2nd August, 2001 (# 7) News Clippings Digest.

1. CORRECTION Jonathan Rauch piece on same-sex marriage was in the
National Review, NOT the New Republic!
2. FORT WAYNE (IN) JOURNAL-GAZETTE Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce
says gay anti-bias law is "moving too quickly" and they want it
stalled
3. LOS ANGELES TIMES Brooklyn-based female duo Bitch and Animal put
rage and humor to use in material came from their second album,
"Eternally Hard"
4. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE National Religious Leadership Roundtable says
unconditional love, understanding and acceptance are best remedies
for gay teens, not so-called "reparative therapy"
5. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE In Germany, gay partners are now legal
for life

CORRECTION:
A Clippings reader has pointed out that the Jonathan Rauch
piece on same-sex marriage in Clippings 2nd August, (# 4) appeared in
the National Review
(http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-rauch080201.shtml),
NOT the New Republic.


Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, August 2, 2001
600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne, IN, 46802
(Fax: 219-461-8648 ) (E-Mail: kelchert@... )
( http://www.journalgazette.net )
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/top1.htm
Chamber cool to gay-bias law
By David Griner, The Journal Gazette
The Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that
a city
councilman's push to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination is
moving
too quickly and should be stalled for more input.
"We want to make sure ordinances are approached in a
thoughtful way,
and not hastily put together," said Phil Laux, Chamber president.
"It's not that we approve or disapprove of the language or
content,
it's the manner in which it's being handled."
At a quickly assembled meeting of Chamber members, about 25
human
resources officials and attorneys agreed Tuesday that flaws
perforated the
proposed anti-bias ordinance.
City Councilman Tom Henry, D-3rd, hopes to use the ordinance to
include sexual orientation in the city's non-discrimination policy,
allowing
the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission to investigate cases of
bias
involving gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
In a letter delivered Wednesday to the City Council, Chamber
Vice
President Brian Bergsma aired a variety of concerns raised at
Tuesday's
meeting.
"Although the Chamber is fully cognizant that on its face this
Ordinance appears to be benign," Bergsma wrote, "it is the strong
opinion of
the business community that the Ordinance is inappropriate and will
have
severe adverse ramifications if enacted."
Henry said he will meet with Chamber leaders today to hear
their
concerns, which mainly deal with how the law would be enforced by
Metro --
an office some business leaders feel can be aggressive and harassing.
Although receptive to slowing the ordinance, which is set for
discussion during Tuesday's council meeting, Henry said he hopes to
avoid
the frenzy that could erupt at a public forum on the issue.
Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st, said that the Chamber has valid
points
to make about the proposal and that a public forum should be hosted by
Metro.
"It's much more direct and appropriate for Metro to have it,"
Smith
said. "Sometimes when we host it, it turns into a circus."
Bergsma's letter states that council approval of the ordinance
would
allow Metro to overstep the bounds of the state laws with which the
office
is linked.
Indiana's non-discrimination code includes race, sex, color,
religion, disability, ancestry, national origin and place of birth,
but not
sexual orientation.
The cities of Lafayette, West Lafayette and Bloomington have
voted to
include the phrase, as have Tippecanoe County and Purdue University.
"We just have some concerns with why the city of Fort Wayne is
pursuing an ordinance that has no statutorial claim in state law,"
Bergsma
said.
His letter asked the council to form a subcommittee that can
work
with business leaders to factor their concerns into the proposed
legislation.
Jim Bentley, human resources director for Fort Wayne
Newspapers, one
of the companies represented during Tuesday's meeting, said he thinks
most
of the business community's issues with Henry's proposal could be
resolved
with more input. Fort Wayne Newspapers is the business agent for The
Journal Gazette and The News-Sentinel.
"It's not that anyone is saying, 'Gee, this is absolutely a
terrible
idea,'" Bentley said. "What we're saying is that no one has talked
to us
about this."


Los Angeles Times, August 2, 2001
Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA, 90053
(Fax: 213-237-7679 or 213-237-5319 ) (E-Mail: letters@... )
( http://www.latimes.com )
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/printedition/calendar/la-
000062755aug02
.story
Duo Puts Fury to Good Use in Humorous Set
By Natalie Nichols
It's easy to get angry about how women, especially gay women,
are so
often degraded by pop culture. But it takes a special sensibility to
turn
that fury into something as silly-yet-serious as Brooklyn-based duo
Bitch
and Animal's show was Tuesday at Spaceland.
The frank 'n' funny pair blended rap, funk, pop, folk and
spoken word
in a giddy 45-minute performance that celebrated the female body,
lesbian
sex and pot smoking. Most of this personal-is-political material
came from
their second album, "Eternally Hard," co-produced by feminist
singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco.
As colorful and animated as two sex-positive Muppets, the
musically
adept young women were strikingly complementary. Bitch was the tall,
wildly
ponytailed, classically trained violinist and bassist. Animal,
playing
djembe and ukulele, was short, Mohawked and bursting with human-beat-
box
noises. Though they're not a novelty act, their goofiness was both
charming
to the like-minded and nonthreatening enough to intrigue skeptics.
One freewheeling manifesto is aimed at freeing the popular
slang word
for vagina from its association with the pejorative and make it a
positive
term. Some numbers were purely fun romps, while others struck more
somber
emotional notes.
Animal's rap on the travails of a well-equipped lesbian playa
was not
only decidedly gender-bent but also a brilliant sendup of hip-hop's
sexual
braggadocio.


Salt Lake Tribune, August 2, 2001
P. O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, UT, 84110
(Fax: 801-257-8950) (E-Mail: letters@... )
( http://www.sltrib.com )
http://www.sltrib.com/2001/aug/08022001/utah/118679.htm
Roundtable: Love Is Better Than Therapy
By Bob Mims, The Salt Lake Tribune, bmims@...
MIDVALE -- Participants in the National Religious Leadership
Roundtable were told that unconditional love, understanding and
acceptance
are the best remedies for teens struggling with sexual identity, not
so-called "reparative therapy."
Such schemes, aimed at reversing gay or lesbian tendencies,
can serve
as vehicles for self-deception. Youths enrolled in them are set up
for
failure, depression and sometimes even suicide, about 100 people
attending
the interfaith group's semiannual meeting were told Wednesday night.
The Rev. Lee Shaw of the hosting St. James Episcopal Church
said the
Washington, D.C.-based NRLR's choice of predominantly Mormon and
pro-traditional family Utah, where a number of reparative therapy
programs
flourish, was especially timely.
"All too often in our particular state, issues around
sexuality,
especially with young people, are hidden," Shaw said. "They are not
dealt
with in a way that is helpful for anyone -- the young person, their
friends,
their families or their religious institutions."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers
homosexual
activity grounds for excommunication, and reparative therapy programs
have
gained the faith's tacit support. However, reparative therapy does
not
enjoy the backing of Affirmation International, a group for gay,
lesbian,
bisexual and transgender Mormons.
Duane Jennings, a Salt Lake City leader of Affirmation
International,
said only the support of friends, loved ones and one's religious
community
brings true peace for young people who discover their preference is
for
members of the same sex.
"It is my experience that those who are able to heal
spiritually are
able to step away from the self-loathing that people have been taught
[and]
into a place of personal power and wholeness," Jennings said.
That was the case for Judd Hardy, who "came out" at age 13 to
his
parents, Salt Lake City attorney and former Mormon bishop David Hardy
and
his wife, Carly.
At first, the Hardys enrolled their son in a reparative therapy
program, but it did not work. When Judd attempted suicide, the Hardys
decided to embrace their son and his gay orientation.
Judd, now a 19-year-old New York University student, said it
was his
family's "unconditional love" that helped him recover from his
depression
and accept himself.
"It's definitely been a journey for our family," he said. "We
have
broken down ideas about our religion and what a child should be, what
our
family should look like. And family is your refuge, when you need to
be
accepted and understood."


San Francisco Chronicle, August 2, 2001
901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA, 94103
(Fax: 415-896-1107 ) (E-Mail: chronletters@... )
( http://www.sfgate.com )
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/08/02
/MN5019.DTL
In Germany, partners legal for life
Steve Kettmann, Chronicle Foreign Service
Berlin -- Gay couples came together in Germany yesterday for
officially sanctioned wedding ceremonies that brought the country
into line
with many of its Western European neighbors.
The wonder was that it did not happen sooner: Berlin, after
all, has
long had a thriving, freewheeling gay scene, dating back to the
1920s, and
the division between public life and private life is given much
greater
emphasis in Germany as a whole than in the United States.
Manifestations of
homophobia are also more rare and less extreme.
Still, it took the departure three years ago of center-right
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who gave way to a coalition between the left-
wing
Green Party and the center-left Social Democrats of Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, for same-sex partnership legislation to finally be passed
last
year.
Yesterday, the law took effect and the first of the "life
partnership" ceremonies took place, marking a kind of gay national
holiday.
Newspapers and television were dominated by folksy pictures of same-
sex
couples breaking plates in classic German style -- and, of course,
smooching
just after exchanging vows.
Green Party members Gudrun Pannier and Angelika Baldow, decked
out in
matching tuxedos, were the highest-profile of the dozens of couples
taking
advantage of the new law the first day possible.
The pair, both 36, were the first to register at the old town
hall in
Berlin's Schoeneberg district and also the first to cut an elegant
wedding
cake topped off with small figures of two brides.
"We exchanged rings symbolically five years ago, but this is
the real
thing, " Pannier told reporters afterward. "This is very symbolic --
a
message that Berlin is a tolerant city."
A little earlier in Hanover, Heinz-Friedrich Harre and Reinhard
Lueschow became the first couple to register.
"We want neither better nor worse treatment than heterosexual
couples
but just the same," Lueschow, 40, said. He and his 48-year-old
partner
described the ceremony as "our marriage."
Ceremonies also went ahead in Hamburg, Dusseldorf and
Magdeburg, but
couples in three states -- Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and
Hesse -- will have to wait longer. Authorities there have delayed
implementing the new law, complaining to the federal supreme court
that it
violates constitutional provisions protecting marriage and the family.
But the only protest heard yesterday came from a small
contingent
complaining that the gay partnership law does not go far enough.
Germany stopped well short of legalizing same-sex marriages,
as the
Netherlands did in April. But it joined France and four Scandinavian
countries in offering legal status to same-sex couples who register.
The
United States offers no such status, although Vermont has a new law
on civil
unions that offers some rights to same-sex couples.
The German law provides for registered couples to share a last
name
if they choose -- Baldow and Pannier have agreed to take the latter's
name -- and also mandates that non-German members of a registered
couple
will be able to seek citizenship.
In other areas as well, including health insurance and
inheritance,
the law gives registered same-sex couples commensurate legal status.
But
other basic rights, including adoption, are not part of the new law.
"We don't call it marriage, we call it lebenpartnerschaft, or
life
partnership," said Justice Ministry spokesperson Maritta Strasser.
On a day for joyous but low-key exultation, Berlin's gay
community
reflected on how the city's reputation as a gay mecca has grown in
recent
months.
Mayor Klaus Wowereit upstaged the yellow press earlier this
year
shortly before winning election by defying German political tradition
and
coming out, rather than waiting to have suggestive articles about his
private life published.
Wowereit's words at the time -- that he is gay "and that's a
good
thing" -- have already become famous in Germany. That upbeat message
has
been repeated so often that when the Irish rock group U2 played a
concert
last weekend in Berlin, lead singer Bono mentioned his "friend"
Wowereit and
repeatedly invoked his famous five words: "Und das ist gut so."
Yesterday, Wowereit sent his congratulations to the new
couples --
and his status as a gay trailblazer and Germany's highest-profile gay
politician gave the words extra meaning. "You have taken the first
step
into new territory," he said in his message.
Strasser, noting that yesterday's ceremonies were marked by a
lack of
hostile protesters, said: "Here in Germany, the people are not half
as
religious as they are in the United States. They are much less
engaged in
this issue. Some people make it a point, but it's just a few, and
they are
less radical. It's quite a different culture here. We expected it
to be
quiet."
Opposition to same-sex legal status centers on Bavaria, a
conservative state that often goes its own way, especially on
questions of
social policy. States have considerable autonomy in Germany's federal
system, and Bavaria -- with a proud history as an independent kingdom
--
makes the most of that autonomy.
Bavaria appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court to issue
an
injunction against the new law. The effort failed, and it's likely
that the
court will compel Bavaria to put the statute into effect.
"They did not set up their state laws on this in time, so it
will
take some months before people can make partnerships there," said
Strasser.
"But people have a right to have them. People there will go to court
and
force Bavaria to be a little quicker.
"Bavaria is always kind of different, maybe the German Texas.
We are concerned, but we don't take it too seriously."
. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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