NewsWrap for the week ending December 10, 2011

SUMMARY

World View - A U.S. presidential directive and a U.N. speech by the Secretary of State combine for what is being called "the most affirming LGBT rights foreign policy in the nation's history" – although extremist televangelist Pat Robertson strongly disagrees (hear what he told his Christian Broadcasting Network "700 Club" viewers) …

No Waffling - Elio Di Rupo's swearing in as Prime Minister of Belgium makes him the world's first openly gay head of government …

The Both In Charge - Australia's Tony Briffa may be the Western world's first known intersex elected official as he becomes the Mayor of Hobsons Bay, a local government authority near Melbourne, Victoria …

Heard It Before? - adversaries debate the release of video recordings of the Proposition 8 trial, and Chief District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ability to impartially rule that the California marriage-banning measure is unconstitutional, during two hours of hearings at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals …

Aloha This - a Honolulu lesbian couple sues the state of Hawai'i for marriage rights …

Fairness Thaw - equality activists in Anchorage, Alaska appear to have submitted the required number of signatures on initiative petitions to put an LGBT anti-bias measure on the April 2012 city ballot …

When Will It End? - Jacob Rogers of Ashland City, Tennessee becomes the latest reported bullied gay teen to kill himself …

Small Comfort - an unknown number of upstate New York high school classmates of bullied gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer are suspended for indeterminate periods for contributing to his suicide earlier this year …

Jury Gamble - Dharun Ravi rejects a generous plea deal and will stand trial in New Jersey for allegedly driving fellow Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi to suicide after uploading secret webcam video of Clementi having what he thought was private gay sex in his dorm room …

Comic-ment Ceremony - but Kevin Keller's Riverdale nuptials headlining the January issue of "Life With Archie" will not only be mainstream comics' first same-gender wedding, it'll be an interracial one at that ….

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