NewsWrap for the week ending May 18, 2013

SUMMARY

IDA Hot - The annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) is observed on May 17th by the United Nations [with brief comments by U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon], and in a variety of events across Asia …

IDA Cold - police shut down an IDAHOT march in Nairobi and a rally on the same day in St. Petersburg, while several people are injured as religious extremists violently attack an IDAHOT rally in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi …

Squeaky Wheel - anti-gay demonstrators in Kiev succeed in getting a proposed bill in the Ukrainian parliament to ban sexual orientation-based workplace bias shelved indefinitely …

Blows Count - according to a largest-of-its-kind survey by the European Union's Fundamental Rights Agency, virtually one in two LGBT people on the continent have been discriminated against or attacked during the last year for being who they are …

Who Needs Enemies - a young Russian man is brutally tortured and murdered in Volgograd after reportedly coming out to two of his drinking buddies, although one news source says his parents claim that he wasn't gay …

Lindo Maravilhoso! - a near-unanimous ruling by Brazil's National Council of Justice virtually opens civil marriage to same-gender couples in Latin America's largest country …

Voilà, ça y est! - President Francois Hollande signs legislation to open civil marriage and extend adoption rights to French same-gender couples the day after a ruling by the nation's highest court clears the way …

Freer By the Dozen - Governor Mark Dayton's signature officially makes Minnesota the 12th U.S. state with marriage equality …

Internal Struggle - Italy's new Prime Minister Enrico Letta quashes a proposal by his own Equality Minister Josefa Idem to create some form of legal recognition for lesbian and gay couples …

Two Toppings - Italy's lower house of parliament extends health insurance coverage to its members' same-gender partners, and a court in Milan recognizes the British civil partnership of an Italian gay couple as a legal union ….

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