[OutVoice] Lesbigay Muslims wage "A Jihad for Love"+L.A. moves to help LGBT violence victims+ global LGBT news

[tworadio at aol.com]

"THIS WAY OUT: the international lesbian & gay radio magazine
Program #1,064 distributed 08/18/08
(hosted this week by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia Chappelle)
Gay and lesbian Muslims wage "A Jihad for Love";
L.A. assesses services for LGBT domestic violence victims;
Panama purges its sodomy law, the Czech couples count is down while
the ACT partners up, political semantics boost California's equality
battle, Iceland celebrates its 10th Pride, and more global LGBT news;
plus "Rainbow Minutes" track the history of the Gay Games.

* In "NewsWrap": Panama's president signs a decree decriminalizing consensual adult same-gender sex, while Ecuador's president campaigns for a new marriage equality-inclusive constitution... the number of lesbigay couples contracting registered partnerships in the Czech Republic has declined since their 2006 inception, but officials in the Australian Capital Territory celebrate the success of their 3-month-old civil union law... supporters of California's November ballot initiative to ban marriage equality abandon their fight over revised language describing the measure as eliminating the right of same-gender couples to marry... Icelanders enjoy their 10th annual Pride Festival in Reykjavik... and more LGBT news from around the world (written by GREG GORDON, and reported this week by STEVE LEVIN and MARK ZECCA).

* With homophobic hate crimes on the rise in a number of major U.S. cities, sometimes it's hard for LGBT people to know where to expect the next attack to come from.  It could come from law enforcem
ent.  It could even be at home.  In LOS ANGELES, the City Council created a new subcommittee this week to deal with how domestic violence is handled in the LGBT community.  "This Way Out" correspondent DAN FRITZ reports (includes comments by TERRA SLAVIN, the lead domestic violence attorney with the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, and L.A. City Councilman RICHARD ALARCÓN).

* Dr. Tom Waddell's "DREAMING OF A GAY OLYMPICS" is recalled in this "RAINBOW MINUTE" (produced by JUDD PROCTOR and BRIAN BURNS at WRIR-FM in Richmond, Virginia and read by DUSTIN RICHARDSON). 

* Homosexuality isn't a choice, of course – but often, many forget, neither is religion.  Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad, Islam today is the world's second largest and fastest growing religion.  Gay Muslim director and co-producer PARVEZ SHARMA traveled the many worlds of this dynamic faith discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims.  Filmed over 6 years, in 12 countries and 9 languages, "A JIHAD FOR LOVE" comes from the heart of Islam.  Looking beyond a hostile and war-torn present, his film seeks to reclaim the Islamic concept of a greater Jihad, which can mean "an inner struggle" or "to strive in the path of God".  In doing so, as This Way Out's STEVE PRIDE discovers in conversation with Sharma, the film hopes to move us beyond the narrow concept of "Jihad" as holy war by taking a close look at gays and lesbians 
living in often sexually repressive Islamic societies.

* Achieving one's "PERSONAL BEST" at the Gay Games is celebrated in this bonus "RAINBOW MINUTE" (produced by JUDD PROCTOR and BRIAN BURNS and read by DUSTIN RICHARDSON).
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