at new york law school and one of our favorites we it is wednesday afternoon this is supposed to happen thursday morning we can't know for one hundred percent sure that it is going to happen are what it contains but we're going to talk about it nonetheless meanwhile trump it is promoting more anti l g b bigots to keep posts it is administration on the bright side the supreme court has a get refused to take up a challenge to the law banning conversion therapy and california the leading pro l g b t republican in congress is set to retire the methodist church has condemned the consecration o lesbian bishop and the catholic diocese of charlotte north carolina has some amusing thoughts about fake women priests pioneering gay activist ron gold has died at the age of eighty is this purported executive order that trump is supposed to sign tomorrow morning as we're taping there our viewers will be seeing this after that time to expand religious freedom now there were rumors he was going to do this in february then the rumor was that the lovely yvonne and jared had told him not to but now the religious right has ginned up its power again and on the national day of prayer they're going to get him to sign this executive order happy about it and of course the idea of having a national day of prayer event in the white house obviously violates the st amendment  haven't seen the tax but the talk about it in the press at the moment is that it is virtually identical to what they were proposing in february with maybe some small fixes what can you what do you surmise executive well i have the february document that was leaked and assuming that what they do tomorrow is to put forth something very similar it seems to me it raises serious questions  that he's trying to take the religious freedom restoration act which has been upheld by the supreme court which was introduced by president clinton as they should we don't oppose as as a red line for a supreme being oh yeah there's a remedy for a supreme court decision that idea is to authorize federal employees to go that extra mile as far as they can go to bend over backwards to accommodate free exercise of religion in all the decisions they make about  federal contracts about administering federal programs for example federal monies that might go to a religious agency that's doing adoptions under this they would be free to discriminate against same sex couples who apply to adopt kids it's tries to do on the national level what legislative proposals have attempted in some of the states like mississippi like a bill that's pending in alabama so i mean somebody who works at the social security administration doesn't want to process a claim for a couple could pass it on to someone else is not part of this well would not suffer any adverse person no consequence and his agency would be charged under this order with accommodating his religious beliefs about what we call it a license to discriminate bill because that's what it does and it's not just told you be too right it's what it's going to have a bigger impact on reproductive freedom well it  religious services they simply have to state it because as you say they can't be cross examined about it and they can do what they want and we have said for years on this program when something like came davis in kentucky comes up that people who are public employees model treat everyone equally and that a religious opinion is not allowed to come into that public forum for public employees a there's been actually this week there's been the development of the kim tapes case yes six circuit court of appeals held that a gay couple who were turned out by a not for marriage license by her can continue to maintain their suit against her violation of the constitution have the damages yes the damages they don't need an injunction of a marriage all right so let's let's go back to this executive order though there are there are the best example of a law like this that has been passed is the law in mississippi and the law mississippi is in trouble in the courts and in fact is on hold right now while it's being litigated specifically because it singles out things it's it's sands in the law that you are allowed to discriminate if you hold an opinion that opposes same sex marriage opposes extramarital sex opposes abortion and thereby establishes  precepts and the february version of this order did the same thing right it incorporated virtually the same language and it says that people are protected on the basis that they believe speak or act or decline to act in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual's immutable biological sex as objective lee determined by anatomy physiology or genetics at or before birth and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life well so anyone anyone who is an all truly opposed to abortion and acts and speaks in accord with that is protected from any adverse concept it says at the hands of an executive branch yours doesn't want to recognize transgender people or or gay people so we'll see how foolish they are in terms of writing specifics like this but once you're writing something that says anyone's sincere or anyone's religious belief is you know can be brought to bear on these situations you don't really need to write any of these specifics to you now you can do a  religious freedom restoration act which was as you said passed by congress clinton introduced it was passed by congress bipartisan to establish the idea that if a government action burdens the free exercise of religion it can only be a compelling governmental interest and that it is the narrowest intrusion on religious practice that is necessary to achieve that interest now this executive order says it shouldn't be assumed that something is a compelling government interest rights of corporate owners to assert a religious objection to say funding contraception in their insurance policies and we've seen hobby lobby now applied in an anti transgender manner in a employment discrimination case there's a appeal pending now from a decision by a federal district judge in detroit holding a funeral home which was operated by a sincere very judge said well the e e o c can't bring suit on her behalf because of the religious freedom restoration act in the hobby lobby case that's the federal government unduly burdening the funeral home owners free exercise of religion now we're sitting here in new york and many people are sitting in statutes that override local was but the president under his executive power cannot unilaterally do that an executive order is a directive by the president to the employees of the executive branch on how they are to carry out their functions consistent with existing federal statutes regulations and the constitution to the extent that he wanders beyond that he doesn't have the authority in the courts should knock him down well  and try to get it put on hold struck down and sort of a well if the president has this executive authority to make this direction to federal employees is it challengeable yes it could be  challenged on the grounds that it contradicts statutes it contradicts regulations that are on the books and he can't unilaterally withdraw a regulation they can unilaterally withdraw guidelines and memoranda and things like that but a regulation which has been properly adopted under the administrative procedure act is virtually like a statute it's got to be repealed by the agency that probably get it through a complicated procedure that takes time and requires publishing notice of the publish getting holding hearings making new findings and publishing a final version which can then be challenged in the u s court of appeals and and this be challenged on basic constitutional grounds that this violates the constitution yes i think the argument can be made that this violates the establishment clause because government is supposed to be neutral with respect to religion government is not supposed to extend special rights to people to avoid complying with their legal obligations because of their personal religious beliefs and we've seen this around the country leave the kid davis case is just a dramatic example there are some cases now out west of judges who are saying that they're going to refuse to issue marriage licenses are they going to try to set things up there clerk to steer these gay couples to a different judge and they're being taken up on an ethical charges for not doing their job well we also have states like texas that are trying to supreme court has interpreted the constitution to require st of all in the windsor case back in two thousand and thirteen the federal government must treat same sex and different sex marriages the same right to all purposes of federal and in the a burka felt decision we have the same command to the states of the th amendment they must treat same sex marriages the same as different sex marriages so this lawsuit in texas claiming that the state can provide lesser or no benefits to a same sex marriage that they are providing to a different sex marriage is obviously contradictory to the burger focus issue and federal supreme court interpretations of the constitution under the supremacy cla take priority over anything a state court might want to do i think people in these states who are claiming that they can that the supreme court doesn't have this power should be tried for treason well treason involves plus on his opposition to abortion but getting about oh i guess c plus on opposing gay rights and having appointed a couple of gay people here and there to some small positions and things like that and maintaining the obama executive order so this is this is why they want and are demanding this payoff and why they're saying to the press we and we anticipate it's going to be good for us well it may be good p r for him with the religious right at the time he signs it but he's going to be embroiled i litigation on this and he's going to come off looking very bad ultimately now you know one question was a man well he said what he said about the civil war it's hard to think of him look even worse but well i thought you know a nice it was interesting he professor of labor and employment law at new york law school just now congratulations you for it was a great man and you deserve this honor and we should also point out by the way for folks who want to read more about that that art has written he writes  lot notes online and you write for the gay city news analyzing every legal case that comes down the pike so check that out but you talked when you received this position about the evolution of applying title seven  to sexual orientation discrimination and sex discrimination but it includes sexual orientation and gender identity and the fact that we're making a lot of progress on this and if we can hold on to the supreme court just the way it is right now for another couple of years we may get a new precedent not that you said you don't to make predictions but but i think making incredible progress we had this big victory in the th circuit court of appeals out in chicago last month and we now have petitions on file with the nd circuit here in new york and with the th circuit in atlanta on the same question and they're likely to be granted and it's possible when those cases i think it's interesting when you look at the lineup of the courts these are for on banc review which means the entire  st term to fill pending vacancies and a lot of judges who had been appointed by ronald reagan you know all these judges they've been on the court since the eighty's and they finally hit retirement age and all of these positions opened up and obama went to work and he really them up we've also gotten a lot of support on these issues from republican appointees yeah it's interesting the seven circuit case a majority of the judges who voted that sexual orientation claims can be brought under title seven were republicans and four out of the five were reagan appointee so right who are hanging on there you know so i mean the equality act in congress was was just reintroduced with you know as they like to say two hundred and fifty two congressional sponsors that senate and the house we don't have that are and you know they're almost all democrats almost all democrats but if they rule this way on title seven saying it covers us is that sort of a judicial equality act for us in this country it i s the biggest problem with that is that if congress is outraged by it they can overrule it by simply amending title seven i don't think they would and i think the democrats in the senate would really block that trying to overrule such a ruling but then entitle seven it would be better to get it in the equality act all spelled out expressly but you know getting it is getting it and i think title seven is very important for us because a majority of the states still don't ban sexual orientation discrimination in their state laws so people in those states some of them who live in big cities have coverage like texas for example all the big cities except in where they repealed it all the other big cities in texas then sexual orientation discrimination similarly in pennsylvania various other states if you live in a major metropolitan area you're probably protected by local law but those ordinances vary in how strong they are what remedies they provide whether you can actually go to court or you have to settle for the ministry not everyone doesn't live in those areas right and so a lot of people especially in rural america a lot of people if they encounter discrimination their only hope that has a political impact it sends a message you know and it tells people that if they have religious objections to homosexuality to same sex marriage to transgender people abortion abortion they can feel free to go out there and the federal government is going to have their back you know that the federal government is lining itself up behind a certain religious point of view and that is something that is so in violation of the spirit of the st amendment the idea that government is supposed to be neutral with respect to religion is not supposed to be either favoring or opposing religion just stand back be neutral be hands off and and so shockingly opposite to what we've experienced in the last eight years with the support of the obama administration in a way that was very moving and ironic that some of the moves the obama's trip ministration made in terms of interpreted federal statutes and issued orders were challenged by the republicans as overreaching and now trump is reaching even further hypocrisy rules the day on that note thank you art you know we will keep an eye on what happens tomorrow and see where we stand bring it back from we'll be looking for your analysis of the order in the case of the news i'm sure it will be there ok thank you very much all right well we are on pins and needles here about what's going to happen tomorrow morning but we don't now you know there's still a one percent chance that there are your hair yeah matter what happens if it did happen by the time you see this then you  know how to feel about it which is bad very bad and i'm glad we talked about that title seven stuff about being covered by sex discrimination because you write to us and you say all the news is bad and it could be could be better on some of those issues he he's the one who is saying transgender people are evil and and trying to interfere with same sex marriage in tennessee and all sorts of horrible things state senator there so the fact  former employee of the family research council current and former president of americans united for life an anti abortion group she has repeatedly called transgender people crazy and creatures and should be around children this is the health and human services of don't ask me about transgender she says if you have a meat cleaver to your manhood there would probably not be a fit between us because you would be crazy i mean this is no i mean it's the stuff she's written is ok she washed some of these things from her blog and tried to but they were captured by clever people so you could read them and now she will be working for tom price the secretary of health and human services also very anti l g bt half the time a woman in charge is raped she is faking she says half the time these are important posts that have a lot to do with our help and safety in this depressing and outrageous and the new office head of the office of population affairs said health and human services rescind manning says the government should not be involved in financing contraception or handing it out well they shouldn't because contraception doesn't work that's what she said contraception doesn't work and she's going to be in charge of yes not to mention all his bigotry well i want to a lot of people have spoken out he was going to have to face senate review and he was going to get asked all these questions now he did an issue some sort of a statement saying oh you know we're going to you know everybody can line most of you will see it later but if you're seeing this before thursday afternoon we're doing a big demonstration at the intrepid in new york because trump is finally coming back to new york for the st time since highway for the demo i don't like thirty four pm whatever you can get there it'll be going on a long time the anti trumpet demo and i wrote down a little list of some of  north carolina in a similar law in texas and in live one of the st things they did was a race any mention of l g b t people from the white house dot gov website well which is mr trump you were for the wrong things yes exactly right but we still have the courts and the supreme court of the united states did reject a challenge to the conversion therapy law in california they just didn't hear the case and they let the lower court ruling stand this is the rd time that a challenge that law hasn't been cracked and the supreme court and the rd time that they have rejected hearing what they said was no means no well what the the lower court decision said the people who are challenging the ban on conversion therapy for minors by licensed medical practitioners because of course pastors conversion therapy and minors five the opponents of the law said well you are violating the religious freedom of licensed practitioners if they believe that d conversion therapy works they should be allowed to practice that and the lower court said that the state banning that by licensed practitioners is not a violation of their religious freedom this would be a nice model for challenging the trump executive order so would that mean like if you know since catholics believe turner they can turn water into the blood of christ they could market it that way and the consumer protection agency couldn't do anything about it and say we're selling blood  other legal news in mississippi interesting case an older married gay couple together for fifty two years yes one of them died they had a contract with a funeral home for disposal of the remains by cremation but when the guy died one of the spouses and the paperwork was given to the funeral home i realize suddenly otto he has a husband and told the nursing home where he had died oh you know we're not dealing with this we're not going to touch that body we don't deal with your mine were if we heard that before he exactly so now the surviving spouse is suing but because there is no law in mississippi or federally protecting us on the basis of sexual orientation they are suing for breach of contract so this will be another way to test out legal right how heartless can you be is my question and one other legal issue as you may or may not remember in eight trial in california over marriage rights for same sex couples and the brilliant judge there insisted that it be a full blown blown trial with witnesses and a lot of testimony and it was all videotaped but the supreme court ended up saying that the videotape did not have to be released publicly so it's been under wraps ever since they may they took the transcript and made a trial o play out of it but the videotape is in secret so now a television station k q e d that's right in california has gone to court to ask for the release of that video eight years later saying come on it's time to release it so a lot of support for that we'll see whether they get that and whether we get to see it move though if this is very similar to the  the funeral thing really a family court judge who sits and bounded metcalf county is announced he's no longer going to hear adoption cases involving homosexual parties because he doesn't believe that's right to put a child with a with a gay person  so he's just not going to hear those cases anymore now you know if this is the way you feel you need to be off the court completely because you are prejudiced person now you found an interesting piece of videotape from the u weber said about what he's praying for that we cram pulled on your institution holy institution of holy matrimony and tried to rewrite what it is and we called it an alternate lifestyle father oh father forgive them lord we have gone to kill him the most innocent amongst  yeah and she has been completely supportive of her transgender son and very pro l g b t and the one of the few republicans who is with us on many many many issues but she's also totally against abortion rights or reproductive freedom she's got a very she of course is a republican and has supported the republican agenda she said i could win forever if i kept running that's not true the district is turning and she was going to lose it too so she has been reap introduce in the house and senate with over two hundred sponsors but they're all democrats and leon is on it too but don't expect any republican support for this along for a long time i'd like to think we could shame them into it with their because their rhetoric is all about how they don't hate s but i just don't see it happening i mean as i said a they said that was something like two hundred and fifty dollars congressional sponsors that includes both houses i don't think it's as high as two hundred of the house otherwise known as the class now you know it was it covers both houses right and ninety corporations have announced their support for it and the other thing is that it's really quite a clever bill because it's not just us it fixes several different civil rights acts too for women and people of color and l g b t in various ways it's a patchwork but it ends up with a much more comprehensive civil rights landscape for everybody and it really is an important law that should get passed how out there in america what you can do is call your members of congress your two senators and your house representative and demand that they get behind the equality act even if you know that there are very anti let them hear from you and get behind this law and if even if they supported tell them that you want them to keep supporting it in the state political news in new jersey the unbelievable chris christie is actually signed a law expanding coverage of infertility services for same sex couples and single women who knew connecticut the board of regents has a for total mind with the policy allowing students to use facilities a line with their gender identity in alabama house committee now this is only at the house committee stage and hasn't gone all the way has passed out lesbian representative patricia todd's bill to remove from this from the state's  school sex education curriculum the statement then homosexuality is a criminal  and in louisiana a house committee again has passed an expansion of domestic violence laws to include same sex partners do you understand this tennessee bill that's been that's working its way  as born women and men as born men and therefore d screws around with transgender people and marriage rights and all sorts of stuff but also in the congress there are few to therapeutic fraud prevention act was introduced founding of the national gay task force that's now changed its name to the broader much a son who was there right to left i mean marty do berman ron gold left or right or left or right and in the back there's a barber getting's in the front that's ho brown was the health commissioner of new york frank comedy in the back and bruce miller in the front and over on the far right not rock hill these were the founders of the national guard task force and he was involved in the bill but obviously before that the gap to this anymore we're not come out on updating our existence and he hung up the phone and i learned so i i pulled out line myself son he also was extremely instrumental in the american psychiatric association changing its policy on homosexuality he gave a speech in front of the association about it and really was considered one of the leaders of that fight and that was a huge breakthrough in seventy three for them to drop it and a footnote to his life is that he was a juror on the central park five rape case which were these guys were ultimately exonerated twenty years later but he was the holdout juror and they were going to kill him because he would do it and they prevailed upon him to go along with the conviction  held out on that yeah some controversy around his link your musings on transgender which obligated to in my story about him and the gay city news he was negative on the subject of  awards and was tony nominated yeah that and a normal heart i think were produced in about the same time he's from larry kramer's more political aides play as is was more personal but very very strong and important one life to live so what you want but a good guy renaissance man very good guy yeah all right religious news well we start of the methodist church you know they said they were going to leave these gay issues alone and they is the american church would go along with this but they have african and asian congregations as part of their international denomination and some are calling for system as a result we can't we can't front up some people are saying i'm out now if you're going to keep doing this to gay people i'm out they they have left her in good standing at the moment but they're going to adjudicate whether she should be suspended forced retirement this is just ugly a stupid horrible stuff hateful and in north carolina there you know there is an independent group called the association of roman catholic diocese will understand that it would be sinful to receive a fake sacrament from a woman priest and that includes attending a mass he must be a trump supporter he likes that word also in north carolina a christian college moncrief college yes is forcing its faculty and staff to sign a promise to two hundred and twenty four hours a day in every moment of their life to oppose abortion same sex marriage or anything like that nineteen members of the faculty and staff are leaving over this the students are upset about it and they trace this to franklin graham billy graham's heavily bigoted son just makes billy graham look like a liberal franklin graham is the wall of this college and gave them one hundred thousand dollars and people trans woman from being a client at the soup kitchen or it can mean at church service even the salvation army doesn't do that zero six my god because she showed up a because they're no longer compatible partners in shaping the lives of young women and they're there there will be even going with the lesbian issue because the girl scouts accept lesbians they are they are focusing on the fact that they have sense that's the world association of girl guides and girl scouts has a dissociation with international planned parenthood people we live in a walled on country wake up we have a i want to note a couple of bursaries congratulations to the advocate magazine on fifty years that's longer than us what are the most nerve wracking acts of my life when i was a kid was going to the local candy store and they had it on the twenty years since the coming out of a sort of l and premiered a coming out that really had enormous impact in terms of people coming out and yeah it's a real congratulations to the williams institute our think tank they have a new executive director joslin samuels who was a high official in the civil rights divisions of both the health and human services department and the department of justice in the obama administration a lot of these obama officials are now going to these   new york city public schools now have a policy that every school must have at least one single stall rest room so that people who are not comfortable i need the girls room or the boys room will have a place to go one single stall rest room in these huge new york city school well this is for people who are either you know a true transgender who don't want to get beat up in the restroom or get anybody who was uncomfortable with the fact that you know who does go into the restrooms people public referendum on non discrimination because the legislature refuses to take a boat there are we'll tell you more about chechnya demos brighton beach pride may th do you have any news not just just the just the trump care bill because that if you volves massive medicaid cuts to seventy four million americans and that's going to affect a lot of people with aids and it really removes protections for one hundred and thirty three million of us who have pre conditions in entertainment news big trans film festival in seattle starting this weekend for ten days translations seventy films from twenty countries ok let's give you an entertainment news let's give you the old g b t angles on the tony awards the lesbian themed play in decent is nominated for best play corey hawkins who plays a gay man and six degrees of separation nominated for depressing season as far as i'm concerned and this was a really original musical about veterans coming home from the war forming a band and it's quite moving and it's really deals with some deep subjects and at the music is really original it's you know there are swing band but they don't just use standards they they write new songs so i highly recommend that a very appealing leads and laura and corey caught my breath lavelle is there also i'm the voice of the band i have a shocking admission yes i went to the theatre voluntarily on my own with her own money what you see an adult house part two because it had been so well reviewed it is to reflect that about it is a fantasizing of a follow up in modern version modern language that was laurie metcalf on the right chris cooper on the left if you want to put that up again both tony nominated lor all four people in the player tony nominated in the play is nominated for best new play and i'm voting for it if i could because i loved it it is very very funny it is very very clever and it's a plot and has all sorts of twists and turns and i enjoyed every minute of it russian noble family or not but roman anyway i don't i think i saw it six degrees of separation the revival of the john where play tony nomination there for cory hawke hawkins's paul you know a lot it's very similar put a lot of people who can't stand each other and that's a mouse country house and see what happens that was that's the formula for all reality that's what this play was like there's a good reason that it hasn't been revived since  thirty three but you know well we have a minute tell us what you thought of fire island you know i don't really like these kinds of shows they have kind of predict i know i'm shocked that you w did your you fall we need to stare abel sunday morning i was just waking up but it was being repeated so i watched the st two episodes but they're all so predictable in terms of oh my god this guy you know they're going to what is this horrible person who's go if i'm not recommending it good well i am recommending a doll's house part two i really think you will be happy if you see that there's a new play coming about the conversations between not cover sick communications between excellent we are going to go to brighton beach brooklyn on may th for the st brighton beach pride this will be we're integrating the chechnya stuff into this this was created by the roo