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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