NewsWrap for the week ending April 27, 2013

SUMMARY

14 and Counting -  French lawmakers give final approval to a marriage and adoptions equality bill, but not without violent protests and assaults on police and gay people by its opponents …

Not the Last Word - the overwhelming rejection by Colombian lawmakers of a marriage equality proposal defies a Constitutional Court order …

Hope Fulfilled - Rhode Island has all but officially become the 10th U.S. state to open civil marriage to same-gender couples …

First State Not Far Behind - a marriage equality measure passes in the Delaware House and heads to the state Senate, where activists predict passage …

DOMAster Diving - the Nevada Senate becomes the first legislative chamber in the U.S. to overturn a constitutional amendment defining marriage as exclusively heterosexual, as Senator Kelvin Atkinson of North Las Vegas comes out during floor debate …

Foul Blocking - the U.S. State Department denies permission to leading Cuban LGBT rights advocate Mariela Castro to accept an "ally" award at a civil rights summit in Philadelphia …

Singapore Sodomy Strategy - Singapore gay couple Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee announce their challenge in the Court of Appeal, the highest judicial body in the land, of an April High Court ruling upholding the city-state's sodomy law …

Magic Moment Muddied - Mongolian lawmakers discuss LGBT rights for the first time ever, but some of their comments suggest a long learning curve to liberation …

Reactionary and Proud - San Francisco Pride honors whistle-blowing gay U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, then it doesn't ….

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New Zealand Marriage & Bishop Gene Robinson

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New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson argues brilliantly for equality as his country becomes the thirteenth in the world to open civil marriage to same-gender couples.

Recently-retired "out" gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson is less than retiring when talk turns to his personal journey and his timely new book, God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage (a conversation with award-winning WNHN broadcaster Arnie Arnesen).

And in NewsWrap: Paris protests get uglier as wedding equality draws near, Ireland's constitutional convention issues marriage parity proposal, half-baked policy change gets Boy Scouts of America less-than-honorable mention, dozens of allegedly gay and lesbian high school students expelled in Ghana, celebrated Sydney street crossing robbed of its rainbow, and more news reported by Tanya Kane-Parry and Michael LeBeau (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 22, 2013

SUMMARY

Pokarekare Ana - New Zealand becomes the first country in the Asia Pacific region, and the thirteenth in the world, to open civil marriage to same-gender couples …

Paris in the Stresstime - France's road to expected marital equality is a bumpy one …

More Than Luck - a convention in Ireland proposes a constitutional marriage equality amendment …

Stuck in the Mud - U.S. Republican Party doubles down on its opposition to civil marriage for same-gender couples …

Short on Honor - the Boy Scouts of America offers a half-measure change to its ban on openly gay members …

Students Struck - two of the leading Catholic schools in Ghana expel a total of 53 students for "practicing homosexuality" and trying "to convince more students to practice the act," or "the detestable act of lesbianism" …

Colors Won't Fade - the removal of Sydney's cherished Oxford Street rainbow crossing sparks a "chalk revolt" across Australia and in at least one other seemingly unlikely corner of the world ….

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Queer in Kyrgyzstan & Matt Fishel

"Sapphic Nomads" Katie Cook and Maggie Young's latest "audio postcard" comes from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where tradition fights liberation.

LGBT music expert JD Doyle features British singer/songwriter Matt Fishel's debut gay political power pop album, Not Thinking Straight, featuring his "radio friendly" hit.

And in NewsWrap: France and Uruguay both on the cusp of marriage equality; controversial clash derails debate on marriage proposal in Colombia; Zambian activist arrested for demanding decriminalization; Singapore, Montana and Virginia each confront sodomy laws; "wizardly tribute" to the "Iron Lady" makes news in Britain, and more news reported by Tanya Kane-Parry and Michael LeBeau (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 13, 2013

SUMMARY

Edge of Our Seats - Legislators in France and Uruguay each push marriage and adoptions equality to the brink of reality …

Who Started It? - Colombia's Senate President blames "disruptive" LGBT people for indefinitely postponing a marriage equality bill there …

Profile in Courage - brave Zambian gay activist Paul Kasonkomona is jailed for "inciting the public to take part in indecent activities" …

Taking the Loh Road - Singapore High Court Justice Quentin Loh upholds the city-state's sodomy law …

Grizzly Come Lately - lawmakers in the U.S. state of Montana repeal sodomy law …

That Vaginal Probe Homophobe, Again - Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli loses a federal appeals court bid to keep the sodomy law on the books in his state …

Really Most Sincerely Dead - less-than-fans of recently deceased former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher boost a "tribute song" (of sorts) from a 1939 MGM movie starring one of history's most enduring gay icons onto BBC Radio 1's Top 40 Music Chart ….

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Leslie Jordan's "Fruit Fly"

What entertainer Leslie Jordan's mother doesn't want you to know -- but he told all to Rosie Wilby during the London run of his one-man show!

Plus: the classic Everybody Has To Have A Mother by the New Miss Alice Stone Ladies Society Orchestra!

And: pioneering Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya is remembered in a Rainbow Minute (produced by Judd Proctor and Brian Burns, read by Tonya Utkina).

And in NewsWrap: Uruguay prepares for marriage equality, judge won't register gay Paraguan couple's legal Argentine wedding, Gambia's President calls gays satanic, Nepal's Blue Diamonds are in the rough, civil unions spring from Arizona's "liberal oasis," and more news reported by Wenzel Jones and Carole Meyers (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 6, 2013

SUMMARY

No Stopping It Now - Uruguay appears to be a few months away from being the latest country to open civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples …

Blocked Border Crossing - a judge in Paraguay refuses to register a gay couple's legal Argentine marriage …

Coming Attraction - the Colombian Senate is reportedly scheduled to debate a marriage equality bill in the coming week …

Family Friendly - the French Senate begins debate on a marriage equality measure that also includes adoption rights …

Local Control - the city of Bisbee, Arizona prepares to fight the state over its civil unions ordinance …

Cures AIDS, Sees Devil - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh once again almost literally tells gays and lesbians to drop dead …

Rough Cuts - a government office in Nepal is apparently bent on destroying the country's pioneering 12-year-old LGBT Blue Diamond Society …

Once More Unto the Breach - activists in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, plan a ban-defying Pride event …

Goal! - a Brazilian import charges fans of his adopted St. Petersburg football team with racism and homophobia …

Suffer the Little Children - St. Petersburg "hometown boy" and President Vladimir Putin calls for a ban on the adoption of Russian orphans by foreign same-gender couples …

Friendly Persuasion - a critique from above proudly waves during his visit to Amsterdam to participate in the Netherlands-Russia 2013 Year of Friendship ….

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High Court, High Noon

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Marriage equality champions square off with their opponents before the Supreme Court of the United States! Voices that will ring throughout LGBT history include U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Steven Bryer, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Proposition 8 defense attorney Charles Cooper, opposing counsel Ted Olson, and lead plaintiff Kristen Perry; Defense of Marriage Act defense attorney Paul Clement, opposing counsel Roberta Kaplan, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, and plaintiff Edith Windsor; law professor Kenji Yoshino; and attorney Shannon Minter.

And in NewsWrap: gay U.S. military activist Lt. Dan Choi convicted of a law-breaking White House fence-chaining Don't Ask Don't Tell demonstration, Paris police protect presidential palace from anti-equality protest, Russian activist beaten after his Pride is banned, Brits turn out for Turing, and more news reported by Pamela Brooks and Wenzel Jones (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending March 30, 2013

SUMMARY

Supreme Test - The U.S. Supreme Court hears two historic days of oral arguments on marriage equality cases – the first involving California's Proposition 8, and the second challenging DOMA, the federal Defense of Marriage Act …

Decorated, Damaged, Delinquent - PTSD takes its toll on gay Army hero Lt. Dan Choi as he's convicted of a criminal misdemeanor for chaining himself to the White House fence in a 2010 protest against Don't Ask Don't Tell …

Shields Up - French "family values" types "put the kids in front" as hundreds of thousands march against marriage equality - and police - in Paris …

The Whole World Is Watching - Pride is banned in another Russian city and its organizer is beaten as TV cameras roll …

Poisoned Apple Pie - the "Universal Machine," (ultimately persecuted) gay mathematician Alan Turing's forerunner to the modern computer, is named the greatest British innovation of the 20th century ….

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