1/29/2012 This Way Out

Program #1,243

Hosted this week by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia Chappelle

"NewsWrap": Civil unions for same-gender couples are on the horizon in Cuba, while South Australian M.P. Ian Hunter may become Australia's first openly gay sitting parliamentarian to legally marry; opponents manage to at least slow down Minnesota's repressive "Marriage Protection Amendment", opponents of a draconian constitutional amendment in North Carolina warn of unintended consequences, a New Jersey majority now favors civil marriage for lesbian & gay couples, and proponents of marriage equality legislation in Washington appear to now need only one more vote for passage; 80 mayors from 25 U.S. states sign on to a resolution endorsing civil marriage equality (with remarks by LOS ANGELES MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, Chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors); 3 U.K. men are convicted at Derby Crown Court of inciting sexual orientation-based hatred for distributing leaflets portraying a hanging mannequin and calling for capital punishment for homosexuality; Malaysian prosecutors challenge last week's acquittal of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on what he calls trumped up sodomy charges; and Rachel's 2 gay "Glee" dads have "Heart" (written by GREG GORDON with thanks to REX WOCKNER, produced by STEVE PRIDE, and reported this week by GARY SHAW and NATALIE PEOPLES)

Our "Queer Life and Literature" commentator JANET MASON reviews two lesbian coming of age stories from Bywater Books and discovers new twists on an old theme.

"A STAMP FOR ALAN TURING" is celebrated in a "RAINBOW MINUTE" (produced by JUDD PROCTOR & BRIAN BURNS at WRIR-FM in Richmond, Virginia and read by CRIS COX)

The fifth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day was observed in the U.S. on January 11th, and the whole month has been designated by international bodies as a time to reflect on slavery around the world. Of the estimated 27 million slaves worldwide, 80% are women and 50% are children. But "This Way Out's" STEVE PRIDE followed up on a recent, rather obscure story on another aspect of this global nightmare – gay and bisexual Kenyan men being tricked into the sex slave industry in the Persian Gulf - with PAUL CANNING of the U.K.-based "LGBT Asylum News"