"Leaves of Grass -- Uncut" & Well Strung

Week of January 27, 2014
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Walt Whitman worshipper Patrick Scully un-censors the great American poet in a multi-disciplinary work-in-progress that he discusses with Dixie Treichel and John Townsend.

A Well Strung boy band fiddles (and sings) fabulously and chats with Entertainment Correspondent Steve Pride.

And in NewsWrap: lynch mob demands quick execution of gay-accused Nigerians, famed Kenyan memoirist exits closet, seven more U.S. states grapple with marriage equality, Russia's Prime Minister deaf to LGBT screams, Canadian and Australian Olympians diss Putin's "gay propaganda" prohibition, and more news reported by Natalie Peoples and Michael Allan (produced by Steve Pride).

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This Way Out was funded this week by the Yavanna Foundation and by our generous listeners.  Donate today to help support our work -- and the free distribution of the show to non-commercial radio stations -- at thiswayout.org!

NewsWrap for the week ending January 25, 2014

SUMMARY

Lynching Season - Thousands of demonstrators stone a courtroom in northern Nigeria demanding quick convictions and executions of several men accused of belonging to gay advocacy groups as attacks on sexual minorities in Nigeria escalate following the mid-January enactment of draconian anti-gay legislation …

New Chapter - well-known award-winning Kenyan writer Binjavanga Wainaina comes out to protest the anti-gay law in Nigeria and a similar law apparently still pending in Uganda …

Charging Generals - marriage equality actions in U.S. states continue to mushroom, with Virginia's new Attorney General announcing that he would not defend his state's ban on civil marriage for same-gender couples, while Idaho and Nevada Attorneys General each defend their state's ban in federal lawsuits …

Slow Ski Lift - Utah gets more time to prepare its defense of the state's marriage ban, while four legally wed same-gender couples who married during the 17 days that they could file suit for state recognition of their marriages …

Fitting for Wedding Suits - a federal judge in Oregon consolidates two marriage equality lawsuits while rights activists push a petition to get the issue on the November state ballot, while six same-gender couples file suit for the right to marry in Florida …

Shell Game - thanks to what Democrats call a "power play" by Republican Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, a bill to constitutionally outlaw marriage for same-gender couples passes in committee and heads to the full chamber …

Homophobia Ain't So Bad - Russian anti-gay thug Maxim Martsinkevich is arrested in Cuba and heads home to stand trial for "extremism" – though his online video postings of gangs trapping and abusing young gay men are apparently not part of the charges against him …

I Hear Nothing … Nothing - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tells "CNN" that he hasn't heard of any virtually-silenced LGBT person complaining about his country's law banning "gay propaganda," and falsely claims that it's not even being enforced …

Audacious Olympians - marriage equality-supportive female ice hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser is named by the Canadian Olympic Committee to be her nation's Opening Ceremonies flag bearer at the Winter Games in Sochi, while out Australian Olympic snow board cross rider Belle Brockhoff looks forward to the competition, and then to talking to anyone who will listen to her angry condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin for his defense of the so-called "no promo homo law" ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted January 28, 2014.

Abaria's "Underdogs" & King's Olympic Stand

Week of January 20, 2014
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Andrew Abaria chats with our impressaria Chris Wilson about his personal and musical journeys, with the title track and Kiss Me Till They Find Us from his We Are The Underdogs EP.

A Sochi-bound Billie Jean King gets fierce with ersatz TV commentator Stephen Colbert.

And in NewsWrap:  Nigeria's anti-LGBT law unleashes reign of terror, Museveni declines to sign Uganda's draconian anti-gay bill, GALZ wins rare Zimbabwe High Court victory, Oklahoma's marriage equality ban struck down, same-gender marrieds ride Utah rights roller coaster, canned Indiana choirmaster causes congregational exodus, and more news reported by Michael Le Beau and Michelle-Marie Gilkeson (produced by Steve Pride).
 

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This Way Out was funded this week by the Yavanna Foundation and by our generous listeners. Donate today to help support our work -- and the free distribution of the show to non-commercial radio stations -- at thiswayout.org!

NewsWrap for the week ending January 18, 2014

SUMMARY

Who's Knocking? - Sexual minorities now live in dangerous times amidst increasing arrests in Nigeria after President Goodluck Jonathan signs a draconian "Jail All the Gays" bill …

Not a Family Gathering - six men arrested in Gabon for participating in a "gay wedding" are released without charge after prosecutors determine that no "real marriage" had occurred …

Call Names, Dodge Action - President Yoweri Museveni declines to sign a draconian "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" in Uganda, but only for legal reasons, calling gay people "disgusting" and "abnormal" …

Vindication - Gays & Lesbians of Zimbabwe wins a rare legal victory in the country's High Court …

Okie-Dokie - Oklahoma's hetero only marriage law is the latest state statute to be declared unconstitutional by a federal judge …

Internal Inconsistencies - Utah's legally wed same-gender couples are told they can file joint state tax returns if they were married by December 31, 2013, even though the state refuses to recognize their unions and has a new $200,000 hired gun leading its defense of the marriage ban in the 10th Circuit …

Out of Egypt - 80 percent of the congregants of the First United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Indiana quit after the choir director of six years is dismissed for being gay ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted January 21, 2014.

Puerto Rican LGBTs & Kluwe's Kick

Week of January 13, 2014
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Activists Margarita Lopez, Luis Santiago and Rosie Mendez talk about being out and Puerto Rican on the front lines in New York City (correspondent Kelly Cogswell).

America's National Football League gets a (Chris) Kluwe about equality from the player who says he was fired by "two cowards and a bigot" (correspondents Abby Dees and Wenzel Jones).

Commentator Janet Mason gets ready to buy stamps with Harvey Milk.

And in NewsWrap:  Russia's Orthodox Church prays for homo sex ban, dangers rise as LGBT Ugandans await pending homophobic law, Chile moves closer to civil unions, U.S. feds foil Utah's effort to nix marriage rights, and more news reported by Sarah Sweeney and Rick Watts (produced by Wenzel Jones and Steve Pride).

Subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss a show!

Get CDs of the regular show and specials from our archives at our website, thiswayout.org!

This Way Out was funded this week by the Gay Chemists Support Fund of the Horizon Foundation and by our generous listeners. Donate today to help support our work -- and the free distribution of the show to non-commercial radio stations -- at thiswayout.org.

NewsWrap for the week ending January 11, 2014

SUMMARY

Russia Roundup - Russia's politically powerful Orthodox Church calls for a public referendum to re-criminalize gay sex; NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas tells reporters that he wants to ask Vladimir Putin to defend his country's "no promo homo" law during the network's Winter Olympics coverage next month in Sochi, while the U.S. State Department warns LGBT visitors to keep it on the "down low" …

Slow Backtrack - the Indian government asks the nation's Supreme Court to reconsider its December 11th ruling that recriminalized gay sex …

As Night Is Falling - just the threat of Uganda's draconian anti-gay law, yet to be signed by the president, is already making life more difficult for HIV/AIDS workers and the sexual minorities they serve …

The Sun Also Rises - civil unions for Chile's same-gender couples may be just a few weeks away after the Senate overwhelmingly approves a bill to create them …

Feds Buzz Bees - Utah's Republican Governor Gary Herbert nixes state recognition of the 1,360 lesbian and gay couples who legally wed in the state during the 17 days that they could, but U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says that the federal government will recognize those couples …

Courting Rituals - four same-gender couples challenge Arizona's constitutional marriage equality ban in federal court, and a federal court in Austin will soon begin hearings on a challenge to the ban in Texas …

Disenchanted - an effort by opponents of New Mexico marriage equality to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the state Supreme Court ruling establishing it as the law of the land in December are not given much chance of success …

Celebrity News - Germany's retired high-profile international football [soccer] star Thomas Hitzlsperger comes out, while Joseph Lown, the San Angelo, Texas mayor who resigned in 2009 to move to Mexico to live with his undocumented gay partner legally marries him in a Mexico City ceremony …

And That's the Truth - comedy icon Lily Tomlin and her creative/life partner of 42 years Jane Wagner finally make honest women of each other on New Year's Eve in New York City ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted January 13, 2013.

Leslie Jordan, "Show Pony"

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The Emmy-winning entertainer is a short star with some tall Hollywood tales for correspondents Steve Pride, Abby Dees and Chris Wilson.

Plus a couple of Rainbow Minutes devoted to the Comings and Goings of 2013 (produced by Judd Proctor and Brian Burns, read by Dustin Richardson).

And in NewsWrap:  nightmare anti-LGBT laws pass in Nigeria and Uganda, Cuban lesbians and gays get workplace anti-bias protections, a U.S. Supreme Court stay stymies Utah marriage equality, the high court in the "Land of Enchantment" opens civil marriage to same-gender couples, an unrepentant United Methodist Church pastor gets defrocked for Christmas, and more news reported by Wenzel Jones and Pam Marshall (produced by Steve Pride).

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This Way Out was funded this week by the Gay Chemists Support Fund of the Horizon Foundation and -- as always -- by our listener supporters. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our 2013 Year End Campaign -- we raised over $3200!

NewsWrap for the week ending January 4, 2014

SUMMARY

Nightmares in Waiting - A so-called "Jail The Gays" bill in Nigeria and an apparently less lethal version of the infamous "Kill The Gays" bill in Uganda each win legislative approval and await the signatures of their respective presidents, Goodluck Jonathan and Yoweri Musevini …

Enigmatic Reprieve - British code-breaking World War II hero and father of the modern computer Alan Turing gets a posthumous royal pardon of his "gross indecency" conviction in 1952 that forced his chemical castration and probably drove him to suicide two years later …

Cuba Mas Libre - a Labor Code change in Cuba banning sexual orientation-based workplace bias is the first law in the island nation to protect gays and lesbians …

Busy as a Beehive - a U.S. federal judge declares the ban on civil marriage equality in mostly Mormon Utah unconstitutional, sending hundreds of same-gender couples to county clerk's offices across the state to get licenses, while both the ruling-issuing judge and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals deny Utah's request for an emergency stay to stop them, which state officials then ask Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the high court judge for that part of the country who handles emergency requests, to do …

Enchanted Judiciary - the New Mexico Supreme Court orders marriage equality across the state, validating the licenses already issued to same-gender couples since August by 8 of the state's 33 counties …

Of Their Own Free Will - the Los Angeles Times notes that, contrary to popular right-wing howls against so-called "activist judges" imposing their personal beliefs on an unwilling public, only seven of the 18 U.S. states with marriage equality as 2014 began got there by court order …

Crucified and Risen Again - Lebanon, Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Reverend Frank Schaefer is defrocked for not repenting officiating his gay son's wedding in 2007, but may have a new job in California …

Anticlimax - keen observers noticed that the sky didn't fall on January 1st, the first day of the new semi-inclusive policy welcoming openly gay young men into the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America ….

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