LGBT

Five million American kids are members of Girl Scouts of the USA and Boy Scouts of America. As the Boy Scouts of America’s homophobia has become a national issue, we ask: is scouting still relevant? How can scouting be more inclusive? We talk with two young girl scouts, whip-smart troop leader and foreign affairs expert Alisha Bhagat, take a hike with Portland's alternative scouting troop, and discuss "artisinal manliness."

All in just 30 minutes! Listen in! 

This podcast is sponsored by She Bop!

Guy Hamdon is an average twelve-year-old boy cartoon character with a skateboard, pesky siblings, and a superhero alter ego. That alter ego happens to be a female superhero named SheZow. On the Hub network's new cartoon series of the same name, Guy shouts the magic phrase "You go, girl!" and gleans superhuman strength and speed, plus a skirt, go-go boots, and a hot pink shapeshifting car.

In an issue that will go on sale in August, Archie Comics will feature a kiss between two openly gay characters, Kevin and his boyfriend Devon. The gay kiss (because just like “gay marriage,” it can’t be just a “kiss,” right?) shows how much the 72-year-old Archie Comics company has evolved amid America’s cultural changes.

Star Trek has a reputation.

For almost fifty years, the disempowered and the marginalized and the outcasts have held up Star Trek as a show that said, “This is what we can aspire to: a humanity that has evolved beyond inequality and oppression”. The show presents a vision of Earth that has moved beyond racism and classism, beyond ableism and sexism and homophobia. As a life-long Trekkie, it is tempting to agree with this reputation. Me and Star Trek, hand in hand, running through fields of wildflowers on a soft-focus sunny day while I gaze upon them longingly. Oh Star Trek! So progressive! So feminist!

But this reputation is not reality. 

It’s not often that income tax audits make big news, but the mammoth of an audit that’s been thrown Venus DeMars andLynette Reini-Gambell, a married couple and a relatively successful musician and poet respectively, has been getting some local press in their home state of Minnesota. This MinnPost article features an interview with the couple in which they discuss the details of the situation, but in short: the Minnesota Revenue Department is claiming that the couple’s respective artistic careers are not profitable enough to qualify them as “professional” artists and is demanding around $100,000 in back taxes for work-related tax deductions the couple has claimed over the years. 

Today the Boy Scouts of America released a long-awaited decision on whether it will continue its ban on LGBT scouts and adults. The announcement: The Boy Scouts will continue to ban LGBT adults from volunteering, but allow openly gay kids to be scouts. 

Clearly, the logic of this resolution is ludicrous.

It’s a given that the Middle East has a long way to go as far as LGBT acceptance is concerned. Remember that sound byte of Ahmadinejad claiming that Iran doesn’t have any homosexuals? Turkey is supposed to be the most secular and liberal Muslim country in the Middle East, yet its religious, right wing government still considers homosexuality to be a disease.

The emotional new Turkish documentary My Child successfully defends the idea that acceptance in any society begins with acceptance at home.

In Cinder, the familiar glass slipper story is set in a dystopian future Beijing 126 years after World War IV has ended. Cinder’s author, Marissa Meyer, is white. Meanwhile, Chinese-American author Malinda Lo award-winning 2010 retelling of Cinderella, Ash, takes place in a kingdom that resembles a fairy tale Europe.

What do these choices say about each author? How do their ethnic backgrounds affect their retellings?

This week, we’re all hoping that the Supreme Court will rule on the side of all that is fair and good and affirm the rights of gay and lesbian people to be married.

But while we’ve got our thumbs on champagne corks, anxiously waiting to celebrate, let’s just take a breath for a minute and recognize that while marriage equality is just major step forward toward equality for same-sex couples, it’s just a step toward equality for all in America. We’ve got to look beyond marriage to the other ways gender, sexuality, and love will still be regulated by the government, even if gays can finally tie the knot.

Just ten years ago, only 33 percent of Americans supported same-sex marriage. Now, backing marriage equality is a must for many big businesses. Leading up to this week's challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act in the Supreme Court, 278 companies across the country have filed "friend of the court" briefs to support repealing the law (zero have filed saying it's good for business).