Marriage Momentum: Alabama to Ireland!

 Week of February 16, 2015
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The "Segregation Forever" state's Chief Justice Roy Moore stands in the wedding chapel doors (coverage of this week's chaos in Alabama by Comedy Central and MSNBC, plus words from a minister arrested for "attempted marrying").

Out Irish Senator Katherine Zappone urges a "yes" vote on marriage equality in the upcoming May referendum.

Queer Life and Literature Commentator Janet Mason reviews marriage equality fact and fiction in Redeeming the Dream (by David Boies and Ted Olson) and All I Love and Know (by Judith Frank).

Grammy-winning single Sam Smith and his Lonely quadruplets visit Ellen.

And in NewsWrap: disinterest defeats a homophobic Slovakian referendum, a Tokyo district pushes a partnership plan, there's no cure for a fake disease in New Jersey, and more news reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Natalie Peoples (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 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 November 1, 2014

SUMMARY

Step Back, Pass Buck - Singapore's highest court upholds the Southeast Asian island city-state's colonial-era sodomy law …

Out of the Frying Pan - cases against three men charged with violating Uganda's sodomy law are dismissed, but a new version of the East African nation's notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill gets fast-tracked in Parliament …

Gross Equality - the Sri Lankan government tells the U.N. Human Rights Committee that LGBT people are protected from bias in the South Asian island nation's constitution, but defends its colonial-era "gross indecency" law by claiming that it doesn't specifically target them …

Trick or Exorcist - Jordan's government bans Hallowe'en to avoid a repeat of riots in Amman by fundamentalist Muslims the past two years who call the holiday "homosexual and Satanic" …

Back in the Pulpit Again - a U.S. United Methodist Church jury reinstates pastor Franklin Schaefer, who was defrocked for officiating at his gay son's wedding …

Dunking the Quacks - the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest protestant denomination, now renounces so-called "reparative therapy" to make gays and lesbians straight, but reaffirms Biblical edicts about homosexuality and marriage …

Computer Virus Hoax - Apple CEO Tim Cook officially comes out to almost universal acclaim – except for Vitaly Milonov, the "father" of Russia's infamous "no promo homo" law, who wants Cook banned from entering the country because he might bring "the Ebola virus, AIDS (or) gonorrhea" with him …

No Tolerance, No Service - Latvia bans homophobic Russian sitcom actor Ivan Okhlobystin from entering the country for a one-man show in Riga because he's called for all LGBT people to be "burned alive" ….

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

St. Pat's Ploy & Love Is Strange

Week of September 15, 2014
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Mature marriage meets separation anxiety in the new Ira Sachs film starring Alfred Molina and John Lithgow (interview by Steve Pride).

The organizers of the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade try to green-wash their bias, but they can't fool Gay USA's Ann Northrup and Chris Cooper.

And in NewsWrap: Ugandan repression migrates to Gambia, Cairo cops hunt down viral video "gay wedding" guests, the Australian Football League rethinks its deal with the Sultan, mounting marriage equality cases compel U.S. Supreme Court consideration, and more news reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Kristin Mellian (produced by Steve Pride).

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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 September 13, 2014

SUMMARY

Hateful Contagion - Gambia lawmakers approve a draconian Uganda-like anti-LGBT law, while seven men arrested in Cairo for appearing in a viral video that allegedly shows Egypt's first gay wedding ceremony "test negative" for homosexuality …

Deal With the Sultan - the Australian Football League "reassesses" its major sponsorship deal with Royal Brunei Airlines in view of the pending laws in the tiny Southeast Asian country that call for gay people to be stoned to death …

Supreme Suspense - all eyes will be on the U.S. Supreme Court on September 29th when justices meet behind closed doors to consider hearing appeals of marriage equality rulings in Indiana, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Utah, while three other federal appeals courts ponder marriage equality cases in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, Nevada, and Hawai'i …

Clobbering Quackery - a federal appeals court upholds New Jersey's ban on so-called "reparative therapy" for patients under the age of 18 that claims to turn gay people straight …

Dishonorable Bias - a Republican-controlled panel of the U.S. House of Representatives rejects a bill to provide lesbian and gay military veterans with spousal benefits equal to their heterosexual counterparts, even if they live in states that don't recognize their legal marriages …

Taming the Beast - professional homophobes Mat Staver and Matt Barber of the "Faith and Freedom" radio show use a "heterosexual men are pigs" argument to keep civil marriage exclusively heterosexual ….

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

Drag King Mo B. Dick

Week of July 7, 2014
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Entertainer Mo B. Dick (aka Maureen Fischer) drags in a different direction, taking correspondent Michelle-Marie Gilkeson into the world of male impersonators.

Plus: queer life and literature commentator Janet Mason bids a fond arrivederci to Philadelphia LGBT/feminist bookstore Giovanni’s Room.

And in NewsWrap: U.N. equalizes spousal benefits, federal court finds marriage equality not harmful to Kentucky heterosexuals, SCOTUS nixes conversion and contraception, freed Zambian gays face fuzzy future, Dorothy's friend unveils homophobe housing plan, and more news reported this week by Wenzel Jones and Gary Shaw (produced by Wenzel Jones and Steve Pride).

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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 July 5, 2014

SUMMARY

Peace and Security - The United Nations extends spousal benefits to its legally married lesbian and gay workers equal to those given to married heterosexual employees …

Big Fish Worth Fishing - a Finnish parliamentary committee again rejects a marriage equality proposal …

War of Weddings - Kentucky's state ban on civil marriage for same-gender couples is the latest in the U.S. to be declared unconstitutional, an appeals court stops gay and lesbian marriages in Indiana, and Colorado's Attorney General squares off against a marriage license-distributing Boulder County Clerk …

Conversion & Contraception - the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling upholding California's ban on so-called "reparative therapy" for minors, but sides with closely-held businesses like Hobby Lobby that want to deny birth control options for its female workers based on religious belief – which could open the door to religious-based bias against LGBT people …

Freed to Fuzzy Future - Zambia frees two young men charged with engaging in illegal homosexual acts due to lack of evidence …

Marching Backwards - an estimated 25,000 Jamaicans rally against LGBT rights in Kingston …

Homophobe Housing Plan - Seattle, Washington drag queen "Mama Tits" warns homophobic religious protesters at the Emerald City's annual Pride parade to watch out for falling houses ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted July 8, 2014.