ObamENDA & Tutu's Heaven

Week of July 21, 2014

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An executive order from U.S. President Barack Obama creates anti-bias employment protections for LGBT people in the federal workforce -- without the religious exemptions many advocates worried would be added in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder revealed the administration’s plan if and whenever a marriage equality case reaches the high court.

Australian Olympic swimmer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Thorpe">Ian Thorpe</a> found the water in the coming out pool was just fine, and newly-minted NFL football rookie <a href="http://michaelsam.com/">Michael Sam</a> was gay visibility's most valuable player when he accepted the ESPN television network's Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

South Africa's preeminent representative of reconciliation and Nobel Prize winner <a href="http://www.tutu.org/home/">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</a> prophesizes that there is Pride beyond the pearly gates.

And in <i><a href="http://bit.ly/1nyGLvt">NewsWrap</a></i>: HIV/AIDS researchers and activists become victims of the Ukraine-Russia conflict; U.S. judges consider marriage equality in Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and Colorado; Croatian couples win almost-equality; Malawi cuts costs by ignoring same-gender sex; more news reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Sarah Sweeney (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending July 19, 2014

SUMMARY

Hope Shot Down - Renowned Dutch HIV/AIDS researcher/activist Joep Lange and at least a few fellow scientists/activists traveling to the annual International AIDS Conference in Melbourne perish in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine …

Wooing and Courting - the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns Oklahoma's ban on civil marriage for same-gender couples, a circuit court judge declares Florida's ban unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court decides not to force Utah to recognize the marriages of more than a thousand lesbian and gay couples who legally wed in the state during a brief time when that was possible, and Colorado's Supreme Court orders the Denver County clerk to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples, but doesn’t stop fellow rogue clerks in Boulder and Pueblo counties from continuing to do so …

Equality-Adjacent - Croatian lawmakers overwhelmingly approve a bill to create marriage-like but less-than-equal "life partnerships" for gay and lesbian couples …

The High Price of Persecution - Malawi's Justice Minister tell a U.N. human rights panel that her government has told police to stop arresting gay people, who can be and have been punished with up to 14 years in prison at hard labor -- but financial constraints seem to have been the practical motivation …

Closing the Books - Singapore's National Library Board takes heat for ordering the removal and destruction of all copies of the true-life penguin story "And Tango Makes Three" and two other LGBT-themed children's books ….

Read the complete NewsWrap text  ... download the podcast  … or listen on Stitcher.

NewsWrap for the week ending December 14, 2013

SUMMARY

Repression Rewind - India's Supreme Court re-criminalizes private consensual adult same-gender sex by overturning the 2009 Delhi High Court ruling that had struck down the colonial-era Penal Code Section 377 that outlaws "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" …

Instant Annulments - Australia's High Court overturns the marriage equality law passed by the Australian Capital Territory …

First Shall Be Last - the U.K. government announces that the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013, approved by parliament in July, will take effect in England and Wales on 29 March 2014, but military couples and those already in civil partnerships will have to wait longer to be legally married …

More Than One Way - even though two in three Croatians voted to constitutionally ban marriage equality earlier this month, the center-left government of Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic introduces a "life partnership" bill that would give same-gender couples a few marriage–like rights …

Rebellious Phase Passes - with Mississippi being the last to end its defiance of a Pentagon order this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announces that legally married lesbian and gay National Guard enlistees will now have access in all 50 states to the same spousal benefits as their heterosexual peers …

Malicious Mouthpiece - Russian President Vladimir Putin shuts down his nation's venerable state-run news agency RIA Novosti, replacing it with a Kremlin-controlled multimedia venture called Russia Today, and tapping to head it up a leading TV anchor who infamously called for burning the hearts of dead gay people …

Plant-Based Polemic - Putin defends the national so-called "no promo homo law" during his annual address to both chambers of Parliament, saying that Russia needs to be protected from "genderless and fruitless so-called tolerance" …

Maiden Who Protest Too Much - a Putin spokesman dismisses as "rubbish" claims by the founder of a Moscow-based think tank that President Putin may be a latent homosexual ….

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

Daley's Splash & "Brand New Christmas"

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British Olympian Tom Daley announces his dive into a gay relationship.

Aussie crooner Nathan Leigh Jones re-invents holiday classics, and tells Queer Music Heritage honcho JD Doyle how he does it.

Plus: Dr. Brown's Prescription for early 1970s U.S. activism is recounted in a Rainbow Minute (produced by Judd Proctor and Brian Burns, read by Dan Roberts).

And in NewsWrap:  Russia's highest court upholds "no promo homo" laws, Croatian voters and the Greek government slam same-gender couples, U.S. and U.K. courts order bias-free public services, and more news reported by Michael LeBeau and Tanya Kane-Parry (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending December 7, 2013

SUMMARY

Ironclad Bias - Russia's highest court rules that laws criminalizing the dissemination of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors" do not violate the national constitution, while a court in Murmansk is believed to be the first to convict violators of the federal "no promo homo" law …

Who's Gaming Now - representatives of several Russian LGBT advocacy groups have an unsatisfying meeting with new IOC President Thomas Bach in Paris about Russian President Putin's vague assurances that LGBT athletes and spectators will be safe at the Winter Games in Sochi …

Bench Warmers - major corporate sponsors of those Games are being pressured to overtly oppose Russia's repressive attacks on gay rights …

Heart on Your Sleeve - American Apparel teams up with two LGBT advocacy groups for a "Principle 6" clothing line …

Homophobia in Hrvatska - to no one's surprise, heavily Roman Catholic Croatians overwhelmingly vote a ban on marriage equality into their national constitution …

Greeced Pig - the Greek government caves to conservative and religious pressure by scrapping a proposal to open the country's civil unions to same-gender couples …

Wedding Window - gay and lesbian couples start legally marrying in the Australian Capital Territory on December 7th, but they could all be annulled by a High Court ruling on December 12th …

Happy Homomoon - researchers estimate a 217 million dollar tourism bonanza for Hawai'i over the next three years with the advent of marriage equality in the "Aloha State" on December 2nd …

Madiba's Rainbow - LGBT people join the world in mourning the death of iconic South African human rights advocate Nelson Mandela, who created a "Rainbow Nation" with the help of the late gay anti-apartheid and AIDS activist Simon Nkoli …

Glad to Accommodate -a court in the U.S. state of Colorado and the U.K. Supreme Court each decide that gay and lesbian couples deserve to be treated equally under the law ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted December 10, 2013.

ENDA-fatigable & "The New Black"

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The Employment Nondiscrimination Act's U.S. Senate success hits a House roadblock, but Senators Tammy Baldwin and Jeff Merkley will never call it quits on the federal job rights bill.

Documentary director Yoruba Richen (interviewed by Steve Pride) went into the midst of Maryland's marriage equality initiative campaign to examine civil rights frictions as  The New Black evolves.

And in NewsWrap: Euro-Courts support African asylum-seekers and Greek partners, Ireland and Croatia plan marriage equality votes, A.C.T. counts down to  High Court marriage hearing, Illinois and Hawai'i march down the aisle with 14 other U.S. states, and more news reported by Pamela Brooks and Wenzel Jones (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending June 1, 2013

SUMMARY

No Peace, Less Progress - Nigeria legislators pass what could be the most draconian anti-LGBT laws in Africa – if not the world …

Felicitations - the first gay couple legally weds in France, but violent opposition continues …

Pre-Election Jitters - there'll be no marriage equality vote in Australia on June 6th as expected …

Triskaidekaphobia - the Illinois House ends its spring session without voting on a bill that had been expected to make it the 13th U.S. state with marriage equality …

Lots of Kolaci - 400 would-be brides and grooms march for equality in conservative Croatia …

Maiden Voyage - Kyiv hosts prominent foreigners and brave local souls at the first-ever Pride parade in the Ukraine …

Russian Winter - dozens of arrests mark unsanctioned rallies for LGBT rights in Moscow …

Not Laying Down - a small demonstration in Georgia demands the prosecution of those responsible for leading the violent disruption of a small LGBT rights rally in Tblisi in mid-May by tens of thousands of ultra-conservative religious fundamentalists …

Balls in the Air - Jallen Messersmith becomes the first still-playing mens college basketball player in America to come out, and formerly retired but newly-acquired L.A. Galaxy Major League Soccer player Robbie Rogers becomes the first openly gay man to play in a professional U.S. team sport [with brief stadium introduction] ….

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