Gay Bar, Platformance Anxiety & Museveni Denial

Historian Will Fellows (interviewed by Steve Pride) updates the memoir of 1950s Los Angeles Gay Bar owner Helen Branson.

Los Angeles Mayor and Democratic Party Convention Chair Antonio Villaraigosa and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow discuss the political challenges for President Obama as his colleagues consider a platform plank supporting marriage equality.

President Yoweri Museveni assures CNN International's Christiane Amanpour that there really isn't any anti-LGBT discrimination in Uganda -- and certainly no deadly intentions behind the Anti-Homosexuality ("kill the gays") Bill.

And in NewsWrap: Budapest court prefers Pride to police, "gays and tom-boys" barred from Saudi schools, Israel's Conservative Jews okay lesbian and gay rabbinical students, veteran Anglican priest concludes that Jesus was gay, and more news reported by Michael LeBeau and Miss Barbie-Q (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 21, 2012

SUMMARY

Pride 2, Cops 0 - Budapest Metropolitan Court overrules last week's police ban on the planned July 7th Pride parade in the Hungarian capital city …

Never Saw It, Get Rid of It - report by Russia's state-owned news agency about proposed legislation to ban so-called "gay propaganda" reveals that 94 percent of survey respondents say they've never been exposed to it, but 86 percent approve of a ban on positive portrayals of same-gender relationships …

Coerced Confession - U.K. man sentenced to 3 years in prison in Dubai last week for having public gay sex tells the Scottish Sun that in reality "it was just a kiss and a cuddle" and that he plans to appeal …

Queer Child Left Behind - Saudi Arabia bans what it calls "gays and tom-boys" from attending government schools and universities …

Hush Up, Bad - "Don't say gay" bill in the U.S. state of Tennessee to ban any discussion of human sexuality in elementary and middle schools other than heterosexuality wins narrow approval in a House committee, while a similar measure is introduced in the Missouri legislature …

Hush Up, Good - 17th annual National Day of Silence against anti-LGBT bullying is observed on more than 8,000 U.S. school campuses …

Mazel Tov - Israel's Conservative Jewish movement decides to open its rabbinical seminary to gay and lesbian students …

Sisters of Perpetual Revolution - Vatican demands reform of a leading organization of U.S. nuns whose "radical feminist themes" challenge Church doctrine …

Not Sheepish - outspoken anti-equality Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, who's charged with spurring those reforms, is rebuffed by six Seattle parishes who reject his call to participate in signature gathering efforts to qualify a petition for the November ballot to repeal the state's recently-enacted law opening civil marriage to same-gender couples …

Chapter and Verse - veteran Anglican priest Paul Oestreicher is sure to upset conservative Christians of all denominations by writing in Britain's Guardian newspaper that Jesus and his disciple John were "what we today call gay" ….

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Mattachine Steps Dedication

A ceremony in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles marks the "Hay Day" of the movement with the christening of a historical marker on the steps leading up to the home of gay rights pioneer Harry Hay, site of the first meetings of the Mattachine Society in the early 1950s. Celebrating the centennial of Hay's birth are fellow Radical Faerie and writer Mark Thompson, the Rev. Malcolm Boyd of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, local gay historical preservationist Wes Joe, Silver Lake Neighborhood Council member Elizabeth Bougart, longtime Hay neighbors David Byrd and Jolino Becerra, and L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti. Vash Boddie reports from the scene.

And in NewsWrap: Gambia goes after gays and lesbians, drunken Dubai dalliance draws stiff jail time, Budapest cops and Hungarian lawmakers try to silence LGBT people, Russia's delegation decries G8 rights declaration, studies show homophobes doth protest too much, "reparative therapy" supporter repudiates his research, Australian Greens' Brown bows out, and more news reported by Sarah Sweeney and Abby Dees (produced by Steve Pride and Vash Boddie).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 14, 2012

SUMMARY

Hunting Season - More than a dozen "suspected homosexuals" are arrested for "indecent practices" in the west African nation of Gambia …

Let's Not Get Drunk And Screw - two men –- one from Britain and the other from the Seychelles –- are sentenced in Dubai to three years in jail for having consensual but drunken gay sex in public …

Don't Parade, Don't Promote - police in Hungary's capital of Budapest refuse to issue permits for a planned LGBT Pride march claiming that it would be impossible to redirect traffic around the chosen route, while bills are introduced in Hungary's parliament echoing similar legislation recently introduced in Russia's lower house of parliament making it a criminal offense to "promote" LGBT rights …

Eight Minus One - Russia's delegation to the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in Washington rejects language in a post-event document that included support for the humanity of sexual minorities …

Protesting Too Much - a series of studies of college students in the U.S., U.K. and Germany suggest that the most outspoken homophobes are often themselves repressed homosexuals …

Never Mind - leading U.S. psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer repudiates controversial research he published in 2001 that seemed to support so-called "change therapy" …

Get Off the Bus - two groups in the U.K. who believe gay people can be turned straight are blocked by London's mayor from promoting their "ex-gay" programs in adverts on the sides of city buses …

Keep Discriminating For Now - despite mounting pressure from LGBT equality proponents, the White House tells reporters that President Obama will not be issuing an executive order "at this time" to require federal contractors to have LGBT anti-discrimination policies …

Lavender Sheep - Christine Forster, the 47-year-old sister of Australian Opposition leader Tony Abbott, comes out as lesbian, but Abbott maintains his opposition to marriage equality …

Gay Green Brown Goodbye - openly gay Greens chair and Senator Bob Brown unexpectedly announces his retirement after leading the progressive political party for the past 16 years from what the Australian Broadcasting Corporation called the "radical fringe to the center of power" ….

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DOMA Dogfights

Multiple marriage cases around the U.S. are closing in on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Alice Ollstein's Free Speech Radio News report includes comments by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Senior Staff Attorney Vickie Henry, Lambda Legal Marriage Project Director Camilla Taylor, and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.

A tribute to the late iconic lesbian-feminist writer Adrienne Rich features excerpts from her readings and a 1983 Pacifica Radio Archives interview with her by poet Eloise Klein Healy.

Plus -- celebrating Mexico City civil unions in a Rainbow Minute produced by Judd Proctor and Brian Burns, read by Mac Pence.

And in NewsWrap: hate group threatens the liberty of LGBT Liberians, activists attacked for "gay speak" in Yaounde and St. Petersburg, Malaysia pushes TV back in the closet, Chile lawmakers finally ban anti-queer bias, and more news reported by Tanya Kane-Parry and Gary Shaw (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending April 7, 2012

SUMMARY

Targets on Their Backs - An anti-gay group in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia distributes fliers with what is being described as a "hit list" of people who support LGBT rights, whom one member said could be punished by "flogging and death" …

You Mean They're Human? - authorities in Cameroon's capital of Yaounde shut down a human rights workshop when they discover that the focus is on LGBT rights …

This Is Fascist - two Russian gay activists become the first to be arrested in St. Petersburg under the city's recently enacted law criminalizing dissemination of LGBT "propaganda" to minors for holding placards outside a popular youth center simply reading "Gay – this is normal" …

The Orientation Will Not Be Televised - Malaysian government authorities announce a ban on state-owned radio and TV stations of any shows that feature gay characters, although one official says male program hosts who appear effeminate are exempt "because they are born this way" …

Too Late for Daniel - Chilean lawmakers pass a bill to ban sexual orientation- and gender identity-based bias seven years after it was first introduced, but about a week after the highly-publicized brutal neo-Nazi gang beating death of "out" young man Daniel Zamudio …

Freezing Chads? - citing several polling place irregularities, the ACLU of Alaska demands a formal review of municipal election results this week in Anchorage that included the overwhelming defeat of Proposition 5, which would have banned anti-LGBT bias …

The Audacity of Political Pressure - the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund joins 72 members of Congress to urge President Obama to issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to have LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination policies …

Queers in Hoodies - 23 of the largest LGBT rights organizations in the U.S. sign on to a joint open letter condemning the shooting death in Florida of unarmed 17-year-old African-American teen Trayvon Martin …

Age Appropriate - after almost a half-million people petition the Motion Picture Association of America to protest the "R" rating of "Bully," the highly-praised documentary about anti-queer school bullying that would only allow viewers 17 and older to see it in theaters, filmmakers agree to cut the number of "f"-words from six to three to get a "PG-13" rating, which will allow movie houses to admit viewers aged 13 and older, and screenings in middle schools and high schools, so that it can be seen by the film's target audience ….

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HRC: Honors & Outcries

The Human Rights Campaign doles out honors to allies and draws outcries over its romance with corporate vultures. Vash Boddie's inside/outside on-scene coverage of HRC's Los Angeles Gala features comments by actors Joe Manganiello and Charlize Theron; MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews and his wife Kathleen; L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Occupy L.A. Queer Affinity Group member John Waiblinger; community organizer Dalila Ali Rajah.

And in NewsWrap: Russian lawmakers catch "no promo homo" contagion, a Serbian "death to gays" inciter goes to jail, Albania's P.M. defends parade rights, second-parent adoptions are rejected in Slovenia, the torture death of a young gay Chilean prompts national soul-searching, same-gender couples illegally marry en masse on two continents, and more news reported by Rick Watts and John Torres (produced by Steve Pride).

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NewsWrap for the week ending March 31, 2012

SUMMARY

Russian Bias Spreads - A national bill to criminalize exposing minors to pro-LGBT "propaganda" – much like the recently enacted measure in St. Petersburg – is introduced in the Russian parliament, while a judge in the Russian city of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, upholds a ban on Pride House, a specific venue for LGBT athletes and their supporters that was introduced at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver …

Fighting Words - Mladen Obradovic, the leader of Serbia's extremist group Obraz, is sentenced to 10 months in prison for inciting violence against LGBT people …

STFU - Albania's Prime Minister Sali Berisha quickly counters calls by a deputy minister of defense for participants in the country's upcoming first-ever LGBT Pride march to be beaten with batons …

One Parent to a Customer - Slovenia voters approve a referendum to overturn a new family law that would have allowed same-gender couples to adopt the biological children of their partners …

Wake Up and Smell the Genocide - Chile confronts anti-gay brutality and the need for national anti-bias and hate crime protections following the horrific neo-Nazi gang beating death of 24-year-old "out" gay man Daniel Zamudio at a park in Santiago …

Not Made in Heaven - newly-released internal memos issued by the U.S. National Organization for Marriage expose the rabidly-anti-equality group's strategies to drive wedges between LGBT people and both African-Americans and Latinos …

Let's Pretend - in what organizers call "the largest illegal mass wedding ever held," more than 200 lesbian and gay couples say "I do" at a mall in Cleveland, Ohio, while Australian comedian Adam Hills presides over the mass weddings – though also not legal there – of 41 same-gender couples on his popular nationally-televised evening talk show to demonstrate to viewers that such marriages are not "as scary" as they might think they are ….

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