In comparing LGBT rights activists to the KKK — and then repeatedly refusing to apologize or even distance himself from this outrageous comment — Chicago’s Cardinal George has reached a new low.

A serial opponent of legal equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people, and safe and affirming schools for LGBT youth, George has embraced the worst of the Vatican’s medieval mindset.

Not uncoincidently, his plumbing the depths of anti-gay bigotry comes at a time when many lay Catholics and other people of faith are moving in a positive direction. For example, a majority of lay Catholics in the U.S. SUPPORT marriage equality for same-sex couples — a higher percentage than the population as a whole.

But in a desperate attempt to hold onto his flock, George is scapegoating LGBT’s — pro-equality activists — by comparing us to the worst of America’s opponents of equality.

It is ironic that George chooses the comparison to the KKK, as they are but the most extreme example of a group which has used religion to try to shield themselves from criticism of their backward views. While certainly not of the same caliber of hatefulness as the KKK, George himself also hides behind religion as a shield against those who criticize his discriminatory attitudes against women and LGBTs.

For his lack of judgment in making the irresponsible charge, and immaturity in being too proud to undo his error, it is time for Cardinal George to resign.

It is also time for those who oppose his hatefulness to stand up and be counted. Please join us in a peaceful picket of at George’s premiere cathedral to demand that he end his irresponsible leadership of the archdiocese, and resign.

12 noon, Sunday, January 8
In front of Holy Name Cathedral
735 N. State Street, Chicago

Please help spread the word by tweeting and facebooking this.  Better yet, go to the FB event and share it with your Facebook friends.

For more information, contact the Gay Liberation Network at LGBTliberation@aol.com

Birth of a Transgender Movement in Russia. Transgender activists in Russia are making their contribution to the international LGBT movement. In this video, GayRussia activist Anna Komarova talks about some of the ground-breaking activities taking place in his country, including the first-ever in-person, public statement in favor of Transgender rights — one block away from the Kremlin before a forest of national and international media.

Anna has been involved in Moscow Pride from its start in 2006, and has been arrested by Russian riot police and beaten by neofascists for doing so. Anna is interviewed by Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network (Chicago), who was also a participant in the past three Pride demonstrations held in Moscow (and arrested twice as a result).

More information is available at www.GayRussia.eu and www.GayLiberation.net. A more lengthy print version of this interview is available at http://www.feastoffun.com/topics/people/2011/06/03/the-birth-of-a-transgender-movement-in-russia/

The European Council on Human Rights may have ruled that the Russian people have a right to hold a Pride Parade, but that didn’t stop the authorities in Moscow from banning it anyway by claiming they couldn’t protect the parade participants from the haters.

Dan Choi gets beaten up. In Russia you don't march in Pride Parade, Pride Parade marches on you.

But, the march was a huge success not only at an international level, but it also drew an unprecedented amount of attention from the Russian media, which here until now largely ignored the struggle for gay rights in the land of Tchaikovsky.

Today, Andy Thayer joins us fresh from his return from Russia (with love) to share his amazing story of participating in the Pride Parade and what it was like to face down hunky but violent Russian police officers and fascists.

Listen to today’s show to hear what Sir Ian McClellan had to say about the parade and find out what Adam Lambert tweeted while performing in Moscow on that very day.

Plus-

Sarah Palin’s tour bus gets tagged.

Shep Smiths’ struggles to wrap his head around Wiener’s wang.

Civil Unions go live in Illinois.

And boy are we maad at GLAAD and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce! Why are two of the nation’s largest gay lobby groups endorsing the AT&T merger, a move that’s most likely against their own interests?

Tom Goss: iTunes

At least two of those arrested are members of Russia’s Transgender community.  The day after we were released from jail, I sat down with one of them, Anna  Komarova, to discuss the issues facing Russia’s budding Transgender community.  Anna’s presentation at a press conference two days previously is believed to be the first-ever pro-Transgender public presentation the country has ever seen. A video of Anna should be ready to appear in this space tomorrow night — until then, below is the print interview.

Andy Thayer:  Anna, one of the things that I’m often asked by LGBTs when they learn I’ve been to Russia, is what is the situation of Transgender people in your country?  It strikes me as such a big question, I don’t have a way of answering it.  How would you answer that question?

Anna Komarova:  The Russian media almost absolutely do not cover this subject.  There are a few articles about Transgender people, some interviews with Transsexuals, and that’s all.  It seems to me that there is no real Transgender movement in Russia, but only some internet forums, some internet services for Transgenders, but in my opinion, Transgenders in Russia don’t understand their rights, they don’t fight for their rights.  For example, Transsexuals, they are part of Transgender community. They don’t have in Russia any clear procedure for changing documents, surgery if they need it, hormone therapy and so on.  It is not clear in Russia what to do, how to do it.  All regions decide how to do it themselves.

AT:  There’s no national policy.

AK:  Yes, yes.  And, it seems like Transgenders in Russia are afraid to fight for their rights, and nobody knows about other gender identities in the Transgender community, for example, about Genderqueers, Agenders, I am an Agender myself.  There is no information about it.  The first Genderqueer forum for Russian speakers was founded in November 2010.  It has only a little more than 100 users now. So this is the situation.

AT:  What is the attitude of the government towards Transgender people talking to each other and attempting to find out about themselves and better ways to improve their lives?

AK:  The Russian government doesn’t care about that, as it doesn’t care about LGB people.  What we are doing is we are fighting for freedom of assembly, and it is very difficult to get it, but there isn’t possible to fight for your rights if you do not have this basic opportunity to, for example, go to a street, to take your slogans and so on.

AT:  In the United States there is a big problem with medical abuse of Intersex children.  Is there a serious problem with that in Russia as well?

AK:  Yes, but our Intersexuals are —  I’d like to underline that I am only expressing my own point of view — Russian Intersex people think that they are sick, [almost] all of them, and the government too.  The same with Transgenders.  A lot of Transgenders in Russia think that they are sick, and it seems to me that it’s a problem too, because it’s easier to change your body if you don’t need permission from psychologists. [It’s better if] you only have to visit other doctors who help to change your body, and there is no necessity to pass through [psychological] tests and so on within rather a big period.

AT:  Does the Russian medical system, does it assist with gender reassignment surgery for those who want it, or does it put all sorts of barriers between it, financial and otherwise?

AK:  In most Russian regions, the authorities ask you to have surgery and hormone therapy before you can change your [identity] documents, and that’s not correct, because some people don’t want to do it.  And they can’t do it because health problems or other reasons, many other reasons.  For example, I don’t want to do anything with my body.

AT:  Is there state funding for those who do want to, or do people have to pay for it out of their own pockets?

AK:  No, we pay ourselves, for everything.

AT:  Is that the case for most medical care in general?

AK:  We have a national system of medical insurance, but it doesn’t include any surgery or other things that you need if you are Transsexual to make some changes with your body.  It doesn’t include all of these things.  But what about other insurances?  If it is possible to include by your own wish, …if you want to make surgery now, there is no way to find an insurance company which will include this surgery, and then you [will] wait for several years.

AT:  Shifting more to the information flow and the organizing of Transgender people in Russia, you mentioned that some of these on-line forums just started last year.  What was there before that?  What information sharing was there among Transgender people to find out about issues that are important to you?

AK:  I think that they used internet, first of all, and to pass information from one person to another person.

AT:  Are there Russian language books and articles that people can read?

AK:  There are some books, but almost all of them say that gender variant people are sick, and they explain to doctors how to make hormone therapy or surgery for Transsexuals.  We have this kind of books.  But all of them say that it’s mental disease.  Besides that, I want to say that Transsexuals are not the only kind of Transgenders.

AT:  It sounds like there is a very large absence of information for people trying to find out about themselves, trying to have positive images of themselves.  The notion that most Transgender people see themselves as sick is very disturbing, and mentally debilitating.  Are there any coordinated attempts to begin translating publications that are Transgender-affirming that are written in other languages?

AK:  Transgender forums and activists in those forums translate foreign articles and they publish those articles on their forums.  Forums are the main source of information about Transgenderness and Transsexuality, but in Russia, almost all people think that Transgender people are all Transsexuals.  And besides that, most Transsexuals think that Transgenders are simply Transsexuals.  And I’ve already told you that our GenderQueer forums are too small and too young.  But anyway, our forum includes a lot of scientific articles which were written in English and we translate them ourselves.

AT:  As long as we’re on the subject, what would be the best way for people in other countries to support Transgender people in Russia?

AK:  I think we need more contacts, more connections.  We need maybe more information about other gender identities and about the ways of expression of gender identities in other countries.  I mean, in the Canadian army, for example, almost nobody knows that it is possible to put on the uniform which you like, which you [decide your] gender identity.  In Russia, nobody knows about it.  And I’ve talked about this for the Russian media during press conference the day before Moscow Gay Pride.  Especially to attract the attention to this subject, to Transgender questions.

AT:  Going back to the press conference this past Friday, just two days ago, it strikes me — and correct me if I am wrong — could that have been the first publicly announced meeting where pro-Transgender issues were discussed before the general public, not just among LGBT people, in private meetings, but for the non-gay media?  Was that perhaps the first time, your speech at that press conference?

AK:  It seems to me that you are right.  Maybe I don’t know about other initiatives, but it seems to me that it was the first time.

AT:  In Chicago and other large cities in the United States, there are meetings of Transgender people where people can not only deal with political issues, but also discuss the impediments that they face as they carry on with their daily lives.  People have opportunities to have in-person discussions with other Transgender people, and gain support from other’s knowledge. The internet is great, but in a city like Moscow, which is 15 million people, are there any such organizations which at least provide an opportunity for socializing and non-political discussions?

AK:  There is one organization in Moscow which is called the Transgender Foundation.  And it helps Transsexuals and some other gender variant people to socialize and to discuss their problems.  They have meetings, and I had a meeting before Pride with their organizers, and we set up a meeting after Pride.  I will meet with them again.  We decided to discuss our possible future work together.

AT:  I gather that right now that this organization, Transgender, is an information-sharing organization rather than an advocacy organization of “Well, we need this change in the national healthcare system,” or “We need this change in the educational system,” is that correct?  Has it not taken up policy issues yet?

AK:  No, we do not have this kind of [advocacy] organization yet, but we do have some organizations which help to realize transitions from one sex to another, and to socialize and to get new documents, and they help.  But they don’t discuss how to change the system, and a lot of Russian Transsexuals don’t want to change the system.  It seems to me that they are afraid of it, because we have, for example, several doctors, psychologists in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, who help them to get the permission to go through their transition.  And they are afraid to break this system.  But this system , in my opinion, is not comfortable.  In my opinion, there is not any necessity to get permission from psychologists, because we don’t get any permissions when we get any plastic surgeries.

AT:  In the United States, in the political LGBT movement, there has often been a problem where Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual activists have not been supportive of the demands of Transgender peoples.

AK:  We have the same problem in Russia.

AT:  That’s very sad, given how under siege everyone is that is gender variant or of different sexual orientations, that there would not be that solidarity with Transgender people.

AK:  Yes, I think that the Russian LGB community is rather Transphobic.

AT:  How does this manifest itself, this Transphobia?

AK:  When I say that I am Transgender in a Lesbian company, they say, “Oh no, no, that’s not Transgender.”  So this way, they just say that they don’t.

AT:  In a country that is as large as Russia is, population-wise, 150 million people compared to the 300 million in the United States, there have got to a number of women’s rights organizations.  What sort of support, or lack of support, do those organizations give to Transgender people?

AK:  I’ve never heard about any connections with these kinds of organizations.  Maybe there is, but this is not my experience.  I’ve never heard of it.

AT:  Do you know if there have been any attempts by Transgender individuals or organizations to influence these women’s organizations, to ask that they take up Transgender issues as part of a broader feminist agenda?

AK:  I think that I’ve heard something about it, but these questions have not come out to a wider public discussion.

AT:  You covered a lot of ground in your speech at the press conference.  It was very ground-breaking in that this was, perhaps for the first time in Russia, a place where Transgender issues were discussed in a positive, open public forum, in person.  The more I think about it, that was a very ground-breaking event for GayRussia to do that. That’s got to make you very proud.

AK:  I hope that my speech changed some things for our Transgender situation in Russia.  I think that it’s too early to be proud.

AT:  Anna, you have been a stalwart of GayRussia for years now.  You participated in the first Moscow Pride in 2006, and you have been beaten by the fascists, you have been roughly treated by the police, including arrested…

AK:  I wasn’t arrested that year, only beaten…

AT:  …”only” beaten [laughing], but you have paid your dues, as we say in the West, as an LGBT activist, and yet you were telling me earlier that you began coming out as a Transgender person about a year ago.  Describe to me how your consciousness changed and what prompted your consciousness to change.

AK:  I began to think about gender questions in my childhood.  I thought, if I want to be a man, and I discussed it with my friends when I was maybe 6 – 7 years old, and I decided, it’s a little bit difficult for me to describe my situations, which changed my mind.  But there were some situations when I decided not to be a man too.  I am not a woman., I felt it, I knew that I’m not like other women, other girls, and I thought maybe I’d like to be a man, but I decided in my childhood that I’m not a man too.  And I found, that there was an interesting situation when, I found an audio tape that my father did.  I was three years old, and I was crying and I told to my father, “No I am not crying because of something,” and he spoke to me to be quiet and something, and I cried to him, ‘I’m not a girl, I’m not a girl.’”  He told me, “Why not a girl, you’re a girl.”  I was only three years old.  And so it’s interesting, I didn’t expect to find it out on those tapes.  And then, later, when maybe I was 13, 14, I tried to be like other girls and all Transgenders try to pass through this period, it seems to me, but it was difficult for me.  Then I thought maybe being a man was more comfortable.  Then I decided that if I feel neither like a man or a woman, I decided that I tell people I am Agender, because I feel like that.

AT:  How did your consciousness change?

AK:  About one year and a half [ago], I decided to express my gender identity, and I told people that I Agender, but I found out that they agree.  It seemed to me that they didn’t realize that I really don’t identify myself as either a man or a woman.  So, I decided to do something else, and I began to use masculine gender in my speech.  I know that speech expresses our consciousness, speech changes our consciousness at the same time, so now I insist that everybody to use my female name and masculine gender when they speak about me and to me.  But I am not the first in this kind of experience because, for example, Vladimir Luxuria, ex-deputy of Italian parliament uses MASCULINE (or MALE) NAME and FEMAILE GRAMMAR GENDER and there is no problem with it.  She’s an actor and by the way, she took part in Moscow Gay Pride in 2007.  So that’s my experience.

AT:  Looking at the broader issues facing Transgender people in Russia, what do you think is the most important issue for Transgender people in this country?

AK:  I think freedom of expression of gender identity.  And I think one more thing I think is very important from my point of view is to delete gender variant behavior from World Health Organization ICD.  That’s very important.

AT:  What do you think is the biggest thing stopping Transgender people from gaining more freedom in Russia?

AK:  I think that it’s very important to stop discrimination at the job and to stop physical violence against Transgender people.

AT:  What more can you tell me about those two issues?

AK:  It’s almost impossible to express gender identity at the job in Russia.  You’ll be kicked out from your job.  It’s the most likely thing that could happen to you after you come out.

AT:  How do you survive in your own employment?

AK:  It’s very difficult to [catch] your employer when they kick you out and the real reason is your Transgenderness. But they hide, usually. They don’t show that this is the real reason, so it’s to go to court, because they don’t say the real reasons [why they fire you].

AT:  What about the issue of anti-Transgender violence?

AK:  My [personal] experience was only at Gay Pride events, but with me I was surprised when I found out [this] one theme at one of the biggest F to M Transgender forums in Russia.  I was surprised by the quantity of people who faced violence in their lives.  I didn’t expect [it].

AT:  I would like to record that you are one of the unsung heroes of Moscow Pride.  In 2011, there has been a great deal of news coverage of internationals such as myself — frankly out of all proportion to the risks that we faced  –  and the injuries received were fortunately minor.   But you, this year, were forced to the ground and kicked three or four times in the head.   You tried to get yourself checked into a hospital for possible concussion or other hidden serious injury, but were not able to pay the bribes to make it happen.

I should also note that you have been in Moscow Pride from the beginning.  At the first Moscow Pride in 2006 and 2007, you were severely beaten, and it’s lesser known people such as yourself who have made the greatest sacrifices, far greater than us internationals.  I think that you deserve far greater recognition, and so at least for my reporting here and those who read it, I want to make sure your sacrifice is recognized. Also, the sacrifice of Elena Kostyuchenko, the Lesbian journalist from Novoya Gazetta, should be recognized.  She came out with a Pride flag yesterday, and was severely beaten and hospitalized as a result.  One of the most important things of this year’s Moscow Pride, is that because it was publicly announced, it allowed new people to join in.

AK:  The truth is that I knew that Moscow Pride wouldn’t be permitted by Moscow authorities.  I would prefer to go there [to Pride] openly each year, because it would let us collect more people.  [We had] expected the Moscow authorities would follow the European Court of Human Rights decision, but we’ve seen now that they refused to do it.  But I’m glad that we did it openly this year [despite that].  We saw a lot of heroic people with us.

AT:  And you being one of them.  Thank you very much.

AK:  I don’t feel it, by the way.

AT:  You’re too humble, and that is why I wanted that you get the recognition that you deserve on this.  I think that Transgender people in the United States will be glad to know that our movement is truly international, and that you’re fighting for Transgender rights here in Russia, and for that we all owe a deep debt to you and the other people of GayRussia.  Thank you very much.

The first and most important thing that needs to be said is that we are very fortunate that no Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender activists exercising their right to peaceably assemble were killed near Red Square on May 28, 2011.

While Western media sources have made a great deal out of the fact that a few visiting Western activists got some minor injuries at the hands of the police or fascists, they have been virtually silent about the fact that a leading Russian transgender activist, Anna Komarova, a long-time member of the GayRussia organization, was kicked three or four times in the head while he lay on the pavement, and due only to good fortune was not seriously injured or killed.

Another participant, Elena Kostyuchenko, a journalist with Novaya Gazeta newspaper who came out of the closet as a Lesbian on Saturday, joining the protest with her rainbow flag, was still hospitalized as of my last information from yesterday.  I do not know the nature of her injuries or the prognosis for her recovery.

The primary responsibility for these near-tragedies lies with the fascists, who were charged with only minor crimes, and the Russian government which allowed the serious crimes of assault and attempted murder to occur, despite possessing overwhelming force.  These crimes did not occur in some back alleyway or on an obscure side street, but in broad daylight literally about 50 yards away from Red Square.

Secondary responsibility for these crimes lies with all of those non-Russian governments, including the Obama administration, which valued their trade and military relationships with the Russian government over speaking out for human rights.  President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, who are fond of talking about human rights violations when they occur in small nations which can be kicked around by the United States, especially if those nations are not allied with the U.S., abysmally failed the test of human rights leadership on Saturday.

After the Russian authorities banned Moscow Pride a few weeks ago – in direct contravention to the 17th Article of the Russian Constitution and last fall’s unanimous decision of the European Court of Human Rights – Moscow Pride organizers directly appealed to all Western embassies to issue public statements to the Russian government before the protest.

All of these governments, including the Obama administration, failed to do so.  The U.S. embassy told Pride organizers that they would simply “monitor the situation.”  As a result, the Russian riot police apparently felt they had a free hand to conduct themselves in the same brutal manner as at previous Prides.

The U.S. embassy in Moscow did finally issue a brief statement about the attacks on Moscow Pride only after the event, signed by a lesser State Department official (http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2011/05/20110531095808su6.131709e-02.html?CP.rss=true#axzz1NxHLj0G7).

In Western news articles, the roles of myself, Dan Choi and other international activists in Moscow Pride 2011 were magnified out of all proportion to our actual participation.  LGBT Russians suffered the greatest degree of violence and took by far the greatest risks – and continue to do so – and yet their sufferings have gone almost totally unnoticed by the international press.  The least we can do as people in the West is speak out about impending violence before it happens, and thus help forestall that violence.

Link to my statement at the Friday, May 27 press conference before Moscow Pride:

http://www.feastoffun.com/topics/news-rumors/2011/05/27/moscow-gays-to-defy-police-neo-nazi-threats/comment-page-1/#comment-49818

Link to interview with GayRussia activist Anna Komarova:

http://oblogdeeoblogda.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/moscow-pride-police-attack-genderqueer-activist-anna-komarova-first-interview/

And look for my in-depth interview with pioneering Trans activist Komarova appearing tomorrow here at Feast of Fun — “The Birth of a Transgender Movement in Russia”

Moscow police collude with neo-Nazis
Mayor favoured neo-Nazis with protest permit
18 gay campaigners arrested at Kremlin and City Hall

Moscow – 28 May 2011 – 10pm Moscow time

“We witnessed a high level of fraternisation and collusion between neo-Nazis and the Moscow police. I saw neo-Nazis leave and re-enter police buses parked on Tverskaya Street by City Hall,” reports British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who was part of the Moscow Gay Pride protest group today.

“Our suspicion is that many of the neo-Nazis were actually plainclothes police officers, who did to us what their uniformed colleagues dared not do in front of the world’s media. Either that, or the police were actively facilitating the right-wing extremists with transport to the protest.
“During the Second World War, Mucovites stood against the Nazis. Now the Mayor of Moscow is colluding with neo-Nazis. He gave the neo-Nazi groups permission to stage a protest calling for violence against gay people, while denying Moscow Gay Pride a permit to rally for gay equality.

“I went to City Hall to protest but was separated from our Gay Pride group. Neo-Nazis identified me for attack. Being alone and with the police refusing to protect us, I had to escape down side streets and alleyways to avoid a beating.
“A total of 18 gay rights protesters – 15 of them Russian – were arrested, as they tried to stage the banned Moscow Gay Pride parade.

“Some of the Moscow Gay Pride participants were seized by police bear the Kremlin, including international gay rights supporters Andy Thayer, Dan Choi and Louis-Georges Tin; plus Moscow Gay Pride committee member, Anna Komarova and other Russian gay activists.

“Several more Russian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) campaigners were arrested outside City Hall.

“These arrests took place between 1pm and 2pm Moscow time.

“Dan Choi, a US military officer who was dismissed from the American armed forces because of his homosexuality, was violently manhandled by police. He was wrestled to ground and punched. He has some minor injuries.

“Neo-Nazis made repeated attempts to bash the LGBT campaigners as they were being arrested and taken to police buses. Some of the campaigners were struck but none were hurt seriously.

“Anna Komarova reports being pressured by the police to give information about the organisation of Moscow Gay Pride. The police threatened to detain her for 48 hours unless she gave them the information they wanted.

By 6pm Moscow time, all 18 arrested gay pride protesters had been released.

“Neither of the Moscow Gay Pride lead organisers, Nikolai Alekseev nor Nikolai Baev, were arrested. Mr Alekseev did not participate in the protests, as he has a bad leg injury from a fall as he left Moscow TV studios on Thursday night,” said Mr Tatchell.

From a press release:  Moscow – May 27, 2011

Moscow Gay Pride Parade 2011

1 PM, Saturday, May 28, The Kremlin, at the gates to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Alexandersky Gardens.

1:30 PM, march to Moscow City Hall, Tverskaya Street.

U.S. LGBT rights campaigner Andy Thayer and British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will join tomorrow’s banned Moscow Gay Pride parade, in solidarity with Russia’s belagured lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

“We expect to bashed by neo-Nazis who have promised to attack the parade,” warned Mr. Tatchell.  “The Moscow police are refusing to protect us. The possibility of sustaining serious injuries is a worry. Russian neo-Nazis have previously murdered other protesters. The police have vowed to arrest us. In particular, the Russian marchers are likely to suffer harsh treatment and punishment.”

Andy Thayer from the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago, said, “We call on President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to speak out forcefully and publicly now, before there is bloodshed in downtown Moscow.  History will record whether or not they were silent before this possibly happens, and silence is complicity.  The Russian authorities, by refusing to permit, let alone protect, Pride protesters excising their rights guaranteed under the Russian constitution, have already have already shown their contempt for their own laws.  The remaining question is whether the Obama administration will echo this contempt.”

“We are afraid but not afraid,” said Tatchell. “Despite the risks to us personally, the human rights of gay Russians must be defended. By defying this ban, we are defending the right of all Russians to freedom of expression and peaceful protest. We express our support for every Russian person whose right to protest has been denied. As well as defending gay human rights, we defend the human rights of all Russia’s minorities, including Jewish, Black, Roma, Asian and Muslim people.”

Actor Sir Ian McKellen and pop singer Jimmy Sommerville have sent messages of support to Moscow Gay Pride, strongly criticising the Mayor of Moscow for banning the parade.

The Council of Europe’s Secretary-General and Commissioner for Human Rights, respectively Thorbjorn Jagland and Thomas Hammarberg, have both condemned the ban on Moscow Gay Pride.

“There will be attempts to remove Russia’s voting rights in the Council of Europe if the march is banned and the participants are arrested, since the European Court of Human Rights has already ruled that the ban is illegal and that Russia must allow Moscow Gay Pride to proceed,” said Mr Tatchell.

See this Background Briefing on Moscow Gay Pride:

http://www.petertatchell.net/international/russia/moscow-mayor-bans-gay-pride-parade-again.htm

Na na na na na na, ain't gonna play Sun City.

Singer Nelly Furtado apologized over Twitter yesterday for performing for dictator Mumaar Qadaffi, the Charlie Sheen of Libya in 2007. She was paid a million dollars for her performance and now she’s donating that money to charity.

This news comes under the growing realization that pop stars have been making millions over the years performing for some of the world’s most cruel and sinister tyrants.

On today’s show we talk about how artists can impact political change and how the song “Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City” helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.

The 2012 Oscars would be full of WIN.

Scandal broke out over yesterday’s guest, Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev for criticizing Israel’s support of Egypt’s now ousted President Mubarak. He’s been labeled anti-Semitic and he was almost forced to canceled his tour to California.

Was something lost in the translation, was his criticism confusing or is something else going on here? Activist Andy Thayer fills us in on the personal vendetta some gay rights activists have against Alexeyev and grassroots movements in general that may be the root of this last minute attack.

Plus all the hot news:

Breast milk Ice-Cream confiscated from London store.

Christina Aguilera and her boyfriend arrested in West Hollywood.

New iPads coming out today

and we go in-depth into Lady Gaga’s new video Born This Way, the sexual imagery and Orlan, the performance artist who uses plastic surgery and video to Express Herself.

Advertise here

Featured Music:
Broni – Every Thought I’ve Had Since I Was 10: iTunes

In Russia Gay Pride Parade marches on you! A very brave Nikolai Alexeyev faces jeers and police harassment during a Pride celebration in Moscow.

For the last six years, people in Russia have defied government bans and faced police beatings and arrests to hold gay pride parades. In Russia, gay pride parade marches on you. What a country!

Nikolai and a friend dress up as a bride and groom to confuse the police. 10 years from now people will complain about all the drag queens at Pride Parades.

Today we’re talking to gay rights activist and unofficial gay ambassador for Russia, Nikolai Alexeyev about the recent landmark win in the European Court of Human Rights that re-affirmed their constitutional right to march and gave his organization $40k in damages!

In an effort to get him to drop the suit and intimidate him, Nikolai was detained, drugged and ditched on the side of the road by the police. Incredibly, he used his iPad’s geolocation map to discover that he was some 200 miles from home. There is an app for that! He’s now touring the U.S. to rally support for their first “legal” Pride celebration in Russia this May.

Will Elton John keep his promise and Grand Marshall the first ever Russian Pride Parade?

Listen to the Nikolai’s incredible story on how he’s fighting for equality in Russia and he drops a bombshell that your favorite celebrity may be getting rich by secretly performing for the obscenely super-wealthy, anti-gay tyrants in Russia.

Also, joining us is Gay Liberation Network’s Andy Thayer who recently held a major demonstration against the Chicago archdiocese for actively lobbying politicians to deny gay people equality.

Plus- get inside the 007 top secret world of Russian gay rights activists, why are there no openly gay musicians, artists, actors or celebrities in Russia? And how drag queens in Russia tuck away their sexual orientation from the public eye. Acting!

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Carrying a 20 metre long rainbow flag and placards in Russian and English calling for “Rights for gays”, the protesters chanted “No homophobia” and “Russia without homophobes.”

“LGBT activists from Moscow, St Petersburg and Minsk staged today the first-ever successful Gay Pride in Moscow, despite the [government] ban,” said Nikolai Alekseev, principal organizer for Moscow Pride. “Though the March was short – it happened. All the Russian media reported that for the first time in five years, the gay parade took place in Moscow without being arrested by the police and assaulted by protesters.”

Photos, videos and more quotes message from Nikolai Alekseev can be found here.

“The guerrilla-style hit-and-run Moscow Gay Pride march was over before the police arrived. When they turned up, officers scurried around aimlessly, searching for protesters to arrest. All escaped the police dragnet,” said British gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who joined today’s parade to support the Russian gay campaigners.

“All morning the Gay Pride organisers fed the police a steady stream of false information, via blogs and websites, concerning the location of the parade… As a result, the police put the whole area in total lockdown, closing nearby streets and metro stations, in bid to prevent protesters assembling there.”

“Through clever organizing and disciplined execution of their plan, Russian lesbian and gay organizers were able to outwit the vastly superior resources of the Russian state,” said Andy Thayer of Chicago’s Gay Liberation Network. “Russian gay organizers defied homophobic Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s macho bluster, demonstrating great courage and determination. They showed that people can successfully organize for freedom even in very difficult circumstances. They not only set an example that LGBT people around the world can learn from, but gave hope for all Russians struggling for democracy and equal rights.”

Even though police tailed journalists in hopes that they would lead officers to the demonstrators, Russian Pride organizers were able to “embed” and get coverage from major international news agencies including the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Reuters, TF1 (1st channel of French television), dpa (Deutsche Press Agenture), Swedish television, BFM (French television), France2 (French television), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Many independent journalists covered the event as well. A preliminary list of links to print stories, video and photos appears below.

Nikolai Alekseev, principal organizer of Moscow Pride, described the court proceedings as “a funny circus. Even the judge was laughing.”  A lawyer for city insisted that the march permit wasn’t being rejecting for “the gay issue,” but because there were too many other activities going on in the city that same day.

Moscow Pride organizers applied for their permits on May 17th, the first day possible under the Russian federal permit law.  Yet the reason given for the rejection of one of the proposed rally sites, the City said, was because there was another event scheduled for that same location – a 9 AM to 9 PM rally celebrating the policies of Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin!  This is what prompted the outburst of laughter from Judge Marina Chernova, who upheld the ban anyway.

“Often I am not pleased with how I speak in court,” said Alekseev, who was acting as his own attorney, “but today I was very satisfied with how I did, but it didn’t matter because it was a political decision.”

Defeated in court, Alekseev was still defiant. “We’re not going to surrender to the illegal decisions of the Russian authorities, and threats of violence against our peaceful public manifestation.”

Russian gays’ courage – who besides arrests and violence, risk losing jobs, housing and family connections for being out – stands in sharp contrast to the cowardice on display by Western embassies in Moscow.

When Pride events elsewhere in Eastern Europe have faced government bans and/or neo-Nazi violence, Western ambassadors have stepped in to support lesbians and gays. When the government of Lithuania initially rescinded a Pride permit for the capital Vilnius, “they made joint statements of the embassies that they’re supporting Pride, and they took part.”

In Belgrade, Serbia when the authorities banned Pride, the Swedish embassy defied the local authorities by hosting a Pride event for local and international gays and lesbians on the embassy grounds.

But it’s one thing to support despised minorities in poor countries whose governments don’t exercise much power on the international stage. It’s another to protest the policies of governments which exercise enormous economic and political power.

“In Bucharest and in Bratislava you have ambassadors participating in pride marches, but not here,” said Alekseev.  “For here they just sold our human rights in Russia for economic interests.”  During each of the past few winters Russian authorities have shut off natural gas exports to West due to ostensible trade disputes with countries between the West and Russia.  And in an attempt to assert American dominance over the government of Iran with new international sanctions, the Obama administration has been on a charm offensive with the offensively anti-civil rights governments of Russia and China, cutting a nuclear weapons deal with Russia just a few weeks ago.

The contrast between Western official attitudes towards Pride in most of Eastern Europe versus that in Russia and Belarus, a country tightly allied with Russia, could not be starker.  When the dictatorship which governs Belarus banned the May 15th gay pride in its capital, Minsk, Western diplomats were nowhere to be found, despite direct appeals by gays for their support.

“In Minsk they disappeared.  The Europeans, the British, the Germans, the French [diplomats] they just disappeared for the Pride.  We invited all of them but no one came.”

Belorussian and Russian gay activists ended up conducting the city’s Pride protest as a running game of cat and mouse with the Belorussian riot police, literally running down city streets with a huge Pride banner as police chased them, arresting some of them as they attempted to fade into cafes and other businesses after the police broke up the event.

After nearly five years’ experience organizing Pride events despite government bans and unofficial threats of violence, Moscow Pride activists run a very tight ship.  They made direct appeals to the ambassadors of the United States, Canada, France, Denmark, Germany, Britain, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and the European Union. “All responded negatively,” said Alekseev.

Of course none of them said the rejections came because of the economic power that Russia wields.  “We already organized everything with the Danish,” said Alekseev. “It was just a question of who was going to cook during the party, and then they sent us an email” revoking the invitation.

The French said “’Our embassy is the house of human rights. You can find yourselves welcome here,’ but as soon as I asked them about hosting a pride reception in the grounds of the embassy, they said, ‘No, no, we cannot do it for a particular organization.’ Almost the same reply came from the ambassador of the European Union.”

So here we are less than 24 hours before Moscow Pride, the Western embassies’ cowardice on full display in contrast to the courage of Russian and Belorussian gay activists.  When Moscow Pride occurs tomorrow, it will be no thanks to the “freedom loving” Western governments.

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Read previous articles about Moscow Gay Pride at:

U.S. Activist Joins Moscow News Conference Denouncing Mayor’s 5th Ban of Gay Pride Parade

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/90573/index.php

While Russian Gov’t Bigots Seem Steadfast, the Ground is Shifting Beneath Them

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/90561/index.php

Gay Liberation Network activist en route to Russia

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/90547/index.php

Chicago Gay Liberation Network activist Andy Thayer, left, and Britain's gay rights activist Peter Tatchell

Russian gay leader vows, “Whatever the courts decide, the right to protest is guaranteed under the Russian constitution and we intend to exercise our rights.”

U.S. gay activist Andy Thayer says “this Saturday, this gay pride flag I brought from Chicago will fly on the streets of Moscow along with Russian gay pride flags, whether there is permit or not.”

MOSCOW, Russia — The fifth attempt to hold a Moscow Pride parade was launched today with a packed news conference in the Grand Ballroom at the Holiday Inn on Lesnaya Street.

Nikolai Alekseev, the principal organizer of Moscow Pride, announced at the press conference:

“The courts today rejected our appeal against the banning of three Gay Pride rallies. We asked to hold these rallies in central Moscow this Saturday 29 May. Now we go to court on Friday in a bid to overturn the Mayor’s ban on holding a Gay Pride march through Moscow on Saturday,” he said.

Organizers are not hopeful that the ban will be revoked.

Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev, left, and a Green member of Germany's Bundestag Volker Beck

“The Mayor’s reputation and authority is at stake. He has refused us for the last five years, ever since our first attempted gay parade in 2006. I hope he will change his mind but I doubt it. Mayor Luzhkov is not a great lover of democracy, human rights or gay people. Whatever the courts decide, the right to protest is guaranteed under the Russian constitution and we intend to exercise our rights,” added Mr. Alekseev.

Today’s Moscow Pride launch and press conference was attended by international delegates and speakers, who were there to support the Russian gay activists, including Volker Beck, the German Green MP; Louis-Georges Tin, founder of the International Day Against Homophobia and President of the IDAHO Committee; Andy Thayer, a U.S. gays rights activist with the Gay Liberation Network; and Peter Tatchell, coordinator of the British gay human rights group OutRage! and human rights spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales.

Mr. Thayer told the news conference:

“Dr. King and other civil rights heroes taught that unjust laws sometimes have to be broken in order to make civil rights progress. That is why this Saturday, this gay pride flag I brought from Chicago will fly on the streets of Moscow along with Russian gay pride flags, whether there is permit or not. This is the way that civil rights progress has always been made.”

“I would say to the leader of my government, Mr. Obama, it is very easy to speak out in favor of human rights in countries to which you are opposed. It is a far more difficult thing to speak out in favor of human rights at home, and in countries to which you are allied. Recently Mr. Obama you cut a nuclear arms deal with the Russian government. It is time now to speak out against the ban on Moscow Pride scheduled for this Saturday. Russian gays and lesbians who have been so courageously organizing for their freedom, and the freedom of all Russians, deserve no less.”

Mr. Tatchell told the news conference:

“The ban on Moscow Pride is illegal and Mayor Luzhkov is a criminal for banning it. He should be put on trial for violating the Russian constitution. The real criminals are not the organizers of Moscow Pride, but the mayor of Moscow and the judges who uphold this illegal ban.”

“President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin are colluding with this ban by failing to order it to be overturned. I call on the Russian President and Prime Minister to show leadership by publicly condemning the ban and by calling on the mayor of Moscow to lift it. They should ensure freedom of expression and the right to protest to all the citizens of Moscow and Russia, gay and straight.”

Full text of press conference can be found at:

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/90571/index.php

Nikolai Alekseev

New protests are providing the fuel for progressive and legal change for gays in Russia.

MOSCOW, Russia, early morning, 5/27/10 — While the bigoted mayor of this city has once again banned gay pride this Saturday, vowing to “bring to bear on them the full force and justice of the law,” there are plenty of signs that the sand is beginning to erode beneath his feet.

On the eve of two of his court dates and a press conference later today, I had the opportunity to sit down with the city’s principal gay organizer, Nikolai Alekseev, to discuss the shifting political balance of power in Moscow which is only somewhat obscured by Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s anti-gay bluster.

One of my first questions for Alekseev was what, if anything, has changed since last year’s Pride demonstration? His answer was that while the city’s anti-gay rhetoric makes it seem as though nothing has changed, powerful forces are moving against Luzhkov that could mean his days as bigot-in-chief of Moscow will soon be over. In a country where the life expectancy for men is 58 years, the sharks are already circling around the very overweight, 73-year-old Luzhkov.

For the oligarchs who really run Russia, Inc., resentment is growing at the enormous resources that Moscow pulls in at the expense of the rest of the country, and they look set to redress the imbalance. One guide book I read noted that in 2005 in the largest country on earth, 80 percent of the nation’s wealth was concentrated in the capital. While about 1 in 15 Russians live in the city, that’s still an enormous amalgam of wealth. “Moscow boasts more billionaires than any city in the world (33, two more than New York),” wrote Dan Richardson. Luzhkov’s wife, with her huge construction firm, is reputedly the wealthiest woman in Russia.

The other main factor that makes the political terrain for this year’s Pride appear quite different from last year’s is the fact that the European Court is due to finally rule sometime this year on the banning of the Pride Parades in 2006, 2007 and 2008. And the decision looks likely to go against the government.

The impending European Court decision is apparently having an effect on the two court proceedings scheduled to continue later today. Unlike previous years when the authorities have forthrightly banned Pride protests on the grounds that gay assemblies are by definition immoral and dangers to public safety, the city and prefectural attorneys have taken the unprecedented step of manufacturing phony “logistical” excuses – roads too narrow, etc. – to justify banning the assemblages whose messages they don’t like. For those who know of the City of Chicago’s campaign against our anti-war demonstrations over the years, this approach will sound familiar!

Yes, a ban is a ban is a ban, but the fact that unlike in previous years, the city and prefectural attorneys feel that they can’t more forthrightly argue for their bigotry in the courtroom indicates a diminished confidence on their part.

When Alekseev told me last night that the European Court was likely to rule against the government, and that it might actually have an effect, I was incredibly skeptical. Coming as I am from the U.S., where the government (regardless of party in power) contemptuously disregards international treaty obligations and rulings of international bodies as a matter of course, I was wary of what seemed like Alekseev’s reliance on the European Court. It’s one thing for them to rule against oil-less, gas-less, nuclear weapons-less Poland and force Warsaw to allow gay Pride, it’s another thing to take on the Russian bear.

But the defeats suffered by the Russian government, Alekseev told me, are “flooding, there are an enormous number of [other] cases they are losing from the European court.” Most of these cases involve individuals towards whom the court orders the Russian government to pay out large monetary compensation, and they do actually pay.

Moreover, Nikolai noted, the same holds true for very political issues as well. “That’s why they [the Russian government] made a moratorium on the death penalty, and decriminalization of homosexuality was a requirement for entry in to the council of Europe. There are some values and some basic points that you have to accept or you are not a member of the Council of Europe.” Thanks to an Austrian case, the issue of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples is also before the court, from which a Europe-wide precedent could be set.

So far as the right of Russian lesbians and gays to assemble is concerned, if the court follows the precedent it set forcing the City of Warsaw to allow Gay Pride in that city, gay pride in Moscow next year, if not this, could be the first one not facing “legal” prohibition by the government.

But is winning the right of gays and lesbians just a matter of court machinations? Far from it, said Alekseev. He is under no illusion that his group would even have a chance of winning in the European Court had they not persisted in organizing the Pride events despite the bans and police violence. Without the continuing illegal protests, “They [the Court] would have swept it under the rug,” he said.

Instead, the high profile press coverage of the government’s repression of the annual Pride protests has brought greater world condemnation with each passing year. Last year’s Pride Protest, scheduled to coincide with Europe’s biggest cultural event, the Eurovision Song Contest finals, was singularly effective. It provided Russian gays and lesbians with their “Birmingham moment,” bringing more domestic and international press coverage than all previous years combined.

For those not familiar with U.S. civil rights movement history, Birmingham, Alabama was the city where racist Sheriff “Bull” Connor let loose his police dogs on young African American children, shocking world opinion. The photographic images of that attack relayed around the world were the beginning of the end of legal segregation in the American South, as public opinion elsewhere began to shift heavily against the southern bigots. And just like back then, while the legal establishment languidly reshaped its jurisprudence to catch up with the tenor of the times, it was the protests that were the fuel that made those legal changes possible.

Banned or not, regardless of what happens in court over the next two days, Moscow Pride will happen this Saturday, May 29. Because that’s the way that civil rights progress has always been made.

Coming up tomorrow: The Cowardice of the American and European diplomatic establishments in Moscow.

Andy Thayer participated in last year’s Slavic Pride in Moscow and was arrested with about 40 others for doing so. He was able to participate in Moscow Pride thanks to the generosity of his friends in the all-volunteer Gay Liberation Network, which is based in Chicago.

This the fifth year that Moscow authorities have banned gay pride events in the city, even though gay homosexuality was decriminalized 17 years ago.

Nikolai Alekseev, the principal organizer of Moscow Pride and past guest of Feast of Fun said, “We are ready to take all bans to the European Court of Human Rights, which this year is due to rule on the complaints lodged over the bans on the first three Moscow Gay Prides – in 2006, 2007, 2008.”

Look for updates from Andy on Feast of Fun if he isn’t thrown into a gulag in Siberia.

–Read more

2009 was a tough year. Major setbacks in marriage equality, corrupt banks, derailed health care reform, and little support for gay rights from President Obama left millions of Americans asking where’s the hope?

And now in Federal Courts in California, a showdown on gay marriage is underway. Is it doomed like the vote for gay marriage in Maine?

Chicago gay rights activist Andy Thayer of Gay Liberation Network joins us with some bold solutions to our biggest problems. Plus, he’s got breaking news on Boystown most corrupt cop- Officer Fiorito.

Sources inside the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez leaked to Andy that Ms. Alvarez will not prosecute the creep for framing gay people with false DUI charges just to rake in overtime to pad his big fat pockets.

Also- Sarah Palin gets a job as a commentator on Fox, surprising no one.

The incredible shrinking gay journalist.

A real-life Mrs. Robinson, Tranny Neanderthals and Mr. Gay China.

Please donate to the development of the Feast of Fun iPhone app! Like many news and podcasting apps, the Feast of Fun app will allow people to quickly access all the fabulous shows and content on FOF with their iPhone. You’ll be able to interact with the site by submitting you own content, like comments or blog entries, directly from an iPhones.

Please nominate us in the 2010 Weblogs Awards for Best GLBT Blog and Best Community Blog. You have to scroll to the right on the website to vote, but it’s really easy to do and we would really appreciate your vote.

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For over 25 years, Andy Thayer has fought tirelessly for gay rights, including Marriage Equality, the Stop Dr. Laura campaign and anti-police brutality against gays. He recently was arrested at the 4th annual Gay Pride in Moscow which coincided with the popular Eurovision contest and spent the night in a Russian prison.

Earlier this week the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the Referendum from the 2008 election that took away the right for same sex people to marry. At the same time, the judges upheld the same sex marriages performed before the referendum. What’s going on here?

Listen as we talk with Andy about the big political changes coming to this country and what it means for you. Where do we go from here?

Is fighting for gay marriage a cash cow?

Why did Obama announce Sotomayor’s nomination on the Day of Decision?

And why you should get involved in fighting for equality in this country.

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Jason Smith captured some video clips from the Chicago protest the decision of the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8, a referendum to take away the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state.

In the video I’m talking about how fighting marriage equality is a cash cow for religious fundamentalists and conservatives in the U.S. Next to me is video blogger GoatheaderEd.

Camera and editing by Jason Smith.

Andy is leading this weekend’s demonstration against the Defense of Marriage Act. Will President Elect Obama repeal this awful measure?

President to be Obama seems to speak from both sides of his mouth about gay marriage and we wonder what are Obama’s true feelings on marriage equality.

Listen as we talk with Andy about politics, Blajovichian tactics, the fear of addressing the Middle East conflict, the bad economy and whether we hold Obama to too high of a standard.

A hostile letter to gay bars in Seattle Washington threatening to poison their guests with ricin sounds like it was written by a cheesy batman super villain. Was the author Catwoman or a pissed off gay man? We think it may be a Catwoman wannabe so Fausto does his best Eartha to read the man’s letter on today’s show.

An Australian court uses gay prison rape as a threat to a young driver if he does not stop speeding “You’ll find big, ugly, hairy strong men (in jail) who’ve got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you — and your anatomy… you’ll get to shower with the gorillas in the mist down at Long Bay jail.”

Gu Gu the panda fights back. Gu Gu attacked a visitor who jumped the barrier to retrieve a toy dropped by his five year old son and bit the man’s legs and refused to let go. The zookeeper had to pry his jaws open with tools to free the father. Just last year Gu Gu attacked a man who tried to give him a hug. The lesson here is simple, do not portend to mess with the panda.

And woes on snow, Austrian farmers are making money selling snow to German Ski Resorts. Even though Europe is as cold as hell right now, they aren’t getting enough snow at some resorts so they have to actually import snow for their ski trails.

Your tool to surviving the downturn in the economy- Feast of Fools.

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How far have we come in creating laws to protect queer folks from violent crimes?

On today’s show we’ve got Wayne Besen- best known for Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, a tell-all book about the deceptive practices behind ex-gay groups and Andy Thayer from the Gay Liberation Network.

Wayne will be speaking in Chicago this Saturday Sept 27th for the 10th annual Matthew Shepard March protesting the murder of Matthew Shepard and all victims of hate violence. The rally starts at 8pm on the corner of Roscoe and Halsted followed by a march through the neighborhood.

The controversial induction of Fundamentalist Radio personality James Dobson into the Museum of Broadcast Communication’s Hall of Fame has a lot of people up in arms. Why would they ask him of all people? Is this just a cry for help from antiquated institution that isn’t even relevant anymore to secure money or is something else going on here?

Check out Dump Dobson to learn how you can protest against Dobson’s inclusion into the Hall of Fame.

Is the Bush administration a shop-o-holic? The chilly reception to the 700 billion dollar bailout and a deficit out of control shows us a Republican party struggling to handle their obsession with spending. Will somebody please hire Washington a therapist or get them to find a hobby other than spending money.

Mama’s Milk Ice Cream? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are putting pressure on the Vermont Ice Cream company Ben and Jerry’s to substitute human breast milk instead of cow milk in their ice cream.

The demand comes in the wake of news reports of a Swiss Restaurant which uses cows milk in three quarters of all the dairy products it serves. How about a Moma’s Mounds blizzard sundae?

Listen to today’s show as we talk about these topics and more. What’s the big deal over celebrities in glass closets and what happens if Obama wins the U.S. Presidenital Election. Will Obama solve all our problems?

Vote baby vote- Feast of Fools.

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On today’s show we’ll be talking to gay activist Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network about the legacy of Matthew Shepard, why and how do people take action, and why it’s not a good idea to align yourself with any one political party if your goal is social change.

And of course, we’ll be pontificating the impact of republican Mark Foley and his non-sexual sex scandal.

If you live in Chicago:
• FRIDAY OCT 6, 7-9pm: Sam Kosha of the PGLO (Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization) speaks about the international movement for GLBT rights in the MIddle East. Gerber Hart Library, 1127 W. Granville.

• SATURDAY OCT 7, BEGINS AT 8PM: The 8th Annual Matthew Shepard March and Rally for LGBT Freedom. March begins and ends at the corner of Halsted and Roscoe, with a screening of a film about gay liberation in Eastern Europe.

• Visit the Gay Liberation Network’s website to learn more.

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