NewsWrap
for the week ending February 15, 2003
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #777, distributed 2-17-03)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon]


Anchored by Christopher Gaal and Cindy Friedman


  In the week of Valentine's Day, partnerships dominated gay and lesbian news.
Brazil's Supreme Court on Valentine's Day issued a ruling affirming the 
rights of gays and lesbians to inherit their deceased partners' social 
security benefits and pensions as legally married spouses do.  The high court 
upheld a June 2000 ruling by a federal judge in the state of Rio Grande do 
Sul.  The failed appeal was brought to the Supreme Court by Brazil's National 
Institute of Social Security, INSS.  In the interim, dozens of gays and 
lesbians had succeeded in accessing their late partners' INSS pensions, but 
many others had been denied them by their local offices.


  The European Parliament this week endorsed an expanded definition of "
family" that includes same-gender couples.  By a 9% margin, the EP approved a 
committee's proposal including mutual recognition of gay and lesbian 
partnerships among member states of the European Union.  ILGA, the 
International Lesbian and Gay Association, has lobbied hard for the move, and 
its European co-chair Kurt Krickler explained that if the policy is adopted, 
"it would remove the main obstacles hindering 
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender citizens from exercising their right of 
residence and free movement."
The current lack of mutual recognition can interfere with a partner's 
obtaining a residence permit when a couple relocates, and can even pose a 
barrier to hospital visitation.  
While this week's vote by the directly elected EP is an important step, the 
directive still needs the approval of the EU's appointed Council of Ministers.


  Numerous demonstrations for equal marriage rights for same-gender couples 
were held across North America this week, in coordinated actions for 
Valentine's Day and the U.S. 5th annual National Freedom to Marry Day 
observed February 12th.
In Mexico City, gays and lesbians held their annual public mass wedding 
ceremony, a celebratory demonstration for legal recognition of their 
partnerships.  Mexico City's own legislature has for some time been 
considering a bill to create registered partnerships for same-gender couples 
with the same city-level benefits as heterosexual couples.


  Across Canada and the U.S., in addition to demonstrations and press 
conferences, a number of gay and lesbian couples applied for marriage 
licenses -- and were denied them.  This happened at 120 sites in the U.S. 
including Berkeley, Oakland and Los Angeles in California; Pueblo County, 
Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; Trenton, New Jersey; Northampton County, 
Pennsylvania; Minnehaha County, South Dakota; and Hamden, Hartford, Mansfield 
and Norwich in Connecticut, where a civil unions measure is being hotly 
contested in the state legislature.


  Canadian gay and lesbian couples were denied marriage licenses at sites 
including Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. John's, Newfoundland; Moncton, New 
Brunswick; Montreal, Quebec; Sudbury and Toronto in Ontario; Winnipeg, 
Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Calgary, Alberta; and Kelowna, Vancouver 
and Victoria in British Columbia.


  Equal marriage rights are currently under consideration in Canada in the 
courts and the national legislature.
As it happens, this week marked the beginning of hearings in the British 
Columbia Court of Appeal on a key marriage case, as 8 gay and lesbian couples 
denied marriage licenses in 2001 contest a provincial trial court's finding 
that current marriage discrimination is justified.  Since then courts in two 
other provinces have found marriage discrimination unconstitutional, 
decisions which are also being appealed.


  In the wake of those decisions, a committee of the Canadian Parliament has 
been holding hearings at the request of the Justice Department to consider 
the status of gay and lesbian couples, including the possibility of full 
equal marriage rights -- but those hearings are not going well.  Justice 
Committee chair Andy Scott this week had to call for members to "express 
[them]selves with restraint," hoping to avoid verbal confrontations that have 
disrupted the hearings.


  Openly gay committee member New Democratic Party MP from British Columbia 
Svend Robinson was outraged by a Christian group spokesperson's testimony 
comparing homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality.  He told reporters, 
"The hearings have too often been steeped in an atmosphere that is abusive, 
hateful and full of, in a number of instances, really disturbing allegations 
about gay and lesbian people."
Robinson this week reintroduced in the House of Commons his private members' 
bill for equal marriage rights, declaring that "The relationships of gay and 
lesbian people are just as committed, just as loving and just as deserving of 
recognition through marriage as those of heterosexual couples."


  Democratic U.S. Congressmember from New York Jerrold Nadler chose 
Valentine's Day to reintroduce his Permanent Partners Immigration Act, which 
would allow U.S. gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign partners for 
immigration as legally married spouses can.  It's the third time Nadler has 
introduced the bill, which has little hope of advancing.


  In Hawai'i -- which was the first U.S. state to recognize same-gender 
couples -- a civil unions bill quietly fell victim to a deadline this week, 
falling one state Senator short of the minimum of 13 supporters needed to 
advance.  The measure did have support from a majority in the House of 
Representatives.


  At the municipal level, the Los Angeles, California City Council 
unanimously approved an Equal Benefits Ordinance.  Effective April 1st, all 
companies with city contracts of more than $5,000 must extend the same 
employee benefits to their workers' domestic partners as they do to married 
workers' legal spouses.


  Eugene, Oregon registered domestic partners for the first time on 
Valentine's Day.  Registration does not guarantee any rights or privileges, 
but does provide a form of certification for employers and others who offer 
domestic partner benefits.


  The Collier County, Florida Commission voted 4-to-1 to approve a resolution 
on civil rights, including those of gays and lesbians.  But activists were 
disappointed, since it only calls for county staff to refer discrimination 
complaints to state or federal authorities.  An earlier version would have 
created a commission to investigate discrimination claims.


  Colorado's state Senate Judiciary Committee killed 2 gay-supportive bills 
this week on party line votes, with Democrats supporting the bills and 
Republicans opposing them.  One would have prohibited employment 
discrimination based on sexual orientation.  The other would have added gays 
and lesbians, as well as seniors and people with disabilities, as victim 
groups in the state's hate-crimes law.


  Suspects in two notorious attacks against gay men were arrested this week.
In Canada, Vancouver police arrested a suspect in the November 2001 bashing 
murder of gay Aaron Webster in a cruising area in the city's Stanley Park.  
That attack sparked demonstrations protesting anti-gay violence, and the long 
period without an arrest strained what had been a good relationship between 
the city's gay community and police.  Earlier police revealed they had 
identified a suspect but lacked enough evidence to arrest him, a situation 
apparently remedied by tips called in after a TV show about the killing last 
week.  Because the suspect was 17 at the time of the murder, his name will 
not be released.  He's been charged with manslaughter and will face a bail 
hearing in the coming week.  More arrests in the case are expected.


  In South Africa, police arrested two men for last month's massacre at the 
Sizzlers gay massage parlor in Cape Town that left 9 men dead and a 10th 
seriously wounded.  Police say both suspects -- whose names have not yet been 
published -- made full confessions before a magistrate, with robbery the 
apparent motive.  The men will make a further court appearance in the coming 
week.  The arrests resulted from overwhelming public response to the release 
of Identikit sketches of the suspects developed with the survivor and other 
witnesses.


  Finland's Government this week officially withdrew its bill to clarify 
policy on fertility treatments, which a parliamentary committee had amended 
to criminalize provision of those services to lesbians and other women not in 
a relationship with a man.  The Government opposes criminalization.


  And finally... just last week, the U.S. advocacy group Human Rights 
Campaign announced that oil giant ConocoPhillips omitted sexual orientation 
from its non-discrimination policy, even though Conoco had protected gays and 
lesbians before its August merger with Phillips Petroleum.  HRC made that 
announcement after hearing from a ConocoPhillips spokesperson that the merged 
entity had no intention of adding sexual orientation to its formal policy 
until such time as U.S. federal law may be changed to protect gays and lesb
ians.  But faced with the publicity, as well as a shareholder proposal to 
make the addition to the company's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, this 
week corporate management issued a statement saying, "ConocoPhillips is and 
always has been deeply committed to fair and nondiscriminatory treatment for 
all employees.  The management committee has amended (effective immediately) 
the company's EEO policy to include the term 'sexual orientation' to more 
accurately reflect this commitment."