This Way Out: "Panti" filets phobia+Melissa rocks for love+global LGBT news

This Way Out #1,350 Program Rundown:

Opening teases/theme music/intro continuity . . . . . . . . . . 1:09

SEGMENT #1 – "NewsWrap": As many as two dozen LGBT rights activists are jailed in separate actions in Moscow and St. Petersburg on the eve of the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi for violating Russia's so-called "no promo homo" law; Nigeria's Roman Catholic Bishops Conference praises President Goodluck Jonathan for signing what's come to be known as the "Jail All the Gays" bill, while Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is reportedly getting "scientific" assurances from lawmakers in his ruling political party with medical backgrounds that gays can be "cured" so that he can sign the oppressive "Anti-Homosexuality" bill there; Scottish lawmakers overwhelmingly make their country the 17th in the world to open civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples, while a U.S. federal judge promises a ruling "soon" following hearings on a lawsuit challenging Virginia's state ban on marriage equality, and same-gender couples file suit this week challenging Wisconsin's ban; hooded thugs invade a movie theater in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo hosting an LGBT Film Festival injuring at least three people, but tens of thousands brave sweltering temperatures in Australia to applaud the annual LGBT Pride march in Melbourne, and a record crowd defies India's Supreme Court with Pride in Mumbai; lesbian tennis legend Billie Jean King bows out of the official U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics because of her mother Betty Moffitt's failing health; she dies at 91 on the same day of the Opening Ceremonies in Sochi; and members of the London Gay Men's Chorus "serenade" the Russian Embassy to protest that country's "no promo homo" law during the same hours that the Winter Games Opening Ceremonies are being held in Sochi [with a :25 snippet from the end of their "River Deep, Mountain High"] (produced by STEVE PRIDE, written by GREG GORDON, and reported this week by SARAH SWEENEY & RICK WATTS) [10:52] + billboard for Melissa Etheridge's "Uprising of Love" [:08]. . . . . . . . 11:00

SEGMENT #2 – Can a gay person say what -- or who -- is homophobic? That's the debate engulfing IRELAND ever since "PANTI BLISS" appeared in mid-January on national TV broadcaster RTE's "Saturday Night Show". The Emerald Isle's most well known drag queen –- real name RORY O'NEILL -– named several journalists and called out a Roman Catholic think-tank as homophobes. After they threatened to sue for libel, RTE hastily gave up a big cash settlement. That just threw more fuel on the fire, with allies and opponents arguing over both the broadcaster's action and Panti's comments. The entertainer was given time on February 1st to respond to the uproar on the stage of Dublin's Abbey Theatre (with intro music from "Homophobia" by ROMANOVSKY & PHILLIPS) . . . . 10:13

SEGMENT #3 – "TWO" I.D. by CHRIS FREEMAN of PANSY DIVISION (intro'd by a snippet from their "That's So Gay") . . . . . . . . . . . . . :39

SEGMENT #4 - LGBT Russians are getting support from around the world as they face repression during the Winter Olympics in Sochi -- and of even more concern, after the Games are over. Lesbian rocker MELISSA ETHERIDGE is adding her voice with a new single, "UPRISING OF LOVE" -- and donating the proceeds to the Russia Freedom Fund. . . . . . 4:32
[russiafreedomfund.org/]

Closing Credits/continuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:26

TOTAL PROGRAM TIME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28:59