NewsWrap for the week ending November 18, 2000 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #660, distributed 11-20-00) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Alan Reekie, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Dean Elzinga The two gay giants of the Internet, PlanetOut and Gay.com, have agreed to a merger. Putting aside several years of intense competition, the PlanetOut Corporation and Gay.com's parent Online Partners will create a new umbrella entity, PlanetOut Partners, while continuing their separate brand name services. Together they serve more than 3-1/2-million monthly visitors and a current total of 1.6 million registered members. Although the two portals had each found 8-figure capitalization this year, investors are expected to find the merged entity even more attractive. Online Partners head Lowell Selvin, who will be chief executive officer of the merged entity, said, "The gay and lesbian community will be the winner in this merger because, for the first time, the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender market becomes a true economic force." PlanetOut head Megan Smith, who will chair the board of the merged entity, said that means that, "We can go to the merchants and demand the products that gays and lesbians need -- and gay and lesbian people can demand the respect they deserve." Both underscored their continuing commitment "to being good corporate citizens" sponsoring community organizations and events. Although both companies are headquartered in San Francisco, Gay.com services are available in five languages with specialized content for the UK, France and Latin America. German gay and lesbian couples will be able to officially register their partnerships next year following passage of a bill by the Bundestag last week. Although Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder's ruling "Red-Green" coalition had promised the partnerships during 1998 elections campaigning, conservative opposition had blocked their advancement. Now the coalition is using a new strategy, separating out those elements of partnerships which the Bundestag can enact without approval from the upper house, the Bundesrat. The coalition has a majority in the Bundestag but conservatives outnumber them in the Bundesrat. What the Bundestag has passed has been roughly categorized as the legal structure of the partnerships, including creating the registry; extending hospital visitation rights; granting resident status to foreign partners; giving partners some parental rights with their partners' biological children; extending full standing equivalent to married partners' for purposes of tenancy, inheritance, pensions, and health insurance; and requiring a formal legal process for dissolution of partnerships, including provision for spousal support payments. Separately, the Bundesrat will be asked to approve additional financial benefits controlled by labor, tax and welfare codes. While German gays and lesbians celebrated the long-awaited move, some conservatives are considering a constitutional challenge to the new law. Predictably, the Vatican quickly issued a denunciation. In Britain, the House of Lords continued its struggle with the Labour Government over lowering the age of consent for homosexual acts from 18 years to 16 to match that for heterosexual acts. This time Conservative Baroness Young used a new tactic reflecting her own vision of equality, proposing an amendment to set the age of consent for anal intercourse at 18 and for all other acts at 16, regardless of the gender of the parties involved. The amendment succeeded by a substantial margin, 205 - 144, including 17 Labour peers dissenting from their party. However, the Government has repeated its determination to ignore this move and to override the Lords with the rarely-used Parliament Act, promising to set the age of consent for all acts at 16 before the new legislative session begins in early December. That will end a ping-pong match that's gone on since 1997, in which the large Labour majority in the House of Commons has repeatedly affirmed equalization by overwhelming margins while the Lords have strongly rejected it. Conservatives believe it's wrong to apply the Parliament Act to a matter of conscience, and some are hoping the Parliament Act itself can be struck down in a legal challenge. But the Government promised equalization to the European courts, which have held off on hearing a lawsuit for equalization which Britain would probably lose. The British Government is also ready to use its authority to repeal sodomy laws in five of its Overseas Territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. For nearly three years Britain has been trying to persuade the five territories to repeal those laws themselves, but territorial politicians have declared it would be political suicide even to propose it. Britain needs to bring its territories into compliance with its own obligations under treaties including the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. Overseas Territory Minister Baroness Patricia Scotland, who has held extensive discussions with many people in the territories, this week wrote to a Member of Parliament that, "We said that in the event of formal notification that they were unwilling to pass the necessary measures, we would have to consider making an Order in Council. I expect to do this before Christmas." Although previously territorial politicians have warned of reactions to forced repeal ranging from civil disorder to independence, they now seem resigned, saying simply there is nothing they can do about it. Cyprus, another island nation which has long struggled with decriminalization of homosexual acts, this week celebrated the resolution of a months-long crisis in its Orthodox Church. The Bishop of Paphos, formerly the most likely successor to Cyprus' aging Archbishop Chrysostomos, has since August been vehemently and publicly declaring that his popular rival Bishop Athanassios of Limassol is gay. Several men went public with allegations that they had had sex with Athanassios twenty years before while they were novices in a monastery in Greece. Even before the Cyprus Synod had concluded its own investigation, Archbishop Chrysostomos called a Major Synod of the top clergy in the Orthodox Church internationally. The Major Synod convened this week for only the third time this century and only the second time in Cyprus. The Major Synod concluded that the witnesses against Athanassios are not credible and cleared him of all charges. The announcement set off spontaneous demonstrations in the streets of Nicosia. The Major Synod is not taking any action against the Bishop of Paphos. However, the Attorney General of Cyprus is bringing criminal charges of conspiracy and defamation against at least four people in the case, two archimandrites of the Church and two laymen. One man who had made allegations against Athanassios and then withdrew them admitted that he had been paid to bear false witness. In what may be a "first" for Japan, a young man in Fukuoka has filed a civil lawsuit charging his male former employer with sexual harassment. More typically such cases appear in criminal courts in prosecutions for indecent assault. The 24-year-old is seeking 3 million yen in compensation – about 28,000 US dollars - and reinstatement to his job. He alleges that the head of his company, a man in his seventies, touched him sexually on four occasions and then fired him after discovering his record of the incidents. The young man claims this "tarnished" his honor and pride and did "irreparable" damage that has taken away his will to live. The corporate chief claims the plaintiff's dismissal was based on poor performance, although he admits he may have touched the young man's waist on some occasions -- in order, he said, "to relieve stress." In Indonesia, a mob last week attacked participants in an AIDS awareness event for gays and transgenders. 150 to 200 people wearing masks and Arab-style garments set upon the 350 - 500 event participants with machetes and clubs, injuring as many as 25. When the participants fled, the mob turned to vandalizing the building the event was held in and vehicles in the parking lot. Yogyakarta police arrested more than fifty people in the case only to release them for lack of evidence. That drew protest from fifty community groups, who called on their governor to take action in what they said was their "last hope for justice without discrimination." The AIDS awareness event at a Java Island resort had been organized by the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association, in conjunction with the Indonesian government's National Health Day observances. In the Australian state of Tasmania, the Parliament this week voted to repeal a 65-year-old law against men dressing as women between sunset and dawn. The move was part of a Government bill to delete obsolete statutes from the criminal code. It's believed that the ban on drag after dark was originally adopted either to stop outlaws from using disguises or to stop cross-dressing sex workers from soliciting World War II servicemembers. Although the ban has long gone unenforced, it remained a justification for harassment and discrimination against transgender people. Its repeal was welcomed by the Gender Council of Tasmania. And finally... while the beautiful katooeys of Thailand regularly hold their own beauty contests, Kesaraporn Duangsawan went one step farther, winning a traditional women-only beauty contest in the province of Ratchaburi. After other contestants complained to police, who confirmed that Kesaraporn is male, he was forced to return his crown and prize money. Even when Thailand's last Miss World selection proved less beautiful than the winner of the annual drag Miss Tiffany's Universe contest, Thai women complained that the cross-dressers and transgenders had an unfair advantage.