NewsWrap for the week ending June 19, 2010

Summary: Closing arguments cap the closely-watched federal trial in San Francisco challenging the constitutionality of California's marriage equality-banning Proposition 8 ... U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires funding applicants to comply with state and local laws banning anti-LGBT bias ... U.S. Department of Justice says that gays and lesbians abused by their domestic partners are protected under the Violence Against Women Act ... U.S. State Department issues new guidelines removing reassignment surgery as a precondition for the issuance of passports to trans people in their self-identified gender ... U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel recommends maintaining a ban on gay men donating blood, while policies about such donations in France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Spain, and Italy are reviewed ... Statistics Canada reports a doubling of anti-queer hate crimes from 2007 to 2008, while the government of Puerto Rico creates a commission to examine anti-queer violence and how to curb it ... a painting of the Pope with a gay male couple riles Roman Catholic Church officials in Ireland and around the world.

Read the complete NewsWrap text ... or listen to this week's podcast.