NewsWrap for the week ending September 21, 2013

SUMMARY

The Gospel Truth - Pope Francis shakes up Roman Catholics opining during a lengthy interview that the Church has been overly "obsessed" with abortion, contraception and marriage equality …

That's Amore - Italian Parliament kiss-in heralds passage of a bill to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the country's hate crime laws …

Labor of Love - U.S. Department of Labor makes a post-DOMA announcement that same-gender couples are now eligible to participate with their spouses in private employer-provided health care and pension benefits plans organized under federal law …

Both Sides of the Family - bipartisan bill introduced in Congress would extend family benefits to federal gay and lesbian workers and their domestic partners equal to those given ...

Not OK With Them - Oklahoma joins Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana to defy a post-DOMA Pentagon directive to enroll same-gender couples in National Guard benefits programs …

Native American Movement - California's Santa Ysabel Tribe brings the total of Native American tribes that marry lesbian and gay couples to six …

Nothing to See Here - new out writer for DC Comics' "Batwoman" franchise insists that his employer isn't anti-gay by rejecting the story line developed by his predecessors that had the lesbian superhero marrying her longtime gal pal detective Maggie Sawyer …

Fingers Crossed Behind Their Backs - Russia agrees in its generic version of the UN's traditional Olympics Truce that it won't discriminate, but refuses to be more specific …

Sick Young Imaginations - new Russian YouTube video warns that gays and lesbians want to adopt children so they can rape them and "satisfy their sexual desires" …

Soft Drink Gambit - former chess champion and Russian opposition figure Gary Kasparov suggests how things in Sochi could go even better with Coke ….

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NewsWrap for the week ending September 7, 2013

SUMMARY

Cue the Pipes - A civil marriage equality bill moves toward predicted passage in Scotland …

Poquito Mas - a gay couple in Chihuahua get a court-ordered marriage license …

Manhattan Marriage Project - a judge in New Mexico makes Los Alamos the eighth county in the U.S. state to offer marriage licenses  to same-gender couples …

Gaining on 'Em - one in three marriage licenses issued in Minnesota in August went to lesbian and gay couples …

Guard the Guardians - U.S. National Guard commanders in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana hinder the efforts of their married gay and lesbian enlistees to get equal military benefits …

Immersed in Bigotry - the Southern Baptist Convention bans their U.S. military chaplains from any action, including performing or attending the wedding of a same-gender couple, that "gives the appearance of accepting the homosexual lifestyle" …

Abandoned at the Altar -  the writers of GLAAD award-winning DC Comics' "Batwoman" quit after being told that "Kate Kane" (the lesbian caped crusader's real name) can't marry her police officer girlfriend "Maggie Sawyer," to whom she proposed in the February issue …

Super Sapphic Swimmer - why the sexual orientation of 64-year-old record-breaking Cuba to Florida long-distance lesbian swimmer Diana Nyad needs to be part of the story ….

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