Qween Jean is First Trans Tony Winner | Gay USA 6/10/2026
Qween Jean is First Trans Tony Winner | Gay USA 6/10/2026
This Week on Gay USA:
Andy Humm is joined by guest co-host Chris Cooper
- Gallup poll shows drop in support for LGBTQ rights.
- Pete Hegseth’s Christian supremacist crusade intensifies.
- Judge OKs suit to stop Trump from ending gender-affirming care for minors.
- NY’s Mayor Mamdani reneges on pledge to provide gender-affirming care for young people.
- Ten years after the Pulse Massacre, memorial in Orlando get underway.
- The passing of two human rights pioneers.
- The corporate retreat from sponsoring Pride continues.
- AIDS activists zap Rubio and rally on 45th anniversary of first US report on AIDS.
- Qween Jean is the first out trans Tony winner.
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0:04
4 seconds
And we have to really escalate the noise we make so that we'll be heard.0:31
31 seconds
I'm Andy Hum.0:32
32 seconds
And I'm Chris Cooper in the role of Anne Northrup.0:35
35 seconds
Who will be back next week? You keep asking out there and and will be back next week. Uh in the news,0:43
43 seconds
in the news, in the news, the Gallup poll has shown a downtick in support for LGBTQ rights0:52
52 seconds
driven by Republicans. Meanwhile, Pete Hegsth continues his Christian supremacist crusade, this time ending1:00
1 minute
recognition for 180 other faiths in the armed forces.1:04
1 minute, 4 seconds
Yeah, they're down to 31, I think. Uh, the killer of uh, gay dancer O'Shea Sibi in Brooklyn was convicted, but of1:13
1 minute, 13 seconds
manslaughter,
not murder, but as a hate crime. An extremely delicate Christian wants
his employer to protect him from seeing a rainbow flag at his workplace.1:24
1 minute, 24 seconds
What
a story. A judge has allowed a suit from 15 states to stop Trump from
shutting down gender affirming care for minors so the suit can go
forward.1:33
1 minute, 33 seconds
All right, so last week Andy and I tussled over Mayor Mom Donnie in New York. Well, he has reneged on a pledge1:41
1 minute, 41 seconds
to protect uh transgender youth in the city. So, we'll talk about that. It's outrageous. Uh 10 years after the Pulse1:48
1 minute, 48 seconds
massacre, construction of a memorial is just about to get underway.1:53
1 minute, 53 seconds
Two human rights pioneers have passed on.1:56
1 minute, 56 seconds
Yes. We're going to show you Pride in Bangkok, a big one. And a little one in Durham, England with a nice story behind it.2:05
2 minutes, 5 seconds
Uh corporate spons sponsorship of Pride events continues to slide, but Pride events continue nonetheless. Yes, the2:13
2 minutes, 13 seconds
corporations are letting us down. AIDS activists zapped Marco Rubio in DC uh2:19
2 minutes, 19 seconds
and rally around the country on the 45th anniversary of the first US report of what became AIDS. You may remember that2:28
2 minutes, 28 seconds
we read about it in the New York Times uh on the Fourth of July weekend. And Queen Jean is the first out trans winner2:36
2 minutes, 36 seconds
of a Tony Award as is a classmate of mine. So very exciting. That's a That's big news.2:44
2 minutes, 44 seconds
All right. So, all right. Bad news first. That well, sort of. This Gallup poll stuff, uh, it shows that support2:51
2 minutes, 51 seconds
for legal same-sex marriage is down six points from 2023. Uh, 62% now view gay2:59
2 minutes, 59 seconds
relationships as moral, but that's the lowest it's been since 2016. and uh the perceived morality of changing of of you3:08
3 minutes, 8 seconds
know doing gender confirmation is down eight points since 2021. So what's going on?3:15
3 minutes, 15 seconds
Well, I think it's pretty obvious. You know, the slide has been almost entirely amongst Republicans surveyed and with3:22
3 minutes, 22 seconds
the lurch to the right of the Republican party, you're seeing in their membership, in their roles, you know,3:30
3 minutes, 30 seconds
they're being dragged to the right along with their uh with their shift in their administration.3:34
3 minutes, 34 seconds
But,
you know, we I mean, we still have come a long way. Yeah. I mean,
Gallup first asked about the morality of same-sex relationships in 2001
when 40%3:44
3 minutes, 44 seconds
said they were morally acceptable. that went up to 71% uh in 2022, but we're back down to 64%.3:52
3 minutes, 52 seconds
But you know what the most important thing I think is? Is that um the young people um except themselves, they are4:00
4 minutes
never going back to the place that you and I started in where we're like, "Oh gosh, this is awful. This is terrible.4:07
4 minutes, 7 seconds
We're a terrible people." I didn't feel that way once I started having sex.4:10
4 minutes, 10 seconds
Well, one would hope not. Um but you know the the the young people today they have come up with a very firmly entrenched I4:19
4 minutes, 19 seconds
think
most of them depending on what part of the country they're in but
they've come to come up with a firmly entrenched sense of who they are
and that's not going away and we're going to4:26
4 minutes, 26 seconds
talk about that. Um but I also want to point out that uh the the view of the acceptability of legalizing same-sex4:34
4 minutes, 34 seconds
marriage from 1996 to 2022 it went from 27% thought it was acceptable. In 19964:42
4 minutes, 42 seconds
when they passed the Defense of Marriage Act by a 5 to1 margin in the Congress4:49
4 minutes, 49 seconds
by 2022 71% felt it was should be legalized. Now it's had a sharp drop to 64% in 2023.4:59
4 minutes, 59 seconds
Hat tip to the many many many activists who worked uh to make that happen but especially I will name names Evan5:08
5 minutes, 8 seconds
Wolfson of Freedom to Marry who many consider the architect of samesex marriage and the marriage marriage equality New5:15
5 minutes, 15 seconds
York
marriage equality USA all those grassroots groups and and I give credit
to the people who stepped forward and said we want to get married5:24
5 minutes, 24 seconds
sure
you know they are the ones who drove this Edy Windsor and and the
people who said we want to get married despite the fact that many5:31
5 minutes, 31 seconds
of
the organizations weren't there. They didn't think this was something
we should fight for and and and I think many many activists thought you
know5:39
5 minutes, 39 seconds
very
left-wing activists saw it marriage we don't want to ape heterosexual
institutions. I think the point ultimately that that a lot of us reached5:46
5 minutes, 46 seconds
was
it's not a matter of aping heteros heterosexual um institutions. It's a
matter of having options the same options as anybody else has. And that5:54
5 minutes, 54 seconds
and through marriage we were able to secure so many other rights or or make them inevitable.6:02
6 minutes, 2 seconds
One
of the top leaders of the movement and I'm not going to say his name
because I like him. Uh but uh he sat down with Evan Wolson. He said,
"Evan,6:10
6 minutes, 10 seconds
people
do not accept this and they are never going to accept this. This is
back in the 90s and so don't put the don't make this the front of the
movement. We6:19
6 minutes, 19 seconds
don't
want to do it. I mean, even in the Human Rights Campaign, when people
voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, they didn't even mark them down
for it because, you know,6:27
6 minutes, 27 seconds
they didn't want to mess up their ratings.6:29
6 minutes, 29 seconds
So,
anyway, you mentioned that it's the young people. Uh, now 9, this is
again, we're still with the Gallup poll. 9% of US adults identify as
LGBTQ.6:41
6 minutes, 41 seconds
more
than double recorded when they started this in 2012 and it's being
driven by younger people. One in four adults under 30 identify as LGBTQ.6:52
6 minutes, 52 seconds
25%.6:54
6 minutes, 54 seconds
So Andy, are you saying that our recruitment techniques have been successful?6:59
6 minutes, 59 seconds
That's what the lesbian Avengers used to say. 10% is not enough recruit. But here's the thing are our are all or you7:06
7 minutes, 6 seconds
know
because people then say things like because you know I I met a guy from
uh Nigeria once he said and we were talking about gay stuff he said
it's very7:13
7 minutes, 13 seconds
interesting to me we don't have that in Nigeria meaning that they're just not aware of who's gay and and so now you7:21
7 minutes, 21 seconds
know when people can come out by the way bisexual people make up the largest segment of our community while women are7:28
7 minutes, 28 seconds
nearly twice as likely as men to identify as LGBTQ. cube. Interesting.7:34
7 minutes, 34 seconds
That is interesting. According to the Gallup poll. All right, let's move on. Pete Hegth.7:39
7 minutes, 39 seconds
Oh, well, Pete has decided that you and I, if we were to join the military, our religions would not rate being rated.7:49
7 minutes, 49 seconds
Um, what I mean by that is you're an atheist. I'm a pagan. And Pete Hexith has decided, well, we're going to reduce7:56
7 minutes, 56 seconds
the
number of uh of religions that we acknowledge, that we recognize. Now
reduce it from 211 so to accommodate people in the military to 31.8:08
8 minutes, 8 seconds
Now what they are claiming and this is merely for cate categorization purposes that you know we are not saying we're8:16
8 minutes, 16 seconds
not
recognizing things. We're just saying too many categories we're going
to narrow down the character categories and lump people in various
places. Now,8:24
8 minutes, 24 seconds
some
of the unintended consequences or perhaps intended consequences of this
were, for example, Mormons were not categorized as Christians.8:33
8 minutes, 33 seconds
They were still in it, but they were not listed as Christians.8:36
8 minutes, 36 seconds
So, and Mike Lee and the other senator from Utah went nuts.8:40
8 minutes, 40 seconds
Gaskets were blown. And so what they ended up doing to solve that issue was they just removed the Christian label from everybody8:47
8 minutes, 47 seconds
because we because Pete Haggsath does not want to as a as an extremist does not want to acknowledge that Mormons are8:54
8 minutes, 54 seconds
Christian. It also led to other absurdity absurdities like the fact that um unitarian universalists9:02
9 minutes, 2 seconds
um who are signers of the Declaration of the of Independence and deists are no longer acknowledged.9:09
9 minutes, 9 seconds
Right. So it's it's kind of crazy and they dumped humanists and new age churches and v various wiccans.9:19
9 minutes, 19 seconds
So yeah it's it's they are claiming it's for simply for category why can't I say that word categorization9:27
9 minutes, 27 seconds
but really it's the leading edge of just sort of marginalizing anybody who isn't you know conventional Christian.9:33
9 minutes, 33 seconds
It is uh well they've marginalized a lot of lawyers in the Trump administration.9:39
9 minutes, 39 seconds
They have shed more than 10,000 10,000 lawyers since they took back power. Now,9:47
9 minutes, 47 seconds
I'm
sure they're sitting there saying, "We're glad you all gone. You're not
on board with our program." But they're losing in court all the time as
a result of this.9:56
9 minutes, 56 seconds
Look,
we can turn this to our advantage, not only because they're losing in
court, but because our organizations can scoop up these disgruntled guys
who want10:04
10 minutes, 4 seconds
to see this administration gone. and state attorneys general offices uh can scoop them up as well. And they are. Yep.10:12
10 minutes, 12 seconds
All right. Uh let's talk about we we've told you that James Tarico won the uh Democratic primary for US Senate and10:20
10 minutes, 20 seconds
he's now in Texas.10:22
10 minutes, 22 seconds
He's now facing Ken Paxton, the vicious anti-LGBTQ uh attorney general of Texas.10:29
10 minutes, 29 seconds
And
scandal plagued. In fact, he's such a damaged candidate that, as we
mentioned last week, um there has been a tremendous amount of right-wing
push10:38
10 minutes, 38 seconds
back trying to paint uh Terico as somehow other or feminize him. Well, and trans. Well, now they've taken the10:47
10 minutes, 47 seconds
the big leap on that and they a right-wing group has actually created an AI ad. Should we show it to them?10:55
10 minutes, 55 seconds
Let's let's We cannot show it to them. We don't have the video. Sorry. Okay.10:58
10 minutes, 58 seconds
All
right. Well, they sort of show him as Julie Andrews in The Sound of
Music, singing my favorite things. His favorite things are trans stuff
and all this kind11:07
11 minutes, 7 seconds
of stuff. It's it's it's despicable.11:09
11 minutes, 9 seconds
It it it's gay baiting, you know. They they they just want to put this on him.11:14
11 minutes, 14 seconds
Of course, Paxton is a monster and but of course, you know, we have a monstrous president. You said scandal plague Ken11:21
11 minutes, 21 seconds
Paxton. You know, they keep referring to Graeme Platner who won the US Senate nomination Democratic in Maine. Uh,11:28
11 minutes, 28 seconds
every time they mention his name in CNN, it's like scandal plague Graham uh, Platner. Why don't you put that in front11:36
11 minutes, 36 seconds
of Donald Trump every time you mention his name? Who could be more scandalaged than Donald Trump?11:43
11 minutes, 43 seconds
Is Barry Weiss in charge of CNN already? She will. She will. She will.11:48
11 minutes, 48 seconds
All right. Uh, California election results, you know, the votes. Uh we we uh I'm11:56
11 minutes, 56 seconds
in addition to Robert Garcia and Mark Takano winning their primaries non not well not winning they go into12:03
12 minutes, 3 seconds
the November election non-incumbent Steve Weiner led in San Francisco and will face another Democrat to replace12:12
12 minutes, 12 seconds
Nancy Pelosi and in San Diego Marty von Wilpert led all Democrats and she now has to run off with a not run off but in12:21
12 minutes, 21 seconds
the she'll in the November election with a Republican. That race is a bit closer.12:26
12 minutes, 26 seconds
But
uh well, I think the hope with Marie Von Walpert is that um the
Democratic vote was so divided and that now it'll come together
hopefully behind her.12:36
12 minutes, 36 seconds
It is time for us all to unite.12:39
12 minutes, 39 seconds
Um All right. Meanwhile, while we're in California, in Los Angeles County, there is an employee um of the Los Angeles12:49
12 minutes, 49 seconds
Department
of Public Works who's very, very distressed that he has to go to work
and see the pride flag for the month of June as he does. So,12:58
12 minutes, 58 seconds
yeah, there's a they have a county rule or something that they're going to fly pride flags during June.13:03
13 minutes, 3 seconds
So, Eric Batman, I'm sure it's pro it's probably Eric Batman, but that's okay.13:07
13 minutes, 7 seconds
We're going to say Eric Batman has a a senior civil engineer has requested permission to work from home for the13:15
13 minutes, 15 seconds
entire month of June. And when that was denied, he's suing saying that it is against his religious belief.13:21
13 minutes, 21 seconds
He said the flag has I don't know where he got this six colored stripes which stand for various expressions of13:29
13 minutes, 29 seconds
sexuality
that are sinful according to my religion. Now the symbol I know I'm
gonna say the symbol of your religion is a man being executed tortured
to death.13:40
13 minutes, 40 seconds
I mean uh that's not so nice but whatever it's rid this whole thing is and also the colors of the flag are not all about sex.13:48
13 minutes, 48 seconds
Do
you think it will make a difference to him if we pointed out that
Gilbert Baker actually had values like hope and love as the values for
the stripes of the flag?13:56
13 minutes, 56 seconds
They they say he's under tremendous stress. They offered him a chance to like go in the back door. Oh no. that14:03
14 minutes, 3 seconds
would be separate but equal. I'm not doing that.14:06
14 minutes, 6 seconds
Well, and the other thing is they accommodated him I think in 2023 um because of CO was it? Um but they14:16
14 minutes, 16 seconds
accommodated
him uh previous Oh no, it was because the building was being renovated
so it was closed anyway. So they accommodated him his desire to work14:24
14 minutes, 24 seconds
from home. Um but now they're saying nope, you got to you got to uh conform.14:29
14 minutes, 29 seconds
He's
being represented by the same law firm that represented Kim Davis. So,
enough said. All right. A federal court has blocked the uh Federal
Bureau of14:38
14 minutes, 38 seconds
Prisons from transferring 14 transgender women from women's prisons to men prisons, saying it puts them in danger.14:45
14 minutes, 45 seconds
And the court uh in California has also stopped um uh the Trump administration's grand jury subpoena for uh California14:53
14 minutes, 53 seconds
families private medical records in their fishing expedition for finding trans kids.14:59
14 minutes, 59 seconds
This is a big deal. But Mount Si here in New York is turning over the records to the federal government. Now again, they15:06
15 minutes, 6 seconds
say it's going to be anonymous eyesed. I don't know if there's a word like that.15:11
15 minutes, 11 seconds
Uh but people are obviously very concerned about this and we're trying to stop it. And it's not just Mount Si.15:18
15 minutes, 18 seconds
Apparently, we don't know what um uh NYU Langon, another medical provider in the city, is going to do about that. Um but15:26
15 minutes, 26 seconds
they
are facing the same issue. Well, there's a lot of crap in New York and
some of it is coming from the mayor who campaigned at trans rallies, you
know,15:35
15 minutes, 35 seconds
for
trans youth and said, "When I come in, there's no way we're going to
stop providing this these services to these young people." And they're
not providing the services to you.15:45
15 minutes, 45 seconds
Well, no, it's more pointed than that because, and this is where you're damned either way, they announced that they're15:52
15 minutes, 52 seconds
starting a clinic to provide services for trans New Yorkers. Yes. Um and then it was revealed that this clinic would16:01
16 minutes, 1 second
not be providing those services to those 19 years old or under. It's an outrage.16:05
16 minutes, 5 seconds
That specific age limit is exactly the limit that Trump has specified in his his executive orders which carry no16:13
16 minutes, 13 seconds
force
of law, but all these hospitals have been falling in line for fear of
the loss of federal funding. So now we've got a mayor who is who said
he's16:21
16 minutes, 21 seconds
going to fight back against that um uh deprivation of services to trans youth.16:27
16 minutes, 27 seconds
And yet when we set up a clinic to serve trans people, it won't serve trans youth.16:32
16 minutes, 32 seconds
And
you know and and Tish James, our attorney general, should be all over
this too. I haven't heard from her lately on this, but you know, there
was16:39
16 minutes, 39 seconds
a case this week where uh in mass in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania versus Trump, but uh the uh US District judge16:48
16 minutes, 48 seconds
uh ruled that these 15 states can seek relief against the Trump administration's attempt to shut down16:56
16 minutes, 56 seconds
all provision of health care, gender affirming care for minors.17:01
17 minutes, 1 second
So, I mean, the judge is letting the case go forward. the Department of Justice uh wanted it dismissed.17:10
17 minutes, 10 seconds
Meanwhile, in Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic, which is renowned medical provider um especially for cancer care,17:18
17 minutes, 18 seconds
but the Cleveland Clinic um has established a second dtransition center.17:24
17 minutes, 24 seconds
Um and this is a capitulation to the Trump regime's politicized attacks, part of a settlement agreement that the17:31
17 minutes, 31 seconds
Cleveland Clinic has made under pressure. Um, but it's an abandonment really of of of trans people and it's it17:39
17 minutes, 39 seconds
it's
very difficult to watch this happen because they're really taking the
brunt of of everything that's terrible that's going on. I mean, and
again, I don't17:46
17 minutes, 46 seconds
want to exaggerate and it's hard to make comparisons, but even our friend Larry Mass, who uh uh who the guy who weren't17:53
17 minutes, 53 seconds
the first story about AIDS in the world, uh in the press, uh I was talking to him, he keeps posting the way they are18:00
18 minutes
treating trans people and trans youth especially uh is like the way, you know,18:08
18 minutes, 8 seconds
Jews
were treated in the beginning of the Third Reich. When you just
stigmatize a group, you know, you run for political power by just making
them18:16
18 minutes, 16 seconds
the the boogie people. And then what does it turn into? Well, it turns into violence. It turns into people taking18:23
18 minutes, 23 seconds
make violent acts against people who they have been taught are bad, who they've been taught are, you know,18:29
18 minutes, 29 seconds
disturbing society. So it it's got to be stopped. People need and of course Democrats for the most part are standing18:37
18 minutes, 37 seconds
up for them. I mean, I you know, I can always remember Graeme Platner who who was running in Maine. They they confront18:44
18 minutes, 44 seconds
him about trans issues and he goes trans girls in sports and he goes, "There are two of them in Maine." He said, "And18:52
18 minutes, 52 seconds
there
are 40,000 people being thrown off healthcare. Now, what would you like
to talk about?" Yeah, I'll stand up for these kids, but are18:59
18 minutes, 59 seconds
you going to stand up for the 40,000 who are being thrown off their health care?19:04
19 minutes, 4 seconds
Well, and speaking of Democrats standing up and Democrats who didn't in Boston at their pride parade, um a Democrat uh19:14
19 minutes, 14 seconds
named Seth Molton, he's a representative out there in the US Congress and he got booed as he marched in the Pride Parade19:21
19 minutes, 21 seconds
because he takes the position that the 2024 presidential election was lost because Democrats wouldn't say bad19:29
19 minutes, 29 seconds
things about trans kids in sports. As if that's really what cost the election, right? Uh we should say that going back19:37
19 minutes, 37 seconds
to New York that there are families here suing the Trump administration uh for uh suing the attorney general and19:45
19 minutes, 45 seconds
the
department of justice over their efforts to seize these private
healthcare records. They're suing. So all of our legal groups are in
court19:53
19 minutes, 53 seconds
over this. But we need the public officials like mom Donnie, like Tish James, like all the others get on board20:00
20 minutes
with this and help. Well, we have really buried, as far as I'm concerned, the lead on this issue um and trans issues20:08
20 minutes, 8 seconds
in general because there's a new federal rule that would require funding recipients of any federal money whether20:17
20 minutes, 17 seconds
and that's whether it's a university or a hospital to deny the trans people even exist. It is a sweeping rule that takes20:26
20 minutes, 26 seconds
the anti-trans executive orders that Trump has been promoting that don't have the force of law but by codifying them20:34
20 minutes, 34 seconds
into the grant making process give them the force of law and would be very hard to undo by the next administration and20:41
20 minutes, 41 seconds
it is scary how total it is. Uh the prohibition is vast.20:48
20 minutes, 48 seconds
The rule bars federal awards from being used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize or facilitate gender ideology.20:57
20 minutes, 57 seconds
Um there is no prohibition uh to age limit on it. Um so and it covers uh21:04
21 minutes, 4 seconds
universities, organizations, anybody that gets federal funds.21:08
21 minutes, 8 seconds
The
big thing that and we we got wind of this or the times got wind of it
and we did talk about an early draft of this. Now they're putting it out
as a rule.21:16
21 minutes, 16 seconds
All
right. And there's there's a public comment period. But the big thing
that they're doing is they're taking the the jurisdiction over how the
federal grants21:25
21 minutes, 25 seconds
are made and turning it over to the political people because the main thing is do the grants align with the Trump21:33
21 minutes, 33 seconds
administration's values and agenda which means uh no LGBT group will be funded.21:40
21 minutes, 40 seconds
But there's another aspect to this which is that that review that these political appointees will be doing is of the21:48
21 minutes, 48 seconds
organization not just of how the grant money will be spent. So if the organization even does so much as have21:54
21 minutes, 54 seconds
you know genderneutral bathrooms you know that organization could lose funding for everything else it does.22:01
22 minutes, 1 second
It sounds like fascism and I use the term advisedly doesn't it though?22:05
22 minutes, 5 seconds
I
use the term advisy and we all ought to be more up in arms. Yeah, this
is not final yet, but it's hard to see what we can do to stop it.22:15
22 minutes, 15 seconds
The other thing, of course, in the in the in the march to fascism, well, well, the Congress the Congress can do something.22:21
22 minutes, 21 seconds
Well, and court challenges might slow it down long enough hopefully to flip things in 2026. And we have to flip things in 2026.22:29
22 minutes, 29 seconds
But the other thing in the in the whole authoritarian rule thing that Trump is pushing is of course murdering legacy22:36
22 minutes, 36 seconds
media. You saw that interview with Kristen Walker. Chris No, sorry.22:41
22 minutes, 41 seconds
Welker, Chris Kristen Welker on Meet the Press where he exploded, but he went after every legacy media, ABC you're22:50
22 minutes, 50 seconds
crap, and CBS, even CBS, which he now owns. So, uh, we we heard a lot about the murder of CBS News this week, Scott22:58
22 minutes, 58 seconds
P getting fired, standing up to them. Uh uh and one of the things he revealed in terms of interference from Barry Weiss23:07
23 minutes, 7 seconds
was you see her there, that's Barry on the left and Scott P on the right. But uh she said, you know, in your story23:16
23 minutes, 16 seconds
about the the murder of of Renee Good, we want to show the car driving toward the officer. We want at the time of the23:24
23 minutes, 24 seconds
shooting
and we want to show more violence from the demonstrators that triggered
this. She wanted to and he didn't do that and he's been fired.23:34
23 minutes, 34 seconds
That
was Renee Good in the middle uh of that photo. And uh do we need to
mention that Barry Barry Weiss is a lesbian? And are we ashamed of that?23:43
23 minutes, 43 seconds
Yes. Uh and we're going to take your card back if you keep this up.23:47
23 minutes, 47 seconds
Yeah. It's it's kind of appalling. And the other because you know I mean yes, of course there are right-wing uh lesbians, LGBTQ23:56
23 minutes, 56 seconds
people, but she's not right-wing according to her. Please.23:59
23 minutes, 59 seconds
Um, the other scary thing is that with the mergers going on, there is a very real potential that Barry Weiss will24:06
24 minutes, 6 seconds
soon not only after destroying CBS News in 60 minutes will be in charge going forward of CNN.24:13
24 minutes, 13 seconds
Yes, it's a it's it's that and that is the whole point. I mean, this is what Orban did in Hungary. Uh, he took over24:20
24 minutes, 20 seconds
the media. You could not they wouldn't even cover the opposition. They couldn't even get on TV. It's amazing that that24:28
24 minutes, 28 seconds
it
shows you it doesn't work because uh Majar got elected prime minister
and he got a twothirds majority in the parliament by campaigning against
this kind of repression.24:39
24 minutes, 39 seconds
All right. Uh now Governor Polus of Colorado in good news took a well first he took a hit for letting that election denier out.24:50
24 minutes, 50 seconds
I still haven't forgiven him for that.24:51
24 minutes, 51 seconds
Okay. And nor nor has the Democratic party in Colorado. But he did sign a bill that you can bring a civil action24:59
24 minutes, 59 seconds
if
uh conversion therapy is practiced on you and it harms you. And this is
the way they're getting around this stuff with the Supreme Court
saying, "Well,25:08
25 minutes, 8 seconds
the therapist has a right to say things." And D, but if it harms you, you can still sue. and and it's actually25:16
25 minutes, 16 seconds
borrow borrowing a technique from the right-wing that they used against uh uh abortion providers um where they would25:24
25 minutes, 24 seconds
make it possible to sue abortion providers um and and it basically shut down abortion in Texas almost overnight.25:30
25 minutes, 30 seconds
So
now they're using the same technique in Colorado against conversion
therapy people. So, you know, good for Well, you know, they learned from
us in25:38
25 minutes, 38 seconds
the civil rights movement. We're learning from them. Really? Can't we all get along?25:42
25 minutes, 42 seconds
Yeah. No. Um, but good for Jared uh Jared Polus on this and he is one of us, is he not?25:49
25 minutes, 49 seconds
Oh,
yes. He's an outgay. Used to be I mean in his day he was a viewer when
he was in Congress. I guess he was a viewer of the show. I mean he kept
up on stuff.25:57
25 minutes, 57 seconds
All right. It is the 10th anniversary hard to believe of the Pulse massacre.26:03
26 minutes, 3 seconds
57 people killed at the Pulse nightclub and they are finally after much stress,26:09
26 minutes, 9 seconds
the city is getting around to uh doing a memorial and here's the plans for it.26:15
26 minutes, 15 seconds
This
week, Central Florida is marking 10 years since the attack at the Pulse
nightclub that killed 49 people. This morning, we got a look at the
progress26:23
26 minutes, 23 seconds
being
made toward building a permanent memorial to the victims. West Shu's
Bob Hayen is live at Orlando City Hall. Bob, the people designing it say
they're on track.26:34
26 minutes, 34 seconds
Yeah,
and they say they have just about all of the big picture stuff wrapped
up, figured out now. They're just fine-tuning those plans to get them
ready for construction.26:44
26 minutes, 44 seconds
We're on track to meet the deadline and get the memorial started for construction um in September.26:53
26 minutes, 53 seconds
Well,
that was the word at Orlando City Council this morning and the design
team there showed the plans for the permanent memorial on the site of
the former27:00
27 minutes
nightclub.
It includes a reflecting pool where the dance floor used to be, an
angel ellipse, a series of metal columns with a tribute to each of the
4927:08
27 minutes, 8 seconds
victims.
There's also a visitors pavilion featuring a set of rainbow arms
wrapping around the building. The inside mostly black and white there
with a27:16
27 minutes, 16 seconds
timeline of the attack and the pictures of all the people killed that night.27:19
27 minutes, 19 seconds
We're
also told there will be artifacts from the club there, including a
chandelier, which the designers say actually originally came from the
Mulan27:27
27 minutes, 27 seconds
Rouge
Club in Paris. But they also said there are major details that people
will never see, including concrete from the demolished Pulse building
itself. It's27:35
27 minutes, 35 seconds
been crushed up. It'll be mixed in with the concrete for the memorial.27:40
27 minutes, 40 seconds
There
were many of the the the family members um that did not actually want
the the building demolished because their child had died there and they
felt27:49
27 minutes, 49 seconds
like
their soul was there. So, in this way, we're able to preserve that and
keep the buildings in a in a in a holistic manner on the site, uh, but
not in a physical vertical representation.28:02
28 minutes, 2 seconds
And
they also say the section of wall that the SWAT team busted through to
get into the club on the night of the attack will be put under an
obelisk monument near the reflecting pool. There will28:11
28 minutes, 11 seconds
also
be capsules holding personal belongings of some of the victims. Now,
the planners say that the actual final cost of the building is still up
in the28:20
28 minutes, 20 seconds
air.
They're working on that, but they believe it should be close to that
$12 million figure that we've seen in the past. Again, construction is
supposed to28:28
28 minutes, 28 seconds
start
in September. They're on track for that and they believe that the
construction process will take about a year to finish. Covering Orange
County live in Orlando, Bob Hayen, West 2 News.28:37
28 minutes, 37 seconds
So, $12 million. How about opening up a clinic for trans youth? Of course, you probably couldn't do that in Florida.28:44
28 minutes, 44 seconds
Florida. I do like in the design that there's a lot of rainbows because don't forget Governor DeSantis uh has banned28:51
28 minutes, 51 seconds
rainbows
in the streets and they including outside of Pulse, right? Right
outside the pulse which was part of the memorial and so they're28:59
28 minutes, 59 seconds
putting it on all the buildings. So all you've done is make the rainbow more prominent.29:05
29 minutes, 5 seconds
All right. So last week we reminded you of the story of the judge in upstate New York who her name is uh Felicia Felicia29:14
29 minutes, 14 seconds
Pittz Davis and how she had refused to officiate at the same-sex wedding of two women um after immediately after having29:23
29 minutes, 23 seconds
officiated
at the wedding of a heterosexual couple. Now, the thing in New York
State, and this is a long-held compromise, is that29:32
29 minutes, 32 seconds
you
don't have to do weddings, but if you decide that you're not going to
do same-sex weddings, you can't do any weddings at all. So, either
you're in29:40
29 minutes, 40 seconds
for all or you're in for none. And that is clearly what she didn't do. Well, the update on this story is that um the29:47
29 minutes, 47 seconds
grand jury proceedings uh regarding this case have just been unsealed. um against her wishes.29:53
29 minutes, 53 seconds
Against her wishes, she tried to have it had it closed. Um but what it reveals is that the grand jury said uh and this is30:01
30 minutes, 1 second
a quote, "Judge Pittz Davis laid bare her bigotry towards homosexual people and her willingness to put her personal30:08
30 minutes, 8 seconds
feelings
above her oath as an official charged with discharging the law." And
they recommended that she be fired. And you know, the whole thing made
the30:16
30 minutes, 16 seconds
district
attorney like, "I'm going to bring cases before you and this is the way
you feel about gay people and how are they going to get a fair deal?"
So30:24
30 minutes, 24 seconds
again,
the commission on judicial conduct or whatever, let her off with
censure. And they did say there were extenduating circumstances. Her
brother30:32
30 minutes, 32 seconds
died. She had done a same-sex wedding in the past. Um, but so now she says, "All right, don't send weddings to me." But30:41
30 minutes, 41 seconds
she does say if nobody else can do a same-sex wedding, I'll do it. So that's progress, I guess.30:47
30 minutes, 47 seconds
Yeah.
I mean, it's it's nice that the principles of New York State that you
you either do them all or you do none are still being upheld. So, you
know, we'll take that win.30:57
30 minutes, 57 seconds
All right. Uh so, we told you that the trial was underway for the killer of O'Shea Sibi in Brooklyn. Uh O'Shea, he's31:06
31 minutes, 6 seconds
on
the poster there. They were at a gas station coming back from the
beach. They were dancing around and these kids uh started taunting them
and Dimmitri31:15
31 minutes, 15 seconds
Popoff put a knife in him. It's a long story. And he was claiming self-defense and all this other kind of stuff. But31:22
31 minutes, 22 seconds
the the jury convicted him of manslaughter as a hate crime, not of murder. And so he was 17 years old at31:31
31 minutes, 31 seconds
the time. He's he's 20 now. It was it was he was a beloved figure. Ohea was.31:37
31 minutes, 37 seconds
And uh uh he did face a life sentence if he'd been convicted of murder.31:44
31 minutes, 44 seconds
Uh murder as a hate crime. Correct. So that's off the table.31:47
31 minutes, 47 seconds
Um meanwhile, continuing with the crime news, um in Philadelphia, there's a mixed verdict on the 2022 murder of a31:55
31 minutes, 55 seconds
man in their neighborhood. Um, the death of Eric Pope happened outside a club32:02
32 minutes, 2 seconds
called Taboo, now known as 254, when Kenneth Fry, who was the bouncer, uh, took allegedly intoxicated Pope and, uh,32:12
32 minutes, 12 seconds
punched
him, causing him to fall backwards and strike his head, and Pope later
died from that. So, um, now Kenneth Fry has been found guilty of32:21
32 minutes, 21 seconds
manslaughter, um, not of murder, um, and will be sentenced later.32:27
32 minutes, 27 seconds
Well,
I saw a whole play called Punch on Broadway, which is terrific, about a
about a kid who's at a bar and he one punch and the guy falls, hits his
head,32:35
32 minutes, 35 seconds
and dies and him having to deal with this for the rest of his life and with the family of the person that he killed.32:42
32 minutes, 42 seconds
And you know it it it's the warning about you know throwing punches can end up in death. You know I'm you know I32:50
32 minutes, 50 seconds
walk
along the street sometimes and want to jostle people or something but I
say don't do it if anything bad could happen to them.32:57
32 minutes, 57 seconds
All right. And heterosexual actor Sheila Buff pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery related to a February33:06
33 minutes, 6 seconds
incident. He assaulted two men and called them during an altercation at Mardigra. And he in, you33:13
33 minutes, 13 seconds
know, he said he feared them. Big gay people are scary to me. If that's homophobic, then I'm that. I don't know33:21
33 minutes, 21 seconds
how he gets any work in the movie business.33:23
33 minutes, 23 seconds
Well,
he hasn't been getting much. He And he also said, "I'm good with gay,
but be gay over there, though. Don't be gay in my lap." Whatever, dude.33:33
33 minutes, 33 seconds
He got two years probation and a six-month sentence. A couple of quick notes. Um, there was a right-wing uh um33:40
33 minutes, 40 seconds
pitcher
for the Dodgers, relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball
team named I'm not sure about the pronunciation. It's either Blake
Trinan33:49
33 minutes, 49 seconds
or Trinan. I don't follow baseball so I don't know. Sorry. But he's an outspoken Christian conservative and he refused on33:56
33 minutes, 56 seconds
the team's Pride night to wear the rainbow colored pride hat. He had in the past worn a hat with Charlie Kirk's name34:03
34 minutes, 3 seconds
stitched on it afterwards. It says assassination gay surrounded by two crosses.34:09
34 minutes, 9 seconds
We're not supposed to laugh about Charlie Kirk. We're not happy that he was killed.34:12
34 minutes, 12 seconds
No, no, no, no, no. That's not the point at all. Simply the absurdity of of Mr.34:17
34 minutes, 17 seconds
Trinan's um actions. But you know what, Blake Trinan, you do you and the rest of us will continue to do us. Okay.34:26
34 minutes, 26 seconds
Also,
in uh Pennsylvania, they're making a big push for gay tourism. It's
nice that where states have been retreating on on gay issues and
declaring things34:34
34 minutes, 34 seconds
like
nuclear family month in Pennsylvania, they're actually uh having a
sorry not sorry campaign in favor of LGBTQ uh uh tourism.34:45
34 minutes, 45 seconds
Well, that of course is I assume out of the governor's office.34:48
34 minutes, 48 seconds
Yes.
Josh because because the legislature where the Senate is still
controlled by the Republicans, the Democrats have the House narrowly.
they34:57
34 minutes, 57 seconds
will not pass a statewide LGBTQ rights bill.35:00
35 minutes
Correct.
And that's been a a sore point in Pennsylvania for a long time. And
finally, last point, uh the Turning Point chapter in Tennessee actually35:09
35 minutes, 9 seconds
wrote their nuclear family month proclamation, got somebody to introduce it in the Tennessee legislature, and35:16
35 minutes, 16 seconds
that's how they got the declaration of nuclear family month. Tennessee, we feel for you down there.35:22
35 minutes, 22 seconds
We know there are a lot of good people down there. Uh but uh it is the hate state these days.35:27
35 minutes, 27 seconds
But
it's a it's good to know that turning point chapters are kind of all
about that when we hear about you know GOP uh governors who want to see a
turning point chapter in every school.35:39
35 minutes, 39 seconds
This is what it leads to.35:40
35 minutes, 40 seconds
They're
also required if they if kids want to do it to have a LGBTQ group in
the school anywhere in the country. They can't stop that. That's federal
law.35:50
35 minutes, 50 seconds
Sure. But they want to promote Turning Point chapters in the schools. So, all right. Some of the people we lost,35:57
35 minutes, 57 seconds
well, you know, one of the big things in the movement when I was young in 77, it was fairly new to the movement uh was,36:06
36 minutes, 6 seconds
you know, we were going along and then Miami Dade County uh had a gay rights ordinance and they overturned it by a36:15
36 minutes, 15 seconds
2:1
margin in a referendum and that was a shock to us and it got us moving
again. But the woman who introduced that has just died, Ruth Shack. She36:23
36 minutes, 23 seconds
introduced the bill. She just died at 94. Uh, and of course that referendum was led by uh Anita Bryant, but she got36:31
36 minutes, 31 seconds
she got death threats over this and and all kinds of things. But she got reelected at the next election. And you36:38
36 minutes, 38 seconds
know, she her her husband was Anita Bryant was one of his clients.36:45
36 minutes, 45 seconds
So
they were knew her socially and they tried she tried to talk about it
to Anita and Anita just started quoting the Bible and they were kind of
done but the36:54
36 minutes, 54 seconds
gay rights ordinance was restored in 1998 though politics has gone to hell in most of Florida these days37:01
37 minutes, 1 second
won't set foot in the state. Um meanwhile not gay but uh important in civil rights Clarence B. Jones he helped37:08
37 minutes, 8 seconds
shape the I have a dream speech that Martin Luther King famously gave. Um he died at 95. He was a confidant and37:16
37 minutes, 16 seconds
lawyer for MLK. Um he was uh an unseen force behind a lot of the civil rights37:22
37 minutes, 22 seconds
events. Um he smuggled um yeah he smuggled out um the uh notes from Martin37:30
37 minutes, 30 seconds
Luther King Jr. uh for that became the letter from the Birmingham jail scraps of paper and margins of newspapers and eventually37:39
37 minutes, 39 seconds
on notepads and eventually that became the notes from the Birmingham letter from the Birmingham jail. So um he had a37:46
37 minutes, 46 seconds
long
history of uh as a lawyer as a California entertainment lawyer first
black partner in on Wall Street brokerage firm on the New York Stock37:54
37 minutes, 54 seconds
Exchange and the principal owner and publisher of the New York Amsterdam News. a long history.38:00
38 minutes
But the other key case he was involved in, and I didn't know this, uh, black ministers38:06
38 minutes, 6 seconds
attacked, uh, Alabama officials for racism at a full page ad in the New York Times. They didn't even name them, but38:14
38 minutes, 14 seconds
some of the some of the leaders down there sued for liel. And this became the landmark time New York Times versus38:22
38 minutes, 22 seconds
Sullivan case uh which said if it's public officials, you know, and you're not just being reckless in what you're38:30
38 minutes, 30 seconds
saying and stuff like that, it is not liable. And and that has been a key decision which I know Trump would like38:37
38 minutes, 37 seconds
to
get rid of uh because he feels attacked all the time. By the way, when
he was inducted in the army in the 50s, he refused the loyalty oath and
was38:46
38 minutes, 46 seconds
given
an undesirable discharge and he sued over that and he won and he was
given the Medal of Freedom by Biden a couple years ago.38:56
38 minutes, 56 seconds
Excellent. Um, continuing on the civil rights uh path, um, Bard Rustin is now39:03
39 minutes, 3 seconds
getting a institute named for him at the National Civil Rights Museum. Now, By Rustin, for those of you who don't know,39:10
39 minutes, 10 seconds
he's the one on the left there. That's that's a friend of his.39:14
39 minutes, 14 seconds
Yeah. Some some some guy on the right, Martin Luther King Jr.39:17
39 minutes, 17 seconds
Martin Luther King, Jr. And Bard Rustin was actually the behindthe-scenes animating force behind the 1963 March on39:25
39 minutes, 25 seconds
Washington. But because he was gay, he was marginalized in the movement. Um,39:32
39 minutes, 32 seconds
story told um several times. Uh um Coleman Domingo starred uh in a movie, a39:40
39 minutes, 40 seconds
fictionalized uh uh movie of his story and produced by Barack Obama, Michelle, I guess.39:46
39 minutes, 46 seconds
And a classmate of mine from Harvard, class of 84. Um uh um Oh my goodness.39:52
39 minutes, 52 seconds
Nancy
Kates. Thanks. Thank you. Hi, Nancy. Uh Nancy Kates produced or
directed Brother Outsider, a documentary all about Bard Rustin.40:01
40 minutes, 1 second
And Bard's uh partner, surviving partner, Walter Nagel, is still alive.40:05
40 minutes, 5 seconds
is the one I learned this from on Facebook. And yep, there there you go.40:11
40 minutes, 11 seconds
And
I knew BD at the end of his life as well when he really wanted to
finally get publicly involved in the gay movement. And he did play a key
role in the mid 80s before he died in 1987.40:22
40 minutes, 22 seconds
I did not know that.40:22
40 minutes, 22 seconds
Some other people who died were Ken Nugai, a veteran Queens gay activist. He died at 92 in Elmhurst. Danny Drum, the40:31
40 minutes, 31 seconds
former
openly, well, he's still gay, but the city council member, he said he
didn't give a damn when anyone thought of his sexual orientation and
lived openly, but he, you know, he was a40:40
40 minutes, 40 seconds
veteran
of the US Army. He volunteered for the Queen's LGBTQ rights
organizations, the Democrats, the Sage, the Pride Committee, everything.
He was40:48
40 minutes, 48 seconds
one of the foot soldiers in the Queen's movement.40:50
40 minutes, 50 seconds
And it's these local activists who make all the difference in the long run.40:54
40 minutes, 54 seconds
Yes. And you can all do it. We can all do it. Yeah, we can all as Annne Nordstrom says everybody just needs to do something.41:03
41 minutes, 3 seconds
No, it's absolutely true. I I am huge on the fact that we abdicate our power and41:10
41 minutes, 10 seconds
think,
oh, there's nothing I can do about that, whatever that is. And I don't
care how big that is, even if it's like climate change, there is always41:18
41 minutes, 18 seconds
something you can do personally. to take on the personal responsibility and do something just like Anne says.41:24
41 minutes, 24 seconds
I
I have to say I'm 72 and I was preparing for the show last night and I
was going to go down to Mayor Manny's Pride thing and yell at him over
this41:33
41 minutes, 33 seconds
trans stuff, but uh I didn't have the energy and I had to get ready to be with you.41:38
41 minutes, 38 seconds
Andy, nobody says you you have to do everything.41:41
41 minutes, 41 seconds
No,
that's that. But I think people think, "Oh, I can't do everything so
I'm not going to do anything." No, do what you can but do something. All
right, we're41:49
41 minutes, 49 seconds
doing something right now here with you and we appreciate you're watching.41:53
41 minutes, 53 seconds
You're doing something by listening to all this stuff and tuning into it. And then in Philadelphia, beloved drag42:00
42 minutes
performer Martha Graham Cracker has died. Great name. Born DTO von Ryersburg, a singer, actor, cabaret42:08
42 minutes, 8 seconds
star, fixture in the city arts and LGBT communities. Dead at the age of 53.42:14
42 minutes, 14 seconds
complications from a bone marrow transplant in 2023. Uh ongoing fight against cancer, strong advocate for the42:21
42 minutes, 21 seconds
community, hosting drag performances at pride concerts. Uh was known as the world's tallest and hairiest drag queen.42:32
42 minutes, 32 seconds
International news.42:33
42 minutes, 33 seconds
Uh
well, I'd like to make some pride announcements. um with Pride
organizations, you know, facing the corporate retreat in the wake of
Trump's42:42
42 minutes, 42 seconds
assault and the anti-de Pride announced that it was filing for bankruptcy. Wow. But they're still going to go on.42:49
42 minutes, 49 seconds
They're
they're, you know, like a lot of corporations do when they file for
bankruptcy. They're still going to go on, but this is happening all over
the place. Corporations are seem to be42:59
42 minutes, 59 seconds
loving, oh, I can't do it anymore. We'll get in trouble.43:02
43 minutes, 2 seconds
Yeah.
You know, you know what? Scale down. have a march, old school march
down the streets, get the permit, you know, and and keep it simple.43:11
43 minutes, 11 seconds
And
that's what we're gonna do. I mean, on on on June 28, there's going to
be the New York City Pride, but we're going to have the I I I think it's
the about43:19
43 minutes, 19 seconds
the
10th annual Reclaim Pride Queer Liberation March. And this year, we're
going to assemble at Union Square at uh and kickoff at 3:00 and march
downtown.43:29
43 minutes, 29 seconds
You can still be part of the other parade if you want. That's up to you.43:32
43 minutes, 32 seconds
Uh, and then by the way, on Friday, this Friday, June 12th, gays against guns, they're going to do a 10th anniversary43:39
43 minutes, 39 seconds
of the Pulse massacre rally honoring the lives of those who uh uh who have we've43:45
43 minutes, 45 seconds
lost all over the place to anti-LGBTQ hatred. 6:00 at the Christopher Street Pier.43:53
43 minutes, 53 seconds
And while we were on the subject of Pride, let's talk about Bangkok Pride.43:58
43 minutes, 58 seconds
Yes, let's huge huge celebration with 500,000 participants and spectators um and44:05
44 minutes, 5 seconds
largely probably because Thailand last year um legalized samesex marriage which is very exciting.44:11
44 minutes, 11 seconds
They had 500,000 people in the capital and uh organizers are hoping to host the 2030 World Pride. They're in competition44:20
44 minutes, 20 seconds
with
uh London and Barcelona. So, they've got some stiff competition, but
Bangkok is no slouch in terms of, you know, the the the the breath of
things it has to offer.44:29
44 minutes, 29 seconds
I I I it sounds like a great idea. I also like the idea of taking world pride to a place where that is hostile to us44:36
44 minutes, 36 seconds
and or or at least not going to get shot at, but you can, you know, like they did it in Rome, uh, when Jesus turned 2000.44:44
44 minutes, 44 seconds
But is Bangkok hostile to us? Is that what you're saying?44:46
44 minutes, 46 seconds
No, no, no, it's not. So, I'm thinking, you know, do it in Alabama or something or whatever where we And then we told44:54
44 minutes, 54 seconds
you how in Durham, England, when the fascist uh reform party took over the C town council, they defunded the annual45:01
45 minutes, 1 second
Pride March. So, trade unionists who had LGBTQ people had supported in the past stepped up and we have a report on that.45:10
45 minutes, 10 seconds
Real
solidarity and a real workingclass community. So, just like in the
Pride film, everyone coming together. I heard the reform government said
they're not45:18
45 minutes, 18 seconds
going to give a penny. What we got was you're not getting no funding. But don't worry, hun, we make it happen.45:23
45 minutes, 23 seconds
It's
bigger and better than it ever was before. And that's because of the
huge amount of funding that's been put in by unions and community groups
to make sure that it happens despite what reform have tried to do.45:33
45 minutes, 33 seconds
I vividly remember the support that the LGBT plus community gave me and my family making donations, providing food,45:40
45 minutes, 40 seconds
but
also standing on picket lines. So it's an obligation to return that
sense of solidarity and support in a time of most need. The historic
reason why I'm45:49
45 minutes, 49 seconds
here
today, lesbian gay support the miners came about in the minor strikes
12 years ago. There was a movie made about it. So there's been a unity
forged45:57
45 minutes, 57 seconds
between the LGBT plus community and the trade union movement now for well over 40 years. I've just been blown away.46:05
46 minutes, 5 seconds
Suppose I've got to thank Reform because the response has been absolutely amazing. This year has really shown us46:12
46 minutes, 12 seconds
that there's so much support and love for LGBT people.46:15
46 minutes, 15 seconds
What a success it's been. This is what the sign says. Pride won reform nil.46:21
46 minutes, 21 seconds
I'm
old enough to remember what it was like fighting you people 40 odd
years ago. And what you got to remember is we're still here. We've got
stronger and46:29
46 minutes, 29 seconds
stronger and stronger. So bring it on reform. So, I think we've done a bloody good job.46:42
46 minutes, 42 seconds
So, if you get to see that movie Pride, which documents this from 40 years ago, stars Andrew Scott among others. Um, lot46:50
46 minutes, 50 seconds
it's a great cast. Uh, and a lot of big stars from Britain. It it is so moving these small group of gay activists who46:58
46 minutes, 58 seconds
raised
money for the striking minors who are being oppressed by Margaret
Thatcher and they form this alliance that has lasted to this day. So we
need to get47:07
47 minutes, 7 seconds
out, you know, we that we need to build coalitions if we're going to succeed. I was moved just by that little story.47:14
47 minutes, 14 seconds
It's just Have you seen the movie Pride? I think I have. I hope so.47:18
47 minutes, 18 seconds
No, I'm I'm sure I have. that that's one of my favorite films of all time.47:22
47 minutes, 22 seconds
And that they're turning it into a musical, which sounds like a crazy idea. And apparently I talked to Andrew Scott.47:28
47 minutes, 28 seconds
I
saw him on the street and I and I said, "Have you seen the musical?" He
said, "It's terrific." So that's good to know. Is it playing in London
or something?47:36
47 minutes, 36 seconds
It's it's getting to London. They played it in Wales, which is where the minors were. Okay.47:40
47 minutes, 40 seconds
All right. Now, in Russia, nine new LGBTQ groups have been banned as extremist. It's It's insane. I mean, it47:49
47 minutes, 49 seconds
goes on and on and on. They just want to wipe us out. And in Italy, Catholic Scouts have opened their leadership to47:56
47 minutes, 56 seconds
LGBTQ members, which I don't know the whole story behind that.48:01
48 minutes, 1 second
That must insense their right-wing uh prime minister. I can't think of her name. And they had they consulted about it.48:09
48 minutes, 9 seconds
They decided to do it.48:10
48 minutes, 10 seconds
Well, well, all right. Maybe someday they'll even have women priests and and openly gay priests instead of48:18
48 minutes, 18 seconds
the 50% of priests who are in the closet who are who are closeted gays. All right. AIDS news. AIDS news.48:25
48 minutes, 25 seconds
Um the housing works health gap act up.48:29
48 minutes, 29 seconds
They all went down to Washington to go against Marco Rubio who was testifying.48:35
48 minutes, 35 seconds
Rubio
cuts kill people with AIDS. PEPFAR saves lives. They were they're and
they all got arrested. It's it's you know they're terrific activists.48:46
48 minutes, 46 seconds
And just a reminder, PEPFAR is the program that George Bush started. So, a Republican, but actually one of the one48:55
48 minutes, 55 seconds
of
the great things that that he ended up doing. It's actually one of the
lasting good things the Republican president has done. Rubio has
withheld49:02
49 minutes, 2 seconds
$2 billion in congressionally appropriated funding uh to uh uh to the PEPAR program. Come on. I mean, this is49:11
49 minutes, 11 seconds
killing this is literally killing people.49:13
49 minutes, 13 seconds
Yeah. That along with the cuts to USAD is is literally killing.49:18
49 minutes, 18 seconds
So,
you know, there was this 45th anniversary of the first announcement of
what became AIDS from the CDC and they had a rally. This was uh Cleave
Jones49:26
49 minutes, 26 seconds
from San Francisco and Sean Stroop kind of pushed this and we did it in New York at the AIDS memorial about 150 people.49:33
49 minutes, 33 seconds
But Peppermint spoke to us 45 years ago. The way this country49:40
49 minutes, 40 seconds
worked,
and there's a lot to be said about the way this country worked, but
particularly the way this country worked, allowed the political system
to49:49
49 minutes, 49 seconds
operate behind the scenes, to move money around, to move to usurp funding from pro projects and programs and use it the49:58
49 minutes, 58 seconds
way that they wanted to and not even utter the words AIDS or HIV for years while people were dying. And I'm50:06
50 minutes, 6 seconds
grateful
for the progress that we've made that we've made in large part because
of many of the people that I believe are standing here in front of us
right now.50:16
50 minutes, 16 seconds
I'm grateful for that progress, but I know that that energy is because of the community spirit that was mentioned50:24
50 minutes, 24 seconds
earlier. That is mutual aid. That is people showing up even when people did not know what was happening. We didn't50:31
50 minutes, 31 seconds
have
enough information. There wasn't enough government support to tell us
what was happening. It wasn't in the news. It wasn't in the press press
releases and the press conferences. This50:39
50 minutes, 39 seconds
was
people talking about this in their own neighborhoods, in their own
communities. And we're losing that again. We're losing the government50:47
50 minutes, 47 seconds
support.
We pretty much lost it. And we want to get it back. But in the
meantime, it's so important that everyone else who can hear this message
understand that they have to show up.50:56
50 minutes, 56 seconds
And
you may not be HIV positive. You may not ever even thought about HIV.
You may be foolish enough to not get yourself tested anyway,51:05
51 minutes, 5 seconds
but if you are a human being, you need healthcare. It is essential. It is essential.51:11
51 minutes, 11 seconds
And
if you want to see Peppermint's uh full speech down there, go to my
Facebook page or become my friend and you can see it on there.51:21
51 minutes, 21 seconds
In other health news, um uh Robert Kennedy Jr., our health secretary. Uh the Times is reporting that he's51:30
51 minutes, 30 seconds
disengaged from virtually everything going on in his department. Um he's solely focused on his top priorities,51:37
51 minutes, 37 seconds
which are food recommendations, pesticide exposures, and hunting for evidence to support his belief that51:45
51 minutes, 45 seconds
vaccines are harmful. And you ought to be concerned about this because like this Ebola outbreak could be the worst51:52
51 minutes, 52 seconds
in history. And there's nothing saying it's not going to get to these shores and the haunt virus outbreak, all these51:59
51 minutes, 59 seconds
things.
You need to be on top of these things. They don't even have medical
professionals at the head of a lot of the departments now. I mean, why
aren't why aren't people going nuts about this?52:11
52 minutes, 11 seconds
It all goes back to the idea with the same thing with PEPAR, with USAID, with uh our efforts to previous efforts to52:19
52 minutes, 19 seconds
contain Ebola. The small amount of money you spend on these things relatively early on in other countries helps secure52:28
52 minutes, 28 seconds
us helps keeps these things from from becoming such epidemics that they reach our shores you know the way CO did. We52:36
52 minutes, 36 seconds
have no surgeon general. Uh half of the 27 institutes at the NIH are run by acting directors. Uh the acting chief of52:43
52 minutes, 43 seconds
the uh uh National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases was recently fired. So, it goes on and on and on and52:50
52 minutes, 50 seconds
this
and it's going to include food safety and everything, but we better
move on. Uh, by the way, on pride events, we will link in our email. If52:59
52 minutes, 59 seconds
you
sign up for our email, go to gay usatv.org. There's a link where you
can find any pride event in the country. I mean, there are so many.53:07
53 minutes, 7 seconds
Yes, I know. The first one was in Chicago. You beat New York by a couple of days.53:13
53 minutes, 13 seconds
Meanwhile, there's a more memorial coming up for Iris Long. I'm embarrassed to say I was not that familiar with her work.53:20
53 minutes, 20 seconds
Yeah. She was a chemist who got involved. Not at all gay or or or gay involved, but she got involved when the53:27
53 minutes, 27 seconds
AIDS crisis hit and as a chemist became very active in ACTUP. Um and uh so this Saturday, June 13th, 3:00, AIDS53:36
53 minutes, 36 seconds
memorial, we are going to remember Iris Long. All right. Entertainment news.53:41
53 minutes, 41 seconds
Well, the the big news in the Tony's, one for the history books. Queen Jean, whose costume design for Cats the53:49
53 minutes, 49 seconds
Jellico Ball won a won a Tony, is the first openly trans woman to ever win a Tony Award.53:56
53 minutes, 56 seconds
And she was nominated for two different shows.53:58
53 minutes, 58 seconds
She was nominated for Liberation 2, which won best play uh for best wall, which they pointed out as the first play54:06
54 minutes, 6 seconds
in 40 years by an American woman to win a Tony. Wow.54:11
54 minutes, 11 seconds
Anyway,
there have been several non-binary things in the past, but you know,
Queen Jeene gets up there and says, "Happy Pride." You know, it was a54:19
54 minutes, 19 seconds
very
gay event if you watched it. Oh my goodness. When they did the excerpt
from Rocky Horror and Luke Evans comes struting out with that
magnificent body54:27
54 minutes, 27 seconds
of his plunged into her corset and his bare ass just covered by some fish nets.54:32
54 minutes, 32 seconds
Oh my goodness. I was like, middle America is like having a makeup here.54:37
54 minutes, 37 seconds
So, Queen called theater makers the architects of imagination. This experience has been monumental. We are54:44
54 minutes, 44 seconds
here for the legacy of queer people, trans people. We have to take up space.54:49
54 minutes, 49 seconds
We have to shift the paradigm. So, I just want to say thank you all so much for this incredible honor.54:55
54 minutes, 55 seconds
Um,
also winning Oh, if you want to see Queen Jean, I'm going to link to uh
an appearance she's making on June 15th at the CUNI Graduate55:03
55 minutes, 3 seconds
Center
where she's getting an award. And I say this to the nation because it's
going to be online and you can watch if you like. Also winning uh at
the Tony's55:12
55 minutes, 12 seconds
for um best direction of a uh revival of a musical um was Bill Rouch. And I'm55:20
55 minutes, 20 seconds
embarrassed to say I can't think of the name of the co-winner because they co-directed it. Xylon Levston.55:25
55 minutes, 25 seconds
Thank
you. Um but I particularly remember Bill Rouch because I'm giving him a
shout out because he is my class from Harvard. another Harvard 84
person.55:34
55 minutes, 34 seconds
Go
Harvard 84. So, it's very exciting to see him win and we've been
rooting for him because I I saw that when it was downtown um uh and then
it transferred55:43
55 minutes, 43 seconds
to Broadway. I saw it when it was s when it was on Broadway. So energetic, so much fun and so queer.55:48
55 minutes, 48 seconds
And going back, uh Alli Louie Bour Borsque, not himself gay, but an ally, one for55:57
55 minutes, 57 seconds
best featured actor in a musical for the Lost Boys. What a speech he gave. He said, "Vampires represent those who have56:04
56 minutes, 4 seconds
shown
their own humanity in order to achieve a non-existent sense of
superiority." He says, "The colonizers will never find fulfillment from
the56:13
56 minutes, 13 seconds
land and lives they steal. The fascists will never find meaning in their conformity, not in this lifetime." Gave56:20
56 minutes, 20 seconds
big shoutouts to LGBTQ people, to the Palestinian people, uh, uh, to immigrants, uh, to Arab filmmakers. What a speech.56:30
56 minutes, 30 seconds
Yeah.
And then another gay winner was Joe Mantel, a veteran director on
Broadway. He won his third Tony for best direction of a play for Death
of a56:38
56 minutes, 38 seconds
Salesman.
Uh which was which also won for best revival. The star Nathan Lane did
not win best actor. They gave it to John Lithgo for playing an
anti-semite.56:48
56 minutes, 48 seconds
Well, he that's what they did. And then uh what do we got coming up? Oh, okay. The Robin Bird story, Bang My Box.56:56
56 minutes, 56 seconds
That's the title of it. It's gonna be shown on H. She was the stripper, showwoman, gay rights advocate, everything.57:04
57 minutes, 4 seconds
Hey, for those of you who don't know, she was cable access queen of softcore program.57:09
57 minutes, 9 seconds
Least access, sorry, least access, which we were on. We were on least access in the old days.57:14
57 minutes, 14 seconds
And
she would always end her shows with or say during her shows, and
remember, if you don't have a loved one, you always have me, Robin Bird.
So, she's57:23
57 minutes, 23 seconds
she's
still out there on Fire Island having a good old time. This documentary
is going to be on HBO and HBO Max on June 30th, and we're going to link
to the trailer in our email.57:33
57 minutes, 33 seconds
And also, finally, Madonna showed up in Time Square. Um, promoted by Grinder.57:40
57 minutes, 40 seconds
She sang three songs from her new album.57:43
57 minutes, 43 seconds
So,
she took over Time Square and that giant pride flag appeared behind her
and it was a, you know, Madonna, how can you get gay?57:50
57 minutes, 50 seconds
And
we're out of town, out of time. And it's been great being with you. Uh,
thanks Andy for having me and be back in a few weeks and we'll be back
next week.
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