NewsWrap for the week ending March 30, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #731, distributed 4-1-02) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman A gay man married a lesbian in Hong Kong this week while their long-time same-gender partners stood by as witnesses. Those partners also plan to marry each other, but neither couple intends to live as man and wife. Instead, they're seeking the subsidized housing the Hong Kong government offers only to legally married couples, but hope to use it to live as gay and lesbian couples. Both couples cross-dressed at the registrar's office in City Hall, with Tommy Noel Chen in a white dress and veil and Yeo Wai-Wai sporting a tuxedo and a fake moustache. After the civil ceremony, the bride and groom exchanged rings and kisses not with each other, but with their partners. Yeo told reporters, "We are two pairs of same-sex couples in love. Unfortunately, Hong Kong society does not give us equal opportunities and rights." The quartet went directly from the wedding to sign up for public housing. An expert warned they could face prosecution, either for "undertaking false oaths" at the ceremony or for violating the public housing rental agreement by living with someone other than their marital partner. A statement from the Home Affairs Bureau said that its housing policy "reflects the consensus of the community regarding monogamous marriage." The Hong Kong gay and lesbian civil rights group Rainbow Action plans to arrange more marriages between gay men and lesbians as part of its efforts to open marital housing assistance, tax allowances and adoptions to gay and lesbian couples. A cross-dressing marriage was also reported from mainland China, but under very different circumstances. Non-gay female Xiao Ping apparently believed her marriage last year was to a male, although it was clearly a marriage of convenience that Xiao says was never consummated. Liang Xiaoyu contracted the union in order to join Xiao in emigrating to Japan. Chinese government sources reported this week that Liang was only discovered to be a female when police ordered a physical exam after interviewing her as a suspect in a theft. Taiwan's Ministry of Justice has quietly drafted a proposal to allow same-gender couples to adopt, and possibly to contract civil unions. If the draft is adopted as part of the island's Human Rights Protection Law now in development, it would be the first specific reference to gays and lesbians in Taiwanese law. In the U.S., some Colorado courts in recent years have allowed lesbian couples to list both their names on the birth certificates of their children born by artificial insemination, but a bill now advancing in the state legislature could stop them. Thornton Republican Pam Rhodes introduced House Bill 1356 to restrict parents shown on birth certificates to one man and one woman. After squeaking through a party-line committee vote this week, the bill is headed for the state House floor. But a Connecticut state legislative committee this week approved by a nearly 3-to-1 margin a bill to create domestic partnership contracts. Although the bill does not make explicit reference to sexual orientation, it would allow gay or lesbian couples to legally contract with each other to be recognized for purposes including hospital visitation, medical decision-making, burial rights, and the right to sue for wrongful death. The committee vote came shortly before a deadline for House floor consideration this term and a clerk delivered the tally only after that deadline had passed. But Democratic Speaker of the House Moira Lyons supports the measure and has indicated she'll be open to its consideration when supporters revive it as an amendment to other legislation. Louisiana's Supreme Court this week unanimously refused to strike down the state's 200-year-old law criminalizing oral and anal sex. The venerable law applies regardless of the gender and even marital status of the parties involved, and it has often been applied to heterosexual assaults as an alternative to more stringent rape charges. Ten years ago the group Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians filed a civil lawsuit challenging the law and prevailed in a trial court three years ago. This week the state's high court followed a state appellate court in rejecting their claim that the law violates the privacy guarantees of Louisiana's state constitution. However, the Supreme Court ordered the state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal to take up the group's further claims that the law is discriminatory, selectively enforced, and creates a stigma for gay, lesbian and transgendered people -- claims the appeals court did not deal with previously. The challenger's attorney John Rawls said, "I am sick and tired of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal and the state Supreme Court punting this case back and forth between them. Frankly, the courts of Louisiana should be embarra ssed that after 10 years, the longest-running sodomy challenge in U.S. history is nowhere near its end." He noted that in other states five courts and two legislatures had struck down sodomy laws during that period. Alaska's Democratic Governor Tony Knowles has signed an administrative order prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in state employment. He acted at the recommendation of a tolerance commission he appointed last year. And there were happy tears and cheers as Washington's Democratic Governor Gary Locke this week signed into law a requirement that schools create policies to protect students from harassment, including homophobic bullying. The bill's openly gay sponsor Seattle Democratic Representative Ed Murray attributed its success to his party's winning control of the House in last year's elections, whereas Republican leadership had previously blocked its progress for years. He also credited the activism of Gabi Clayton, whose bisexual son Bill was driven to suicide by his schoolmate's harassment. The suicide of a harassed Canadian teen has led to a landmark legal action in British Columbia -- the province's first criminal prosecution of a student following a suicide. Although the bullying of the late ninth-grader Dawn-Marie Wesley has not been explicitly described as homophobic, the legal action is expected to improve the situation for lesbigay and transgender victims as well as others. This week Wesley's chief harasser, who was 15 when Wesley died at age 14, was convicted of criminal harassment. She could face a sentence of as much as six months in custody or two years probation. Wesley's mother and others hope the case will discourage bullies and encourage their victims to come forward to seek help. New Zealand's biggest annual pride event, Auckland's HERO Parade, was severely scaled down this past week after years of financial difficulties that bankrupted its founding HERO Trust. The 2,000 marchers were accompanied by just one float as they passed before some 10,000 happy spectators on a perfect afternoon. Thanks to the success of associated parties, the new organizing group HERO Inc. should be in better financial shape for the future. But bid farewell to a pre-Stonewall landmark. The Bull Mastiff, long known as Morgan's New Sauna, opened in Buffalo, New York in 1892. Popular with gay men from western New York and southern Ontario, it's believed to be the oldest continuously operating gay bathhouse in the U.S. But city inspectors found that the building doesn't meet fire codes, and current owner Lynne Kizer, lacking the funds to upgrade the facility, closed the baths this week. And finally... science has finally set the historical record straight -- or in this case, gay -- concerning the colorful Irish revolutionary Sir Roger Casement. As a British civil servant, Casement became famous and honored as a humanitarian for his investigations into the slave trade in Peru and the Belgian Congo. But after his retirement in 1913, Casement joined the Irish Volunteers, and Britain hanged him for treason in 1916. Once he'd been sentenced, his private journals -- known as the "Black Diaries", in contrast to his more public "White Diaries" of the same period -- were widely circulated. The "Black Diaries" shocked the public with their enthusiastic and detailed accounts of Casement's homosexual encounters. Many charged they were forgeries promulgated by the British government to discredit Casement and the Irish freedom movement. The controversy continued long after Casement's death. It remained such a sore spot in Anglo-Irish relations that three years ago Ireland ordered an extensive new study to set the matter to rest. In mid-March, forensic scientists confidently concluded that the "Black Diaries" are genuinely Casement's own work.