“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” were opened by an encounter with gay Christian Metropolitan Community Church minister Rev. Steve Pieters (interviewed by Lucia Chappelle), and that historic event convinced Jessica Chastain to take on the role of the outrageous televangelist in the new feature film (part 2 of 2).
U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) drops a pro-equality bombshell on “60 Minutes.”
And in NewsWrap: the states of Querétaro and Sonora extend Mexican marriage equality, the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador vow to stop pro-LGBTQ legal reforms, Ukraine has ups and downs at Pride celebrations with war in Odessa and peace in Kyiv, Belgrade Pride goes Gaga in support of registered partnerships, Bolsonaro praises bias and Biden defends rights at the U.N., RuPaul smashes an Emmy glass ceiling and addresses queer youth, a late-breaking bulletin on Switzerland’s marriage equality victory, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by MR Raquel and Marcos Najera (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this and more on the September 27, 2021 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary and NewsWrap Transcript for the week of September 27, 2021
Queer Eyes Eyeing Tammy Faye + global LGBTQ news!
Program #1,748 distributed 09/27/21
Hosted this week by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia ChappelleNewsWrap (full transcript below): Querétaro and Sonora become the latest Mexican states to open civil marriage to same-gender couples … the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador each reject equality … neo-Nazi thugs clash with cops at the LGBTQ Pride celebration in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, but several thousand march at a relatively peaceful Pride in the capital city of Kyiv … the Serbian capital of Belgrade goes “Gaga” over Pride, but the country’s lesbian Prime Minister is M.I.A. … Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro preaches family and Christianity during his U.N. General Assembly speech this week, while Joe Biden’s maiden U.N. remarks as U.S. President call for global equality, including LGBTQ rights … RuPaul stands out as the one and only queer major Prime Time Emmy Award winner among several notable nominations, but breaks a colorful record in the process (written by GREG GORDON, edited by LUCIA CHAPPELLE, reported this week by MR RAQUEL and MARCOS NAJERA, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR).
Feature: This Just In: Swiss voters overwhelmingly approve marriage equality in a right wing-forced public referendum + Tease and Billboard for Rev. Steve Pieters in the conclusion of The Eyes Of Tammy Faye.
Feature: U.S. Republican Representative Liz Cheney surprises Leslie Stahl on CBS’ 60 Minutes with an admission of guilt about marriage equality.
Feature: We begin Part 2 of our LUCIA CHAPPELLE’s exclusive two-part interview with the Rev. Steve Pieters of the Metroplitan Community Church – who became part of Executive Producer and star Jessica Chastain’s entourage for her new movie The Eyes Of Tammy Faye – with a taste of the real-life version and the movie re-enactment of the event that hooked the Oscar-nominated actress, as she told Stephen Colbert on CBS’s The Late Show. Steve and Lucia are old friends, and in part one of their chat, they recalled the often-hilarious circumstances around his original interview with Tammy Faye on the Praise the Lord network. In this conclusion, they talk about the significance of the experience then, and how he got involved in promoting the new movie (with audio clips, a midway combo voices INSIDE This Way Out newsletter promo; and incidental music by THE GUESS WHO and THE LITTLE RIVER BAND).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending September 25, 2021
Written by Greg Gordon, edited by Lucia Chappelle, reported this week by MR Raquel and Marcos Najera, produced by Brian DeShazorMarriage equality came to two more Mexican states this week.
In Querétaro it was a surprise. The unexpected September 22nd vote was held behind closed doors with online coverage of the session cut, according to reports. The exact tally is uncertain: 20 or 21 lawmakers in favor, and three or four against. Two or three apparently left the legislative chamber without voting. Querétaro is one of the country’s smallest states, and is located in North-Central Mexico.
In Sonora marriage equality passed the state Congress the following day by a vote of 26-to-7. Sonora borders the Southwest U.S. state of Arizona.
Querétaro and Sonora become Mexico’s 22nd and 23rd states to open civil marriage to same-gender couples.
The federal district of Mexico City became the nation’s first marriage equality jurisdiction in December 2009. In 2015, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice for the Nation ruled that state bans on same-gender marriage were unconstitutional. The Court had no power to force compliance, however, so equality must be won state by state.
In Mexico’s eight remaining “marriage inequality” states, queer couples can still legally wed – they just have to hire costly legal help and get final approval from a federal judge. That “amparo” cannot be refused because of the Supreme Court ruling.
On the other hand, a pair of Central American presidents has trashed marriage equality.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández proclaimed at a bicentennial celebration in Tegucigalpa on September 15th, “[A]ccording to our Constitution … the family, marriage, motherhood, and childhood [are protected] against all their dangers, such as marriage between persons of the same sex, which is promoted by some, not respecting life, and wanting to install in schools that our children receive anti-values concepts such as the ideology of gender, that seeks to ignore how God brings a boy and a girl into the world …”
In January, Congress inserted a marriage equality ban into the Honduran Constitution that requires a 75-percent majority to overturn. Activists responded with a lawsuit against the super-ban in February.
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador firmly rejected marriage equality, euthanasia, and abortion decriminalization from the constitutional reform proposals his government plans to send to Congress. In a September 17th Facebook posting laced with capitalized emphasis, he wrote that, “I have decided, to dispel ANY DOUBT, NOT TO PROPOSE ANY KIND OF REFORM TO ANY ITEMS RELATED TO the RIGHT TO LIFE (from the moment of conception), to marriage (keeping only the original design, A MAN AND A WOMAN) or to euthanasia.”
Honduras and El Salvador are both members of the Organization of American States, and subject to its judicial arm, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In January 2018, the Court ordered all members to open civil marriage to same-gender couples if they had not already done so. However, it’s a ruling with no real enforcement provisions.
Recent Pride celebrations in Ukraine yielded a tale of two cities.
The Southwestern seaport city of Odessa saw ultra-nationalist neo-Nazis clash with law enforcement after the August 28th LGBTQ Pride march. About a hundred queers were outnumbered two- or three- to one by members of the far-right group Tradition and Order. Police officers kept the two groups separated along the route and at the post-march rally. When Pride-goers eventually boarded buses to leave the area, the right-wing thugs threw their tear gas canisters at the police. It turned into a melee that injured almost 30 officers, and resulted in more than 50 arrests on charges ranging from violence against police to rioting and hooliganism.
This year’s Odessa Pride was still an improvement over 2020. Then the cops just stood by as anti-queer protestors assaulted marchers with eggs and tear gas.
It was different in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Organizers of the 10th Pride celebration there said that about 7,000 attended the Equality March on September 19th. Police guarded participants from a few hundred homophobes protesting nearby, but no violence was reported.
The Eastern European nation’s President Volodymyr Zelensky met with U.S. President Joe Biden in late August. Afterwards, Zelensky promised to advance LGBTQ equality, but it’ll be an uphill battle. Ukraine’s Eastern Orthodox Church wields considerable political power, and cultural homophobia is firmly embedded in the society.
Yet another LGBTQ Pride tale unfolded in the Serbian capital of Belgrade on September 18th. Queers went gaga at their annual march:
[Gaga music and cheers, faded out under:]
Meanwhile, police kept the far-right protestors away, and let them burn rainbow flags in a cordoned-off area.
Lesbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic did not attend this year’s festivities. She’s facing increased fire for failing to advance LGBTQ rights during her tenure. Serbian law does not recognize same-gender couples, but she and her wife were allowed to adopt a child. Marchers demanded that all Serbian queer couples should at least be eligible for registered partnerships.
This week’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City heard two presidents outline very different agendas.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro pushed family values and his highly selective brand of religious freedom during his remarks:
[BOLSONARO v/o English translation:] “Liberty is humankind’s greatest asset. I call upon the entire international community to protect religious liberty and fight Christ-phobia. Brazil is a Christian and a conservative country, and has family as its foundation. May God bless us all. Thank you very much.”
Bolsonaro was followed by U.S. President Joe Biden, who delivered his first U.N. remarks in office:
[BIDEN:] “As we pursue diplomacy across the board, the United States will champion the democratic values that go to the very heart of who we are as a nation and a people: freedom, equality, opportunity and a belief in the universal rights of all people. … We all must defend the rights of LGBTQI individuals, so they can live and love openly without fear — whether it’s Chechnya or Cameroon or anywhere.”
That was U.S. President Joe Biden.
Finally, lots of nominated LGBTQ artists were holding their breaths as the Prime Time Emmy Awards were handed out on September 19th in Los Angeles. Out actors Samira Wiley of The Handmaid’s Tale, Bowen Yang and Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live, and Hannah Einbinder and Carl Clemons-Hopkins of Hacks were all waiting. Each came away empty-handed.
The third and final season of Pose had nine nominations including Outstanding Drama Series. There was a historic nod to MJ Rodriguez, the Television Academy’s first transgender actor to be nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Billy Porter scored a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. In the end, Pose was 0 for 9.
Out actor Jonathan Groff was part of Disney-Plus’s Hamilton cast, which won the Emmy for Best Variety Special.
The only other queer winner of the evening was a record-breaker. RuPaul added Outstanding Competition Series at the Prime Time Emmys this week to the two Creative Arts Emmys he claimed last week for Outstanding Host of a Reality or Competition Program for RuPaul’s Drag Race and Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program for RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked.
That puts him ahead of cinematographer Donald A. Morgan with eleven Prime Time Emmy Awards as a person of color.
RuPaul used his acceptance speech to give a Prime Time shout out to queer youth:
[RUPAUL:] “Well, thank you so much to the Academy and all of you gorgeous people here tonight … all the people at World of Wonder, our friends at World of Wonder and Viacom-CBS, who have been so wonderful. But really, thanks to all of our lovely children on our show from around the world. You know, they are so gracious to tell their stories of courage and how to navigate this difficult life — even more difficult today. This is for you. And for you kids out there watching, you have a tribe that is waiting for you. We are waiting for you, baby! Come to Mama Ru! Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you!”
You’d better work, Mama Ru! You go gurl! Congratulations!
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