[OutVoice] CT gets marriage equality+Iran's Prez is pressed for queer answers+more LGBT news

[tworadio at aol.com]

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"THIS WAY OUT: the international lesbian & gay radio magazine
Program #1,072 distributed 10/13/08
(hosted this week by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia Chappelle)
Connecticut's constitution demands marriage equality;
Iran's president is pressed for queer answers;
Anti-marriage measures threaten same-gender couples in California and Florida, Anglican conservatives coalesce in Kampala, Uganda's Ethics head wants to outlaw being gay, Jo'berg Pride promotes "Love, Not Hate," an Italian comic is cleared of a Papal insult, and more LGBT news

 In "NewsWrap": The Connecticut Supreme Court makes the state the third in the U.S. to open marriage to gay and lesbian couples (includes a brief report by MELINDA TUHUS of Free Speech Radio News/www.fsrn.org)... broadcast ads containing what equality advocates call outright lies apparently change voter sentiment in California to show Proposition 8, the November ballot measure to eliminate same-gender marriage, now favored by a 47-to-42 percent margin, while new polls in Florida show increasing support for a ballot measure there... Portugal's Parliament overwhelmingly rejects a bill to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry... about 40 traditionalist Anglican Church bishops meet near Kampala to codify the creation of an anti-LGBT "church within a church" established earlier this year at a conference in Jerusalem, as the government of Uganda announces a crackdown on "mushrooming lesbianism and homosexuality" in the country;  an estimated
 10,000 LGBT people and their allies come out for Pride in Johannesburg, South Africa... popular Italian comic Sabina Guzzanti won't be prosecuted for saying that the Pope will go to Hell because of the Church's treatment of gay people  (written by GREG GORDON, and reported this week by TANYA KANE-PARRY and DONNA-ANN WARD).

* Issuing a 4-to-3 ruling on October 10th, the CONNECTICUT SUPREME COURT said that gay and lesbian couples in the state were entitled to full marriage equality.  Wile civil unions established by the legislature three years ago provide virtually all the rights of marriage except the name, the Court's majority decided that such second-class status violated the state constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.  BENNETT KLEIN of the Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, was one of the lead attorneys for the eight plaintiff couples in the case.  He joined MARY BONAUTO, GLAD’s Civil Rights Director, and ANNE STANBACH of the statewide marriage equality group Love Makes A Family at a celebratory press conference that day.  Opponents of the ruling held their own press conference, called by the Family Institute of Connecticut.  Executive Director PETER WOLFGANG railed against the ruling, and called for passage of a November ballot measure that could open the door to a statewide voter referendum on the issue.  For the time being, however, Connecticut becomes the third U.S. state to open marriage to lesbigay couples, joining Massachusetts a
nd California -- at least until the Golden State's November 4th election results.   Some of the Connecticut plaintiff couples get the last words about their historic win (with outro music by ALAN CUMMING singing "Married").

= IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD's 2007 visit to the United States for a United Nations General Assembly meeting was marked by a controversial appearance at Columbia University, where he famously contended that there are no gays and lesbians in his country.  While attending this year's UN gathering in late September, Ahmadinejad was interviewed by Democracy Now!'s AMY GOODMAN.  That progressive and notoriously unembedded journalist pressed the president on the status of Iran's homosexuals, and later got a response from activist KOUROSH SHEMIRANI of Queer Iran Alliance [www.democracynow.org].
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