NewsWrap for the week ending February 22, 2014

SUMMARY

St. Valentine's Day Massacre - A mob of 40 viciously attacks more than a dozen perceived to be gay young men in Nigeria's capital of Abuja in the early morning hours of February 14th as violence against LGBT people escalates following enactment of the so-called "Jail the Gays" law …

Exodus - LGBT people are reportedly fleeing equally inhospitable Uganda, as government leaders defy possible reduced foreign aid over the country's equally draconian "Anti-Homosexuality Act"….

Human Rights Repellent - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh calls gay people "vermin" during a nationally televised speech …

Love the Motherland - members of the pro-gay Russian punk band Pussy Riot are horsewhipped and doused with pepper spray under an Olympics promotional sign in Sochi as they try to perform an anti-Putin protest song …

In Full Regalia - transgender former Italian M.P. Vladimir Luxuria is arrested at least once outside an Olympic venue for wearing a rainbow-colorful headdress and outfit and carrying a sign saying "It's okay to be gay" …

If He Won, Who Lost? - President Putin hands out a "humanitarian" award to a popular newscaster who said the hearts of deceased gay people need to be burned or buried to avoid accidental transplantation …

Safe on a Technicality - Germany's top court evades a request to rule on the rights of civilly partnered same-gender couples to adopt non-biological children …

In Sight of the Finnish Line - Finland's parliament begins a process that activists hope will lead to marriage equality in the only Nordic country without it …

Resistance Is Futile - Oregon's Attorney General declines to defend her state's constitutional amendment banning marriage equality …

Rocking the Rockies - nine couples in Colorado challenge their state's ban in federal court …

Off the Back Burner - a federal court says that same-gender couples in Cook County don't have to wait for the June 1st implementation date of the Illinois marriage equality law to tie the knot …

Brewer Brews on Bias - will Arizona become the first U.S. state to enact a bill that allows discrimination against LGBT people by individuals and businesses if providing services would "substantially burden" the exercise of their sincerely held religious beliefs? ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted February 25, 2014.