Ann Northrop
Gay USA: Jan. 17-23, 2012
Mitt Romney continues to lie about his beliefs and policies on LGBT issues. A new study confirms that the children of lesbian parents have a quality of life equal to that of the kids of non-gay people. Canada looked to be trying to invalidate same-sex marriages of Americans, but pulled back by the end of the week. LGBT and AIDS groups join the defense of Obamacare at the Supreme Court. James Franco tackles two more gay roles. ABC-TV cancels the transphobic "Work It." We will review Kevin Spacey in "Richard III" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre. The Golden Globe Awards are somewhat gay, but mostly crude.
Email this pageGay USA: Jan. 3-9, 2012
In the news this week: Hawaii and Delaware kick off the year with the commencement of civil unions for same-sex couples. Michigan's Governor signs bill banning domestic partner benefits. LGBT issues continue to make big news in the Republican presidential contest. The Catholic Cardinal of Chicago compares the LGBT Pride March to a Klan rally. The Roman Catholic Church creates a haven in the United States for gay-hating Episcopalians. Doctors without Borders challenges John & Johnson to free up some HIV drug patents so that the poor can get them in the Third World. A bio-pic on Elton John is planned by.... Elton John! Andy announces his Top-Ten Theatre lists for 2011.
Gay USA: Dec. 20-26, 2011
Andy's out of town, so Chris Cooper joins Ann at the anchor desk. Next week, Andy returns and we'll do our annual end-of-the-year roundtable discussion with our guests Sarah Schulman, Bill Dobbs and Pauline Park. The Republican Presidential candidates continue to get hammered on LGBT issues by regular citizens, who are much better at asking questions than the professional journalists. Bradley Manning finally has his first hearing on charges of leaking thousands of pages of U.S. government secrets. His lawyer makes provocative arguments about Manning's struggles with gender entity, and Lt. Dan Choi is forcibly ejected from the courtroom. The California Secretary of State approves a proposed ballot intiative to repeal Prop. 8, clearing it for signature-gathering. The United Nations issues its first report on violence and discrimination perpetrated on LGBT people worldwide. Congress reinstates a ban on federal funding for syringe exchange. ABC-TV is under attack for its reputedly horrible new cross-dressing sitcom, "Work It," scheduled to premiere in January. Ann & Andy interview Dee Rees, writer-director of the wonderful new independent film "Pariah," about an African-American teenage lesbian's search for identity in Brooklyn. The film opens Dec. 28th in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. And we end with a Christmas gift to you--the popular YouTube video of British sailors on the HMS Ocean acting out Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas."
Gay USA: Dec. 27, 2011-Jan. 2, 2012
2011 was a busy year in LGBT news with the end (at least for the moment) of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the opening of marriage to same-sex couples in New York, activists taking on Republican presidential candidates over their opposition to LGBT rights, the explosion of activism around the world in movements such as Occupy Wall Street and in countries where standing up as LGBT comes at a high price, the stalling of federal anti-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, a breakthrough in the prominence that the US is giving to LGBT rights worldwide, the increasing criminalization of people with AIDS, the intensification of the fight against bullying in the schools, and much, much more. Does it get better? This week on Gay USA, we analyze the year's LGBT and AIDS news with a panel of veteran activists and thinkers in the community: Lesbian and AIDS activist Sarah Schulman, author of the forthcoming "The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination" and co-producer of "United in Anger: The History of ACT UP," a film by Jim Hubbard. Transgender activist Pauline Park, chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy. Longtime gay and civil liberties activist Bill Dobbs who has worked intensively this year as an organizer with Occupy Wall Street. We offer a critique of the developments of the year and the state of the LGBT movement going into 2012. We talk about some of the major figures we lost this year including Frank Kameny, Barbara Grier, Paula Ettelbrick, Lou Maletta and John Lawrence, the co-plaintiff in the Lawrence v. Texas case in the US Supreme Court that got anti-sodomy laws ruled unconstitutional in 2003, overturning the infamous Bowers v. Hardwick decision of 1986 that had upheld them. We'll talk about what encouraged us and what discouraged us and our panel tells us about the kind of activism that engages them personally and what others can do to get meaningfully involved in the LGBT movement.
Gay USA: Nov. 1-7, 2011
Our guest at the top of the hour is Bill Dobbs, veteran gay activist and civil libertarian, who will share his experiences working with Occupy Wall Street from the beginning on September 17. Bill talks about how this action has evolved and captured the imagination of the world, leading to a critical public debate on wealth disparity, politics, and fairness issues. You can learn more about the movement at www.occupywallst.org and www.nycga.net for the New York General Assembly of OWS. A gay US Airways flight attendant is found murdered in Mexico City. A high school student in Ohio is beaten for being gay and it is caught on video tape. Gay troops challenge the federal ban on recognition of their same-sex marriages. A nurse at a Dallas Veterans Administration hospital makes an outrageous and bigoted three-hour effort to dissuade a Marine veteran from being lesbian. Britain threatens to withhold some foreign aid to countries that abuse LGBT rights. A Nairobi gay bar is bombed and 12 are injured. The founder of Denmark's gay movement, Axel Axgil, dies at 96. Chaz is out on "Dancing with the Stars." Andy reviews "Children" by A.R. Gurney and "Relatively Speaking," a trio of one-act plays on Broadway by Woody Allen, Elaine May, and Ethan Coen.
Gay USA: Oct. 18-24, 2011
Frank Kameny, a father of the gay movement who coined the slogan "Gay is Good," has died at the age of 86. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The US military is sued for denying soldiers with same-sex spouses equal rights. An out lesbian is confirmed as a federal judge by the US Senate despite an attack campaign by the religious right. An AIDS memorial park is proposed for New York's Greenwich Village. Actor Zachary Quinto comes out and prompts a news anchor to come out, too. Andy reviews plays by Terrence Rattigan, Stephen Karam, and Nicky Silver, plus "the Mountaintop" about Martin Luther King, Jr..
Gay USA: Sept. 20, 2011
Andy Humm is joined by Chris Cooper to bring you the news this week. Ann Northrop will be back next weekThere is a wonderful new documentary running on HBO now called "The Strange History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell" produced by our old friend Gabriel Rotello and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato that tells the history of the exclusion and gets behind the scenes of the intense campaign of the last two years to repeal DADT. Even though we know the outcome, it was quite a nail biter-decided on the very last day the US Senate met in 2009. Learn more about the movie at http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-strange-history-of-dont-ask-dont-te.... The judge in the Prop 8 case orders that the tapes of the trial be released. Clint Eastwood weighs in on same-sex marriage. A big win for same-sex couples in Alaska. The coalition government in Britain begins the process of opening marriage to same-sex couples, but there are two big problems with the plan. A breakthrough in AIDS research from gamers who play Foldit. Anderson Cooper still not out on his daytime talk show. And Chaz Bono takes the floor on Dancing with the Stars.
Gay USA: Aug. 16-22, 2011
In the news this week: A lesbian activist dies at the Indiana State Fair catastrophe and Marion County refuses to release her remains to her partner, citing DOMA. Who is the most anti-gay candidate for the Republican nomination for President? It’s a tough contest. The end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on September 20 could be undone by a new administration because the new law does not mandate that gays and lesbians can serve openly, it only permits the President and military to allow it. President Obama bans human rights violators from entering the United States including those who persecute gay people. An anti-gay male state senator in Indiana gets in a whole heap of trouble when he tries to hire a young man for sex. The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage is ordered by the First Circuit to disclose its donors under laws in Rhode Island and Maine. A big win for transgendered prisoners in Wisconsin. The crackdown on gay people in Cameroon continues with more men being arrested just for being gay. A male gay activist in Cuba has a very public wedding with a man-to-woman transsexual. We'll show you the big celebration. Throat cancers due to HPV shoot up. New York City finally decides to institute mandatory sex education in its schools and reinstate condom lessons. Andy reviews theatre in New York and London where out gay Antony Sher is starring in a late Arthur Miller play and Jude Law in an early Eugene O’Neill. Andy's London reviews will appear at www.gaycitynews.com in a day or two.
Gay USA: Aug. 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.
