Gay USA: Mar. 15-21, 2011

Our guest is Nikolai Alekseev, Russia's leading gay activist, who will join us a little more than halfway through the show to talk about the challenge of working for LGBT rights in Russia and his fight for holding LGBT pride marches in Moscow among other issues. You can learn more about his work on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/GayRussia/186774548004688?v=wall#!/profile.php?id=612060271. Maryland's House of Delegates did not have the votes to pass a marriage equality bill, so it was pulled until next year. A bill is introduced in Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. A new poll finds that Americans oppose the plans of Republican Congress Members to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, an Act the Obama Administration says is unconstitutional. New York's Governor Cuomo meets to discuss the campaign for a marriage equality bill. A transwoman is murdered in Arkansas and in New York, an 18-year old straight teen is gaybashed to death. The last original member of the 1950s Mattachine Society dies at 81. New York City is giving money to anti-gay groups that coordinate St. Patrick's Day Parades. There will be a demonstration in New York on Thursday, March 17 from 11 AM - 1 PM by Irish Queers at the anti-gay St. Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets on the west side of the avenue. A big decision on protecting the rights of people with HIV in Europe. Can a gay writer for Vanity Fair call the gay kids on "Glee" "fags"? GLAAD does not think so. Ann is headed for Rome and the Amalfi Coast and the Isle of Capri in May and welcomes your suggestions on nice but reasonable places to stay and eat as well as things to do there other than the standard tourist things. She is not interested in nightlife suggestion. Please e-mail your ideas to AnnNorth@earthlink.net. We review productions of "That Championship Season" on Broadway, "The Merchant of Venice" with F. Murray Abraham off-Broadway, and "Broadway's Next Hit Musical" off-off-Broadway. Next week, Andy will review the all-male "Comedy of Errors" at BAM from the Propeller Company and CSC's new production of "Double Falsehood