's largest book fair.  Last year,
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was personally and vocally involved in the
process, while this year he was out of the country.  And this year the Fair's
organizers were a little more defiant of their government sponsors, selling
G.A.L.Z. a booth despite last year's ban.  It took a ruling by Zimbabwe's
Board of Censors and Home Secretary -- carrying penalties of up to two years
in prison and a 1,000-Zimbabwe-dollars fine for violations -- to force
organizers to deny G.A.L.Z. access to the Fair's first two days, July 30th
and 31st.  
  But G.A.L.Z. challenged the censors' ban in court, and surprisingly won the
first round there.  Judge Wilson Sandura struck down the prohibition order on
the grounds that its scope was too broad, the material deemed unsuitable for
display was not specified, and the censors had not even looked at the
material they were claiming would be "associated with breaches of the peace"
and "disorderly or immoral behavior".

  The actual material G.A.L.Z. intended to display reviewed the legal status
and human rights issues of gays and lesbians, gave information about
G.A.L.Z.' own counseling program, and described experiences of Zimbabwe gays
and lesbians.  G.A.L.Z. claims that none of it was erotic in nature, and that
one human rights essay was written by a Catholic bishop.
  Judge Sandura's ruling in favor of G.A.L.Z. was immediately appealed by the
government to Zimbabwe's Supreme Court.  Under Zimbabwe's law, simply filing
that appeal would normally keep the prohibition order intact until the
Supreme Court rules on it, so G.A.L.Z. remained unable to legally display
their literature.  But the lower court's ruling did win the Fair's
organizers' approval for members of G.A.L.Z. to be present at the Fair, and
as the Fair opened to the public on its third day, August 1st, three G.A.L.Z.
members were standing in their empty booth.  As G.A.L.Z. spokesperson Derek
Matyszak said, "[We] cannot exhibit anything at all.  Even a bowl of flowers
would be interpreted as a contravention likely to cause a 'breach of the
peace'."  Yet, gay and lesbian materials were being displayed by foreign
exhibitors.

  The G.A.L.Z. booth drew crowds of visitors, and many of them had questions
for G.A.L.Z. about homosexuality.  Attending the Fair was an act of
considerable courage by the members of G.A.L.Z.  The national government,
local media, and church leaders were all vehemently condemning homosexuality
and supporting the ban, while only three Zimbabwean human rights groups came
out against the ban.  There were widely publicized threats of violence,
police were unresponsive to requests for protection, and demonstrators both
inside and outside the Fair chanted, "Gays must be destroyed."
  On August 2nd, Judge Sandura ruled in chambers that G.A.L.Z. could actually
display their materials, despite the government's appeal.  Sandura believed
the government's case had no reasonable chance of succeeding.  Leaving a bowl
of flowers in their booth, the G.A.L.Z. members went to their office to
collect their materials.  In their absence, about 100 men mobbed the booth,
waving their fists and threatening arson and violence.  One of the mob was a
public prosecutor, Herbert Ushewokunze, Jr., who told the media, "We don't
care what the High Court says.  This is the court of the people, not a court
of poofs."

  So, despite having won in court the right to exhibit, G.A.L.Z. lost even
the chance to enter their booth that day ... yet, they were determined to try
again to show their wares on August 3rd.
  Meanwhile, there was support for G.A.L.Z. from the international community,
as there was last year.  Amnesty International was quick to issue a statement
condemning the ban as a human rights violation.  After the mob demonstration,
foreigh exhibitors were even more discouraged, as they watched their sales
drop to zero.  But even before the mob scene, more major foreign publishers
were planning not to return in the future, partly on free speech grounds and
partly because the event has seemed to become more about G.A.L.Z. than books.

                               =Zimbabwe Update=
  This late-breaking update from Harare -- According to a report by Reuters,
on August 3rd, the final day of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, an
angry mob trashed the Gays & Lesbians Of Zimbabwe booth and burned their
literature.  GALZ administrator Keith Goddard, who barely escaped from the
violent crowd, told the press he considered it a victory that the material
was exhibited at all.  This Way Out will continue to follow this story.


  Veteran U.S. Congressmember Jim Kolbe, a Republican from Arizona, came out
publicly this week as a gay man, saying, "Twenty years ago, when I first
sought public office, I made a decision that my commitment to civic
involvement would mean my public life would have to come ahead of my private
life ... That I am a gay person has never affected the way that I legislate."
 His private life was brought into the public spotlight by the gay and
lesbian media, with his public statement timed to precede the publication of
a feature "outing" him in the U.S. national magazine "The Advocate".  Kolbe
became a target for media "outing" after he voted in favor of DOMA, the
so-called "Defense of Marriage Act".  Kolbe says that although he supports
workplace health benefits for domestic partners, he believes each state
should have the right to make its own choices about recognition of
same-gender couples.

  Despite his position on DOMA, Kolbe's record on gay and lesbian and AIDS
issues otherwise has won him high ratings from Rich Taefel of Log Cabin, the
U.S. National gay and lesbian Republican group:

Rich Taefel [tape]:  As an organization -- Log Cabin -- we don't support the
"Defense of Marriage Act", which was the vote that took place.  However,
within the gay community itself there's a lot of debate about gay marriage,
so on this particular issue people can disagree ... but the danger of
"outing" is that ... who sets the rules for when someone should be considered
a hypocrite or should be "outed"?  It's very subjective, and I think
unfortunately it's driven more times by partisanship or by the desire to
break a news story.

  Although Kolbe would have preferred to remain private, since coming out he
says he's felt relief and experienced a new level of intimate discussion with
his family:

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe [tape]:  The political fallout doesn't make any
difference to me ... I'm probably more at peace and happy with myself today,
and more content with my relationship with my family and my friends than I've
ever been, so I've got my priorities straight -- the rest doesn't matter.

  Despite the media attention, Kolbe says he does not intend to be "a poster
boy" for gay and lesbian causes.  In the wake of Kolbe's coming out, his
colleagues praised his work and said they did not believe his revelation
would hurt his career.  He has won his previous re-election campaigns by
margins, enjoyed remarkably high approval ratings from his constituents
immediately before he came out, and is still expected to win re-election in
November.  Kolbe is now the fourth openly gay man and the second gay
Republican in the current U.S. Congress.

  Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Congressmember Bob Dornan of California has once
again been defeated in his efforts to pursue a homophobic agenda via
amendments to military spending legislation.  For the second time this year,
he had won the approval of the House of Representatives for amendments to
require discharge of HIV-positive servicemembers, and to return to the
pre-Clinton outright ban on military service by gays and lesbians.  As
before, those amendments did not appear in the Senate version ... and the
House-Senate conference committee convened to reconcile the differences in
the two versions once again deleted the Dornan amendments.

  With the eyes of the world on Atlanta, Georgia for the Olympics, Atlanta
gays and lesbians celebrated Pride.  Three days of festivities included a
two-hour-long parade with 130 entries ... but the climax was the rally that
followed, attended by about 180,000 people.  There Coretta Scott King, widow
of the late Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, made her first appearance
before a large gay and lesbian assembly.  She called for a united effort
against all forms of bigotry and discrimination, noting that it's often the
very same people committing hate crimes against both gays and lesbians and
African-Americans.

  Briefly, in other news ... 
  In Britain, protections from employment discrimination based on sexual
orientation were considered by the Parliament -- for a matter of moments.  As
a Private Members' Bill not backed by the government, it was killed by a
single Member of Parliament shouting "Object!", in a procedure its sponsor,
Labour MP Glenda Jackson called "one of Parliament's more bizarre rituals."

  The Russian Duma's Family Committee has asked for information on
same-gender domestic partnerships in other countries.  The Committee was
responding to a letter Russian gay and lesbian activists had sent in early
June calling for legalization of same-gender marriages.

  South African Airways has confirmed that unmarried heterosexual and
same-gender couples can take advantage of the deal it's publicized as, "Next
time your husband flies first class to South Africa, you can fly too, for
free."

  And finally ... the U.S. rap singer known as Warren G. was arrested last
week in Los Angeles for illegal possession of a concealed and loaded
assault-type handgun ... but he also concealed from the public his
whereabouts at the time of the arrest, at least for a few days.  He finally
admitted it was outside a popular lesbian nightclub, emphasizing, "I wasn't
at 'Gay Night', I was at 'Lesbian Night'".  He said he often goes there
because the women far outnumber the men ... and, in a curious turn of phrase,
explained that, "All the fellas go and meet the ladies, coming out."
           -------------------*------------------
Sources for this week's report included:  The Herald/Harare, Zimbabwe;
 Reuter News Service;  The Associated Press;  The Arizona Republic;  The
Arizona Daily Star;  Rex Wockner International News Service;  Pacifica
Network News;  and cyberpress releases from The International Lesbian & Gay
Association;  Amnesty International;  The Human Rights Campaign/U.S.;  Out In
New England;  The Arizona Human Rights Fund;  and Log Cabin Republicans.
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