NewsWrap for the week ending December 18, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #612, distributed 12-20-99) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman London members of the Conservative Party have chosen the two most gay-friendly hopefuls as finalists for the mayoral nomination. One is openly gay computer consultant Andrew Boff. The other is former Transport Minister Steven Norris, almost universally believed to be the Tories' best hope for victory, who is president of TORCHE, the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality. They were the only Tory hopefuls who are vocal supporters of repeal of Section 28, the notorious Thatcher-era prohibition against "promotion of homosexuality" by schools or local governments. The other semi-finalists, like the Tories in the Parliament, opposed the Labour Government's move to repeal the never-enforced law. The 40,000 London members of the Conservative Party will choose between Norris and Boff in a mail-in balloting whose results will be announced in mid-January. Labour Party hopefuls, the Liberal Democrats' candidate, and openly gay Green Party candidate Darren Johnson all support Section 28 repeal. Even the Conservative Party leaders in the House of Commons are softening their stand on Section 28. Previously they had decided to enforce the highest level of party discipline on their members to oppose repeal. They even demoted their spokesperson for London affairs for disloyalty when he tried to craft a compromise that would clearly allow educators to intervene in anti-gay harassment among students. Yet after meeting with representatives of TORCHE and the national gay and lesbian lobby group Stonewall, they have decided to develop a similar compromise of their own, although they're calling it a "clarification." It was reported that this reversal followed threats that a half-dozen Tory Members of Parliament would be "outed" if they opposed repeal -- but those threats did not come from either TORCHE or Stonewall. It's possible they came from the direct action group OutRage!, whose spokesperson Peter Tatchell said that, "We only support outing MPs if they endorse laws, like Section 28, which discriminate against lesbians and gay men. OutRage! would never out anyone because of their homosexuality [alone]," but closeted MPs who opposed repeal "will be putting themselves in the firing line." However, Conservative Party headquarters has also received numerous letters of protest and even resignations from the party from others protesting the party's hard line against repeal. Many believe the party should allow its MPs the chance to vote their conscience, as it did on equalization of the age of consent. Scotland's new national government is also seeking to repeal Section 28, and this week the backlash began to be heard. Leaders of several major Christian denominations in Scotland jointly wrote an open letter to First Minister Donald Dewar to express their opposition to repeal, although they said they were expressing their opinions as individuals. They wrote that they feared there would be no legal protection for children or parents' rights. In individual comments to reporters, they said repeal would "undermine family life," lead to "moral decline," and result in teachers presenting children with "things we do not consider wholesome." An organization of teachers at Christian primary schools is running a petition on the Internet, saying that they "oppose any prejudice against homosexuality" but feel it "should not be promoted in the schools." Another open letter came from the Scottish School Boards Association, which represents most of the school boards in Scotland. Those boards advise school administrators on policy matters and are composed of parents, teachers and community leaders, most elected, some appointed. They believe that Section 28 provides protections for both students and teachers. Yet unions support repeal, including Scotland's largest teachers' union, the Education Institute of Scotland. Politically, the Opposition Scottish National Party supports the Labour Party's move to repeal, and even Scotland's Conservative Party is said to be reconsidering its defense of Section 28. After a four-year struggle, British gay couple and millionaires Barrie Drewitt and Tony Barlow finally became fathers. Their twins Aspen and Saffron were born December 11 in California, the result of in vitro fertilization and surrogacy. Those medical options are not available to gays in Britain. Neither is the legal option they chose in California, to both be named as parents on the twins' birth certificates. But to gain British citizenship for the twins, or even to bring them into the country, is going to mean a protracted legal struggle raising questions without precedent in the U.K. Drewitt and Barlow will do their best to win that conflict, but should they lose, they will remain in the U.S. with their son and daughter. But a lesbian in Illinois has no standing to seek visitation with the child her former partner bore by artificial insemination, a state appeals court ruled this week in what's believed to be the first case of its kind there. The co-parent known in court papers as "Amanda" had a nine-year relationship in Georgia with the biological mother known as "Helen." They agreed together on becoming parents, and "Helen" became pregnant by an anonymous donor in 1992. In Georgia, Amanda did not have the option to co-adopt their daughter "Cathy," but she was present at her birth, parented her, and was the sole financial support of both Cathy and Helen. Even after the couple broke up and even after Helen moved to Chicago, Amanda continued to send support payments. But Helen didn't allow Amanda to visit, and since March 1997 hasn't even allowed her to speak with Cathy on the phone. Helen is now married to a man. Amanda filed a lawsuit for visitation in 1998, but the trial court judge threw out her case, which the appeals court has now confirmed. Amanda was represented by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which pointed out that the same Illinois appeals court three years ago granted visitation rights to an unmarried heterosexual man who was neither the biological nor adoptive father of his former girlfriend's child. The court did not explain the difference between his case and Amanda's, but said current law did not cover the situation and that it was up to the state legislature to determine public policy in the matter. The Australian state of Tasmania proudly proclaimed its new Anti-Discrimination Act on December 10, International Human Rights Day. Passed by state lawmakers a year before, the Act prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and notably does not include the exemptions typical of such laws in Australia and elsewhere. As it stands, even churches may be required to extend equal treatment to gays and lesbians, as well as schools, insurance companies, and possibly even the state's own old age pension program. The Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group is pressing the state's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner to make a public statement clarifying the full reach of the law in a number of areas. In San Francisco, open gay Tom Ammiano was defeated by a 60 ­ 40 percent landslide in his attempt to unseat gay-friendly incumbent Mayor Willie Brown. That's no surprise, given that the city has done well during Brown's tenure, and that his campaign had ten times the funding of Ammiano's and all of the Democratic endorsements right up to President Bill Clinton's. Remarkably, the notoriously liberal mayor was even endorsed by San Francisco's Republican Party, which feared the even farther left Ammiano. But while he did not become the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, Ammiano's campaign succeeded several ways. His astonishing success in forcing this run-off with Brown through an almost no-budget write-in campaign brought new hope to those who had become cynical about politics. Many who had felt they were on the outside became actively involved in his campaign, including young people, renters, people with lower incomes, left-wing activists, and even the homeless. If Ammiano can keep that coalition together, he'll have a new level of clout in San Francisco, beyond his current role as president of the Board of Supervisors. Ammiano told his supporters as he conceded, "My voice may be high, my orientation may be gay, my politics may be left, but we are right. We have moved San Francisco. We have been a voice for the people who have been shut out and we will be shut out no longer. My heart swells. I am verklempt." And finally ... an incident this week was almost the most poetically appropriate death possible for Boy George, the gender-bending lead singer of Culture Club who cranked out disco favorites in the 1980's. The recently reconstituted group is now on a nostalgia tour through Britain, where George has grown up to be a gay activist and columnist in the interim. During rehearsal before a concert at Dorset's Bournemouth International Center, a wire snapped and sent a 62-pound mirrored disco ball speeding down towards George's head. Luckily it was a couple inches shy of a direct hit on his skull, but it clipped his face, and slammed into his shoulder, showering him with fragments. He said, "It would have been both ironic and glamorous tobe finished off by a four-foot glitter ball... But I have survived and I'm still here, although my back is aching like anything." Despite severe bruising, he went through with his performance just hours later.