NewsWrap for the week ending July 29, 2013

SUMMARY

Igniting a Fierstein - A scathing rebuke of President Vladimir Putin in the New York Times kicks off an LGBT week dominated by news in or about Russia …

Get Me to the Church End Times - the apoplectic leader of the Russian Orthodox Church warns that marriage equality is a "dangerous sign of the apocalypse" …

Not Worth the Price of Admission - St. Petersburg appeals court judge upholds a backbreaking fine against the "Side By Side" LGBT Film Festival for violating a new national "foreign agent" law …

Anti-Social Networking Brown Shirts - neo-Nazi group uses the Russian version of Facebook to lure young gay men to a supposed date that turns into videotaped torture, beatings, and humiliation …

Tourist Detraction - four Dutch nationals become the first non-Russians to be punished for violating the new national law against the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations" …

Scoring the Truth & Field Event - the U.S. Human Rights Campaign asks NBC-TV to include coverage of the persecution of LGBT people -- including its impact on athletes and visitors -- during their broadcasts of the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea town of Sochi next year, and questions International Olympic Committee assurances that LGBT people will be safe at those Games …

Grey Goose, Anyone? - boycott of Russian vodka by gay nightspots to protest the treatment of LGBT people there spreads around the world, but a leading Russian activist questions its value …

You Don't Have To Be Russian - Moldova secretly enacts its own "no promo homo" law …

Target Practice - protestors chanting "kill the gays" and throwing stones and bottles greet Pride marchers in Montenegro, while eggs are the thrown objects of choice in Lithuania …

State of Frustration - marriage equality bill fails in the South Australia lower house …

Surprise! - New Mexico's Attorney General tells the U.S. state's high court that barring same-gender couples from civil marriage is unconstitutional …

Super Mythology - Luigi and Mario aren't Brothers, they're a gay couple!!

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Baldwin's Native "Notes" & "Oscar" the Opera

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Queer Life and Literature Commentator Janet Mason reviews the timely reissue of James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son.

Gay countertenor David Daniels talks about his title role in Oscar, a new opera based on the last years of Oscar Wilde.

A Rainbow Minute remembers Jim Hutton and Freddie Mercury (produced by Judd Proctor & Brian Burns and read by Gene Pembleton).

Plus: the late, lamented lesbian political poet Pat Parker schools The Straight Folks Who Don't Mind Gays (But Wish They Weren't So Blatant).

And in NewsWrap: Queen Elizabeth crowns marriage equality, Mexico has its first out mayor, Okinawa dots its "i" in pink, and more news reported by Pam Marshall and Michael LeBeau (produced by Angela Brooks and Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending July 20, 2013

SUMMARY

Crowning Achievement - The Queen's Royal Assent makes England and Wales the 16th and 17th countries in the world to open civil marriage to same-gender couples …

The Money Pit - U.S. House Republicans stop wasting taxpayer money defending DOMA …

Elope with Pride - gay Aussie couple wins a "dream wedding" in New Zealand, and the first kiwi same-gender couple to wed may do so at 30,000 feet …

Unintended Consequences - Alistair Stewart of Britain's Kaleidoscope Trust warns that advances in the West like marriage equality have lead to a "perverse" worsening of LGBT freedoms in the developing world …

Martyrs' Roll Call - Cameroon gay and AIDS activist Eric Lembembe is horrifically tortured to death, while 20-year-old Hashim al-Asimi is shot to death in Yemen for being gay …

We Are Trayvon, Too - key witness in the high-profile Florida trial of George Zimmerman tells CNN that 17-year-old victim Trayvon Martin may have worried that wannabe cop Zimmerman was following him with rape in mind, while 35 American LGBT organizations issue a joint statement calling for a Justice Department probe into the killing because "Trayvon Martin deserves justice and his civil rights" …

Numero Uno - singer and gay bar owner Benjamin Medrano is elected mayor in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, a rural northern city of about 230,000, becoming Mexico's first "out" mayor …

Island Hopping - Pink Dot Singapore begets Pink Dot Okinawa ....

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ENDA Encore & Blog This Way

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The effort to pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act returns to the U.S. Congress as a committee hearing led by Senator Tom Harkins takes on the bill -- and the activists like Heather Cronk of GetEQUAL, and Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality -- that won't go away. (Alice Ollstein  of Free Speech Radio News reports from Washington.)

Paul Vitagliano's blog and book were both Born This Way, and he tells Angela Brooks how you can still participate in the project.

Conan O'Brien heals Pat Robertson's Facebook tummy ache.

And in NewsWrap: Colombian judge says yes to gay couple's marriage proposal, Kolkata Pride walkers question normalcy, Tel Aviv massacre redefined as hate crime, and more news reported by Wenzel Jones and Tanya Kane-Parry (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending July 15, 2013

SUMMARY

Cracking the Wall - A civil court judge in Bogota is set to preside over the first marriage of a same-gender couple in Colombia…

Toothpaste Leaving Tube - three same-gender couples are suing for the right to wed in Costa Rica after lawmakers "accidentally" approved marriage equality legislation on July 1st …

Barn Door Won't Close - riding the wave of the U.S. Supreme Court's DOMA and Prop 8 rulings, lawsuits filed this week push for marriage equality in three more states – Illinois, Pennsylvania and North Carolina – while a legal demand for marriage equality is being planned in Virginia …

Sexual Diversity Yes, Violence No - an estimated 1500 LGBT people and their supporters participate in the 12th annual Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk in India …

One For Our Side - a regional court in Russia declares that the rough arrests of some 60 people trying to rally for LGBT Pride in St. Petersburg on June 29th violated their right to freedom of assembly …

Irrational Motive - Israeli authorities charge an apparent religious fanatic with murder and attempted murder as hate crimes in the 2009 shooting rampage at a weekly youth group meeting at Tel Aviv's LGBT Center that left two dead and 11 injured …

Frightening Conclusion - new research suggests that homophobia may be at least partially rooted in a fear of unwanted same-gender sexual advances …

No Accounting For Taste - global accounting giant Ernst & Young didn't realize that their new "E-Y" brand is the same name as a Spanish magazine catering to gay men that features plenty of young guys posing in their underwear ....

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Don't "Jail the Gays" & "Everything Possible"

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U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has her say about Nigeria's "Jail the Gays" bill in response to Nigerian LGBT activist Davis Mac-Iyalla's questions on the BBC's World Have Your Say program.

JD Doyle discovers everything possible about Fred Small's Everything Possible, from his inspiration for the iconic song to Michael Callen and The Flirtations classic rendition of it -- Small's personal favorite!

LGBT Pride deploys to Kandahar (as reported by the U.S. Defense Department).

Plus: A Great Big World says Everyone Is Gay.

And in NewsWrap: lawsuit bouquets bloom from US Supreme Court DOMA decision, marriage equality slips past Costa Rican lawmakers, Pink Dot targets Singapore's penal code, Brazilian "cure" prescription expires, and more news reported by Jenn Mahoney and Charlie Bauer (produced by Steve Pride and Angela Brooks).

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NewsWrap for the week ending July 6, 2013

SUMMARY

In the Wake of DOMA & Prop 8 - the Pentagon announces that the spouses of married gay and lesbian service members will soon enjoy all the military benefits of their heterosexual peers, deportation proceedings against gay and lesbian foreigners in legal marriages with American same-gender partners end, green cards are going out to foreign spouses in U.S. bi-national same-gender couples, and gay and lesbian Americans can now sponsor their foreign-born same-gender spouses for citizenship, just as their heterosexual peers have been able to do for decades …

Edie, Warrior Princess - successful DOMA plaintiff Edith Windsor awaits a refund -- plus interest -- of the reported $678,000 in estate taxes she had to pay to the IRS and state of New York after her longtime spouse Thea Spyer died …

Wag the Finger, Suck the Thumb - the Supreme Court also rejects the appeal by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer of a lower court ruling overturning a law that had revoked the domestic partner benefits of gay and lesbian state employees, and refuses a request by Nevada's Coalition for the Protection of Marriage to fast-track a so far-unsuccessful challenge to that state's constitutional ban on marriage equality …

Spreading Good News - the ACLU and NCLR file suit in New Mexico arguing that the state's gender-neutral civil marriage laws open the institution to same-gender couples, New Jersey couples press their marriage equality case with the state Supreme Court, and after waiting for the Supreme Court's DOMA decision, a federal judge green-lights a lawsuit challenging Michigan's constitutional marriage ban, while 11 same-gender couples file suit against Arkansas' ban …

Cue Mendelssohn - California lesbian and gay couples flock to city and county courthouses to get marriage licenses following the U.S. Supreme Court's Proposition 8 ruling, and a Delaware state Senator and her longtime spouse are the first to marry when marriage equality legislation there takes effect …

Metidas de Pata - Costa Rican lawmakers "accidentally" approve the legal recognition of same-gender couples …

Rosy Revolution - a record pink-attired crowd of 21,000 lights up Singapore night skies at the annual Pink Dot LGBT rights festival …

Contagious Liberation - Istanbul Pride unexpectedly rides the waves of Turkey's pro-democracy movement …

No Cure for Homophobia - a Brazilian bill to re-classify gays and lesbians as mentally disordered is gone, but not forgotten ....

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Prop 8 Down, DOMA Disabled!

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U.S. Supreme Court-ship brings happiness equally after to many -- but far from all!

Our special coverage includes on-scene reports by Free Speech Radio News' Alice Ollstein in Washington, D.C. and Pacifica Radio News' Christopher Martinez in San Francisco, as well as comments by American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero; New York Congressman Jarrold Nadler; Defense of Marriage Act Plaintiff Edith Windsor; victorious Proposition 8 Attorney Ted Olson at the celebratory rally in West Hollywood; San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera; "out" California State Assembly Speaker John Perez; and National Center For Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendall.

Then California Attorney General Kamala Harris marries Prop 8 lesbian plaintiff couple Kris Perry and Sandy Stier in San Francisco, and outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa marries Prop 8 gay plaintiff couple Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo in Los Angeles. (Plus music by the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus.)

And in NewsWrap: Prime Australian politics revive wedding wishes, Russian lawmakers and nationalists agree on homophobia, anti-gay Macedonian mob attacks Pride, Sao Paulo comes out to mock Brazil's "human wrongs" committee, magazine cover captures Bert and Ernie's bliss, and more news reported by Gary Shaw and Natalie Peoples (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending June 29, 2013

SUMMARY

Wedding Planners Field Day - California lesbian and gay couples doubly benefit from the U.S. Supreme Court's two marriage equality rulings on June 26th, as the high court rejects the legal standing of the supporters of the state's marriage equality-banning Proposition 8 to defend it in court – followed in less than 48 hours by the first post-ruling legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples in the state – and in the case of 84-year-old New York widow Edith Windsor rules as unconstitutional a key provision of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, that denies federal recognition to same-gender couples married in states where they're legal ...

Change Partners - newly pro-marriage equality and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unseats anti-equality Julia Gillard to again take the country's helm in a snap election at the Labor Party caucus ...

Too Late to Discriminate - Australian lawmakers add sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex  status – with worrisome religious exemptions – to the country's Sex Discrimination Act ...

Legislative and Literal Rocks - to no one's surprise, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament approves a bill criminalizing "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations," a ban on the adoption of Russian orphans by foreign same-gender couples, and a three-year prison term for blasphemy, while dozens of outnumbered activists are assaulted by nationalist extremists and then arrested at an unsanctioned LGBT rights rally in St. Petersburg ...

Pride Endures - Macedonia Pride is marred by a mob assault on the building housing the Skopje LGBT Centre, and a mob spewing anti-gay obscenities and throwing objects at the house where a well-known openly gay Macedonian TV star cares for his ailing, elderly mother ...

Contraindications - thousands march to protest and mock a proposed "gay cure" bill in Brazil ...

Poster Boys - Bert and Ernie's Moment of Joy covers The New Yorker to celebrate the demise of Prop 8 and DOMA ....

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