NewsWrap for the week ending August 31, 2002 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #753, distributed 9-02-02) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman & Dean Elzinga India's Government this week told the Delhi High Court that it will oppose a lawsuit to decriminalize homosexual acts. The Government must now file an affidavit detailing its position for a late November hearing. The lawsuit was filed by the Naz Foundation, an AIDS prevention group whose outreach workers had previously been arrested in police sweeps of cruising areas. India's colonial-era sodomy law provides for 10 years' imprisonment and the possibility of a life sentence. The two judges sitting on the case indicated that public morals alone will not override individuals' constitutional rights in the case. But Government attorneys declared that same-gender relationships are not accepted in India and that they are "looked down upon" even in Western countries which have given them some legal recognition. Another Indian court this week removed the nation's first transwoman elected to public office from her post, which is one reserved for women. Kamla Jaan is one of India's "hijras" -- transgenders often referred to as eunuchs, although they are a diverse group including many intact biological males and hermaphrodites. The hijras were marginalized for centuries, so there was quite a stir in 1999 when Jaan won the mayoralty of Katni in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Many other hijras have since followed Jaan into politics, winning local and state offices and even forming a new national political party. But because Jaan's own post was specifically intended for a female under an affirmative action plan, the court voided her election on the grounds that she is not a woman, but the man her official documents declare her to be. One of the candidates she defeated was among the plaintiffs in the case. It's not yet known if Jaan will appeal. Last year, the city of Delhi barred hijras from running for offices reserved for women. A lesbian couple in Lebanon could face prison time after police broke into one's home last week and found them having sex. The police were acting on a complaint from one woman's mother, who said she'd stolen money and jewelry. Both members of the Mount Lebanon couple were charged both with theft, which could be punished with 3 years' imprisonment, and with engaging in sex "contradicting the laws of nature," which carries a penalty of up to 1 year in prison. Prosecutors ordered that they be held in separate cells. The women have been a couple for several years and intend to reunite on release if they are incarcerated. They reportedly expressed a desire to marry each other and have a child. In the U.S., Ohio's state Supreme Court this week refused to recognize a lesbian couple as parents of each other's biological children, yet granted them standing to seek joint custody in a juvenile court. Cincinnati-area couple Teri Bonfield and Shelly Zachritz have been together for 14 years. In the course of that relationship, Bonfield adopted 2 children and bore 3 by artificial insemination, while Zachritz -- who also had a child by artificial insemination -- has been the primary caregiver. They sought legal status as parents of each other’s children both to protect the children in event of their death or separation, and in their words to "confirm their commitment that they will both continue to raise the children regardless of what happens to their relationship." The court's 5-to-2 decision found it "inappropriate... to broaden the narrow class of persons who are statutorily defined as parents," yet affirmed the women's right to seek joint custody under a broader statute that recognizes "an adult's commitment to a child, and that adult's right and responsibility to continue that commitment." Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court, however, found unanimously last week that gay and lesbian partners should be able to adopt each other's children. Two years ago a Superior Court judge had declared those second-parent adoptions illegal, saying state law reserved them for legally married couples. But the state's high court found nothing in Pennsylvania's Adoption Act that would preclude a same-gender couple from adopting a child who had no legal parents, and so concluded that, "It is therefore absurd to prohibit their adoptions merely because their children were either the biological or adopted children of one of the partners prior to the filing of the adoption petition." The court was considering two cases that have been in process for four years, one a lesbian couple with twins one partner bore by artificial insemination, and the other a gay male couple with two children one partner had adopted. But the celebration of that ruling was short-lived, as this week the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court struck down Philadelphia's hard-won Life Partnership ordinance. After many years of strenuous lobbying, the city adopted the ordinance four years ago, extending spousal health benefits to registered partners of city employees, and extending to all sworn partners a spousal real estate transfer tax exemption. But in a lawsuit brought by seven Philadelphia taxpayers led by the right-wing Urban Family Council, the state court found the city had usurped the state's power to define and regulate marriage, reversing an earlier trial court decision. It's not yet known if the city will appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. To many it was ironic that the Philadelphia ruling came in the same week that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed into law a bill recognizing other jurisdictions' gay and lesbian domestic partnerships, civil unions and legal marriages. By presenting a certificate of any such legal action, same-gender couples visiting New York City can access any of the benefits of the city's own strong domestic partners ordinance. And having first recognized New York City's gay and lesbian domestic partners as "non-traditional family members" in the wake of the September 11th attack, the American Red Cross has now gone on to use those same guidelines in all its programs. The American Red Cross may have become the first U.S. national relief agency to detail policies for same-gender couples' eligibility for disaster benefits, when it issued a bulletin to all its chapters at the end of July. Some significant lawsuits concerning treatment of gays in U.S. public schools were settled in August. This week Nevada's Washoe County School District signed off on a $451,000 settlement with gay former student Derek Henkle, as well as agreeing to adopt new policies and staff training to prevent anti-gay discrimination and harassment. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represented Henkle along with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, says it's both the largest pretrial damages payment of its kind in the U.S., and the first settlement in the nation to recognize a constitutional right of gay and lesbian students to be open about their sexual orientation and to be protected from harassment by other students. Henkle, now 21, suffered continual bullying from students at 3 different high schools in the Reno area and was laughed at and verbally abused by staff. In mid-August, the Visalia, California Unified School District agreed to a settlement with gay former student George Loomis, in what's believed to be the first settlement under a state law against anti-gay discrimination in schools that was passed in 2000. Along with the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, Loomis also sued under federal law, and the case was handled in a federal court. Loomis will reportedly receive $130,000 for the harassment he suffered as the result of a teacher's repeated verbal abuse, and the district will adopt new policies against discrimination and harassment and will provide prevention training to both staff and students. Also in California this week, a non-gay high school teacher reached a settlement of more than $1-million-dollars with the San Leadro school district. Karl Debro, a veteran English teacher who serves as adviser to a Gay Straight Alliance group, was reprimanded four years ago for holding a classroom discussion on homophobia and racism, without first getting his principal's approval. In early August a jury found that the district and its policy on so-called "controversial issues" violated Debro's constitutional rights to free speech and free association, and an Alameda County judge awarded him $500,000 for emotional damages. The settlement stopped the trial from going on to consider punitive damages. Because the jury found proof of malice, the school district's insurance carrier will not pay the settlement, and funds will have to come out of the district's budget. And finally... there's no greater icon of heterosexuality than fictional British undercover agent 007 James Bond. In fact actor Rupert Everett complained to the German magazine "TV Spielfilm" that because he's openly gay, he'd "not in a billion years" be given the chance to play "the most macho of all action heroes," even though he'd "love to" and "would be brilliant as Bond". But a new biography of cinema's current Bond, Pierce Brosnan, quotes him as saying that at age 16, he thought he was gay. In fact he was bullied at the time for what others described as his artistic temperament. Brosnan says that back then he "was young, frivolous, and full of abandon -- a hippie with long hair down to my shoulders and a little goatee beard. Why? Because I thought I was gay." But sorry, guys -- Brosnan, once named "Sexiest Man Alive" by "People" magazine, but also widowed and remarried and the father of two, goes on to say, "But no, I'm not gay."