[OutVoice] Irish matchmaking+Ghanaian faith+global LGBT news

[Greg Gordon]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
"THIS WAY OUT: the international LGBT radio magazine"
Program #1,397 - distributed 01/05/15
Airs on more than 200 local stations around the world -
Check the "Affiliate Stations" list on our website, or
 listen now via our free podcasts at www.thiswayout.org
- or on iTunes or Stitcher -
(hosted by Greg Gordon and produced  with Lucia Chappelle)
A gay Ghanaian activist is inspired by his rainbow faith;
A unique Irish festival matches gay and lesbian singles;
Scotland and Luxembourg celebrate the New Year with marriage equality,
a trans teen's suicide prompts abusive therapy charges while a Chinese
court rules that there's no medical basis for claimed "cures" of
homosexuality, oppression continues in Zimbabwe, Gambia & Egypt, more!

- "NewsWrap": Same-gender couples begin legally marrying in Scotland and Luxembourg, while the U.S. Supreme Court will consider one or more marriage equality cases at its first conference of 2015 on January 9th…the gruesome suicide of 17-year-old Ohio transgender teen Leelah Alcorn sparks sadness, outrage, and resolve, while a court in China issues a landmark ruling against a counseling center that claimed to "cure" homosexuality… 35 members of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe are injured as thugs invade a private holiday party, while security forces in Gambia arrest three men on charges of homosexuality, even as the European Union and the U.S. sharply reduce financial aid because of the draconian anti-gay law signed by homophobic President Yahya Jammeh in October that prompted the arrests, while more than two dozen men arrested for "perversion" and "debauchery" at an early December raid on a Cairo bathhouse purportedly orchestrated by a much-maligned TV journalist go on trial, and more LGBT news from around the world (produced by STEVE PRIDE, written by GREG GORDON, and reported this week by JOHN DYER V and GREG GORDON).

- Thousands of eligible heterosexual singles looking for love have been making their way to COUNTY CLARE, IRELAND for more than 150 years, hoping to get lucky at the small town of LISDOONVARNA's annual matchmaking festival. For the past two years the town has opened its doors to a similar event, called "The Outing." Happily-married correspondent CHRIS WILSON just went to Lisdoonvarna for the news story and the great Irish music, of course, but she had plenty of questions for EDDIE McGUINNESS, the founder of the unique matchmaking festival. 

- Our SAPPHIC NOMAD friends KATIE COOK and MAGGIE YOUNG have sent us "audio postcards" from many less-than-LGBT-friendly countries, but GHANA is the only place where the traveling documentarians were warned as soon as they stepped off the plane how perilous their quest could be. They were still able to explore queer life there with LEONARD GLOVER, who leads the Ghanaian Chapter of the House of Rainbow, an LGBT Christian Fellowship. 
[www.nomaddocumentary.com]
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On the air since April 1988, "This Way Out" is the multi-award-winning internationally distributed weekly gay and lesbian radio news magazine. The program currently airs on more than 200 local community radio stations around the world, globally distributed at www.radio4all.net, www.indymedia.org, to Pacifica Radio station affiliates in North America, and in Australia via the Community Radio Network.  Listeners can also hear "This Way Out" through our podcasts at thiswayout.org; on iTunes and Stitcher; across Europe, Africa/the Middle East, and Asia/Pacific regions on the World Radio Networks (wrn.org); and on audio CD by individual subscription. For lots of other information about "This Way Out" please visit www.thiswayout.org, email TWOradio at aol.com, or write to PO Box 1065, Los Angeles, CA 90078, USA.
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