Gay Rights

Gay-rights
  • Marriage-button2

    LGBTQ Rights Activists on Victories for Marriage Equality in California and Washington

    February 09, 2012 | Story

    Washington state is set to become the seventh state to legalize gay marriage following a vote in the State House. The vote came just a day after a U.S. appeals court ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8, is unconstitutional. We discuss marriage equality with Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington, Rick Jacobs of Courage Campaign, and Kalil Cohen, a transgender community organizer based in Los Angeles. Jacobs says the Prop 8 fight "has supercharged the entire movement for full equality and has pushed people like me, frankly, to be much more comfortable talking about transgender issues that I didn’t really pay that much attention to before." Cohen, meanwhile, is critical of the LGBTQ community’s emphasis on gay marriage, saying, "My biggest concern is how much resources in the LGBTQ movement have been funneled towards marriage equality alone, and away from basic survival [issues] that a lot of LGBTQ people still face, such as lack of access to education, healthcare, housing and criminal justice reform. And these are issues that have really taken a backseat to marriage equality, and that has harmed the most vulnerable members of our community." [includes rush transcript]

  • Dadt_web

    "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" Ban on Gay and Lesbians in the U.S. Military is Lifted

    September 20, 2011 | Story

    "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" is no more. The military’s longstanding ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers officially expired at 12:01 a.m. EDT earlier today. Congress passed a repeal of the ban last year, but President Obama had deferred its implementation until military leaders gave their approval. The Pentagon now says it will no longer enforce the ban, meaning gays and lesbians can openly serve. We play excerpts from voices we have had on the program over the years speaking out against "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," including Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran who was eventually discharged under the ban. We also speak with Aaron Belkin, author of "How We Won: Progressive Lessons from the Repeal of ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’" "The big difference for the troops on the ground," says Belkin of the victory’s impact for military personnel, "is just that they can utter the words 'I am gay' without being fired." [includes rush transcript]

  • "9/11 Victim 0001: Father Mychal’s Message" By Amy Goodman

    September 07, 2011 | Blog Post

    The body bag marked “Victim 0001” on Sept. 11, 2001, contained the corpse of Father Mychal Judge, a Catholic chaplain with the Fire Department of New York. His was the first recorded death from the attacks that morning. His life’s work should be central to the 10th anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11 attacks: peace, tolerance and reconciliation.

  • Father_judge

    Saint of 9/11: Remembering NY Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge, Gay Catholic Priest Killed at WTC

    September 06, 2011 | Story

    Hundreds of people marched the streets of New York City Sunday to honor the memory of Fr. Mychal Judge, the first recorded victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Judge, a New York City Fire Department chaplain, was 68 years old when he was killed while giving last rites to a firefighter at the scene. He was a larger-than-life figure, with admirers and friends across the political and social spectrum, and whose life is commemorated in the acclaimed documentary, "Saint of 9/11." The film is notable for its effort to portray a half-hidden secret about the priest: he was gay. In his private diaries, the revered Catholic priest wrote of how "I thought of my gay self and how the people I meet never get to know me fully." We speak with Brendan Fay, longtime gay rights activist and independent filmmaker who produced "Saint of 9/11," and play excerpts from the documentary as well as his upcoming film, "Remembering Mychal." [includes rush transcript]

  • Doma_play

    AIDS-Afflicted U.S. Citizen Urges Obama Admin to Reverse Deportation of Australian Husband

    August 12, 2011 | Story

    The Obama administration’s enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act is threatening to tear apart the seven-year marriage of a binational gay couple in San Francisco. Bradford Wells, a U.S. citizen, and Anthony John Makk, an Australian national, have lived together for 19 years and were among the first same-sex couples to legally marry in Massachusetts. Anthony is also the primary caretaker for his husband, who has HIV/AIDS. Makk is facing deportation this month after the Obama administration denied them the same immigration benefits routinely given to opposite-sex couples. The decision is based on the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law known as DOMA, which denies federal benefits to same-sex couples. The Obama administration has said it would no longer defend DOMA in the courts, but the law still remains in effect. Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk join us from San Francisco. We also speak to Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality. [includes rush transcript]

  • New_gay_marriage

    Hundreds of Same-Sex Couples Marry in New York, from Niagara Falls to Manhattan

    July 25, 2011 | Story

    Hundreds of gay couples got married across New York state Sunday after it became the sixth and most populous state in the United States to recognize same-sex marriages. New York joins Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia in allowing same-sex unions. But gay marriage is still specifically banned in 39 states. On Sunday, Kitty Lambert, 54, and Cheryle Rudd, 53, were married with Niagara Falls in the backdrop, a traditional honeymoon capital. Both grandmothers, the women celebrated their marriage surrounded by family and friends. Democracy Now!’s Elizabeth Press was there to cover what they described as the first same-sex marriage in New York, as their marriage ceremony began one second after midnight. "We can educate people into understanding that we’re your neighbors, we’re your co-workers, we’re your friends, we’re your family members; and all we’re asking for is the right to protect ourselves, the right to have the same protections under law that our neighbors do, that our co-workers do, that our friends and family do. This is about equal access to equal protection under the law,” Lambert said. [includes rush transcript]

  • New_roseanne

    Pioneering Comedian Roseanne Barr on Her Life on Screen as a “Working-Class Domestic Goddess”

    July 25, 2011 | Story

    In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Emmy Award-winning actress Roseanne Barr starred in the popular and groundbreaking show on television titled simply "Roseanne," the first TV series to openly advocate for gay rights. "Roseanne" featured one of the first lesbian kisses on TV, in an episode when Roseanne kisses Mariel Hemingway. "Roseanne" was also the first sitcom to ever feature a gay marriage. The series tackled other controversial topics, as well: poverty, class, abortion and feminism. From her open support of unions in earlier shows to her tribute to Native Americans toward the end of the series, Roseanne never shied away from contentious issues. The writer Barbara Ehrenreich once praised Roseanne Barr for representing "the hopeless underclass of the female sex: polyester-clad, overweight occupants of the slow track; fast-food waitresses, factory workers, housewives, members of the invisible pink-collar army; the despised, the jilted, the underpaid." We play excerpts from the groundbreaking sitcom and speak with Barr about her childhood in Utah, where she was raised half-Jewish and half-Mormon, and talk about how she "made it OK for women to talk about their actual lives on television." [includes rush transcript]

  • Gay_marriage_button

    NY Passes Historic Marriage Equality Bill; Is It a Sign the GOP Aims to Leverage Gay Support in 2012?

    June 27, 2011 | Story

    Late Friday night, New York became the sixth and largest state to approve same-sex marriage. After complicated behind-the-scenes negotiations, four Republican senators joined all but one Democrat to pass the bill in a close vote in the State Senate. The State Assembly, with a Democratic majority, had approved it earlier in the month. Two days after the passage of the measure, tens of thousands of people took to the streets for New York City’s annual gay pride parade on Sunday. To discuss the issue, we speak with Democratic New York State Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, a marriage equality bill leader and the first openly gay man elected to the New York State Assembly. We are also joined by Ann Northrop, co-host of "Gay USA,” and by longtime LGBT activist and writer, Kenyon Farrow. Farrow has written about the conservative strategy behind the GOP’s support for marriage equality, which includes pulling gay donors away from the Democratic Party going into the 2012 presidential election. [includes rush transcript]

  • Dadt-repealed

    In Historic Move, Senate Votes to Repeal "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"

    December 20, 2010 | Story

    The Senate voted 63 to 31 on Thursday to repeal the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy. Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to approve the repeal and send the measure to President Obama for his signature. The bill passed in the House last week. We speak with former Navy commander Zoe Dunning. Until her retirement three years ago, she was thought to be the only openly gay person serving in the U.S. military. [includes rush transcript]

  • Dadt

    With New Limits, US Military Reinstates "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"

    October 22, 2010 | Story

    The military’s seventeen-year-old ban on openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people from joining the US military is back on the books. But based on a new directive, only five senior military officials will be able to discharge service members for violating the policy. The change makes it harder for the military to remove openly gay troops. We speak to one of the most vocal critics of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Lt. Dan Choi, who this week filed papers to re-enlist after being discharged earlier this year. [includes rush transcript]