NewsWrap for the week ending May 3, 2014

SUMMARY

Sultanic Verses - Death by stoning for consensual adult gay sex is celebrated in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of Brunei by the omnipotent Sultan Hassnal Bokiah, while protests at and boycotts of Brunei-owned high-end hotel properties in the U.S. and Europe begin …

Prime Example - Japan's First Lady Akie Abe rides atop a float with a colorfully-bedecked drag queen at Tokyo's LGBT Pride Parade …

May Flowers - about 300 rainbow flag-waving Russian LGBT people and their supporters participate without incident at the St. Petersburg May Day march …

Charge of the Homophobic Brigade - the so-called "no promo homo" law comes to Crimea following its annexation by Russia, and the measure's architect Vitaly Molonov wants to crack down on LGBT people on the peninsula even further …

No NGO Promo Homo - a draft bill in Uganda would add to the draconian "Anti-Homosexuality Law" by banning NGOs from providing monetary or other assistance to LGBT people in the east African nation because that would be "promoting homosexuality" …

No Green Light - Northern Ireland lawmakers reject a proposal to discuss marriage equality …

God On Our Side - the United Church of Christ sues the U.S. state of North Carolina for its law banning ministers from officiating the marriages of same-gender couples …

Not Neutrality - Louisiana lawmakers reject a bill to protect LGBT people from housing discrimination because, as the rightwing Louisiana Family Forum argues, only "morally neutral" characteristics deserve protection ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted May 6, 2014.