NewsWrap for the week ending April 28, 2012

SUMMARY

Under the Table Bias Relief - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that gender identity-based workplace bias constitutes sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which leaves gays and lesbians without protections and waiting for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, by a more receptive Congress …

Don't Ask Keeps Telling - three U.S. Senators ask Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to expedite the process for veterans kicked out of the service under Don't Ask Don't Tell to delete that specific reason, which virtually "outs" them to prospective employers, from their discharge documents …

Court Martial the Messenger - a military judge advances the court martial of Private First Class Bradley Manning, variously described as gay or "gender confused," for providing Wikileaks with reams of sensitive documents in what's been called the largest leak of government secrets in U.S. history …

Scaling the Rockies - Colorado's Senate provisionally approves a bipartisan civil unions bill that probably faces stiffer opposition in the GOP-controlled House …

The Maine Event - the infamously anti-gay National Organization for Marriage teams up with the Christian Civic League of Maine to fight a marriage equality measure on the November state ballot …

Cure for the "Cure" - a bill introduced in the California Senate would ban so-called "reparative therapy" for anyone under the age of 18 …

In Franklin's Footsteps - Brian Sims is all but on his way to Harrisburg as the first openly gay member of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives …

Tongzhi Power - pop star Anthony Wong comes out as a gay man to thousands of fans during the closing night of a series of concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum …

No Promo Homo Convicto - the movement to prevent minors from being exposed to so-called "gay propaganda" spreads across Russia, while the first man arrested for violating such a law in St. Petersburg is only convicted of refusing to comply with a police order to stop violating the law ….

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