legislation has advanced in texas and alabama good news for gay common law marriages in pennsylvania it's a little complicated the purge of dead people in chechnya is drawing now international condemnation including from the united states as the reporters who exposed it are finding themselves in great peril we will review patti lu pone and christine ebersole in broadway's war paint and powa vocals new lesbian themed play indecent will have more of the controversy over the exposure of the transgender contestant on serve i ever because we cover the case involving civil rights and how civil rights laws are applied and you know he is trying to say from his questions that you can't you know that violations of federal he's very arrogant he's very smug he wanted to talk you'd think your st day on the job you might keep your mouth shut a little and listen and learn but instead he's trying to show off and insert himself in the conversation in a way that shows that he is he's a smug nasty guy so going to be a disaster the only hope is that he's so obnoxious that people won't want to sign on to his opinions it would be nice which is what happened with scalia and alienated the rest of the court found i don't think we can count on that you know trumps alienating the entire republican party but they're not impeaching him yet they're going to continue to vote for president had a great victory in georgia hi he says argue that republicans got fifty five percent of the voters something like that and they've got to unite in order to beat it and the question is whether they can let's also remember that when this whole race started no one thought john  to get three times the votes of any republican i mean look i read all the analysis it still says the two thousand and eighteen is going to be a tough row to hoe in the house for the democrats to take over power again but if this is got republicans put and and then lies about the armada on its way to korea as someone i think importantly pointed out where are still less than one hundred days into this administration and given the avick they have for act  he you know he criticized the republican party for actively recruiting gay candidates and supporting homosexuals in the primaries this is a bad he was and he voted against everything yet so he's out of a job so what does president trump want to do with him well our old friend fred hochberg openly gay gay activist ran the export import bank of the united states which really republicans wanted to get rid of but then  congressman thrown out of office for being such a right wing not and now he ends up replacing a gay man as head of the export import senators if you confirm him i'm not wearing my export import have going from fred hochberg as their boss to this guy they're not going to know what hit them and they're not going to be celebrating pride day at they accept bank anymore we're sorry maybe we should go do it session just for scott garrett himself well we would give it a try gobo bard ross that always used to say don't waste your time with the ten percent of people who will never agree with you now we were happy to see the tax day rall we also did some anti church from demonstrating at the easter parade this time in honor of the late gilbert baker with one of his big rainbow banners this one said stop the hate and there we are outside st patrick's cathedral and there was a young man who had their what a sign that said go get your rainbow you saved my life thank you and he he's now twenty six he says when he was thirteen he went to some gay thing were sore rainbow flag he said that made me realize that i was part of a marger thing and the movement had they did you know what we did in the middle of that very colorful easter parade and right in front of st patrick's was saying a lot of because they were very clever gays without guns chase gays against guns they don't they don't have guns either so we're a little discombobulated so we had a long night last night at a community board he much they admired her she said thank you for thinking of me i'm glad you're fed up my work however i don't believe that ivanka trump dot com is truly a non political platform of empowerment for women and so what is the name trip is involved it is political and frankly an option for the evocate trump dot com business to make a profit there's nothing empowering about defunding planned parenthood barring a silent for women refugees rolling back safeguards for equal pay and treating people of color l g b t and the communities that mission chinese food here in new york and we think she's a hero this week and trump is not a hero he signed a bill allowing states to cancel funding for planned parenthood or any other organization that does anything else good for women and the one making all these noises about about women and business and all this kind of stuff and a very interesting little tidbit came out this week of the bad gays said what they're doing with trump specifically this guy are they're finkelstein are finkelstein we've known him for years a new york politics a gay guy who was work for anti gay candidates most of his life starting with richard nixon and ronald reagan all the standard republicans and big associate of roy cohn george pataki and roger wake up to the fact that there was a war with russia during this election and we lost a war you know i mean because that crowd was fighting with russia they were enlist all right well as a little segue another trump administration move the the department of justice has as we suspected they would withdraw on it from the federal government's say well you know the n c double a has awarded championships back to north carolina because north carolina has repealed h b two and you know knows anything about this knows that they've preserved most of the anti gay elements in these laws they just replace to it with something called h b one hundred and forty two instead of h b two so the n c a a was obviously very eager to get back in the game in north carolina and they have said that they will award championship the championships there and you know really is up to i believe student movements on these campuses that are members of the n c a a to lean on them and make that a big m protest and get them back out again well i'm i have a couple of things i want to say about this st of all i think the n c a a devil a should put its money where its mouth is and start lobbying congress to pass the equality act  among other things but the n c double a awards championships to forty three different states forty three and most of those states do not have good pro  desolate championships is pennsylvania which does not have a statewide nondiscrimination law i agree that we have decided to make a distinction between states that are actively passing anti laws like a doris the equality act being for things easy getting things done is the hard part well that's what i'm saying not just a door scene but actually working for holding people accountable well what do you know its weight behind at least we're hearing that the north carolina the builder reinstate the same sex marriage ban and the pm want to do yes we warned you about that last week that they this had been introduced this no marriage recognition bill but that has been withdrawn so we well no i've got two versions of this so i think the most recent news is good news that senate democrats and along with three republicans killed the broad religious exemption bill that had been licenses if it conflicts with their religious beliefs that was approved there also advancing of the bathroom bill specifically a bathroom bill about access of trans people to the appropriate state three billion dollars three billion dollars a year but they don't seem too concerned after they saw how easy it is to get off the hook in north carolina with a little bait and switch which is why i'm a little surprised at what happened in minnesota where the alliance defending freedom our favorite right wing legal group has dropped its lawsuit against trans girl teenager who was it was dancing in a locker room and they said all that said appropriate behavior that scary the other girls she was dancing with the other girls it's decent we'll get to that later but they suddenly dropped the lawsuit so i can only think that they realized that they were going to get nowhere with it because it was so empty they are not dropping it in alabama where the senate has passed the queue licensed to discriminate child welfare discrimination adoption and foster care and all those kinds of things now on another matter and how about a governor i v is not going to let luther strange to the senator who was roofless jeff sessions appointed by bentley state he's got to have to face a special election on august the th but who's the number one candidate against him roy before the deposed twice deposed chief justice of the state of alabama a minister ten for kids in foster care and that he cannot be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity that's a good thing from nevada and we've got to we've got a good decision from pennsylvania and i just try briefly explain it it basically says that the common law marriages of same sex couples must be recognized now they say they only had common law marriage in pennsylvania until two thousand and five but if you were if you had a common law marriage trial so it's a you know it's a guy they one of them died before same sex marriage was legalized and they were trying to adjudicate things with the support of the family who know that we did was trying to take the estate or anything they want so good for s senate last year is now running for congress in the nd district there which comprises about half the state well it's a good goal it gets all of the southwest and goes right up to salt lake city  salt lake county anyway she's a grocery cashier and she thinks she could connect with working class voters well she did very well in the race last year i think she won the primary and she was against an incumbent stewart she says she learned a lot in last year's race she's starting earlier and she's serious about wanting to go to congress if only she were running in jason chait that says district now that he's withdrawn  t we'll keep an eye on misty meanwhile also in utah the a c l u has filed suit on behalf two of trans people there because the state is saying well change your gender marker on your driver's license but not on your birth certificate and that's a problem for people because they need the correct gender on their birth certificate to apply for all sorts of other things from the government you have that from utah the app and there's an idaho then let's have a very beautiful good friday story to share ok that's from new jersey brian mcdowell a former contestant on the apprentice was running for assembly was caught on tape asking a woman to sleep with him and slurring his words as he spoke in a very obnoxious way you should ask me would be really good listen you know so it all comes out right and he says there are human errors and even jesus dropped the cross three times  understand jesus you know you're not perfect you drop the course you cross i'm not running to be the pope i'm going to make new jersey more mea ashworth died she was a fantastic activist as a mother of two gay sounds i realized that there she is on the left with her son tucker and then her husband richard ashworth and their other doing how they're so so you know serious her son came out she basically most she's going to we're going to listen to her talk about this but you know she they got involved and they when they were at the time that they were founding the parents and friends of lesbians  she was out there in the streets all that she was out there on the streets with us but she was she also talked to schools all the time to church groups and we did you know we sometimes she'd be the speaker with us and with the gaze she was the parent many times was easier for them to listen to the parent talk than it was to us in some cases she was just wonderful she originally so you'll hear a little of that accent in her speech well she'd better burst during the war world war two w person themselves run he or she feels comfortable with and maybe the best thing is where you don't wrong any longer live at home and then when you feel sure about your song i feel it's it's very important to go through your pa and they said you know see you next month i believe so much in support groups because it helps them to know that there are other parents who are going through the same things that is going through and the answer to help them through and we're and how many chapters of parents of gays are there started out by saying i have lost both my sons to aids and the chair of it goes always were so was so sorry for your loss like this in a very kind almost condescending and she says i don't want your sympathy i want you to do something i'll never forget it it was just she was just movement feel very privileged to have known her very sorry she's gone happy she lived a long life yes sorry she lost her son but really really grateful for all all the work she did and what a stal she was and what a fearless activist and so ambitious for the right thing to be done survived by her son ever ard and his family out in california and now yes now we've lost a couple of other people we want to talk about this week joan garner was in atlanta and fulton county commissioner she just died at sixty five of breast cancer she leaves a wife judge jane morrison joe garner w a local legend in atlanta fought for decades for the rights of people with hiv and aids and elegy people and was lauded by the whole community for the work she did and we  lost a great ally one of the high court judges in new york justice sheila obtuse salaam she was the st african american woman pointed to the high court is over and she was distorting the appeal discovered in the river but she wrote and expand the definition of what it means to be a parent overturning a previous ruling that was very beneficial to gay parents it was a case with the lesbian couple who had split and the non biological parent of their child was suing for visitation or partial custody and traditionally and by precedent as a non biological parent she would have no rights to do that but  judge said no these are both real parents and they both have a right to this contest visitation and custody here and we lost an ally of the former  gender identity he called the school district the following week left a message was them threatening to kill branded cause bodily harm to the student now the reason i want to do the story is not because of his face but because you know the depth of anger and viciousness around this issue is to be i want to say it's it's almost unfathomable how people feel about this but i guess we have to deal with the fact that this is out there but wow there's a lot of anger and mental illness out there in the human population that leads to a lot of horrible stuff going on sometimes we do horrible things apparently because a guy in new york around madison square garden guy named curtis campbell he reported to the police that he was gay bashed by a guy named grant leach twenty six and the police caught the guy handcuffed him you know the supposed gay basher but then they reviewed all the tapes of the area and they say none of this happened so they were arrested mr gamble charged him with false arrest he still says it happened and fern tacking leads yes and so we don't you know we weren't there we don't know the truth of the story about the cops have switched sides and this will be adjudicated we want to to something coming up this saturday at the new york public library for those of you who be in new york from noon to six pm run by a historian marty do berman two panels beyond my i was also caught by what i think was a very very important column that's getting a lot of notice in the new york times today as we tape on wednesday an op ed piece called girls can still be tomboys and it's all it's written by a mother who says her how old is her daughter seven her seven year old daughter is a tomboy but is now  in the age of sensitivity to trance kids is being asked constantly whether she is a boy he wants to be a boy is having feelings like that and the mother is saying hey i support trans kids if my girl suddenly at some point decides that is who she is that's fine we'll be supportive of that but she's a girl and have we so narrowed the definition of what a girl is that we can no suggest i look like a tomboy there even in my lovely debutant dress i'll let my companion there remain anonymous because i have not received his permission and he was the next door neighbor of what women are what men are i'm sure a famine it in quotes of men run into this same thing we just have to see a broad spectrum of people just want you to be happy is who you v dot org and just automatically register to be on our e mail list to get a preview of what's going to be on the program but this column is getting a lot of notice and is causing a stir and i think for good reason i'm thrilled to see this are some people upset but no i think people are just falling over themselves to say what a great piece and it's not bashing anybody is an import of everybody and it's a thought that has not been expressed recently and i think that's terrific and this little girl sounds terrific and because we need to get better about these things because a new report done by our government house of the field center has found that fifty six percent of homeless transgender youth have been involved in the sex trade on chechnya well yeah i mean the thing about the chechnya story which we brought you last week is you know that it's getting a lot more attention the united states nikki hadley has you know issued a condemnation of what's going on she's disturbed the well you know but then she hoped held this human rights meeting and i didn't see any mention of chechnya at that most and you know the russia g b t network is has received thirty unique best to make that happen well much as i appreciate nikki haley's support and i do she said the authorities must investigate the authorities are the ones who are doing this well some men have a scape from this detention center about fifteen  dollars of them they say that they were held without food tortured with electric shocks and beaten sometimes to death and some of the detainees have include well known chechnyan figures like a local t v presenter now the people who are getting the worst of it over besides these men and this horrible situation are the reporters who are practically having to go into hiding because they've exposed this there was a dam oh a demonstration in london about this thousand people attended the meeting of the gregson in the chechen capital adopting a resolution vowing retribution against the instigators of the story whoa against those who are exposing yes yeah yes they're calling them the instigators here they don't give a damn about ever they're part of the problem outright is calling on exxon b p and shell to stand up because there's some of the big corporations operating in chechnya can deduce some of that well then should be on this case it was another story coming out of russia about a violinist named or tim cole a sob who was now living in chicago who is from russia because he grew up with fundamentalist parents and he had to flee you can't even visit the family anymore because they they will likely harm him there's a video about him we'll put that in our e mail as well but it's all in russian with subtitles and a slightly wacky story out of the vatican where they have appointed a p r consultant who is a change what your fundamental teachings are completely agree so i was disgusted with mo rocca again i am going to the vatican do a piece on c b s sunday morning this week and i just you know acting like it's all wonderful and there's no it was no social there was no political content to it whatsoever the i saw a description of the show that said mo rocca talks to pope francis and i thought wow you know i'm skeptical but i better take a look at this not that it was a travel  for testing and and prevention and treatment this is a new i didn't realize minors did not have the right to access those services on their own terrible things over a while now they can we lost this feature at the glad dinner this year i'm sure so i've watched survivor for years but i'm kind of bored with it now but i check in just each week just at the end of the show to see what's going on and i tune into that last week and there's who and to see old each other are but that's very common on survivor but jeff who is a gay guy is he's the target for the week so in the middle of the tribal council at the end was this is a season where they have it's an all star season where they have people from previous seasons competing against each other so zeke had been on just last year is st time and when he st started addition for survivor let's put up the pictures the cake and if we can in the hawaiian shirt did not come out at st to the producers as trans but as he went through the interview process he eventually did let them know he was trans but it did not come up or come out in his st season they go over to jeff and they say hey you know and then he comes back for this all star season along with a lot of other people d and he says now because you can't imagine that you could go on a show like this without it eventually coming out he says you know i realized it could happen but whatever but a lot of people are saying you know why didn't he expect as well he should have expected it and it did happen and he's not screaming about being outed in the saying now i'm glad it's a positive experience everybody's been supportive but you've raised the question and i'm sure some have who are not experienced reality show watchers how could this be real surely this whole thing was a total set up i don't think was i don't know that's out of the not that's not exactly what my opinion my peers people were getting outraged that jeff exposed ok i don't use the word out and that's to me that's a straight word but exposed it's the producers who exploit the it's the producers who choose what to put on t v at so lovely and it's six months after it actually happened so clearly they had a long conversation about this and plotting and planning and got everybody in and i said this is great and of course they did and but so did the contestants and they pre prepared continue to be troubled by his willingness to deploy such a dangerous stereotype that trans people are liars that they're you know asserting some inauthentic look we have we have the trans panic defense you know a trend you know lost a tooth picks a guy up and discovers that she is you know has a penis for instance and then kills them and they use this is an excuse like you know you were being a liar on these shows i don't understand that he was not big number one of the st and most famous survivor contestants was one who lied to everyone and said his grandmother was dead and gain sympathy that way and his grandmother was not he also said he wouldn't say filthy but he said he's a liar and he's deceiving you and therefore you should be turning on him not me and when he was confronted about this and why he felt he had the right to reveal th new context to see a real trans person and discuss those issues ok and on i think any time any of this any of our issues pop up  wish we were looking forward to both of these productions we went together and states with the whole thing in both cases well one of them didn't have an intermission it's true and the other one it got your reviews so i asked part was this not going to war paint it's a great idea it's a little insipid to think you know you left not really knowing that much more than you already kind of knew about women and power and all those kinds of things and i was very very sad well ten seconds and i knew it was going to be empty and that made my heart sink the best part is the last fifteen minutes when they actually talk to each other famously they they supposedly never met in real life so they show maintained that except for this fantasy conversation they had where they end where they meet in a room doubt about to get an award that was the only interesting part of the show and if they had constructed the show in such a way that they could talk to each other throughout the show even if it was clearly not really well that would have been so much more interesting would be they have vengeance that had a lesbian relationship there you have it at the center of it and this play apparently was a big hit throughout europe although it was controversial played in the theater in new york it played at the provincetown plants in new york in the twenty's and then it goes to broadway they change a little bit of it and they all get arrested while they are doing the last be and well i think they still going to arrest him for having it now because that this story is a guy who's running a brothel in his basement and his daughter gets involved with one of the prostitutes and the big thing that they keep running is all those women on their knees paid for this that he's holding over her head now it's worth it was i mean it's i think you're saying it's one of the greatest players of all time and some melodrama and i'm not a very convincing what but here's the thing yeah my prime real problem with it was not really making characters were playing all these people to be real people yeah i thought that  woman's experience of her mother coming around from church condemnation of her lesbian ism through the paltz massacre and it's only sixteen minutes it's called love the sinner it's  interesting cynthia nixon's movie about her as emily dickinson is currently playing in new york and opens in l a this we're going to see her a little foxes pretty soon we are a quiet passion you might want to check out that oh the big hit of new fast is and i have had the privilege of seeing the documentary the lavender scare and then i told you about last week that's going to be playing and screenings around and festivals around the forward to it it's wonderful and it includes a terrific section on another of our heroes frank kaminey with an extended interview with him all about his experience of being kicked out of the government this all started in the nazis eisenhower signed an executive order get rid of all the homos that lasted for forty years until clinton reversed it and it's this whole story of this well what completely reverse  for that coming up and we will see you next