NewsWrap for the week ending July 30, 2011

SUMMARY

Put An ECOSOC On It - It took 17 years, but the U.N. Economic & Social Council has restored the consultative status of ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ...

It's Ba-ack! - multiple reports warn of the resurrection and impending consideration in Uganda’s newly-seated parliament of the internationally infamous "kill the gays" bill ...

Dead Law Walking - the arrest of two men in Nicosia for "unnatural intercourse" renews calls by Northern Cyprus activists for repeal of the island nation’s British colonial era sodomy law ...

Bias Permission - the Italian parliament’s lower house defeats a bill to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity ...

Coulda Been Worse - some four thousand celebrants enjoy the 10th annual Pride and Tolerance parade in Jerusalem absent (for the most part) the usual violent protests by religious fundamentalists ...

Green With Envy - a right-wing Christian preacher fails to deter thousands from marching with Pride in Belfast ...

Summer of Love, East - hundreds of gay & lesbian couples begin marrying in New York at the stroke of midnight on June 24th – the first day the law creating civil marriage equality in the Empire State takes effect ...

Does Cheese Stand Alone? - the California Supreme Court schedules oral arguments for September 6th to decide if sponsors of Proposition 8 have legal standing in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge a lower court ruling, if the state refuses to do so, that the marriage equality-banning measure violates the U.S. Constitution ...

Keep Trying - Colombia’s Constitutional Court gives lawmakers two years to extend civil marriage rights to same-gender couples, but six previous bills in Congress to do that have failed ...

International Incident - Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs upsets a diplomatic official for refusing to extend to his gay partner the same diplomatic immunity given to heterosexual spouses ...

Hlín & Gná to the Rescue - lesbian couple Hege Dalen and Toril Hansen become nautical Norwegian heroes for braving the bullets of mass murderer Anders Breivik and ferrying in four separate trips as many as 40 of his bloodied and terrified young targets to safety in their small boat ...

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