NewsWrap for the week ending September 7th, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #441, distributed 09-09-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Ron Buckmire, Rex Wockner, Lyn Gerry and Greg Gordon] In a stunning turnabout this week, the U.S. Senate -- which had planned to vote on a bill denying recognition to gay and lesbian couples on September 5th -- instead found itself on September 6th debating a previously sidelined measure to establish federal protections from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation -- the first time in history that either national legislative body has held a floor discussion of civil rights for gays and lesbians. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, has been an election year showpiece for the Republican party, along with parallel state-level measures considered in 70% of the U.S. states this year. It had passed the U.S. House in July by an overwhelming margin, had Democratic President Bill Clinton's promise to sign it, and was confidently expected to breeze through the Senate as well. But in a move championed by Massachusetts Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy, one of several amendments proposed for DOMA was to attach the language of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA. That posed a meaningful threat to DOMA in two ways: first, ENDA seemed to have enough support to ensure that the Democrats could filibuster until DOMA's clock ran out, and second, an ENDA-amended DOMA would likely lose considerable conservative support. In fact, conservatives called the ENDA amendment idea a "poison pill", leading Kennedy to counter that it was "a multivitamin". It turned out to be a maneuver that first postponed the DOMA debate, and now has won ENDA a full Senate vote in exchange for Democrats' promise not to filibuster DOMA. Both DOMA and ENDA are now in line to be voted on as separate free-standing measures on September 10th, with no amendments allowed to either. Oregon's state Attorney General has filed an appeal to put on the shelf a ground-breaking court ruling requiring the state to extend spousal benefits to the gay and lesbian partners of its employees. The August ruling by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Stephen Gallagher was the first of its kind in the U.S. -- the spousal benefits now offered by 3 other states and a number of cities all resulted from either legislation or labor negotiations. But now, because of the appeals process, Gallagher's order will not be enforced for at least a year. Instead of denying Gallagher's view that it's discriminatory to reserve spousal benefits for those who are legally married -- which in the U.S. means heterosexual couples only -- a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office said, "We believe that discrimination on the basis of marital status is not illegal; the tax code does it." The New Jersey-based Magnus Hirschfeld Centre for Human Rights has made a formal inquiry of the Governor of the Cayman Islands as to the future of the sodomy law there. The Centre says that, as a dependent territory of the United Kingdom, the Caymans must abide by the European Convention of Rights & Fundamental Freedoms, which provides for a right to privacy and for non-discriminatory criminal laws, and to the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights. Two other U.K. territories, the Isle of Man and Bermuda, amended their own laws in 1993 and 1994 to conform to the treaties, acting under pressure from the U.K. itself, which is responsible for its territories' international obligations. Precedents in the European Court of Human Rights and in the United Nations Human Rights Committee indicate that criminal sanctions against private homosexual acts between consenting adults are in violation of the treaties even if those laws are rarely or never enforced, because of their "chilling" effect on individuals. The Centre intends to bring the current laws to the attention of the European Community if the Caymans do not undertake repeal. A British female-to-male transsexual has appeared before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, hoping to win official recognition as co-parent of his female partner's child by artificial insemination. The trany testified that Britain's Registrar General actually did give the child his name, but denied his request to be listed as the child's father. The court will rule at a later date as to whether the Registrar's action constitutes a violation of the "respect of family life" clause of the European Convention on Human Rights. It turns out that the wedding of two lesbians August 31st in an Evangelical Church in Vienna was not Austria's first same-gender union to be blessed. The Vienna Gay & Lesbian Association has learned that a male pair in Graz were blessed by a Lutheran minister just a few days before, and they want to claim the title of the nation's first. After significant media coverage in its first two years, this year's gay and lesbian pride celebration in Tokyo went all but unnoticed -- despite a parade of more than 2,000 people lasting one-and-a-half hours. The climactic rally lacked unity as well as media attention, with an activist group that felt left out by the organizers attempting to seize the mike from the scheduled speakers. The Gay Community Yellow Pages, distributed free in 13 U.S. cities, racked up a total of 2.6 million dollars in revenues in its most recent fiscal year for founder Marci Alt's 6-year-old company, which recently moved its headquarters from Atlanta, Georgia to Phoenix, Arizona. Alt believes this makes hers the largest gay and lesbian directory company in the U.S. She sells her advertisers -- about 70% of them gay or lesbian, the rest gay-friendly -- on the idea that the gay and lesbian community is fiercely loyal to businesses that respect them. Alt has experienced bomb threats, but says she's working for a cause: to enable gays and lesbians to support their own community with their spending and to remedy homophobia. The gay and lesbian investment dollar is out there: the Meyers Sheppard Pride Fund has garnered a half-million dollars since beginning operations in June as the first mutual fund investing solely in gay-friendly companies, while the V Management company now has almost 5 million dollars from advising clients in developing their own gay-friendly portfolios. Financiers in general are putting new energy into developing specialty markets, but gay and lesbian dollars are attracting some special attention: the mainstream American Express Financial Advisors, for example, is actively recruiting openly gay and lesbian personnel, training its staff regarding some of the special investment issues of same-gender couples, and will soon be running its first national ad campaign in the gay press. Mellon Private Asset Management is another mainstream firm actively seeking gay and lesbian dollars, while the Calvert funds and the Oakland-based brokerage Progressive Asset Management will both consider the gay-friendliness of their investments. New York City's Christopher Street Financial brokerage caters to a gay clientele but isn't willing to make a so-called "socially responsible" agenda in itself a litmus test for investments. Lacking legal marriage in the U.S., gay and lesbian couples often benefit from specialized advice regarding taxes, insurance, pensions, and estate planning -- and an increasing number of both independent and mainstream financial services are gearing up to give it to them. This week saw the official launch of PlanetOut, the self-described worldwide online community of lesbian, gay, bi and transpeople. In addition to a full range of services from chat and shopping to the Queer Resources Directory and PopcornQ -- the ultimate resource for gays and lesbians in film -- the website offers audio from "This Way Out". In partnership with PlanetOut, the popular search service Yahoo! began daily electronic postings of gay and lesbian news on its Gay Listings Page. Both the Yahoo! postings and the content of the NewsPlanet area on PlanetOut are produced by some of the same people who bring you "This Way Out". You can find PlanetOut on America Online, and on the World Wide Web at planetout.com. Rising star and U.S. lesbian icon Rosie O'Donnell -- comic, actress and talk show host -- has been portrayed in the Florida-based tabloid "The Globe" as being in "her first committed adult relationship" with singer/dancer Michelle Blakely, best known for her work in "Grease". Rosie's described as having been somewhat open about her sexual orientation in her private life for some time. They say she's ecstatic, her friends are happy for her, and she and Michelle plan to adopt a second child in addition to the 16-month-old Rosie's already adopted. And finally ... Beavis & Butthead, the bizarre pair of couch potatoes beloved of the MTV audience, are headlining a new film from Paramount scheduled for release in December. Along with REM, LL Cool J, and the notorious-for-male/male-kisses Red Hot Chili Peppers, the soundtrack features a man normally unlikely to be named in the same breath with any of them: Engelbert Humperdinck. Stranger still, Humperdinck's there because he's a man with a cause, and the cause is the biggest surprise of all: lesbian seagulls. In case you missed the news of their discovery, there are indeed lesbian seagulls, living on an uninhabited island off the California coast. Humperdinck sings the film's title track, "Fly High Lesbian Seagull", but he also intends to make several performances specifically to benefit the lesbian seagulls. ------------*------------- Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; United Press International; Reuter News Service; The New York Times; The San Francisco Chronicle; The Congressional Daily; Episcopal News Service; The Chicago Tribune; Rex Wockner International News Service; Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News; Business Wire; PR Newswire; Entertainment Wire; and cyberpress releases from The American Civil Liberties Union; People For The American Way; The Human Rights Campaign; The Vienna Gay & Lesbian Association; The Family Research Council; The American Family Association; and The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.