Matt Baume, Marriage News Watch 8/22/11; Gay USA, August, 2011

This week's all about Minnesota, Maine, North Carolina, Colorado, and Broadway. All four of those states have months of bitter fighting over marriage to look forward to, with millions of dollars likely to be spent on both sides. Fortunately, we've got a secret weapon: Morgan Freeman.

Gay USA, August 9-15, 2011



UK-based human rights activist Peter Tatchell joins Ann Northrop and Andy Humm this week for special hour-long interview on his life and work. A native of Australia, he has been active in the LGBT movement out of Britain since the early 1970s, including through his Outrage! group. He is also an active campaigner for LGBT rights around the world. Peter tells us about his current Equal Love campaign to open up marriage in the UK to same-sex couples and to open up civil partnerships to sex discordant couples. He also talks about his attempts to make a citizen's arrest of dictator and human rights violator Robert Mugabe, innovative campaigns against police entrapment of gay men, confrontations with anti-gay politicians at home and abroad, his participation in the attempts at LGBT pride marches in Moscow and much, much more. Peter explains what drives him, who his inspirations are, and how we all can be more creative activists. For more on Peter, go to www.petertatchell.net

Gay USA, August 2-8, 2011



Andy is away, so Chris Cooper joins Ann at the anchor desk. New polling shows a dramatic increase in U.S. support for same-sex marriage. A federal judge tells the Republican lawyer to answer some tough questions in defense of DOMA, and he comes up with some really stupid answers. The Constitutional Court of Colombia orders the legislature to give full recognition to same-sex couples within two years. But at Dollywood, in Tennessee, guards force a lesbian to turn her "marriage is so gay" T-shirt inside out. The NAACP annual convention features its first panel on LGBT issues, and it gets a little contentious. We'll show you some of it. The Conservative Political Action Conference marginalizes GOProud, but out gay Republican Presidential candidate Fred Karger may be making progress on getting included in the Republican debates. We'll show you an amazing TV commercial from a bank in Argentina. Out gay Sen. David Norris withdraws from the race for president of Ireland under a cloud. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services will re-evaluate the ban on blood donations by gay men. And there's a new gay comic book superhero. NEXT WEEK: Andy and Ann's special hour-long interview with veteran British activist Peter Tatchell. For more on Peter's work, go to www.petertatchell.net.