 to Quinlan. I'm Ann Charles. I'm Keith Ghostland, and this is All Things LGBTQ. We are taping on Tuesday, the 25th of January. We record at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which we acknowledge as being unceded Indigenous land. And now, Linda's going to give us, hopefully, some scantillizing headlines. Yes, but I don't have a lot of good news this week. I tried, but it was hard. Then maybe we'll just move on to Ann. There you go, proper goodness for me, Adam, I don't know. Well, in the news, there seems to be a split among LGBTQ groups, and they are divided about bisexual Senator Samina. Cinema. Cinema. Kirsten Cinema. Yes. From Arizona. That Senator. Yes. We'll have more about that. A Florida bill could block kids with LGBTQ parents from discussing family and class. A Biden administration will investigate why a Christian college won't let a gay student graduate. Clock Summit College has banned LGBTQ students for years, and the Biden administration is trying to do something about that. Good luck. The Biden Adoption Agency uses new religious freedom to deny service to a straight Jewish couple. So, we'll have more about that. Lesbian moms found dead in a gruesome double murder homicide, murder on homicide. A married couple from El Paso, Texas, were found murdered, and their bodies were dismembered while they were visiting family in Citidad, Juarez. See you, Dad. Juarez. So, they were identified bursting because that's my headline, too? Oh, yeah. Okay. Because I just did it because they were Americans. And I have a picture. Okay. And their names are Huliza Ramirez. And Nohima Medina. Nohima Medina. Meding. Martinez. Yeah. But if you want to finish it, then I'll pick it up. Okay. They were both 28 and got married in 2021. They left behind three children. Their bodies were found 17 miles apart in plastic bags. And they'd been dismembered. Yeah. I said that. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. And I haven't up to the minute. Okay. A man and a woman had been arrested. Oh, really? And did they say why they had done this? Well, I don't know if they did it. They'd been arrested. Okay. All right. Christians attack the dating app where Pete and Chasin Buttigieg met as a place of promoting sin. Chaston. Chaston. Christians are angry that the app hinge is attempting to normalize same-sex relationships by including same-sex couples on their commercials. So there you go with that one. A trans man was attacked in Denver while waiting for a train. And he couldn't even get home after he was beaten because an Uber driver kicked him out of the car when he said he was transgender. Ciri Klinke was on his way home at 10.30 from a gay bar. A man at the train station began punching him and using gay slurs. A mother of a lesbian who died by suicide after years of attempted conversion therapy speaking out. We'll have more about that. Bring them young university threats to arrest students who protest the Mormon's anti-LGBTQ policies. We'll have more about that. Trumpers took over a small town. And the first thing they're doing is to repeal LGBTQ rights. The central Pennsylvania town would earn an ugly place in the history as the first borough in the state to repeal an anti-discrimination ordinance. Jim, is it Ogelfell? Obergefell. Yeah. The man at the center of SCOTUS Marriage Equality Case is running for office. He'll be looking to become an Ohio State representative. He grew up in Sandusky, Ohio and attended the University of Cincinnati and is now running there as a Democrat in office currently held by Republican J.D. Sweringen. I hope I probably butchered that name too. American LGBTQ Muslim Museum, sorry, hires its first executive director, Ben Garcia, for their 2024 launch. He was formerly deputy executive and chief learning officer at Ohio History Connection. We have some entertainment. Comedian Tignotaro and her partner do a movie, we'll have more about that. Torita Bagdadi, Del Iber's has also done a documentary which sounds really, really interesting. And Dr. Phil, remember Dr. Phil? He invited anti-trans activists to spread hate on TV under the guise of let's all get along. He said he wanted the show to show both sides of the issue. Well, it turned into a free for all. Isn't he running for office in Pennsylvania? Is he? No, he is. And what's his name is? No, Dr. Oz. Dr. Oz, yeah. Sorry. Readout Festival of Lesbian Literatures out February 18th to the 20th. You can sign up for the festival for free. Olivia Benson of Lauren Order, Special Victims Unit. Son in the show will come out as bisexual. Sports. The NCAA's new policy for trans athletes, we'll have more about that. Andrew Blazer makes US Olympic history as the first outgaming to be in this super fast ice sport. We'll have more. It's called Skeleton. I have never heard of it. But have you? I don't mean you. You get strapped to a sled and shoot down. Yeah, basically the bobsled. Yeah. Yeah. OK, well, we'll have more about that. And in the obituaries this week, a activist who helped win marriage equality in Florida was found dead in a landfill. Florida's LGBTQ activist, George Diaz Johnson, has been found dead. In 1954, Tallahassee police have ruled the death a homicide. An outvoked director and fashion designer, Andre Leon Talley, has died at 73, has been considered one of fashion industry's most prominent figures. He was creative director and editor of Vogue. He worked with Andy Warhol, Oscar Del Renta, and Michelle Obama. So there you go. That's my stuff for now. Good. Well, I'm glad you covered that awful story from Mexico. Yeah. Another couple was found, too. I should have checked with you, but I figured they were Americans, but it could have gone either way. Well, I have three Mexican stories, so now I have two. And that's fine. But let's start with Africa. Same-sex rights for the top court to decide in Namibia. The question of whether same-sex marriages should receive legal recognition under Namibian law is likely to be taken to the Supreme Court for a decision. Three judges, this is kind of good news, three judges of the High Court in a landmark judgment yesterday said that, in their view, Namibia's constitution protects the rights of people in same-sex relationships and that there should be no discrimination. The problem is they can't change the law because the Namibian constitution reflects. It's time for the constitution to reflect that homosexuality is part of the fabric of society. And although the three judges... It's in the constitution? Uh-huh. They support it. They concluded that they're bound by the Supreme Court's decision that same-sex relationships do not have legal recognition in Namibia. So only that court can make that decision. And so they voted against these two same-sex couples, but the same-sex couples are appealing. So it's a good sign that at least three members favor it, but I don't know. In Kenya, and I have a picture before you now of protesters, people are marching in downtown Nairobi during a protest organized by the queer Republican Nairobi, which was on January 13, 2022. That's when this protest was because the education cabinet secretary, Professor George Mungoja, sparked controversy after saying that homosexual students should be banned from boarding schools. And apparently in Kenya, boarding schools are sort of like public schools. They're the order of the day. And I think in Africa, a lot of places have to pay for their kids to go to school. It's like not compulsory the way we have it here, I think. Well, it's not state-sponsored. Right. So this has caused a big uproar. Demonstrations are occurring. The education secretary now has been petitioned to withdraw his December remarks. And the petition also asks to criminalize all phobias that put people's lives at risk, including the lives of homosexual students. So that's mixed news from Kenya. Now let's go to Asia, where Samsung, two Singapore activists this May, has pulled an ad featuring a drag queen. The ad shows a Muslim woman in a headscarf hugging her son, who is a drag artist. Samsung pulled the ad in Singapore. Social media users had criticized the ad as an attempt to push LGBT ideology reports the BBC. It was meant to feature Samsung's new wearable products, such as noise-canceling earphones, as well as a smartwatch with a heart rate monitor. I've heard those are unreliable. But what do I know? In any event, in the commercial, several people listen to messages from loved ones. One of the pairs includes a mother and her headscarf, who listens to a message from her son, a drag artist. Dear mother, I'm reading this all to you because I want to show you the 52nd clip, but the subtitles are tiny. Dear mother, not many will have such an understanding and open-minded mom like you. And my heart can't thank you enough. You are just unbothered, having people looking or judging you differently, having a son that does drag. The son tells his mother. In a video on Instagram, the drag artist featured in the ad known as Vilavirius said it was nothing more than an example of a mother's devotion to her child. So let's take a look at this end clip. Dear mother, not many will have such an understanding and open-minded mom like you. And my heart can't thank you enough. You are just unbothered, having people looking or judging you differently, having a son that does drag. I remember the day you came down to support me in a club. And even though some people may have this mindset of a hijab lady in a club, we are just unbothered because you were there to see me perform. That was the most precious and proudest moment I have felt. Boy sayang kan ma, always. Yeah. More bad news from Asia. Uzbekistan sentences blogging LGBT supporter to three years. He's not going to go to prison apparently. But he was sentenced to three years of restricted freedom for slander after he publicly criticized the education system and called for same-sex relations to be decriminalized. First, well his name is Miraziz. He was charged last year after a savage beating put him in the hospital for a month. Police blamed him for provoking the attack because he'd made insulting inappropriate public statements that are not in correspondence with our mentality. His attackers were never identified. When he got out of the hospital, he was put under house arrest. So he did not serve the full three years because he's been in house arrest. That's the real high bar for blaming the victim, isn't it? That's incredible. This case has garnered significant international attention because of Uzbekistan's poor record with press freedom and also because of the state sanctioned hostility to the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ people face arbitrary detention, prosecution, and imprisonment, as well as homophobia, threats, and extortion. Now are you halfway through your stories, do you think? Well, let me just do one more Asian story then, if I may. It involves a film script on a gay soldier in the Indian army that has been rejected by the Defense Ministry. It's based on a 2010 film called I Am, based on an interview with a gay major who quit the service and was very respectful of the army. This is in India. I said that, I think. It's not some salacious story that filmmaker said, but it got rejected because it shows a homosexual soldier. The problem here is that it was rejected before, before same-sex marriage was legalized when it came out in 2010, but now the Supreme Court has decriminalized same-sex relations and the story also is inspired by something that's in the public domain. Any movie or TV, web show, showing content relating to the defense forces is required to get clearance from the Ministry of Defense feeling which it won't be certified so on December 16. The filmmaker applied with his script, which treats everything with a lot of dignity and respect. He has a lot of love and respect for the Indian army. The day before yesterday when he got the email, he was told that the content had been examined and analyzed and rejected. He could sue, but he said, I'm a filmmaker. I'm not in the business of bringing suit and engaging in litigating. So we'll see what happens. Maybe you can put it someplace else. Yeah, and you can get it on Netflix, I think. No, you can get it on YouTube. It's an hour and 47 minutes. She's timed it. Yeah, I did. So Trivia considered one of the 20 best comedians of the 20th century. Had the world of comedy been less segregated, Loretta Akin would have been even more of a household name. Nonetheless, she came out of the world of Vaudeville and had a wild success at the Apollo Theater and the rest of the Chitlin circuit before eventually breaking into television. So who's Loretta Akin? And Linda got it. Events, Rainbow Umbrella. You've got a book discussion in a women's discussion group. Yes. All of the details are on Rainbow Umbrella. Facebook page. In the women's discussion group, you've been having some lively conversations at late. Oh, you know it. Always. So the Vermont Humanities Council, they do a first Wednesday series. February 2nd is going to be Walt Whitman, American poet. February 2nd, 7 p.m. This is free, but you do have to register. Their little narrative is Walt Whitman was a great poetic innovator, the poet who best sums up what it means to be an American and his song of myself is the most majestic poem written in our nation. And yet, for all this, UVN professor emeritus Huck Gottman finds Whitman to be wonderfully approachable. Oh, yeah. Okay, that's not what any of those pictures look like, so I'm going to be waiting for it. So employment opportunities, who knew that we were jobs in Vermont? Outright Vermont has two positions. One, GSA network coordinator, this is a full-time position with benefits, and looking online, it's a competitive salary. And the other is education and leadership coordinator. This is also a full-time position with benefits. There's no application deadline. They are going to, they're going to leave these positions open until they get filled. And talking with Dana, the executive director, they said that they're getting good candidates and they wanted to leave it open because they know their ideal candidate is out there waiting for them. So Pride Center of Vermont also has two positions open. One is Safe Space Rural Advocacy Coordinator. This is full-time position with benefits. However, they want the application by February 11th. Health and Wellness Program Coordinator, this is also a full-time position with benefits. The application is by February 4th, and you can get all of the details in the online application at either the Outright or Pride Center of Vermont website Facebook page. You know, every time you say with benefits, I think. You go to the bad place. You go to Grindr. We have interesting conversations over Sunday, breakfast. Pride Center also announced the promotion of Kel Arbor as their new director of health and wellness. And Kel has agreed for an interview for our next interview show. And their brief blurb is that Kel has already been working with them part-time and that this was just the right fit of somebody who really wanted to do prevention versus, you know, case management after the fact, kind of, and that they were excited. And Kel's move from Vermont Cares to the Pride Center was with everyone's agreement and that this was the right move. So we will talk with Kel more about what made this the position for them. So on Front Porch Forum, people may have noticed, you know, some conversations back and forth about Pride Flanks turning up, missing, and there seem to have been a series of incidents several months ago and then a repeat. And I reached out to the Montpellier Police Department and said, OK, what can you share with us because I had not seen anything in the mainstream press. Oh, I'm so surprised. And I had not seen the police posting anything on Front Porch Forum themselves the same as they had done with some other incidents. And what they said is, you know, they've taken all the information. If people have not reported similar incidents, please do. That, you know, they can only get a real sense of exactly what is happening if people let them know when something really does occur. And this was part of the comment back from the Chief of Police. Anyone whose flag may be missing or may have been taken, I want to remind you that Montpellier is a collective place of love and support and any act of vandalism are not reflective of our city. Montpellier Police Department takes such acts seriously because we understand the history of where such animosity or ill intent to take a symbol of national pride would come from and unfortunately where it sometimes leads to. So if you have information, please share it with them. And I saw a post, I believe it was the beginning of this week, that the last flag that got stolen, the person said, thank you to whoever left the two flags for us to replace what had been taken. So that supports that we are a community that cares about our neighbors. So there may have been some interest by some national groups about a particular Vermont race, maybe like Becca Ballant for U.S. Congress. She was endorsed by the Lesbian Political Action Committee, Equality's PAC, LGBTQ Victory Fund saying, go for it. And really quickly, legislation in our legislature, the House General Housing Military Affairs Committee is taking testimony this week on H329, this is an act relating to amending the prohibitions against discrimination. This is what I had reported on before, that the current statutory definition for harassment talks about severe and pervasive acts. That is such a high standard that state's attorneys are finding they can't prosecute. And the police at this point are, there's not much they can do with an investigation because they can't go anywhere. This provision would take that out. One of the real impacts, and this was testimony presented by Vermont's Human Rights Commission, is that it's this severe and pervasive language that really prevents them from being able to go into public schools to investigate reports of harassment against students. That's good. And why some of the school boards and school administration said, well, we've done what the law tells us to do. Is it enough? It's time to change the law. Yeah. Also looking at what has been introduced, H628, an act relating to amending a burst certificate to reflect gender identity. This bill was introduced by Taylor Small. It has actually been assigned to Taylor's committee, the House Human Services Committee. They're taking testimony the beginning of February. And there isn't a real big push to get people to testify because how this bill is constructed, it will remove everything from statute and allow the Department of Health to create rules as to how this will happen. And we will have the opportunity to input when the Department of Health is creating those rules. And then the final thing that I wanted to bring up to people's attention is S247. And I was thinking of Linda and I because this is an act relating to prohibiting discrimination based on genetic information. Ancestry, 23andMe, don't you want to know your ethnicity? Don't you want to find those relatives out there that you didn't know? Well, this bill, and Vermont would again be in the forefront, would say that insurance companies and other sort of large institutions could not take this information and use it against you. Good. Your genetic information is your information and it's private until you choose to share it. So with that, I'm going to hand it back to you. Well, we're back to Senator... Kirsten Sinema from Arizona. Oh, dear. That senator. And progressives, criticism reached a high level this week. When she was refused, well, when she refused to end the filibuster, Emily's List is polling their support for her. Many Democrats have lambasted her and Bernie Sanders, Democratic Senator from Vermont, he'd support primary challenges to her seat. LPAC says it might fall in the footsteps of Emily's List, but hasn't yet done it. The NRC, the nation's largest LGBT group, says it endorses her and did not rebuke her. So you may want to send some little notes. Lambda Legal also did not rebuke her actions as of yet. But over the weekend, the Arizona Democratic Party censored her. Yes. And Bernie Sanders said that was the right thing to do. Bingo. I agree. Yep. And then there's Florida. Okay, that's enough. We can move on. There's a bill that could block kids with LGBTQ parents from discussing family in class. Florida legislators have advanced a parental rights bill. In a 15 to five vote, a panel recommended House Bill 1557, the Parental Rights and Education Bill. This bill will require schools to notify parents if there is a change in services or monitoring around a child's mental health issues. And the district school districts to encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill will give parents the right to take legal action against these schools that violate the law and would be awarded legal fees for doing so. The bill would also require that if you as the educator, I disclose to you orientation or gender identity, you're now required to tell my parents what you have learned. And Chase and Buttigieg gave an op-ed today in opposition to this, saying students are going to die. Oh. Insanity. Yep. Florida. Christian Adoption Agency uses new religious freedom to deny service to a straight Jewish couple. The Tennessee Adoption Agency has used a new state law to deny service to LGBTQ people also. The law intended to bar LGBTQ adoptions are now being used to discriminate against Jews. The couple is suing the Tennessee Department of Children's Services in state court, arguing that the adoption agency shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against them based on their religion. They were to start training as foster parents and referred to Holden United Methodist Home for Children and refused and told that they couldn't be part of the program because they were not Christians. A mother of a lesbian who died by suicide after years of attempted conversion therapy is speaking out against the damage that conversion therapy has done to her daughter. Alina Chen, 24, was found dead in a park in Colorado. In an interview, she reported on a priest in high school had put her in conversion therapy. Her mother, Joyce Calvo, said that David Nix, the priest, denies meeting with her daughter in private, but her daughter's diary says otherwise. Let's see. Some interesting news in entertainment. Comedian Tignotaro and partner Stephanie Eileen make their feature direction debut with the Sundance Festival. Dakota Johnson was looking for a break from her darker roles, but was hard-pressed to find one until she found this one. Johnson portrays the fictional version of screenwriter Parranta, while actor Siona Mizuno take on the role of Parmaranzas' best friend based on Gloria Sanchez's production founder Jessica Elbaum, who is also a producer on this film. I know it's all very confusing. And what's the name of the film? The name of the film is... Am I Okay? Oh! Sundance. Sundance, yes, yes, yes. Director Rita Baghati delivers courage, compassion, and a compelling argument for a new trash-metal way of life. This is a documentary set against the backdrop of a life in the backdrop of a country on the brink of collapse, Lebanon. The documentary, Sirens Explore, the question through a 23-year-old, through 22-year-old musicians, Mayasa, who wrestles with friendship, sexuality, and destruction as a leader of the Middle East. First, all-female trash-metal band, Slave to Sirens, a Beirut-Lebanon-based group pursuing dreams of rock star fame. And here is a picture of them doing there. What trash? I don't know. What's the name of the... Sirens. Trash-metal. Trash-metal. What is trash-metal? I don't know. You know metal rock? Yeah. It's an extension off that. It's an extension off that. The same as punk is an extension off... Yeah. Yeah, okay. I just never heard punk rock, but I've never heard of trash rock, so anyway. In sports... Because we're old. I'm out of my element entirely. The NCAA's new policy for trans-athletes lacks clarity and could be difficult to enforce. The NCAA under pressure from critics say that it is unfair for Leah Thompson, a trans swimmer at University of Pennsylvania who broke multiple records at a meet last month on a women's swim team. Still, the new policy won't affect Thomas' ability to compete, but the Board of Governors voted in support of a sport-by-sport approach to trans athletes. This, they say, balances fairness, inclusion, and safety for all who compete, but it does pose a problem if you're doing it from one sport to another, or from one need to another. Then, you know, one person could be in and another person can be out, so they really need more clarity about that. And Andrew Blasser makes U.S. Olympic history as the first out-game man to be a super-fast ice-board of skeleton. But he's already asserted himself as one of the top skeleton racers in the United States. The gay athlete is aiming for a Team USA spot in 2022 Winter Olympic Games, and here's his picture with his outfit on. Spandex. Yes, and he looks very cute. I still haven't seen a listing or even an account of how many out-LGBTQ-plus athletes they believe will be in this year's Winter Olympics. Yeah, no, I haven't either. Yeah, I'm not covering a story about a snowboarder. Who is, you know, but I just have too many things to cover. No more snowboarders? Well, she's gonna, I hope she, you know, enters in wins. And as I recall, Ann wasn't that big a fan of the Olympics the last time. No, I'm not either, but, you know... Go for it, Ann. Okay, because I have many, many headlines I'm gonna have to zip through them, because there are a couple I'd like to applause on. But let's go to North America, where transgender Mexicans will be able to receive amended birth certificates at the country's consulates. So show your old birth certificate, get a new one. This has been decreed by the Mexico's Foreign Affair Industry on Wednesday. Other North American news is, you know, there's this problem with anti-LGBT, homophobic chants. And they, people, fans of sports events who can be apprehended for chanting homophobic things. This is particularly involving soccer. Soccer fans will be given five-year bands from stadiums if they are found to have made homophobic chants. Who's gonna do that? I don't know. What the hell was gonna know? No, no, no, is it the... The Football Federation. The Mexican Football Federation is gonna do it. And they've been trying to do things, they had fines, but now they're gonna have this five-year band. We'll see how that goes. How are they gonna catch them, though, in a huge stadium? They have cameras that can focus in. And I believe, as I interrupted, I believe some of them actually hold up signs. I wouldn't be surprised. Okay, let's go to Chile, where the president, Gabriel Borek, has... He takes office on March 11th, the day after marriage equality begins. And he has named two LGBTQ-plus people to his cabinet. Marco Antonio Avila, who's gay. He'll be the country's education minister. And Alexandra Bonato, a lesbian, will be Chile's sports minister. That's great. That's very good. So that's it from South America for today. Australia, I have a follow-up to a very sad story. I have a picture of you of Scott Johnson, a young man who, in 1988, was pushed off a cliff in Sydney. Scott White has been charged in 2020 for murdering the 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Scott Johnson, you may recall. The Australian authorities denied it and turned down two inquests, but his brother persevered, offered reward, and the reward yielded this Steve Johnson. No, I'm sorry. Steve Johnson's the brother's name. I always screw this up. The bounty yielded Mr. White, who was arrested at his Sydney home. Do they think he did others as well? Yes, but it's been revealed that gangs, robing gangs, pushed a lot of... We've reported on this before. They literally chased people and either pushed them over or you jumped because it was your only way out, and then the police ruled it a suicide. How are they going to go after the gangs? Gangs of men roamed various Sydney locations in search of gay men to assault, resulting in the deaths of some victims. Some people were also robbed. It was 1988, so this one relative has been persevering and finally yielded this result. I'd like to pause a little, although I don't have a lot of time, with some Asian news beginning with... Can you have a little time? I have a clip, though, but in any event, I'm kind of delighted by this story. A brotherhood of bears flourishes despite Russia's anti-LGBT agenda. It's called the Bearsburg Society. It brings together men who reject effeminate stereotypes of queerness for trips to cafe meetups, walking tours, and film nights. This is in St. Petersburg. If you didn't know Club Milovitch existed, you would never find it. There are no signs, windows, grand entrances, or bouncers at the back of the defunct industrial complex, housing its long black neon lit bar and dance floor. The location is a perfect hideaway for St. Petersburg Secret Bearsburg Society, a modern Russian incarnation of a gay subgroup which originally developed in the United States toward the end of the 1970s as a reaction against effeminate stereotypes of queer men. On a Thursday night, this... On a Thursday night in November, around 20 men have gathered to watch Dance of the 41, which I reported on last time, and that Linda and I have subsequently seen. It's a historical film based on a queer scandal involving cross-dressers at the highest level of the 20th century Mexican society. I was telling Keith that brunch is just a must-see for him. Oh, I know it. There's a lot of gay male sex, we have to tell you. It's historically important, there's a lot of gay male sex. In fact, Linda and I were watching, and she said, I don't think we're the target audience. Or that much has changed, you know. As the credits start to roll, viewers scatter and make their way to the highlight of the evening of boozy session of Belting Bear Karaoke. What's also interesting, the founder says, he created my own bear state. He founded Bearsburg in 2021 as a grassroots society to bring together the larger Harrier men of St. Petersburg gay scene through social and cultural events. Like all the men interviewed for the story, he has to be anonymous, and he explains what a bear is. But a rival society, SP Bears has been active since 2013, and they represent a more formal group akin to the international LGBT private clubs with membership fees, formalized calendar events, and some collaborations with bear movements across Europe. More activist-minded bears, like Sergei, who has been heavily involved with SP Bears for years, are skeptical that groups like Bearsburg bring any tangible benefit to the LGBT cause in Russia. So there are two rival groups, and the sticking point is SP Bears is political, and Bearsburg is not. You cannot be politically... Well, they're going to be looking for them now. I'm sure this story isn't. Well, you know, I don't know. You think so? Well... Well, that's a chilling observation. Well, you know, if they know about it here, I'm sure they're going to know about it there. Well, all right, let's move on to another story, now that Linda has cast cold water on that one. I think maybe they'll prevail. I think they'll survive. Well, we'll see. Let's look at a picture of Liam Brody, who wears rainbow laces at the Australian Open to support LGBTQ players. He's British. You see him. You can't see the shoe laces that well, but there he is. Apparently, there are no out gay professional men on the tour, and very few women. So this is why this Liam Brody is supporting the cause. You know, I was just wondering why they don't... Because it made me think about that. Like, there's a lot of lesbians in golf. I never hear anything about golf, do you? Well, this is because we don't play golf. We're not interested in golf. No, but when I'm looking things up about sports and stuff... Yeah, golf is boring, maybe. I know, but there's lots of lesbians in golf. I'm just curious. If you watch Gay USA and North are playing golf, and she reports on lesbian golfers frequently, I would say. Let's turn to a picture of Monroe Bergdorf, who is the first transgender model to be featured on the cover of Cosmo UK's 50th Anniversary Issue. Other firsts for Cosmopolitan UK have occurred. In 2020, in January 2020, Jonathan Van Ness covered the publication and made history as the first non-female person to front the glossy, as well as the first known non-binary person. Then RuPaul followed them covering the publication in January 2021. Internationally, Laverne Cox covered Cosmopolitan South Africa's February 2018 issue, but here's Monroe Bergdorf. Does Cosmo have magazines all over the... Oh, sure. It's international. The same as Vogue. Let's go to Hungary. They've set a date for this miserable referendum they're having on the controversial LGBT law. It's going to be April 3rd. The European Union launched legal action against it that is unresolved. And then to follow Linda's museum story with London, it plans to host the first UK LGBTQ museum. That's going to open in 2022. The charity Queer Britain has taken the ground floor of the art building in Granary Square. I hope we get to see that, Ian. Yeah, I hope so, too. I'll wait at the theater. That's right. And it's important, the founder said, that it be free. It's important that the museum would remain free. He says, I would be heartbroken if any young queer person or any person at all couldn't get in and engage in what we're working on because they didn't have the money. Now, my lead story concerns a film from France called Ma Belle, Ma Beauty. It involves a surprise reunion in the south of France that reignites passions and jealousies between two women who were formerly polyamorous lovers. It's called Ma Belle, Ma Beauty. And let me read you a little more about it since I have some time. Lane, Bertie and Fred once shared a polyamorous relationship while living in New Orleans. Lane loved Bertie. Fred loved Bertie. They had a balance that worked until it didn't and Lane vanished from their lives. Two years later, Bertie and Fred have gotten married and are now living at Fred's family home in the countryside in the south of France. When Lane unexpectedly shows up in Bertie's seemingly idyllic new life, she finds her former lover much different than she remembers. Bertie is now disillusioned in her jazz career, still grieving the loss of her mother and clearly alienated in this small, white, European town. Lane attempts to recreate their old, carefree dynamic hoping that her return might lighten Bertie's mood, but Bertie isn't having it. It seems time hasn't healed all wounds, so Lane shifts her strategy when she meets Noah, a young artist and former soldier, quickly reuniting dormant jealousies. So let's take a look at her clip from my Belle, my beauty on Netflix. What if she doesn't want to see me? She loves surprises. She hates surprises. I'll show it to my dad. What are you doing here, Lane? You disappear, never call, and after two years later you just show up to see if I'm okay. Hey, here are my girls. Hey. Were you always fine sharing her? It could be challenging. I guess it's just like, how could you not love someone who loves the person you love? The way you two do your things is none of my business. You're right. It's not. Hey Noah. Bertie, how are you? How are you? Damn. I know. You're different than Lane's here. What the hell happened in your life that made you wind up here trying to get back into mine? There's two of us here who care about you, who love you, who are willing to catch you if you had just let us. Hey, I'm going to watch that one. I know. I think we should check that out. Okay. That's it for me. All right. So I have a positive statement. Oh, good. And this was just released this week. The Social Security Administration will now allow gay men and lesbians to receive survivor benefits if they can show that they were in a committed relationship and would have been married had that been possible. The change could mean greater economic protection for a population with higher poverty rates than American adults overall. And sort of following up on that HRC, who we're not too sure we're liking these days, excuse me. They just released their study survey about wages. Guess what? We earn less than the median average. But they went into greater detail. We earn 90 cents on the dollar to a middle-class worker. And that our sort of marginalized status gets perpetuated by this. It could be exaggerated by the fact that women's wages generally, whether lesbian or not are... Bingo. I was going to say that was one of the things that they folded into the equation and one of the things that they pointed out is that lesbians, cisgender straight women in the general population earn the same less as... And transgender people are the lowest even out of our communities. But they went even further. Indigenous people earn 70 cents on the dollar for the typical worker. Black LGBTQ plus workers earn about 80 cents per dollar. Latinx LGBTQ plus workers are about 90 cents on the dollar. So there's sort of the average white LGBTQ plus workers earn 97 cents on the dollar. So there's some real race issues being played out even within our communities. Asian Pacific Islanders earn about a dollar per dollar, which was interesting. And I couldn't see where they were theorizing why this Asian subgroup was doing better than the rest of them. But Biden administration, if you are a trans or a non-binary veteran, you can now get that on your medical records at the VA hospital. They will go in and make that gender change for you. And I only picked this story because of the last sentence. So wait for it. A group of sad white men wearing black masks marched from Maine to New Hampshire to protest a drag queen. The show of bravado and strength involved walking across the bridge. Kiddery into Portsmouth. Kiddery, Maine, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Members of the hate group, Nationalist Socialist Club, gathered outside of Portsmouth, where the Seacoast Repertory Theater was signed in vitriol, despite the lack of public performances taking place since when the pandemic started, the venue had been closed since early 2020. When the pandemic started, the theater moved shows online with actors performing in front of empty seats. One of the productions, Honey Punch and Pals, involves a drag queen dressed as a 50s homemaker who reads books to puppets. It's for everyone, co-director Brandon James says. It really is for everyone. It's for kids. It's family friendly. It's silly. It's fun. It's puppets. When did they do this march? Kiddery, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. When though, recently? Yeah, oh yeah. This was within the last month. They couldn't find anything better to do? Apparently the Nationalist Socialist Club is looking for things to occupy their time. I have some other stories that I'm going to let hold over until our next show. We have a few minutes if you want to jump in with something. They were all HIV related. The theme throughout is that France and Greece have both changed their protocols for who can donate blood so that men who have sex with men are no longer banned. You are held to the same standard. You will get the same questionnaire that asks you your sexual activities for the last whatever amount of time and that's it. Before there was a mandatory three month celibacy. You could not have had any contact within the last three months with another man. People are screaming for blood right now. That was the other part of the story is that the American Red Cross has said that blood donations are down 34%. This is the first time they've had this kind of national blood crisis and we still have this three month celibacy requirement. We seem to be lagging behind and a sort of related story is that New Jersey has just repealed their statute that said if you transmit HIV you can be prosecuted for it and they will be only one of six states that does not have a statute criminalizing the transmission of HIV and only on my Vermont is one of those six states. Trivia. Trivia. Oh yeah. As Ann is looking up at the clock considered one of the 20 best comedians of the 20th century Loretta Akin might be Mom's Mably. Yes, I love her. Her stage persona was a toothless old woman in a flowered dress and allowed her to do edgy material about sex and racism. Mably was one of the first openly gay comedians coming out as lesbian in the 1920s. Good for her. So here's to Mom's Mably and the Bears of St. Petersburg. May they prevail. And may we resist.