Matt’s Friend & “Freedom’s” Fools!

Week of April 20, 2015

Matthew Shepard, the icon of homophobic violence, is remembered as the guy they knew by his friend Michelle Josue and his dad Dennis in Josue's award-winning new documentary, Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine. (Interviewed by Steve Pride.)

U.S. Republican presidential wannabes (Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush) run rings around "religious freedom."

And in NewsWrap: Mexico's top court equalizes Sinaloa marriages, Egypt denies reentry to an allegedly gay Libyan student, Indiana struggles to regain its reputation, a children's picture book about same-gender penguin parents is banned again for its "homosexual agenda," and more news reported this week by John Dyer V and Michelle-Marie Gilkeson with Rick Watts (produced by Steve Pride, written by Greg Gordon).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 18, 2015

 SUMMARY

Poquito Mas - A Mexican Supreme Court ruling orders marriage equality in the state of Sinaloa …

Still Proving a Point - an administrative court in Cairo upholds the Egyptian Interior Ministry’s denial of reentry to a Libyan student deported in 2008 for being gay …

Still Unscathed - the offices of the leading LGBT rights group in Kyrgyzstan, Labrys, are firebombed …

Still Stalling - Guam’s governor is “delaying” his promised decision on whether or not to allow the U.S. territory’s Public  Health Department - which deferred to him after the state Attorney General so ordered - to issue a marriage license to a lesbian couple who’ve sued in federal court for it …

Call In the Mad Men - Indiana Governor Mark Pence’s popularity plummets following his disastrous support for a so-called “religious freedom” law, while the CEO of well-known  Indiana-based consumer review website Angie’s List steps down to “fix” his state’s image, and state officials want to “fix” it by spending at least 2 million dollars on a public relations firm …

Hurricane Bobby - seemingly-oblivious Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal - expected to announce his GOP presidential aspirations sometime soon - pushes a “religious freedom” bill in his state’s legislature that critics say is even worse than the original Indiana law …

Avian Agenda - the penguin-loving children’s storybook "And Tango Makes Three" is again among the American Library Association’s Top 3 "Most Challenged Books" this year because it "promotes a homosexual agenda" …

Read the complete NewsWrap text here.

NewsWrap for the week ending February 21, 2015

SUMMARY

Long Betrothal - Finland's president signs a marriage equality bill into law that won't take effect until 2017   

A Day in May - Ireland's Prime Minister sets the date for the national marriage equality referendum for May 22nd …

Moore Arguments - some Alabama probate judges are still refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples …

Breaking With Convention - a second Tokyo district hints at offering partnership certificates to lesbian and gay pairs, and Japan's Prime Minister tells parliament that the constitution doesn't permit marriage equality …

Yours, Mine, But Not Theirs - Colombia's highest court allows same-gender couples to adopt their partner's biological offspring, but refuses to open adoption to lesbian and gay couples more generally …

Time Warped - two men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana are arrested for "crimes against nature," even though the U.S. Supreme Court declared such laws unconstitutional in 2003 …

First, A Pig Flies - a Wyoming Republican is ejected from a state House committee for trying to amend an LGBT anti-bias bill with an effective date of "when hell freezes over" …

Notrump Ruling - a Washington state judge rules that religious belief does not give a business open to the public a license to discriminate against gays and lesbians …

Bouncing Baby Bias - after "much prayer," a Detroit, Michigan pediatrician refuses to treat the 6-day-old baby daughter of a lesbian couple  ….

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