NewsWrap for the week ending April 19, 2014

SUMMARY

When Two Aren't Enough - India's High Court declares trans-people to be a third gender entitled to rights, protections, and government benefits …

Whistling in the Dark - the conviction and 35-year prison sentence for Wiki-leaking U.S. Army Private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning are upheld, sending her case to a military appeals court …

Twin Wins - Malta lawmakers protect transgender people from discrimination, and create marriage-like civil unions for same-gender couples that include adoption rights …

Time Out Corner - Ethiopia's government resists calls for harsher anti-gay laws than already exist, so a large church groups-organized anti-gay march in Addis Ababa is cancelled …

The Usual Suspect - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe calls gays and lesbians "inhuman" and threatens to kick pro-gay foreign diplomats out of the country …

Trapped - defiance and fear mix among Ugandan LGBT and HIV/AIDS activists under the new "Jail the Gays" law as many of their lives are threatened and police hunt them, while a Namibian official says his country won't accept gay refugees fleeing Uganda …

Stoned Again - new laws in Brunei punish consensual adult gay sex with death by stoning …

Can You Hear Me Now? - the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals considers Oklahoma's challenge to a lower federal court ruling declaring the state's ban on civil marriage for same-gender couples unconstitutional in the second such hearing in as many weeks …

Don't Save the Children - Utah's Attorney General asks the state Supreme Court to stop same-gender couples who legally married during the brief few days that they could from getting second parent adoption approval …

What Constitution? - despite the U.S. Supreme Court 2003 ruling overturning state sodomy laws, Louisiana lawmakers vote to keep their statute on the books because residents believe gay people to be "dangerous, unhealthy and immoral" …

Southern Hospitality - in response to enactment of a state law to "protect religious freedom" that opponents called a veiled anti-LGBT "license to discriminate," hundreds of Mississippi business owners and shop keepers are welcoming them as customers with rainbow window stickers declaring "We Don't Discriminate" ….

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NewsWrap for the week ending August 31, 2013

SUMMARY

Island Fever - Mob violence against LGBT people rises sharply in Jamaica, fueled by anti-sodomy preachers …

Health and Taxes - the reverberating effects this week of the U.S. Supreme Court's DOMA decision include the Internal Revenue Service announcing that it will treat married same-gender couples the same as their heterosexual peers, and the Health and Human Services Department declaring that same-gender couples will now have access to all the benefits of Medicare that had previously been reserved for heterosexual married couples …

About Face - a federal judge declares a U.S. statute that denies equal benefits to married lesbian and gay veterans unconstitutional …

Tipping Point - marriage equality is now enjoyed in more than half of New Mexico while its Association of Counties asks the state high court to issue a definitive ruling on the issue …

Oh, Grow Up! - Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett compares gay and lesbian couples to 12-year-old children in his legal filing against an official in the state's Montgomery County who's also handing out marriage licenses to same-gender couples …

Thank Goodness for Small Favors - global retail behemoth WalMart extends domestic partner benefits to its 2.2 million employees around the world …

Keep Out of Reach of Children - the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds California's first-in-the-nation law banning so-called "conversion therapy" for minors …

Prisoner of Gender - the attorney for U.S. Army Private Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning reports that the transgender soldier is doing well as she acclimates to life at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but that the Army is denying her hormone therapy and other necessary treatment for gender dysphoria …

Justice of the Peace - Ruth Bader Ginsburg makes history as the first U.S. Supreme Court Justice to officiate at the wedding of a same-gender couple ….

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Manning's Twin Transitions & Greenwald's True Terror

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A report on US Army Private Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning's 35-year prison sentence by Free Speech Radio News anchor Dorian Merina features comments by Manning's attorney David Coombs and analysis by Courthouse News reporter Adam Klasfeld. Then consider how Manning's latest revelation -- the decision to live as a woman -- may test military mettle.

Brazilian David Miranda and his American husband, The Guardian's investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, tell their horror story about harassment at Heathrow to CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.

And in NewsWrap: winning weddings ring in New Zealand marriage equality, New Mexico's largest counties leap the broom while a Pennsylvania county defies that U.S. state's hetero-only marriage law, and New Jersey's new "prayer cure" ban pits Christians against Christie, and more news reported by Wenzel Jones and Pam Marshall (produced by Steve Pride).

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Manning’s Mea Culpa

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Trans whistleblower Bradley Manning’s explanatory apology is analyzed by Firedoglake trial-watcher Kevin Gosztola (with Free Speech Radio News reporter Alice Ollstein) and independent journalist Alexa O'Brien (with Amy Goodman and Nakeem Shaikh of Democracy Now!).

Plus: a musical Rainbow [More-Than-A] Minute celebrates the advent this month of marriage equality in Minnesota and Rhode Island.

And in NewsWrap: U.S. evangelical charged with Ugandan crimes against humanity, Prop 8 propelled to ninth circle of hell, German Evangelicals marry unionized same-gender couples, Russian TV anchor fired for coming out on the air, WWE Superstar pins closet, and more news reported by Jenn Mahoney and Jason Proctor (produced by Steve Pride).

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Russia Update & Manning Sentencing

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Moscow-based activist Nikolai Alekseev (via Skype with correspondent Steve Pride) brings us the latest from the frontlines of Russia's crackdown on LGBT people -- is Vladimir Putin playing Russian roulette with the Winter Olympics?

Elizabeth Goitein of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice shares her analysis of what's ahead for the controversial queer whistle-blower, as a U.S. Army judge measures Pvt. Bradley Manning's guilt (an interview with Dorian Merina of Free Speech Radio News).

And in NewsWrap: the new Pope says he won't "judge" gay priests, activists align with LGBT bar owners to "Dump Stoli," U.S. citizens get equal visa rights for their same-gender spouses, marriage equality bells ring in Minnesota and Rhode Island, and more news reported by Pamela Brooks and Charlie Bauer (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending August 3, 2013

SUMMARY

Gamesmanship - The Russian government ignores global protests and vows no exceptions in enforcement of the recently passed "no promo homo" law at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, but then maybe relents …

Dry Politics - debate among LGBT activists and their allies continues around the world about how to best respond to Russia's escalating war on sexual minorities, but there's a push to "Dump Stoli" (arguably the most popular Russian vodka in the West) that’s growing around the world …

Vodka Veritas - Latvia's leading LGBT rights group Mozaika asks activists to stop their vodka protest actions, claiming that Stoli is made in their country, but the U.S. based Queer Nation disputes that claim with facts …

Judge Not - Pope Francis makes headlines with seemingly positive comments about gay priests, but critics remind LGBT Catholics that the Church still condemns homosexual *acts* as mortal sin …

Truth's Consequences - military court convicts U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, described as either gay or transgendered, of all but the most serious charge – aiding the enemy – for releasing reams of classified documents to Wikileaks in what's been called the largest breach of national security in American history …

Welcome Home - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confirms (post-DOMA) that visa applications of the married foreign same-gender spouses of U.S. citizens will be treated the same as those from heterosexual spouses …

Wedding Cake-Bakers' Dozen - joining 11 other U.S. states and the District of Columbia, Minnesota and Rhode Island officially begin marrying lesbian and gay couples ….

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Manning's Plea & Obama's Brief

The possible consequences of Private Bradley Manning's truth is assessed by journalist Kevin Gosztola following the whistle-blowing Wikileaker's February 28th court martial proceedings (with Dorian Merina of Free Speech Radio News).

President Barack Obama explains the "evolutionary" embrace of equality evidenced in his administration's Prop 8 Supreme Court brief (taken from a March 1st news conference).

Plus: The U.S. Congress passes -- finally -- an inclusive Violence Against Women Act! Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, Rape Abuse Incest National Network founder Scott Berkowitz, and Wisconsin Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore speak out on the issues for LGBT people, Native Americans and undocumented women in Alice Ollstein's report for Free Speech Radio News.

And in NewsWrap: marriage equality proposal flops in Finland, three "civil partnership" tries and you're out in Poland, bills advancing marriage rites progress in the U.K. and New Zealand, Canada's Supreme Court finds an anti-gay street preacher guilty of hate speech, and more news reported by Pamela Brooks and Michael LeBeau (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 28, 2012

SUMMARY

Under the Table Bias Relief - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that gender identity-based workplace bias constitutes sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which leaves gays and lesbians without protections and waiting for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, by a more receptive Congress …

Don't Ask Keeps Telling - three U.S. Senators ask Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to expedite the process for veterans kicked out of the service under Don't Ask Don't Tell to delete that specific reason, which virtually "outs" them to prospective employers, from their discharge documents …

Court Martial the Messenger - a military judge advances the court martial of Private First Class Bradley Manning, variously described as gay or "gender confused," for providing Wikileaks with reams of sensitive documents in what's been called the largest leak of government secrets in U.S. history …

Scaling the Rockies - Colorado's Senate provisionally approves a bipartisan civil unions bill that probably faces stiffer opposition in the GOP-controlled House …

The Maine Event - the infamously anti-gay National Organization for Marriage teams up with the Christian Civic League of Maine to fight a marriage equality measure on the November state ballot …

Cure for the "Cure" - a bill introduced in the California Senate would ban so-called "reparative therapy" for anyone under the age of 18 …

In Franklin's Footsteps - Brian Sims is all but on his way to Harrisburg as the first openly gay member of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives …

Tongzhi Power - pop star Anthony Wong comes out as a gay man to thousands of fans during the closing night of a series of concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum …

No Promo Homo Convicto - the movement to prevent minors from being exposed to so-called "gay propaganda" spreads across Russia, while the first man arrested for violating such a law in St. Petersburg is only convicted of refusing to comply with a police order to stop violating the law ….

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