Tweet Salvation!

Westboro Baptist Church expatriate Megan Phelps-Roper shares the lessons learned from her social media-driven separation from her family’s “God Hates Fags” religion (speaking at a recent TED Talk)!

And in NewsWrap: Serbia’s President picks a lesbian P.M., British election results "May" leave queer equality in limbo, trans rights advance across Canada and in Oregon, Texas okays religion-based rejection of gay and lesbian adoptive parents, queer choirs serenade Seoul, and more international LGBT news reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Michele Yeater (produced by Steve Pride, written by Greg Gordon).

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This Way Out was funded this week by the Kicking Assets Fund of the Tides Foundation, the Yavanna Foundation, the estate of Christopher David Trentham, 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 February 14, 2015

SUMMARY

Not Worth the Vote - Regressive anti-LGBT proposals fail in a Slovakia referendum for lack of interest …

Pasta Al Dente - Italy’s top court rules that the country’s constitution does not require opening civil marriage to same-gender couples …

Balancing the Fairness Books - the new Greek government proposes civil unions for queer couples …

Honorable Mention - the Tokyo district of Shibuya plans to offer “partnership certificates," which would be the first-ever recognition of lesbian and gay couples in Japan …

Fake Diseases Can't Be Cured - a New Jersey judge rules that businesses pushing “change therapy” to make gays and lesbians heterosexual are violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act …

Partisan Bullies' Pulpit - a Republican-controlled U.S. House committee kills proposals to protect LGBT students …

Bias Unbound - Arkansas lawmakers ban enactment of city or county laws in the state to protect LGBT people from discrimination …

Straight Scandal Yields Bi First - Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown is set to become the first openly bisexual governor in the United States …

Risks of Brownbacking - Jon Stewart reminds us how much we’ll miss him when he leaves “The Daily Show” later this year with his searing satirical report about GOP Kansas Governor Sam Brownback rescinding state anti-bias protections for LGBT people ….

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

NewsWrap for the week ending January 24, 2015

SUMMARY

With and Without Civility - Chilean lawmakers put the finishing touches on a civil unions bill, but Macedonia’s Parliament bans civil marriage and makes civil unions almost impossible …

Three Strikes - Portuguese lawmakers reject for the third time a bill to open adoption to same-gender couples …

Sweet Home - a U.S. federal judge overturns Alabama’s civil marriage ban …

News That's Fit to Scapegoat - the Egyptian government has reportedly ordered state-run media to step up negative coverage of LGBT people …

Censored! - Russian authorities tentatively ban films that “defile national values” -- such as, critics warn, any with positive LGBT content -- and the founder of an online site for Russian LGBT teens, “Children-404," is convicted of spreading “gay propaganda” …

Trans World Headlines - Israel’s high court allows trans people to change the gender designation on their IDs without having to undergo reassignment surgery, the first housing shelter for Turkish trans-women opens in Istanbul, and trailblazing Silverton, Oregon Mayor Stu Rasmussen, the first transgender mayor in the U.S., leaves politics -- at least for now ….

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

Gore Vidal Cures Amnesia

Week of June 2, 2014
To listen to the whole show, click here!

Director Nicholas Wrathall talks about The United States of Amnesia, his documentary on the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters who presided with a certain relish over what he declared to be the end of American civilization (interviewed by Steve Pride).

Janet Mason reviews Heal This Way written by Little Monsters and photographed by Tracey B. Wilson, and Coming Around: Parenting Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Kids by Anne Dohrenwend.

And in NewsWrap: mob lynches gay man in Ghana and hunts for his boyfriend, Luxembourg's Parliament leans toward marriage equality, NOM takes on Oregon after record fines in Maine, religiously-weakened ENDA draws U.S. activists' fire, Peruvian Congressman comes out, and more news reported by Natalie Peoples and Jason Proctor (produced this week by Steve Pride).

This Way Out was funded this week by the Yavanna Foundation, the Kicking Assets Fund of the Tides Foundation, a bequest from the estate of Christopher David Trentham, 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 May 31, 2014

SUMMARY

Noose's Shadow - A mob breaks into the home of a gay man in Ghana, strips him, and lynches him – and reportedly wants to do the same thing to his boyfriend, who barely escapes the same fate …

Ready to Commit - Luxembourg appears poised to be the next country in Europe to open civil marriage to same-gender couples …

NOM de Guerre - the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage asks U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to stop the marriages of lesbian and gay couples in Oregon, while Maine levies the largest ethics fine in state history against the group for violating election campaign laws during the 2009 effort to repeal Maine's marriage equality law …

No Happy ENDA - several national U.S. LGBT advocacy groups express opposition to the current incarnation of ENDA, which would federally ban workplace bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity, because of its overly broad religious exemptions…

Pol-OUT-ics - Lynne Brown becomes South Africa's -- and the continent's -- first out Cabinet Minister, while Carlos Bruce makes history as Peru's first out lawmaker ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted June 3, 2014.

Equality Double-Play & Pink Freud

Week of May 26, 2014
To listen to the whole show, click here!

Marriage equality comes to two more U.S. states: Oregon and Pennsylvania. NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams, attorney Ted Boutrous, Pennsylvania's first out lawmaker Rep. Brian Sims, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow provide analysis and predict future developments.

Commentator Charlie Bauer PhD talks about G-men, the L-word, and making it in a hetero-centric world.

CNN's Anderson Cooper has a special "honor" for the TV personality who piously protested pro-football's first gay kiss, but had previously appeared in a prurient pose with a posse of Chippendale strippers.

Plus: political humorist Bill Maher wishfully declares the victorious end to "the culture wars"!

And in NewsWrap: global actions fight homophobia and transphobia, Africa's first out gay black lawmaker takes office, Canada denies visas to Ugandan activists invited to World Pride Conference in Toronto, mixed judicial signals keep Utah's married same-gender couples in legal limbo, "stayin' tuned" in Idaho and Wisconsin, and more news reported by Michael LeBeau and Pam Marshall (produced this week by Steve Pride).

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This Way Out was funded this week by the Yavanna Foundation, a bequest from the estate of Christopher David Trentham, 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 May 24, 2014

SUMMARY

A World Against Hate - Millions around the world mark the 10th annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) with states-people statements and a variety of actions in such locales as Costa Rica, Australia, Paraguay, Belgium, Albania, Russia, Cambodia and China …

Africa's Harvey Milk - South Africa swears in Member of Parliament Zakhele Mbhele as the first black openly gay elected official on the continent …

Game of Keep Away - activists rail against Canadian Immigration after the agency reportedly denies visitors visas to 10 Ugandan activists invited to a World Pride Conference in Toronto because officials feared that they'd all seek asylum …

Two By Two - another week, and another couple of U.S. states getting civil marriage equality: Oregon becomes the 18th and Pennsylvania the 19th …

Married, But Not Family - a federal judge orders Utah to recognize the more than 1300 civil marriages legally performed in the state during the brief period they could, while the Utah Supreme Court approves a request by Attorney General Sean Reyes to block those lesbian and gay marrieds from adopting children …

Staying Tuned - a federal appeals court agrees to a permanent stay of a lower court ruling overturning Idaho's ban on civil marriage for same-gender couples while the state appeals, but expedites the review process …

Flood Insurance - Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen asks the federal judge hearing the challenge to his state's ban to stay her ruling even before she's made it …

The Cheese Stands Alone - with lawsuits filed by same-gender couples in Alaska, Montana, and South Dakota, North Dakota becomes the last state in the union without a legal challenge to its civil marriage ban – for now ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted May 27, 2014.

NewsWrap for the week ending April 26, 2014

SUMMARY

Cracked Wedding Ceiling - Mexico's Supreme Court rules in favor of 39 same-gender couples seeking civil marriage in the state of Oaxaca …

Early Thaw - Alaska's Supreme Court orders limited property tax equality for same-gender, civilly-married couples …

NOM's Away - a federal judge allows a last-minute intervention by the National Organization for Marriage to defend the constitutionality of Oregon's exclusively heterosexual civil marriage law since state officials refuse to do so …

Poor Excuse - North Korea's official news agency condemns a U.N. report critical of human rights abuses in the insulated Asian nation by calling lead investigator, openly gay former Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby, "a disgusting old lecher" …

Wait Till Your Sultan Gets Home - Brunei delays enforcing –- but perhaps not for long -- a new penal code that punishes consensual adult gay sex with death by stoning …

Another Shot - the Chief Justice of India's Supreme Court announces that the "curative petition" filed by opponents of the country's law banning "unnatural sex" will be heard by a five-judge panel headed by three of the bench's most senior justices …

Wiki Update - the whistleblowing transgender U.S. Army private formerly known as Bradley legally becomes Chelsea Manning …

Excommunication - the Boy Scouts of America revokes the charter of Seattle, Washington-area Rainier Beach United Methodist Church because the congregation and its pastor refuse to fire openly gay scoutmaster Geoff McGrath …

Snitch on the Sick - draft guidelines from the Ugandan government reportedly suggest that the recently-enacted "Anti-Homosexuality Law" requires healthcare workers –- including those at HIV/AIDS clinics -- to report all gay clients to the police …

Meta-Homophobia - a critic of Ugandan anti-gay crusader Pastor Martin Ssempa says the gay-porn-showing zealot himself should be charged with violating that law ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted April 29, 2014.

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.

NewsWrap for the week ending October 19, 2013

SUMMARY

Wedding Garden - In U.S. state marriage equality news, the New Jersey Supreme Court green-lights marriage licenses for same-gender couples beginning October 21st …

Awaiting Enchantment - New Mexico's high court is scheduled to hear arguments on October 23rd in a marriage equality case there …

Great Lakes Front - a U.S. District court judge schedules oral arguments for February 2014 in a challenge to Michigan's hetero-only constitutional marriage statute …

Beaver State Breaks Dam - Oregon's chief operating officer orders state agencies to recognize the marriages of same-gender couples conducted in other jurisdictions where they're legal …

Perpetuated in Righteousness - Hawai'i lawmakers begin a special session to consider marriage equality on October 28th …

Prairie Justice - activists are hoping for debate to be held in the coming week on a marriage equality proposal in Illinois …

Fertile Ground for Faithfulness - two Australian constitutional law experts conclude that the state of Tasmania can enact marriage equality without being in conflict with the federal Marriage Act …

On Matthew Shepard's Anniversary - four alleged neo-Nazis are convicted of last year's brutal torture and murder of Chilean student Daniel Zamudio …

Devil Made Them Do It - at least 14 men are arrested for "practicing homosexuality" in a raid of a Cairo "health club" …

Romantic Sparks - speculation rises about the sexual orientation of "Plug" and "Socket," a pair of male puppets that have been promoting the Israel Electric Corporation for more than a decade, after the arrival of a baby puppet in their latest ad ….

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

NewsWrap for the week ending February 16, 2013

SUMMARY

Backlash in Belarus - Police in Minsk and other cities in Belarus raid gay nightspots and hold detainees overnight, while more than 60 LGBT rights activists are summoned to police stations for interrogation about their sex lives …

Party Crashers - 22 men are arrested under the 1951 Bombay Police Act for "public indecency" at a "gay party" in a suburb of Mumbai, India's most populous city …

French Kiss - France's National Assembly, by a comfortable margin, formally passes a bill to open civil marriage and extend adoption rights to same-gender couples …

Wedding Announcements - the Illinois Senate passes a marriage equality bill – next stop the state House – while Oregon United for Marriage launches a signature-gathering campaign to qualify a November 2014 marriage equality ballot measure, but a bill to open civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples dies in the Hawai'i House …

Second Place Win - the Colorado Senate passes a civil unions bill for same-gender couples – which now heads to a predicted win in the House …

Liberty, Union and Discrimination - the North Dakota Senate rejects a bill to ban sexual orientation-based employment and housing discrimination …

Town of Ambivalence - gay and lesbian couples try to get marriage licenses in Thailand's "Town of Love," while legislative hearings in Bangkok consider a marriage-like civil partnership proposal …

Parting Glances - colorful and topless feminists chant "no more homophobe" inside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation …

Con Game - the Boy Scouts of America bans "known or avowed homosexuals" as members and troop leaders, but it's happy to hire ex-convicts ….

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