NewsWrap for the week ending June 12, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #585, distributed 6-14-99) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman An anti-gay U.S. political powerhouse has collapsed, although its offspring could turn out to be even more fearsome. Televangelist Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, which made the religious right a major force in the Republican Party, said this week that it's withdrawn its decade-old application for tax-exempt status. It's widely believed that in fact the Internal Revenue Service rejected the application because the Coalition engaged in partisan support of specific candidates, but by law the IRS cannot say what happened. The Coalition will now be dividing into two groups. The new for-profit Christian Coalition International will be able to form a political action committee that can legitimately engage in partisan activity, endorse individual candidates and make campaign contributions. The non-profit Christian Coalition of America will continue the group's traditional activities, notably distributing voter guides. The Coalition's past voter guides often used homophobic tactics to encourage support for conservative candidates, for example by presenting their opponents as supporting "homosexual marriage" whether it was true or not. However, churches had already become nervous about distributing these voter guides, and the Coalition's IRS situation is likely to make them even more concerned about risking their own tax-exempt status. Long-time Christian Coalition critic Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, believes the IRS situation has completely destroyed the Coalition's credibility with its church-based constituency. Lynn told reporters: [tape] Even aside from tax questions, the Coalition has fallen into disarray since the exit of executive director Ralph Reed in 1997. Fund-raising is down dramatically, a half-dozen top officials in the national organization have left or been demoted, and where there were once more than a score of statewide chapters, there are now perhaps six. No other national religious right group has any similar grassroots structure to support local candidates. Robertson himself has had to increasingly resume personal control of Coalition operations. The volatile mix of religion and politics also made trouble this week for openly gay Canadian Svend Robinson, a Member of Parliament for 20 years who's been the most visible spokesperson for his New Democratic Party. But to represent about 1,000 of his Vancouver-area constituents this week, he stood up in the Parliament to read aloud: Svend Robinson: “The petitioners, members of the Humanist Association of Canada and others, seek changes to the preamble to Canada's Constitution and to the Charter of Rights. They wish to remove the reference to the supremacy of God in the preamble.” Other MPs jeered him, and the NDP was quickly flooded with complaints. The party promptly demoted Robinson from the front bench all the way to the back row, to demonstrate that the petition was contrary to the position of the NDP, whose founders included socially active clergy. Chastened, Robinson wrote an apology to his party and refused to speak to media. However, he retains his responsibilities within the party and his role as its spokesperson on foreign relations, and it's likely that he'll be back in his accustomed leadership role when the fall legislative session begins. Also in Canada's House of Commons this week, the Opposition sought to stem the advance of equal treatment for gay and lesbian couples by drawing a line at legal marriage. The right-wing Reform Party introduced a motion to affirm that "marriage is and should remain the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others." Reform had scheduled seven hours for what it anticipated would be a juicy debate, since a meeting of the ruling Liberal Party had given its support to gay and lesbian marriages. But Justice Minister Anne McLellan surprised them and others with the announcement that the government supported the heterosexuals-only definition of marriage, saying it simply restated what Canadian law has held for over a century. She said the government had no intention of redefining marriage, and that it did not need to do so to ensure equal treatment for same-gender couples. Even though McLellan's statement determined the outcome of the vote after less than an hour, the debate continued far into the night. Those who opposed the motion were particularly concerned that the motion said "that Parliament will take all necessary steps to preserve this definition of marriage in Canada." That seemed to be a commitment to invoke the so-called "notwithstanding clause" to override any future court ruling requiring equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. Members of all the other parties called the motion "despicable," "fear-mongering" and "divisive," and even the Conservative Party's House Leader Peter McKay charged it was motivated by "crass political gain." The resolution was adopted by a vote of 216 - 55. But remarkably, a solid majority of Canadians actually support legal marriage for gays and lesbians, according to a poll published this week by "The Globe and Mail". The national survey performed by the Angus Reid Group in late May found that 53% of respondents supported legal same-gender marriage, compared to only 44% opposed. In a geographic breakdown, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia supported marriage, and the Atlantic provinces were almost evenly divided, but Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan were opposed. There was also a dramatic age difference, with respondents 18 - 34 supporting marriage 2-to-1, while those 55 and older rejected it by the same margin. The 35-to-54 age group favored legal marriage with 57% support. There were moves to recognize the property rights of gay and lesbian couples in two Australian states this week. The Australian Labor Party introduced a bill in Victoria's state parliament to amend a number of current laws to give same-gender couples the same rights as unmarried heterosexual couples for economic purposes. It would give gays and lesbians access to the district court to determine division of property in the event of break-ups, and qualify them for pension benefits and accident compensation when a partner is disabled or dies. However, Victoria's state government has shown no interest in moving on this issue, or in allowing the ALP to do so. And a measure in Queensland with similar impact ran into some stiff opposition this week. Queensland's state government has introduced an industrial relations bill with strong anti-discrimination language and specific provisions for recognition of gay and lesbian partners as "spouses" for all employment benefits. But National Party MP Jeff Seeney said that "the people of Queensland generally do not believe it is appropriate" to recognize same-sex couples, and charged that Premier Peter Beattie has "been rolled by the social engineers from the socialist left who seem intent on forcing their political correctness on the majority of Queenslanders." But in South Africa, a Pension Fund Adjudicator struck down a pension fund's exclusion of same-gender couples, saying it violated the national constitution's prohibition against discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Adjudicator not only ordered the Beka Provident Fund to pay spousal benefits to Rory Martin based on his four-year relationship with his deceased partner, but also required the company to submit an amended policy to the Registrar of Pension Funds. The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality's Mazibuko Jara said that, "This decision not only affirms the relationships of lesbian and gay couples, but also serves as a warning to all pension funds that they can no longer hide behind unconstitutional rules as an excuse to perpetuate discrimination." There were honors for some Britons this week. Queen Elizabeth's Birthday Honours List included the distinguished Order of the British Empire for both Nick Partridge, who heads the Terrence Higgins Trust AIDS charity, and Angela Mason, executive director of the gay and lesbian advocacy group Stonewall. The Bletchley Park Trust announced that it will be creating a communications theme park that will preserve "Station X," where open gay Alan Turing created one of the first computers in the course of breaking German military codes to help win World War II. And Matthew Bourne's homoerotic "Swan Lake" with its all-male corps de ballet of swans won him Broadway's most coveted award, the Tony, for both direction and choreography. In accepting the awards, Bourne thanked not only his partner Arthur, but another gay man he called, "the composer of probably the greatest score on Broadway this or any year, Mr. Tschaikovsky." And finally ... President Bill Clinton has issued the United States' first formal national proclamation of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. Previously Clinton had extended informal greetings for the occasion. His 700-word proclamation begins, "Thirty years ago this month, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a courageous group of citizens resisted harassment and mistreatment, setting in motion a chain of events that would become known as the Stonewall Uprising and the birth of the modern gay and lesbian civil rights movement. Gays and lesbians, their families and friends, celebrate the anniversary of Stonewall every June in America as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month." After detailing his administration's efforts on behalf of gays and lesbians and praising diversity, Clinton concludes, "Now, therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 1999 as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. I encourage all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that celebrate our diversity, and to remember throughout the year the gay and lesbian Americans whose many and varied contributions have enriched our national life."