NewsWrap for the week ending May 7, 2011

SUMMARY

Blame It On the Bossa Nova - Brazil's Federal Supreme Court orders marriage-equivalent civil unions for same-gender couples ...

Alpine Showdown - Liechtenstein voters will determine the fate of the recently-enacted-by-Parliament registered partnership law after opponents successfully put the issue on the ballot ...

Silent Partners - Polish citizens who file to marry or contract a civil union abroad will no longer be required to include the name of the spouse after some registry offices refused to issue the mandatory form when the intended's name appeared to be of the same gender ...

Departure on Hold[er] - Venezuelan gay man who legally married his American partner last year is temporarily spared deportation after the U.S. Attorney General appears to suggest, in a similar case involving a legally-united bi-national couple, that the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans federal recognition of same-gender unions, should be disregarded ...

The Wrong Stuff - California's Attorney General tells the state high court that, absent action by elected officials, Proposition 8 backers should not be allowed to appeal a federal court ruling that the marriage equality-banning measure violates the U.S. Constitution ...

Can't Win For Losing - bill to allow initiative sponsors like those behind Prop 8 to appeal relevant federal court rulings dies in a California state Senate committee; ...

Carefully Taught - 13-year-old girl who is open about her lesbian orientation is the latest reported victim of so-called "corrective rape" in South Africa, while the government finally begins to address that escalating problem ...

Facing the Music - former soldier is arrested in Sydney for creating a Facebook page that threatened and harassed dozens of suspected gay members of the Australian Defence Force ...

There Ought To Be a Law - Australia's Human Rights Commission recommends the enactment of federal legislation to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity ...

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