11/25/2012 This Way Out

Program #1,286 

Hosted by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia Chappelle

 "NewsWrap": Nigeria and Uganda each move closer to enacting draconian anti-LGBT legislation, but lawmakers in Uruguay move to make theirs the second country in South America to open civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples, the French government officially proposes a marriage equality bill, and Spain's Constitutional Court upholds theirs, but Slovakia's parliament rejects a proposal to recognize same-gender partnerships; the U.S. Supreme Court postpones deciding whether or not to hear Prop 8 and/or DOMA cases until the end of November; Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema narrowly wins election as the first openly bisexual member of Congress, Washington's Ed Murray becomes only the second "out" state Senate Majority Leader in U.S. history, and if the U.S. Senate confirms President Obama's nomination of William Thomas to a lifetime seat on the Court for the Southern District of Florida he'll become the country's first openly gay African-American federal court judge; the ACLU sues a Utah school district for removing "In Our Mothers' House", a picture book featuring a family headed by two lesbian moms, from the shelves of its elementary school libraries, and a school district in Austin, Texas cancels elementary school performances of "And Then Came Tango", a play based on two male penguins at a New York zoo who successfully adopted and nurtured an abandoned egg, but a pair of male penguins in Denmark joins similar couples in Spain, Germany and China to be given an orphaned egg to incubate and raise as their own (written by GREG GORDON, produced by STEVE PRIDE, and reported this week by TANYA KANE-PARRY and CHRISTOPHER GAAL) 

To legendary equality activist IVY BOTTINI, feminism and lesbian rights go hand in hand -- an opinion not shared by many compatriots in the 1960s, including Betty Friedan. Ivy was a founding member of the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women. At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, she helped found AIDS Network Los Angeles, and then co-founded AIDS Project L.A. She has since spearheaded work against meth addiction and partner abuse in the LGBT community. She also led a then-fledgling movement to create housing for elder gays and lesbians, culminating with the opening of Triangle Square in Hollywood, one of the nation's first affordable apartment complexes for senior LGBT people. During all of this, Ivy has also had a respected career as an artist. "This Way Out" correspondent ABBY DEES met recently with Ivy, now 86, to look back -- and ahead – at her often-challenging journey (produced by STEVE PRIDE
[www.ivybottini.com]