[OutVoice] Happy Holidays? from "This Way Out"

[tworadio at aol.com]

AN URGENT APPEAL:  After more than 20 years on the air, a major cash shortfall has put "This Way Out's" very existence in jeopardy.  Due to the failure of our previous Internet licensor to pay over $8200 in carriage fees -- nearly one third of our annual budget -- we are now increasingly unable to meet our most basic production and distribution expenses.

We remain steadfastly committed to keeping "This Way Out" on the air, but we need your help!  There is renewed foundation funding on the horizon, but without your contribution today, we may not be around to receive it!   Please log on to www.thiswayout.org to make your tax-deductible donation and -- if you need something tangible in return -- review the special thank you gifts we have to offer.

And what does your donation pay for?  Check out our free podcast at the upper right hand corner of www.thiswayout.org.  You'll hear a one-of-a-kind community radio show for and about sexual minorities around the world -- produced with a large pool of unpaid volunteers.  Our “NewsWrap” segment offers radio’s only international weekly LGBT newscast.  "This Way Out" program features have run the diverse gamut of LGBT-related subject matter, including conversations with award-winning playwrights Adam Bock, Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Tony Kushner, drag diva RuPaul, and trans-artists S. Bear Bergman and Tobias K. Davis.  We also heard from Two-Spirit leader Richard La Fortune, author/actor/youth advocate James Lecesne, feminist law pr
ofessor Nancy Polikoff, Jamaican activist Gareth Henry and Stop Murder Music leader Akim Larcher, retiring gay New Zealand M.P. Tim Barnett, notoriously “out” and funny jazz singer Lea DeLaria, “Running With Scissors” and “A Wolf at the Table” novelist Augusten Burroughs, “When You’re Fully Engulfed in Flames” humorist David Sedaris, and gay Muslim director and co-producer Parvez Sharma about his documentary “A Jihad for Love.”  Creator Del Shores and star Jason Dottley discussed their hilarious Logo TV series “Sordid Lives,” and Darryl Stephens, the title character in the groundbreaking Logo TV series and follow-up movie “Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom” talked about battling homophobia in the African-American community.  Ex “ex-gay” activist Peterson Toscano described his “adventures" at the global Anglican Communion's once-a-decade Lambeth Conference in England, and we aired excerpts from an interview about lesbigay issues with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Award-winning writer Janet Mason continues to offer LGBT literary critiques and commentaries, and we celebrated the 25th anniversary of venerable Canada Customs-fighting Vancouver bookstore Little Sister’s with co-founder Jim Deva and longtime manager Janine Fuller.  We traced the herstory of Olivia Records with co-founder Judy Dlugacz, and previewed the musical “Babe” (Didrikson) and a play about the life of James Baldwin.

We had on-scene sound cel
ebrating the California Supreme Court marriage equality ruling in May, the state’s first legal same-gender marriages in June, and the Connecticut Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in October and the first lesbigay marriages there in November.  We provided LGBT-related coverage of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this year, interviews with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, and took a close look at GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  We had comprehensive coverage of the anti-gay ballot measures in four U.S. states, and continue to report on the unprecedented aftermath of Proposition 8's passage in California.  "Audiofile" continues to spotlight new CDs by openly-LGBT musicians, and the “Rainbow Minute” provides capsule summaries of people and events around the world in LGBT history.  

Please don't let "This Way Out" become a victim of these difficult economic times!  Log on to www.thiswayout.org now to make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal, or postal-mail your check or money order to PO Box 38327, Los Angeles, CA 90038-0327, USA.  

For our many listeners outside the U.S., even though your donation may not be tax-deductible, please do your part to keep "This Way Out" on the air.

We need *everyone's* support now to avert the tragic loss of this vital LGBT institution.

Thank you!
 
Greg Gordon, Coordinating Producer
Lucia Chappelle, Associate Producer
"This Way Out"
Jon Beaupre, Chair, Overnight Productions (Inc.) Board of20Directors