NewsWrap for the week ending August 24, 2013

SUMMARY

Winning Weddings - New Zealand becomes the fourteenth country in the world to begin legally marrying same-gender couples …

Countdown Crescendo - Australians push for equality ahead of their September 7th national elections …

Will It Grow As It Goes? - officials in two counties in the U.S. state of New Mexico issue marriage licenses to lesbian and gay couples, which has Republican lawmakers howling …

Independently for Virtuous Liberty - an official in Montgomery County defies Pennsylvania's specific law banning them to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, as oral arguments are set to begin in an ACLU lawsuit challenging the law …

Weeding the Garden State - New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie signs a second-in-the-nation bill to ban so-called "reparative therapy" for minors, becoming the second-in-the-nation state to be sued by the rightwing Liberty Counsel for enacting it, joining California, which was the first …

California Class Conflict - the Golden State now braces for an effort to challenge a recently-passed bill requiring equal access for transgender students to programs and facilities in public schools …

Baby Unbestimmt - Germany becomes the first country in the world to allow alternatives to "male" or "female" on the birth certificates of intersex babies …

Welcome to Jail - topping this week's Russia/Olympics confluence, the International Olympic Committee appears satisfied with Russian government reassurances that "everyone will be welcome at the Games in Sochi," although the same statement reaffirms that the recently enacted law criminalizing "the promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships" will be enforced against competitors and fans alike, as Russian President Vladimir Putin issues an ostensibly "antiterrorism" edict banning "gatherings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets" in Sochi during the Olympics …

She Has A Point - a Swedish high jumper's rainbow-colored nails turn red with love ….

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