The Banana Banner Boys

You're in for a real fun-fair of nonsense this week, with a haunting melange of bananas and the Alabama Supreme Court. We have more details on what's going to happen to Judge Roy Moore, now that Ambrosia Starling is holding his feet to the fire. And we also have created a musical version of The Crucible called Goody Goody Goody. Meanwhile, Italy is getting civil unions, so that's a good first step; and Australia is plebisciting along despite some religious group afraid that marriage equality means an end to Mother's Day. We're also on the hunt for the recipe for ambrosia salad, and for Barbra Streisand.

Two videos related to this week's discussion:

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

#VacationOfConsulGeneral

Congratulations to Hanscom Smith, a senior US diplomat in Shanghai who just married his husband in a delightful ceremony. And what better wedding gift can they have hoped for than the removal of Judge Roy Moore, the homophobic Supreme Court justice from Alabama who was just suspended from his job for his resistance to marriage equality. Ha.

We also discuss the bizarre targeting of Target for their bathroom policy -- where exactly is the Bible passage about keeping restrooms separate? And then there's Australia's plebiscite, a disgusting word that I can barely bring myself to say. Apparently I also cannot bring myself to say our safe word, because it's been so long since we agreed on one that James forgot we even had one.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

International Amour, More Ray Moore, and More

Congrats to the islands moving towards marriage equality! We have good news this week from the Bahamas, The Faroe Islands, and the seductively-named Isle of Man. And also from Colombia, which is not an island, except that it is ideologically a bit of an island in that it is one of the few South American countries where same-sex couples can now get married. Hooray.

Also this week: James has been playing his creepy Dark Souls III game, which means lots of bonus ghost noises on the episode. And the National Organization for Marriage is practically a ghost these days, since they've nearly run out of money. They say it's because they've been so "successful," hahaha, and that they need a cash injection to pay for a scheme to send 100,000 faxes to Congress. Oh brother.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Animals Strike Curious Poses

This week's episode concerns in ineffable mysteries of Prince and his opinion on gay marriage. Was he for it or against it or what? Perhaps not even he knew for sure, but we'll do our best ot unravel what clues he left behind. Also, did you hear the one about the guy who wants to marry the computer that got him addicted to pornography? He's a Christian EDM producer, by the way. Oh, musicians, I don't think I'll ever understand you. Nor will I ever fully understand James' grandmother, who seems to have somehow inspired a toothy sight gag on the new season of Kimmy Schmidt.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Queen Latifah Wipe

Hello, Texans! This week's episode is all about you. And also us, in that we are about to visit you -- James and I are coming to HavenCon in Austin to present a panel on Saturday, April 23rd, at noon, called "Queer Gamers Coast to Coast." And what perfect timing, because a Texas court has just ruled that allowing two lovely lesbian women to marry does not constitute, as the state claimed, "legal chaos."

Elsewhere in the world, Norway's Lutheran Church has voted to allow same-sex marriage, which is good news for Rose Nylund's queer family members. And conservative marriage otter Ryan Anderson believes that gay people will stop wanting to get married if he just invites them to enough Thanksgivings.  

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Pope and a Pig in a Poke

This week on the podcast, James and I talk about the pope's recent declaration that same-sex couples reeeeeeeally shouldn't be allowed to marry. James knows a thing or two about this pope business, and explains exactly how the church justifies some of its wacky rules about who gets special treatment and also the strange terrifying alternate universe where all the unbaptised babies go. We also address a Puerto Rico judge's ruling that the US Constitution doesn't apply to them; and the subsequent appellate ruling that yes of course it does, don't be ridiculous.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Young Men Foaming for Gay Marriage in the Florida Heat

On this week's episode of the Defining Marriage podcast: Spring has sprung, when a young man's heart turns to fancy. Who's the young man, and what's so fancy about him? These and other mysteries remain unsolved on this week's episode, but we do talk about Florida's achievement of finally legalizing gay marriage, nearly a year after the Supreme Court already did it for them.

Also, various state governors are vetoing religious-freedom bills that cloak anti-queer animus, but those vetoes might not save us.

And once again, James tortures me with a name that I can't remember. We also quote Meatloaf, and whoever wrote the Bumblebee Tuna song. What a shame those two musical icons never teamed up.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Georgia On Our Minds

You've no doubt heard about North Carolina's unpleasant dabbling with anti-gay and anti-trans laws. On this week's episode, we're talking about the implications, as well as the traditional method of celebrating Easter: with a delicious Easter sundae. Also, did you know Mississippi has a robot that does the filibustering for you? What marvels we enjoy in this modern world!

Also, here's a little video I made about trans bathroom panic and why it's a bunch of nonsense:

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

President Chicken

We've traveled to San Francisco this week, and our SF friends Andy and Long join us to talk about what Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court would mean for LGBT folks. Is there a chance that Obama's nominee could actually make it onto the court, and what sort of queer cases could he hear? We make some wild guesses, and also talk about a gay pirate broadcaster that we've tastefully decided should be called Butt Pirate Radio. Further digressions involve the time Sandra Day O'Connor played against a boy's volleyball team, and a chicken that would be president. Also, who would be a better president: Donald Trump or PewDiePie?

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Photo:
Lip Kee Yap from Singapore, Republic of Singapore - Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) male 2

A Marriage Encounter

This week Missouri had a filibuster and Australia talked about a plebiscite. Both of these sound like made-up words but it's all too true.

Missouri Democrats did their best to stop an anti-gay law, but Republicans were able to force a vote. We talk about the real-world implications of this law on witches and mule-owned monster truck dealerships. Then we sing.

Photo: Greg Westfall/Mule

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

No Mas, Roy Moore

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore has come to resolve an attack on our sovereignty now! He's very upset that homosexuals are getting married, and he's written hundreds of pages to explain his feelings. So very many feelings. 

This particular bout of impotent rage was touched off by a ruling that Alabama does indeed have to obey rulings from the Supreme Court of the United States, for a variety of reasons including and not limited to the fact that Alabama is a part of this country. Gays can get married, even in states where people do not like them.

And so, Roy Moore has written a hundred and something pages about why that is a bad thing. Some highlights:

The opinion appeals more to emotion than law, reminding one of the 1974 song "Feelings" by Morris Albert, which begins: "Feelings, nothing more than feelings ...."

Homosexuals who seek the dignity of marriage must first forsake the sexual habits that disqualify them from admission to that hallowed institution. Surely more dignity attaches to participation in a fundamental institution on the terms it prescribes than to an attempt to wrest its definition to serve inordinate lusts that demean its historic dignity. A "disgrace to human nature" cannot be cured by stripping the institution of holy matrimony of its inherent dignity and redefining it to give social approval to behaviors unsuited to its high station. Sodomy has never been and never will be an act by which a marriage can be consummated.

But the human being, as a dependent creature, is not at liberty to redefine reality; instead, as the Declaration of Independence states, a human being is bound to recognize that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are endowed by God. Those rights are not subject to a redefinition that rejects the natural order God has created. 

"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being." 1 Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England *39. Part of that natural order is the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2:24.

The great sufferers will be the children -- deprived of either a paternal or a maternal presence -- who are raised in unnatural families that contradict the created order.

Venturing beyond "the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms," Griswold, 381 U.S. at 485, the Court anointed with constitutional protection the use of contraceptive devices by the unmarried, setting its seal of approval upon fornication.

Obergefell is but the latest example of the Court's creation of constitutional rights out of thin air in service of the immorality of the sexual revolution.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Many Things Go

This week we're soothing our burning hot Oscar Fever with a study that, according to researchers, somehow suggests that people oppose gay marriage because they think it makes their partners more likely to cheat. Or something like that.

It's confusing, which is why we get so distracted by conversation about Mary Tyler Moore, Kirk Cameron, and wieners.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Manny Pacquiao and the Bonobo Showboat

This week we're puzzling over Manny Pacquiao, a boxer/politician who's had some particularly unpleasant things to say about marriage equality. He's running for office in the Philippines and told an interviewer that same-sex couples shouldn't have the freedom to marry. And then he went much further, with Instagram posts about how LGBTs should be put to death, yikes.

Somehow, we also get on the topic of kangaroos (because they're all boxers), fetish nights, and as always, Star Wars. The episode concludes with me having a minor stroke.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

How do you Solve a Problem Like Scalia?

For the last few episodes, I've been revisiting the marriage work that I did as an reporter and activist over the last decade. And this week we'll be talking about some surprise changes coming to the US Supreme Court.

Here are a few things Antonin Scalia had to say about LGBTs:

• "[S]uppose all the States had laws against flagpole sitting at one time, you know, there was a time when it was a popular thing and probably annoyed a lot of communities, and then almost all of them repealed those laws," Scalia asked the attorney fighting the Texas law. "Does that make flagpole sitting a fundamental right?"
• "Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children's schools, or as boarders in their home," he wrote. "They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive." 
• "But I had thought that one could consider certain conduct reprehensible—murder, for example, or polygamy, or cruelty to animals—and could exhibit even 'animus' toward such conduct. Surely that is the only sort of 'animus' at issue here: moral disapproval of homosexual conduct[.]"
•  "[A job] interviewer may refuse to offer a job because the applicant is a Republican; because he is an adulterer; because he went to the wrong prep school or belongs to the wrong country club; because he eats snails; because he is a womanizer; because she wears real animal fur; or even because he hates the Chicago Cubs." 
•  "It doesn't say you can't have—you can't have any sexual intimacy. It says you cannot have sexual intimacy with a person of the same sex."

Photo: CC BY 2.0 Stephen Masker - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Behind the Scenes at the Star-Studded Prop 8 Play

For the last few episodes, I've been revisiting the marriage work that I did as an reporter and activist over the last decade. And this week we'll be talking about 8 the play, the dramatic interpretation of the prop 8 trial. I worked behind the scenes on mounting the star-studded premieres in New York and LA, and here to talk about it with me this week is the delightful James.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Anti-Marriage Pledge Punishes Straight Fornicators

CC BY-SA 3.0
Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 3.jpg

Believe it or not, there are still some people trying to undo marriage equality, and generally make life unpleasant for gay people. And also, it turns out, for straight people. 

I'm joined once again by my very special guest, James, to talk about this weird situation.

In Oklahoma, there are 26 bills -- possibly a record -- jostling to chip away at protections for LGBT people. Among them: a bill to legitimize "sexual orientation change" treatments. The bill specifically calls out some protected practices, and they're amazing: "physical pain, such as electroshock or electroconvulsive therapy, touch therapy, pornography exposure or vomit-induction therapy."

Federally, six candidates have endorsed the "First Amendment Defense Act," which doesn't just say that marriage should be between a man and a woman; but that only married heterosexuals should be allowed to have sex. Sorry, single straight people! Sorry, single moms! This proposed bills is really about controlling peoples' bodies -- gay and straight, and particularly women. 

Oddly enough, Trump is one of the only candidates who hasn't pledged to sign the bill. (He said he supported it in a letter, but declined to sign the pledge.) So we have a strange situation here where the GOP is making Donald Trump look like the reasonable guy in the room.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Can Marriage Equality Be Rolled Back?

The work on marriage equality is pretty much wrapped up in this country, but every now and then, anti-gay activists manage to find their way into the news by trying to roll back progress and stop LGBTs from getting married. What are their chances of success? Well, let's talk about it this week, with the help of a special guest.

The latest scheme to undo marriage involves a sneaky bill in Tennessee. If it had passed it would have created a special right for bigots by allowing nonprofits to discriminate against same-sex couples -- but ONLY against same-sex couples. The bill failed, probably in part because noncompliance with federal law would have cost the state $8 billion.

But there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 more bills like this in legislatures around the country. In this episode we'll talk about what those bills look like, how to spot the ones that are disguised, and what can be done to stop them.

Here's the Valentine's video we discuss in this week's episode:

Some supplemental viewing about anti-gay laws:

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

When Coming Out at Work Launched a Federal Investigation

This week, I'm talking to Davina Kotulski, a crucial figure in the modern marriage equality movement. Davina appears briefly in my book, but she played a key role in securing marriage in California and nationally. I spoke to her this week about what it was like to not just be a witness to history -- but to have an opportunity to shape it.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Interview with "Buffy" Writer Jane Espenson & Friends About Gays, Marriage, and Their Sitcom "Husbands"

This week, I'm looking back at a 2011 interview with the folks behind the webseries Husbands: Jane Espenson, Brad Bell, and Sean Hemeon. When it was created, the world in which Husbands took place was kind of a fantasy realm: marriage equality was just a fact of life. It's just five years later now, and it's a bit strange to think how recently that had to be speculative fiction.

Husbands is a sweet funny love story that skips over all of the activism of the last few years and gets to the heart of what it is to be a gay couple: falling in love, taking a chance on someone you love, and watching your life change together. It's where we are today -- reality finally catching up with something that could only be a dream a few years ago.

And now, here's my 2011 interview.

Did you notice how Jane referred to Husbands as the show that networks might do 3 years from now? Well, that's happened, in fits and starts. There's Modern Family, which includes a gay couple. There's New Normal, which featured married gays much more prominently, and ultimately, briefly. There was Looking, which was also with us for only a short time. And then there are shows like Vicious and Faking It, which are strongly focused on gay coupling and seem to have some actual longevity. And of course, it's worth nothing that the third season of Husbands was picked up by the CW network to stream online.

So, there've been some successes, and some ... let's call them learning opportunities. Obviously, having a gay couple on your show is no guarantee of success. But it's at least possible, and increasingly, unremarkable. And that's thanks, in part, to pioneers who imagined the world as it should be, even when it seemed like a far-away dream.

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Emotional Work of Turning Prop 8's Heartbreak into Triumph

This week, let's take a look back at Proposition 8. That's the fight that got me engaged with marriage, back in 2008. After the marriage ban passed, I started making YouTube videos to update people on what was happening with marriage. I'm going to play the audio for you, but if you want to watch the videos, some of which are a bit visual, you can find them in the shownotes for this episode at DefiningMarriage.com. 

Here's one of the first post-Prop 8 videos I did, from May of 2009. 

Well, I was wrong about it going back to the ballot. At the time, that seemed like the only option, since the convention wisdom was that a court case was too risky. But the day after I put this video out, AFER revealed their lawsuit, and the rest was history. And of course, you can read all about that history -- why it seemed so risky, why AFER decided they could take a chance, and the freakout that happened once the Prop 8 lawsuit was revealed -- in my book, Defining Marriage.

Let's jump ahead a year to July of 2010. I produced a recap of everything that had happened with Prop 8 to get everyone caught all caught up. At this point, we'd heard initial arguments in the Prop 8 case, but there had been no ruling yet.

How about that prediction from Nate Silver! Fifteen years to marriage equality? Turns out it was five.

Next up, a video from 2013, summing up AFER's case before the Supreme Court. I made this video for AFER the week before they presented oral argument, to help folks understand the case. 

I also produced a video showing the behind the scenes work that had gone into the case. We followed the plaintiffs and lawyers and PR people all over Washington, documenting what it was like to finally land at the Supreme Court. This one's pretty visual, so I do recommend checking DefiningMarriage.com to watch it if you can.

At that point, it was all up to the justices. And that meant a few tense months of waiting, and waiting, and waiting. While we waited, I put together another video that summed up the entire case, drawing on interviews and media coverage from 2008 to 2013. Here's a sprint through the entire case, from its very first day to the moments before the Supreme Court ruled:

Well I hope I'm not spoiling any surprises by revealing that we won. Here's a roundup of that day of decision, all of the celebrating, all of the rallying, all of the excitement and disbelief and joy.

Turns out we had some more surprises in store. Within a week, marriage had resumed in California, much earlier than anyone expected. It was a huge shock to everyone, and I was able to arrange to have cameras present to document the first weddings. Here's one more video -- you'll first hear some interviews from the day of decision, and then you'll hear footage from a few days later, when we suddenly learned that the couples could marry.

Please do get in touch and let me know your thoughts and questions on Twitter -- I'm @mattbaume. Check out my other podcast, The Sewers of Paris, for revealing personal stories about the entertainment that changed the lives of gay men. And don't forget to hop over to Amazon to get Defining Marriage in print or via download. If you do pick up a copy, it would mean a lot if you could leave an Amazon review with your honest opinion.

Thanks again for listening, watching, and reading!

Music:
In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/