NewsWrap for the week ending August 31, 2013

SUMMARY

Island Fever - Mob violence against LGBT people rises sharply in Jamaica, fueled by anti-sodomy preachers …

Health and Taxes - the reverberating effects this week of the U.S. Supreme Court's DOMA decision include the Internal Revenue Service announcing that it will treat married same-gender couples the same as their heterosexual peers, and the Health and Human Services Department declaring that same-gender couples will now have access to all the benefits of Medicare that had previously been reserved for heterosexual married couples …

About Face - a federal judge declares a U.S. statute that denies equal benefits to married lesbian and gay veterans unconstitutional …

Tipping Point - marriage equality is now enjoyed in more than half of New Mexico while its Association of Counties asks the state high court to issue a definitive ruling on the issue …

Oh, Grow Up! - Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett compares gay and lesbian couples to 12-year-old children in his legal filing against an official in the state's Montgomery County who's also handing out marriage licenses to same-gender couples …

Thank Goodness for Small Favors - global retail behemoth WalMart extends domestic partner benefits to its 2.2 million employees around the world …

Keep Out of Reach of Children - the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds California's first-in-the-nation law banning so-called "conversion therapy" for minors …

Prisoner of Gender - the attorney for U.S. Army Private Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning reports that the transgender soldier is doing well as she acclimates to life at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but that the Army is denying her hormone therapy and other necessary treatment for gender dysphoria …

Justice of the Peace - Ruth Bader Ginsburg makes history as the first U.S. Supreme Court Justice to officiate at the wedding of a same-gender couple ….

Read the complete NewsWrap text ... or listen to this week's podcast.