Gay USA™

Gay USA with Ann Northrop and Andy Humm photo & podcast by Bill Bahlman

Fri, 25 May 2012 19:29:51 -0400

GUEST JONATHAN D. KATZ ON THE WORLD’S FIRST LESBIAN AND GAY ART MUSEUM: Joining us for our last 20 minutes is Jonathan D. Katz, chief curator and president of the board of the new Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, the first accredited museum devoted to LGBT art in the world. It is located in Manhattan at 26 Wooster Street between Canal and Grand Streets. You can read more about it here: http://leslielohman.org/

Jonathan will also reflect on his work as the curator of the groundbreaking “Hide/Seek” exhibit at the Smithsonian—subsequently at the Brooklyn Museum and now at the Tacoma Museum of Art. His book, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” won the Stonewall Award and the show itself was named best exhibit by the National Art Critics Association.

Below, an image from the current exhibit at Leslie-Lohman, “The Piers: Art and Sex along the New York Waterfront,” a photo by Andreas Sterzing, “Pier 34-1215 Luis Frangella Mural.” (That’s the late gay artist David Wojnarowicz lying down in the picture.)

And from the museum’s permanent collection, a photo by Cindy Warwick of lesbian pioneers Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, founders of the Daughters of Bilitis in the 1950s and the first same-sex couple to be married in California.

IN THE NEWS WITH ANN NORTHROP AND ANDY HUMM ON GAY USA THIS WEEK:

Dharun Ravi, convicted of bias crimes against Tyler Clementi, is sentenced in New Jersey to 30 days in jail when he could have gotten 10 years in prison

The NAACP comes out for same-sex marriage

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn marries her longtime partner Kim Catullo with political heavyweights on hand

It’s graduation time and a Nevada transgender teen has to fight to walk down the lawn with the boys

A gay artist gets back his little daughters after a year of fighting false charges from anti-gay relatives that he had raped his kids

A Mississippi legislator wants the Levitical code imposed on gay people—the death penalty

Andy reviews a new musical at the Public about a 1940 Brooklyn commune for W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten and Gypsy Rose Lee among others

Harvey Milk Day was May 22, at least in California

Gay USA with Ann Northrop and Andy Humm photo & podcast by Bill Bahlman

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:14:44 -0400

President Barack Obama comes out in favor of same-sex marriage and some other powerful Democrats follow suit

Colorado’s Republican House leader kills a civil union bill despite the fact that the votes were there on the floor to pass it

Mitt Romney does not remember assaulting a gay student when they were at a Michigan prep school together, but says he is sorry anyway, and chuckles when hearing about what happened

North Carolina bans recognition of any domestic union that is not a heterosexual marriage

A lesbian couple at a Kentucky Catholic high school are barred from the prom so they hold one outside with surprising results

An out gay prosecutor in Virginia is denied a judgeship by Republican state legislators

Transgender rights advance in Argentina

Horrifying news from Iran

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel endorses the first drug meant to prevent HIV infection.

A punk rock star is transitioning from man to woman

John Travolta is sued by several men for inappropriate touching

Big honor for Ellen Degeneres

Gay USA with Ann Northrop and Andy Humm podcast by Bill Bahlman

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:32:45 -0400

BREAKING NEWS—LOTS OF IT: We taped on Tuesday before all of these big, big developments:

PRESIDENT OBAMA came out for the right of same-sex couples to marry in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday. Obama said, "I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married." Read more here

North Carolina: Voters did indeed adopt 60-40% an egregious constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and more.

Colorado: The State House of Representatives killed a bill that would have created civil unions for same-sex couples.

Analysis of these stories next week.

IN THE NEWS ON GAY USA WITH ANN NORTHROP AND ANDY HUMM:

Vice President Joe Biden said he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage but the Obama campaign immediately said this was not a change in administration position. All this was BEFORE the President came out for same-sex marriage on Wednesday.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan also came out for same-sex marriage this week

We’ll analyze the resignation of Mitt Romney’s short-lived out gay appointee Richard Grenell

Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of children’s books who came out late in life, has died

A leading gay activist in Honduras is assassinated

Will the new Socialist president of France bring same-sex marriage to his country?

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, makes a plea for LGBT rights in advance of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17

Andy reviews Jonathan Pryce in Harold Pinter’s “The Caretaker,” Matthew Broderick in the “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” and Raul Esparza in “Leap of Faith”

Did Queen Latifah finally just come out?

Gay USA with Ann Northrop and Andy Humm photo & podcast by Bill Bahlman

Fri, 4 May 2012 22:01:49 -0400

BREAKING NEWS: Mitt Romney’s openly gay foreign affairs spokesperson, Richard Grenell, resigned yesterday under pressure from the religious right. Romney’s campaign officially said that they regret Grenell’s departure, but reports are that he had been cut out of the loop in the campaign soon after being appointed less than two weeks ago. We will have more on this story next week. You can read about it now in Gay City News here

GUEST CO-HOST THIS WEEK is Corey Johnson. Ann will be back next week.

OUR GUEST THIS WEEK in the second half of our show is Ana Oliviera, president of the New York Women’s Foundation and a former director of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Ana will discuss with us how they are responding to the “war on women,” the plight of LGBT youth, poverty among women, the ongoing epidemic of HIV among women of color, sexual abuse of women in the military, and more. You can learn more about the foundation here: www.nywf.org

Ana Oliveira, President, New York Women’s Foundation

IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK ON GAY USA WITH COREY JOHNSON AND ANDY HUMM:

In North Carolina, voters go to the polls on Tuesday, May 8 on Amendment One—a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and it is getting ugly. To help out with the campaign, go to:www.ProtectAllNCfamilies.org

The US Senate passes the Violence Against Women Act with LGBT inclusive provisions that the Republican-led House opposes

Transgender rights advance in New York State and a breakthrough on the rights of transgender people to health insurance coverage

In Oakland, transgender outreach worker Brandy Martell is shot to death

In Russia, activists continue to be arrested for violating local laws banning gay “propaganda”

Setbacks for gay soldier Bradley Manning in his ongoing trial

Are Mormons afraid of Mitt Romney being elected?

With Gene Robinson stepping down as Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, one of the three candidates to succeed him is gay

Andy will review a new play with Linda Lavin, the new “Streetcar Named Desire” with Blair Underwood as Stanley, a wonderful “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Classic Stage Company, and John Lithgow as the powerful closeted gay midcentury reporter Joseph Alsop in “The Columnist”

Gay USA with Ann Northrop and Andy Humm photo & podcast by Bill Bahlman

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:26:14 -0400

BREAKING NEWS: ACT UP was joined by Occupy Wall Street and other groups for its 25th anniversary action calling for a dedicated financial transaction tax to end AIDS. More than a thousand protestors marched on New York’s financial center. You can read Andy’s report in Gay City News here

A big breakthrough for transgender rights at the EEOC

President Obama remembers the gay victims of the Holocaust

Mitt Romney appoints a gay man as a foreign policy spokesperson and gets it from both sides

In North Carolina where voters will decide on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and more on May 8, our side unveils some powerful ads. To help with the North Carolina fight go here

Civil unions advance in Colorado

The “Don’t Say Gay” bill advances in Tennessee

The Boy Scouts expel a lesbian mom from leading a Cub Scout troop and a national uproar ensues. You can see Jennifer Tyrrell’s moving speech at the GLAAD Awards here And you can sign the Change.org petition to get Jennifer reinstated as a Scout master here

In Washington, DC, one US Marine hurls an anti-gay slur at another Marine and then stabs him to death

The Pope chastises US nuns for spending too much time helping the poor and not enough beating up on gay people

The new director of GLAAD comes out swinging

A gay PTA group is sanctioned on Long Island, NY

Lots of openings on and off Broadway including “Peter and the Starcatcher,” “Clybourne Park,” and “One Man, Two Guv’nors." You can read Andy's reviews at the end of this e-mail.