Today on the Signorile Show

Today is part five and the final installment of our five-part special broadcast, "2010: The Year that Was Don't Ask, Don't Tell." 2-6 ET, 11-3 PT, same time as the regular show. We'll be back with the live show next Monday.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

Part four of our five-part special broadcast, "2010: The Year that Was Don't Ask, Don't Tell." 2-6 ET, 11-3 PT, same time as the regular show. We'll be back with the regular live show next Monday.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

Today is part three of our five-part special broadcast, "2010: The Year that Was Don't Ask, Don't Tell." 2-6 ET, 11-3 PT, same time as the regular show. We'll be back with the live show next Monday.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Surely Not the Last Word on the T-Word

But a few words nonetheless. Below I've posted four full interviews from the show this year, different perspectives on a term. In 2010, controversy and debate broke out in the mainstream media -- with the media's usual sensationalism and oversimplification -- regarding the word "tranny"after the TV show "Glee" had used it in an episode.

I appeared on the Joy Behar Show in November to discuss various issues, and this one was one of them. I said that the word can be used in a hateful manner but that there are also those who call themselves "tranny" and that it's all about context. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which criticized "Glee" for its use of the word and disagreed with me, would have you believe the debate over the word is settled within the transgender community. But in fact, there has been an ongoing, important debate within the transgender community for a long time about the word, reflecting many positions. Unlike the word "fag" or other derogatory terms for groups, "tranny" started within the trans community itself, as an endearing term, as one of my guests, writer Kate Bornstein points out, and only later came to be used by haters after they latched onto it and after transgender people attained more visibility in culture in recent years.

As you'll hear from GLAAD's Cindi Creager, GLAAD does not acknowledge the range of opinions among transgender people. I decided to at least try to do that myself. Over a period of several weeks I invited various people on the show to discuss the word. There's not a consensus and I wouldn't say any of them is "wrong" or "right." Each of them, however, influenced my point of view on it, educated me, and made me think much more about the use of this or any word that offends some people. And that's a good thing. Listen in to the full interviews below.

Cindi Creager is GLAAD's national news director and is a lesbian: GLAAD did not have a transgender spokesperson to offer for the show, but Creager, an articulate and forceful advocate, expressed the point of view of those transgender activists with which GLAAD consults. The word is always derogatory in GLAAD's view, and GLAAD would like everyone to "evolve" to its point of view (and that of only those transgender activists it consults). She told me point blank that even people who call themselves "tranny" are wrong and should stop using it -- backing up a statement GLAAD sent me just before she came on, which, I would later realize, was only sent to me and none of the other media, which was very odd. Creager went on to say that anyone in the LGBT community using a slang word to call themselves -- even lesbians who refer to themselves as "dykes" -- should stop using it.


Autumn Sandeen is a noted transgender activist and citizen journalist who writes for PamsHouseBlend.com. She comes on the show often and I'm always impressed by both her courage and insights as an activist. A military veteran, she was among those activists arrested at the White House this year, chaining themselves to the gate protesting "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." She explained that she considers the word "tranny" a slur, doesn't use it and thought it was wrong for "Glee" to do so, but she wouldn't tell anyone else they couldn't use it to label themselves. She believes, rightly, that Joy Behar should have had a trans person commenting on it. She believes the word "tranny" is much like the word "queer" in the gay community -- a word some use for empowerment -- and also believes the disagreements are generational: She reports that younger transgender people use it, and even referenced a transgender rock band that uses the word in its name.



Mara Kiesling is the indefatigable executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality who joins me on the show often and always raises our awareness of issues. She says there's a very active debate in the transgender community about the word and that it's important to talk about it rather than just shut it down. She used to use the word "tranny" but doesn't any longer because she came to realize how much it does offend some people. Regarding "Glee," while she believes the usage of the term was derogatory, she believes GLAAD has been relatively silent about larger and more important aspects of "Glee" that have revealed ignorance among the show's creators and writers regarding transgender people and trans issues. In other words, "Glee" has bigger trans problems that GLAAD should be taking on.




Kate Bornstein is the pioneering transgender writer, artist and activist on gender and transgender issues, whose seminal 1995 book, Gender Outlaw, broke ground and caused many of us to rethink everything we thought before about gender. She embraces and uses the term "tranny" and defends all those who use it to label themselves. Of GLAAD, she wrote in a review of the 2009 film "Ticked Off Trannies with Knives," which GLAAD had criticized: "Until you add T to your name, please stop telling me and my people how to perform femininity or masculinity...Through their no doubt kind intentions, GL(noT)AAD acts like protective parents. They believe they have the right to speak for all transgender people. Their nonconsensual parenting reifies the notion that we are as weak and as defenseless as the tranny characters in the film. "

Today on the Signorile Show

Today is part two of our five-part special broadcast, "2010: The Year that Was Don't Ask, Don't Tell." 2-6 ET, 11-3 PT, same time as the regular show. We'll be back with the live show next Monday.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

More Picks for 2010

David Mixner's picks for 2010 are up, and I agree on all counts. Also, he gives good blizzard drama! Check it out.

2010: The Year That Was "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

No live show today, taking the week off. But my five- part special, "2010: The Year That Was 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" will begin today during the regular show time (2-6 ET, 11-3 PT), running from Monday through Friday. (We're back with the live show next week.) It's an inside look at the seat-of-your pants, contentious and often angry debate -- the roller coaster ride that was "don't ask, don't tell" repeal, and which finally ended in victory for the LGBT movement. We revisit some of the most fascinating interviews from the show, zero in on the key players and all the dramatic protests, and listen in to some of the caller discussions from the show throughout the year as we analyze what it all means for the U.S military and for LGBT rights. Thanks to our associate producer Sean Bertollo for the great job on the special.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

View from My Window

How long before a religious theocrat blames Blizzard 2010 on the gays because of God's wrath over "don't ask, don't tell" repeal? All the senators in its path, after all, voted to end the ban.

Happy Holidays to All

It's been a great year on the show.We were in the thick of a lot of stuff together. Want to thank all the listeners, and a special thanks to those who call in and contribute to the show, offering great input and productive, passionate discussion. And the same to those here on the blog jumping into discussion. A lot got done this year and you all made a difference. Let's get some more rights in 2011!

Vegan Chocolate Truffles

Here's the recipe I read on the show (and which many of you asked me to link to), from Vegetarian Times. Definitely use the Kahlua, even though the recipe says it's optional (you pour it in with the melted chocolate.) I've made these a few times in the past year, and they're perfect for the holidays, but be forewarned: they're messy and you could have some Lucy-in-the-chocolate-factory moments! Happy Christmas Eve!

Biggest Gassy of the 2010: Sarah Palin

Hands down listeners voted Sarah Palin as Biggest Gassy of the Year in our Annual Angel and Gassy Awards. Here is Palin's very special audio statuette -- it's epic and inspired! Kudos to our executive producer David Guggenheim for putting it together.

Greatest Angel of the Year: Lt. Dan Choi

It was a close one between Dan Savage and Dan Choi, but listeners (and our executive committee of judges in the studio) voted Dan Choi as Greatest Angel of the Year 2010 (though of course they both received Angel Awards for their outstanding activist work this year) during our annual Angel and Gassy Awards. Here is Dan Choi's audio statuette.

Video: Celebrate DADT Repeal, But Heed the Lesson

A listener from Oklahoma called in to the show to say that, in the end, it was right that DADT was repealed in Congress, which he said was the president's plan all along and thus the calls by activists for President Obama not to appeal Circuit Court Judge Virginia Phillips' ruling on DADT were wrong.

I took the opportunity to discuss why, though this is a big victory for the President , it only happened because of those activists -- including grass roots activists and bloggers - putting the pressure on (I've posted a video from the segment below). Even Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Senator Levin, just a week before the vote, was pointing to the president's foot-dragging, about which the Human Rights Campaign, throughout the year, was refusing to criticize the White House.

In the end, through a series of fateful events -- from Harry Reid pulling the government spending bill, clearing the schedule, to Senators Lieberman and Collins creating a stand-alone bill -- "don't ask, don't tell" repeal passed. In addition to fate and timing, it was because DADT repeal took on a life of it's own thanks to activists' relentless pressure, disrupting the president's events, protesting Congressional leaders. It's not a coincidence that other promises made by the president, where there was much less pressure from the left early on, didn't pan out. And that's the lesson of the DADT repeal saga for the LGBT movement and for all progressives.

Today on the Signorile Show

It's time for the Angels and Gassies -- Angel of the Year Awards and Gasbags, Monsters, Liars, Hypocrites and Total-Freaks-from-Hell Awards!

We'll be giving out lots of audio statuettes as you call in and nominate those heroes, and those evildoers, who deserve the appropriate awards. And then, at the end of the show, we'll all vote on the Greatest Angel (a big debate on the Facebook fan group page over whether it should be Dan Savage or Dan Choi, but it could really be anyone) and the Biggest Gassie. It's a noisy and fun show that hopefully will give you a few laughs as you're stuck in holiday traffic or home making my vegan chocolate truffles! So please call in and give us your nominations.



And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

We're celebrating the President's signing of DADT repeal, going through his speech and -- just celebrating more, in a holiday spirit, and giving away lots and lots of books in our Holiday Book Bonanza. All on the eve of our annual Angel and Gassy Awards!

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Openly gay California State Senator Mark Leno joins us this afternoon to talk about legislation he introduced last week that would add the contributions of the LGBT community into history books as a way to address the bullying crisis in this country.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Jaclyn Friedman, executive director of "Women, Action & the Media" joins us to speak about the seriousness of the Julian Assange allegations of rape and why they shouldn't be dismissed by the left.

Tomorrow is our Angel & Gassie of the Year!!!

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Gnocchi from Baked Potatoes

This is the recipe I read on the show yesterday, and by last night at least one listener, Janice, had made it and posted photos to the Facebook fan group page.(And I want to thank her for use of the photo to the right.) Most gnocchi recipes call for boiling the potatoes but I think the secret to great gnocchi is baking the potatoes. I gave out a recipe for serving 4 on the show, so the portions here are little bigger, figuring you'll want to feed more people. This recipe will serve about 6.




Six potatoes, about medium size Russet.

3 cups of flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten.

1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons ground black pepper.


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake potatoes for about 75 minutes.(Prick holes in them to let out steam). When cool, after about 15 minutes, cut them in half and scoop out insides right to the skin with a spoon into mixing bowl.


Get several baking sheets out and flour them lightly. They are where you will put your gnocchi until you cook them.

Add eggs, flour and pepper and Parmesan to the potatoes and mix thoroughly (hands are best)until you create a dough. Separate into five or six balls (you'll have to account for your space), and roll it out until it's about an inch in in diameter. Then cut into two inch pieces. and put each piece on the baking sheets.

Put up a large pot of hot water, bring to a boil. Cook about 20 gnocchi at a time, and scoop them up when they float to the top of the water. Put them into another pot in which you will have made your sauce or topping and just keep warm, ready to serve.

For a sauce/topping, you can use butter (a stick or two, however you like it) or butter substitute with fresh sage and Parmesan cheese (you can put some sage into the pot but then garnish each dish with sage and cheese). Or you can use a light -- very light -- marinara tomato sauce. I make my own by putting about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Put a half an onion and three cloves of garlic in the oil. When browned, put in about 12 chopped soft tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, a tablespoon and half of sugar, plus some basil, salt and pepper. You can use any other sauce, but my preference with gnocchi is to keep it light.

Today on the Signorile Show

It's exhilarating, a stunning victory and one that will create huge momentum for LGBT rights. How big? We'll go through it all on today's show. And I want to hear from all of you, including so many of our listeners who are active duty military folks. A time to celebrate! But also, a time for caution still, as the policy is still in place. Our guests will give the low down today.

President Obama is likely to sign the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal compromise bill on Wednesday in an Oval Office ceremony. It caps a week of furious activity and and a weekend vote that had us all on the edge of our seats and many activists teary-eyed. It seemed last week it was all dead? How did DADT repeal get saved? How did the votes go, and what happened on the Seante floor? Did the president pull though and does he deserve full credit for victory? What about the Human Rights Campaign? We'll go through it play by play.

Also, where does it all go from here? How long before service members will no longer be discharged?

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of SLDN, joins us today to talk about where the military goes moving forward after the president signs the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Joe Sudbay of AmericaBLOG joins us later this afternoon to talk about the politics behind the repeal efforts of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

And where should activists focus now? The new group founded by Media Matters, Equality Matters, has everyone talking. We'll get into it all with you calling in throughout the show and with our guests.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!


Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Victory, Finally!

It was exhilarating to see the Senate vote 65-31 to throw out "don't ask, don't tell," finally. It's been a long hard slog, and there's so much more to do to foster LGBT rights. But we should celebrate this victory. I went on CNN yesterday after the vote to talk about what impact this will have.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Vote Today

The cloture vote for the stand alone DADT repeal bill will be this morning at around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. The Dream Act will be voted on as well. I'll be live-tweeting and on Facebook, so follow me there.

Glenn Greenwald on Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army private who is accused of giving hundreds of thousands of documents to Wikileaks, has been kept in solitary confinement for months by the military, though he has not been convicted of any crime and has not been given due process. His story has received much less attention as the media focus on Julian Assange. Glenn Greenwald wrote a column about Manning's inhumane treatment. The brutal conditions take on more relevance in light of the story in the New York Times today about the U.S. trying to build a conspiracy case against Assange. The government may very well be trying to get Manning to finger Assange as his accomplice, who may have influenced or coerced Manning into getting documents, and not merely as someone to whom Manning gave documents after he'd obtained them. I had Glenn on the show yesterday to to discuss Manning's treatment. Listen in to the discussion.

Today on the Signorile Show

We'll be going live to House floor at the top if the show, where the
don't ask, don't tell" repeal stand alone bill is being debated.

At 4:30 Glenn Greenwald joins us to talk about the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning, the gay servicemember who is accused of leaking documents to Wikileaks.

We'll open up discussion and the phones to talk about Kevin Spacey comparing his defending his closet to teens trying to defend themselves from bullies.

Today on the Signorile Show

What is the status of the stand alone bills in the House and Senate to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and how realistic is this last ditch effort? When will there be a vote in both chambers? We'll get into it all now.

Once again Republicans have torpedoed the health benefits for 9/11 responders, and the media's been pretty silent on it. We'll go through the details.

There is a Santa Claus: Gaffe-prone Michael Steele is running again for RNC chair!

The U.S. is suing a middle school for not allowing a Muslim teacher leave to go on a pilgrimage. We'll take your calls about it.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Last week, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed apologized to the city's gay and lesbian community over the police raid of the bar, the Atlanta Eagle last September. The city settled a lawsuit with the bar for more than $1 million. Glen Paul Freedman, who is the chair of the LGBT advisory group set up by the mayors office and the police department, joins us this afternoon to talk about the reforms that came about since the Atlanta Eagle Raid.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Earlier this year, we saw the tragic death of 29 miners in the Upper Big Branch mine run by Massey Energy. Don Blankenship was Massey's chairman and CEO at the time and is featured in Jeff Goodell's latest article for Rolling Stone - Don Blankenship: The Dark Lord Of Coal Country. He joins us today to talk about Blankenship's rise to power and how he methods of saving a buck and passing the blame.

Seriously, the FIFA president is saying gays should not have sex during the World Cup!

Though many legal scholars believe the judge who ruled the health care mandate unconstitutional is just making stuff up, they also believe the ruling is very significant. We'll explain.

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

President Obama announced his tax cut "deal" and why he caved in on extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. He's still doing a lot of explaining, trying to talk angry Democrats into voting for it. Is it as bad as everyone thought? Even if it is better than thought, will it still torpedo the economy? Was the payroll tax "concession" Obama got from Republicans really worth it? Is it going to help or hurt his reelection and was this yet another shot at Clinton triangulation? We'll go through the plan, and the politics, and take your calls.

We went live to San Francisco federal court yesterday on the show, to the arguments in the appeal of the historic Prop 8 case. We'll go over the highlights today and discuss where it all goes from here and why opponents of Prop 8 were probably happier than proponents.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - A study conducted by Yale University and that is being published in the January 2011 issue of Pediatrics, shows that gay, lesbian and bisexual youth are 40% more likely than straight teen to be punished in school, by police and by the courts. Kathryn Himmelstein, lead author of the study, joins us today to explain the results of this study.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Yesterday, we spoke about an article Clarence B. Jones, former speech writer and counsel for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in the Huffington Post, calling for a Democratic Primary Challenge to President Obama in 2012. He joins us this afternoon to discuss the disappointment and frustration many constituents have with Barack Obama's presidency.

Where exactly is the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal effor now? Still seems dead in the water, though some are trying to revive it. We'll go through the latest.

What's the latest in the Wikileaks saga, following the arrest of Julian Assange in London. We'll take your calls, so much to get into.

And the second week of our Holiday Book Bonanza.

These stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

The federal appeal to Judge Walker's ruling overturning Prop 8 is underway before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. First proponents of Prop 8 must make an argument as to why they have standing to appeal since the attorney general is not appealing the case. We will cover what has transpired and will also go live to the courtroom bringing you full coverage.

There's lots of outrage among progressive (and among some Democrats on the Hill) over the White House's cave-in on Bush tax cuts -- astoundingly described as a "compromise" -- and much discussion now about what Barack Obama really stands for. The one-time attorney of friend of Martin Luther King is now calling for a Democratic primary challenge against Obama in 2012. We'll go over the details and take your calls.

Is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" now dead in the water, and did the White House sell us out once again? That's how it looks right now.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Art censorship all over again. Last week, on World AIDS Day, an exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and a 1987 video made by artist David Wojnarowicz, "A Fire In My Belly", were removed after antigay bigots attacked it. Does this portend the future, with Republicans raising culture wars again over art? Christopher Knight, an art critic with The LA Times, joins us this afternoon to discuss why.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Prop 8 appeal underway. Today, we will go over the highlights from the Prop 8 trail being heard today in the Ninth Circuit in front of three federal judges with Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal and where she thinks this case is headed next.

So much on Wikileaks over the weekend and the outrageous tactics of the U.S.government in shutting it down while mirror sites pop up and supporters fight back. We'll go through it all.

And the second week of our Holiday Book Bonanza.

These stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

The second and final day of Senate hearings on "don't ask, don't tell," with some of the service chiefs expressing doubt or outright opposition to repeal. We'll let you know who supports and who doesn't. Meanwhile Senator Scott Brown has come out for repeal, breaking from Republicans in an interesting development.

Where is the White House? We'll go through the hearings, focus on the highlights and also speak with Chris Johnson from the Washington Blade at 4"30 ET about the White House efforts and what happened on Capitol Hill today.

At t 3:30, performance artist Tim Miller joins me to talk about his current show, getting rave reviews on tour.

Lots of other news, and more listener survey comments, the Holiday Book Bonanza and our weeklie awards: Angel, Gassie and Turkey of the Week!

These stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download S

Today on the Signorile Show

Highlights from the "don't ask, don't tell" Senate hearings: Lots of interesting exchanges with both heroes and villains of repeal squaring off. And of course, John McCain just getting really angry and frustrated a few times. We'll go through it all.

More on tax cuts and what the Democrats could have done and should do now.

A judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals set to hear the appeal by proponents of the overturned Prop 8 refused to disqualify himself as demanded by Prop 8 supporters.

Is this what the government really is concerned will get out because of the Wikileaks disclosures? Obama and GOPers work to protect George W.Bush from a torture probe.

Guest 3:30 ET The TSA patdowns and the specific concerns of transgender people: Mara Kiesling of National Center for Transgender Equality joins us to talk about the issues.

Guest 4:30 ET The civil unions bill that is about to become law in Illinois, making more history. We'll speak with Equality Illinois' Rick Garcia about the battle for civil rights in the Land of Lincoln.

As Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok told us on the show the other day, hate group leader Tony Perkins of Family Research Council put out lies and distortions during their joint appearance on Hardball. Now Chris Matthews has corrected it with a follow up on something that never should have happened because Perkins shouldn't be on, period.

It's time for...the listener survey! We'll read some comments today and take your calls.

And day four of our Holiday Book Bonanza.

These stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!

And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.

Today on the Signorile Show

The party of "NO" strikes again: Republican leaders in the Senate got the signatures of all 42 Republican senators pledging that they will block all votes, on everything -- including "don't ask, don't tell" repeal -- unless Democrats allow a vote on tax cuts to move forward. What does this mean for DADT, and how realistic is it? And what is the White House and the DNC really doing to get people to put pressure on wavering senators? Seems more like they're raising money than anything else. We'll explain how and get into it all today.

And speaking of the tax cuts, Democrats are now boxed in because they stupidly didn't have a vote before the elections. But why not just let Bush's tax cuts expire, and have Obama propose a middle class tax cut right after that? Because it would take some guts, that's why. We'll talk about and take your calls.

Guest 3:30 ET Chase Whiteside, a 22-year-old student who, as part of New Left Media, has shown how completely clueless so many of the Tea Party followers are -- and even how robotic and badly informed some on the left can be -- joins us to talk about the illuminating work he's done, attending all the big political rallies and letting the participants speak for themselves.

The lastest out of Illinois where the Senate is voting on a civil unions after the House already has passed it. Civil rights in the making!

Guest 4:30: Jarod Chlapowski, a gay Army veteran with Servicemembers United will discuss what is actually deep inside the Pentagon study on implementation of "don't ask, don't tell" repeal which was released yesterday.

It's World AIDS Day, a day in which some politicians have photo-ops while much of the media finally focuses on the global pandemic (if only for a day). And some AIDS activists also rightly protest the hypocrisy, like those in New York who held a protest and "bagel boycott" to point out Mayor Bloomberg's own broken promises. We'll talk about that and the "new style of AIDS activist," as described by The New York Times in a refreshing and hopeful piece.

Julian Assange of Wikileaks is now curiously wanted again by Swedish authorities, with an Interpol alert out on him. But that hasn't silenced him. He's called for Hillary Clinton's resignation in light of that fact she's broken treaties and spied on allies, as evidenced by the cables he's leaked. We'll take calls and get into the latest on cablegate.

And day three of our Holiday Book Bonanza.

These stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!

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World AIDS Day Action Alert

Visit Housing Works' website today and send a tweet or email, or make a phone call, to Mayor Bloomberg to demand he not cut AIDS services even as he tries to express compassion today, World AIDS Day, for people with AIDS. Enough of the photo-ops, action is what is needed.