NewsWrap for the week ending January 3, 2015

SUMMARY

Bells & Flowers - Same-gender couples begin legally marrying in Scotland and Luxembourg …

Courtships & Weddings - the U.S. Supreme Court will consider one or more marriage equality cases at its first conference of 2015 on January 9th, and a federal judge clears the way for the civil marriages of lesbian and gay couples in Florida to begin on January 6th …

"My Death Needs to Mean Something" - the gruesome suicide of 17-year-old Ohio transgender teen Leelah Alcorn sparks sadness, outrage, and resolve …

Shockingly Bad Medicine - a court in China issues a landmark ruling against a counseling center that claimed to "cure" homosexuality

Not Just Thugs - thirty-five members of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe are injured as thugs invade a private holiday party …

Push Back - security forces in Gambia arrest three men on charges of homosexuality, even as the European Union and the U.S. sharply reduce financial aid because of the draconian anti-gay law signed by homophobic President Yahya Jammeh in October that prompted the arrests …

Pyramid Crackdown - more than two dozen men arrested for "perversion" and "debauchery" at an early December raid on a Cairo bathhouse purportedly orchestrated by a much-maligned TV journalist go on trial, but three-year sentences are reduced to one year for each of the eight men convicted in November of the same charges for appearing in a widely-viewed YouTube video that authorities called Egypt's first gay wedding ceremony …

Shaking the Dust Off Their Feet - Alexandria, Indiana's First United Methodist Church closes after some 80% of the congregation quits in protest of the firing of an openly gay choir director ….

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

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.

Leslie Jordan, "Show Pony"

To listen to the whole show, click here!

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!