NewsWrap for the week ending June 16, 2012

SUMMARY

Hateful Wat - More than 2,000 government officials and religious leaders gather in Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa for a national anti-gay conference …

Mutilated Martyr - 23-year-old South African gay and transgender rights activist Thapelo Makutle is brutally murdered in his rented room in the Kuruman township …

Wrong Man for Rights Job - the newly installed chair of Costa Rica's Commission on Human Rights, Protestant minister and legislator Justo Orozco, calls homosexuality a sin and claims that gay people can be "cured" …

Bishops Make Their Move - the Church of England and Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales each submit papers opposing the British government's proposed legislation to open civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples …

Mitzvah - U.S. Conservative Judaism affirms that marriages of gay and lesbian couples have "the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages," and approves rituals for same-gender wedding ceremonies …

At the Majority's Mercy - Washington's Secretary of State confirms that opponents of recently-approved marriage equality legislation have submitted enough petition signatures to put the issue to a public vote in November …

Saying It Again - President Obama urges a no vote on a marriage equality repeal effort in Maryland …

Doughboy Discriminates - Minnesota-based food giant General Mills announces its opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment in its home state to define civil marriage as exclusively heterosexual …

Marching in the Face of Threats - riot police protect several hundred Pride marchers in the Croatian city of Split …

Can't Even Count 'Em All - an estimated three million revelers party with Pride in Sao Paolo …

Bright Idea - Prideful pink and lavender lighting illuminates San Francisco and Los Angeles city halls ….

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