NewsWrap for the week ending November 23rd, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #452, distributed 11-25-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Ron Buckmire, Bjorn Skolander, Alan Reekie, Ron Woods, Douglas Kimmel, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] Belgium's gay deputy prime minister Elio DiRupo was confronted this week with allegations that he'd had sex with teenage boys below the country's age of consent of 16. He completely denies the allegations. They might never have come to light except that Belgium right now faces a crisis of confidence in its government and police, and is particularly focussed on pedophilia after the August discovery of the kidnapping sex murders of several young girls by a gang of men. The allegations against Di Rupo were leaked to the press, however, which in the current climate forced police and prosecutors to mount an investigation. Under Belgian law, a Member of Parliament can only be prosecuted, searched or forced to testify if a majority of the Parliament votes to lift his immunity. In DiRupo's case, such a vote would not only certainly mean the end of his career, it could conceivably also bring down the coalition government, in which he represents the Francophone Socialists. A Parliamentary commission was established to review the evidence, and found it too weak to recommend lifting DiRupo's immunity. In fact the allegations are little more than the extremely inconsistent and unsupported testimony of an individual who was arrested for suspicion of theft and brought to the attention of police by a paid informant. The Parliament voted by a more than 5 to 1 margin to retain DiRupo's immunity, although the opposition attacked the prime minister for not forcing DiRupo to step down. However, the commission also asked for the investigations to continue, and for a report to be made to them by December 9th. Ironically, DiRupo has been in charge of Belgium's efforts to keep child pornography off the Internet. In Wisconsin, open gay Jamie Nabozny won a landmark federal case this week against school administrators who failed to intervene during years of extreme homophobic harassment and violence he suffered at the hands of other middle and high school students. It's believed to be the first federal case in the U.S. to deal with schools' responsibility to protect their gay and lesbian students. Just hours after the jury delivered its verdict, the attorney acting for the Ashland School District reached a settlement with Nabozny's counsel from the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, for a total of $900,000. Nabozny had also sought the chance to be graduated from high school at commencement ceremonies, something he missed out on because the abuse had driven him to drop out before completing high school. Later, he obtained a graduate equivalency degree. "I can now go on with my life and have the normal educational experience that I waited a long time for," he said. He hopes to use the settlement money for a college education in social work so that he can help other gay and lesbian teens. Two important cases were in court this week which concern the Clinton administration's so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy on military service by gays and lesbians. One, Able versus USA, is considered to be the leading test of the policy, challenging it on several grounds. In its first round in a federal district court a year and a half ago, Judge Eugene Nickerson had found the policy to be an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights -- but he also chose to dismiss those aspects of the case which refer to actual behavior, believing that the plaintiffs had no legal standing in that area. When an appeals court later reviewed his decision, they reversed his free speech finding...but they also demanded that he hear the behavior issues, saying the two elements "rose and fell together": if one was legitimate, they both were, while if one was unconstitutional, they both were. The appeals court recognized that the same behavior is treated very differently if committed by heterosexuals than if committed by gays or lesbians, but that panel believed the distinction was probably justified by the military mission. The hearing Nickerson held this week was the first step in his consideration of the behavior issues. The other case considers the part of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that used to be called "don't pursue". It's an appeal by decorated veteran gay Marine Sergeant Robert Nadel of military criminal convictions for indecent assault and indecent exposure. His appeal contends that the witch hunt tactics that led to his identification and ultimate conviction were in violation of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy's provisions. It's the first serious legal test of whether the witch hunts the policy was meant to end can still continue. The procedural concerns about his investigation were dismissed by the military trial court. The campaign demanding that Chrysler Corporation specify "sexual orientation" in its anti-discrimination statement climaxed with demonstratons at plants and dealerships in as many as twenty American cities in mid-November -- but the publicity leading up to that day of protests won some results even before it occurred. On the day of the demonstrations, all Chrysler employees received a letter from Chrysler Chair Robert Eaton. It clarified that the Corporation will not "tolerate harassment or discrimination of any employee on any basis, including sexual orientation." Chrysler had preferred to keep a generalized diversity statement in the belief that it would protect everyone, while specifying any groups would inevitably leave some out. Dr. Evelyn Hooker, a key figure in bringing the psychological professions to recognize homosexuality as a normal variation instead of a mental disorder, died this week at the age of 89. She began her investigations of homosexuality in the late 1940's, but the key moment in her 30-year career was a paper she delivered to the American Psychological Association in 1956, "The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual." In that study, she gave three standard personality tests to gay men recruited through the Mattachine Society and to a control group of non-gay men who were matched with the gay men for age, education and IQ. She gave the test results "blind" to three clinical psychologists, who couldn't tell from the tests which of the participants were the gay men. They had believed that gay men could not possibly be normal and had a strong feminine identification and some paranoia. They found instead that some had no pathology at all and that 2/3 rated average to superior in their level of adjustment. This study laid the groundwork for the American Psychological Association's decision in 1973 to remove homosexuality from their list of disorders. They later recognized Hooker with an award for her distinguished contribution to psychology in the public interest. Her efforts were documented in the 1992 film, "Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker." Scandinavia's first continuing lesbian and gay TV program, Sweden's "Homogen," has been canceled. "Homogen" had premiered September 2nd. Broadcaster ZTV's financial problems were cited, although there is hope for "Homogen's" return on ZTV or another station. According to producer Nicke Johansson, the fourteen editions of the program, which showcased the diversity of gay and lesbian culture, won strong ratings and considerable commercial interest. He considers that "Homogen" demonstrated that this kind of content can indeed succeed on Swedish airwaves. The weekly variety show was hosted by lesbian activist Anita Kettunen and gay press photographer Peter Knutson, who shared Johansson's vision of using media to create change. And finally ... immediately following November 5th voting, the U.S. House of Representatives' leading homophobe, the bombastic Bob Dornan, had a tiny lead over his Democratic challenger Loretta Sanchez. But as absentee ballots and others requiring special verification were slowly tallied, Sanchez pulled ahead. The final tally was announced November 22nd, with Sanchez having won by almost a thousand votes out of more than ninety thousand cast in the Orange County, California district. Dornan is still unwilling to concede, having blamed his defeat on everything from non-citizen votes to gay and lesbian dollars, and he's seeking a recount and a voter fraud investigation. But someone else is also demanding an investigation: humorist Michael Moore, creator of the short-lived U.S. TV series "TV Nation" and the film "Roger & Me". He wants to have all votes for Dornan invalidated, with this logic: People who voted for Dornan are not sane. Insane people cannot vote in California. And Moore will prove their incompetence by showing they voted for Dornan. Moore added that if Dornan were present, he would serve as living proof. ---------------*----------------- Sources for this week's report included: The Ashland (Wisconsin) Daily Press; The Associated Press; The Beloit (Wisconsin) News; The Canadian Broadcasting Co.; The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press; The Electronic Telegraph (London); Le Libre Belgique (Belgium); Le Soir (Belgium); The London Times; The Los Angeles Times; The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Journal-Sentinel; The New York Times; Reuter News Service; The San Francisco Examiner; United Press International; Gay & Lesbian International News Network; Update (San Diego); U.S.A. Today; The Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; The Human Rights Campaign; Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund; The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force; The Philadelphia Lesbian & Gay Task Force; The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network; and The University of California at Los Angeles.