Today on the Signorile Show

Guests / 2:30pm EST - Eric Ross, author of the children book "My Uncle's Wedding," and Mat Wood held a wedding celebration on April 2, 2011 at Disneyland's Rose Court Gardern. They have been featured on Disney's Wedding Blog and join us this afternoon to talk how they were able to have such a celebration.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Richard White, author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, joins us this afternoon to explain how those involved with the railroad industry helped to shape America politically, geographically, and economically -- and how that industry was as "corrupt as they were long."

Guest /4:30pm EST - Yesterday on the show, we played a portion of an interview Ann Coulter gave to Joy Behar in which Coulter said she believed reparative therapy works. Her claim has many criticing her, especially from those on the right. R. Clarke Cooper, executive director with Log Cabin Republicans, released a statement in which he said, "Ann Coulter is not a serious part of the conservative movement -- her positions are a throwback and do more harm than anything else." He returns to the show to discuss her remarks and LCR's statement.

It's Friday, who or what will get our "Angel, Turkey, Gassy and Climax of the Week" Awards?!?

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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

Guests / 2:30pm EST - Earlier this month, lesbian couple Olivier Odom and Jennifer Tipton had gone on a family trip to Dollywood's Splash Park in Tennessee only to be stopped at the gate by one of the employees over a shirt that Odom was wearing. The shirt read, "Marriage Is So Gay," which brings attention to the fight for marriage equality. They join us today to explain the discrimination and what they plan to do about it.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - We've been focusing a lot on Rep. Michelle Bachmann and husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, and their business, Bachmann & Associates, which practices reparative therapy. Then it may come as no shock that within Bachmann's district, there is an alarmingly high number of suicides among teens who are gay or perceived to be gay by classmates, which has state health officials labeling the area a "suicide contagion area." Stephanie Mencimer with Mother Jones uncovered this in her latest article and joins us this afternoon to shed some light on the issue.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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

Guest / 2:30pm ET - Xorje Olivares of OutQ News joins us to recap the historic day yesterday in New York as it celebrated hundreds of gay and lesbian couples get married.

Guest / 3:30pm ET - This year marked the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of one of the most influential and controversial books in American history, Uncle Tom's Cabin. David Reynold's, author of Mightier Than The Sword: Uncle Tom's cabin and The Battle For America, joins us this afternoon to explore the novel's reception and how it contributed to the cultural changes our country underwent in the the 19th century.

Guest / 4:30pm ET - As we went into the weekend, we were greeted with some good news. Not only were New Yorkers getting ready to tie the knot, but the President, Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs certified the implementation study of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. While this is great news for the last step in repeal, many who were discharged under DADT are still facing the downfalls of being discharged. Lt. Dan Choi, who became the face of repeal last year, returns to the program to discuss the financial impact the discharge has had on him.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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

Guest / 3:30 p.m. EST - Guy Winch, Ph. D and author of The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the Right Way to Get Results, Improve your Relationships, and Enhance Your Self-Esteem, comes on the show to teach us how to complain more effectively.

Guest / 4:30 p.m. EST - Last week the FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful) Education Act was signed into law in California. The legislation's author, Democratic State Senator Mark Leno, joins us to discuss how the bill will be implemented and its significance in the LGBT civil rights movement.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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.

Yesterday on the Signorile Show...

Guests / 3:30pm EST - We'll be joined by Kate Baker and Ming Linsley, a lesbian couple who are suing the Wildflower Inn in Vermont after it denied them the right to have their wedding because of the innkeepers' personal feelings on the matter. Joshua Block, the lawyer representing them, joins us as well.

Guest / 4:3opm EST - Earlier this month, President Obama appointed the first openly-gay member to the US Military Academy Board of Visitors. Sue Felton, the Obama appointee, joins us today to talk about this accomplishment.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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 back LIVE today...

Guest / 3:30pm EST - We've spoken many times about American Family Associations Bryan Fischer and the anti-gay rhetoric he spews. Peter Montgomery, senior fellow with People for the American Way, joins us this afternoon to expose Fischer and how the Republican Party came to embrace him.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Ashton Elijah, a contributor with LGBTQ Nation, joins us to discuss the anti-gay, self-anointed "prophet" Damon Thompson, the dangers of his preaching and how this changed his own life. A cautionary tale of the horrors of the "ex-gay" movement.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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.

Back Today with Live Show

Back from vacation, refreshed, and ready to plunge back in. It's all still happening -- the Bachmanns, Murdoch, debt ceiling madness. We'll get to it! Many thanks to Mike Rogers, Ann Northrop, Judy Gold and Andy Humm for guest-hosting!

Off Today

I'm still on vacation from the show, but we've had a great bunch of guest-hosts this week. Today Ann Northrop and Andy Humm of the cable show Gay USA will be guest-hosting. I'm back on Tuesday (a "best of" will run on Monday. See you then!

GLAAD Withdraws Support for AT&T/T-Mobile Merger

In a major turnaround in the wake of the scandal which led to the resignation of its former president, Jarrett Barrios, GLAAD today withdrew support of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger and, in an even more positive move, the group took a stand in favor of net neutrality.

The controversy that drove Barrios out began with the support of the merger, which ultimately led to charges of Barrios trading favors with now-ousted board member Troup Coronado, who was an AT&T lobbyist. Amid the uproar it became known that GLAAD had also initially written an AT&T-dictated letter to the FCC opposing net neutrality only to withdraw it after complaints from donors and board members. But it was the cover-up about that initial letter -- the implication first that it was forged,and later, that Barrios's assistant wrote it without his knowledge -- that led to Barrios's resignation and the resignation of eight board members (Barrios supporters), including Coronado.

In this new letter to the FCC written by GLAAD's acting president, COO Mike Thompson, GLAAD sends a message that it is putting all of that behind, wiping the slate clean, and taking stands that a gay civil rights group should be taking, underscoring how important net neutrality is to LGBT rights. Kudos to GLAAD's new leadership. Full text of the letter to the FCC commissioners:

Dear Chairman Genachowski and FCC Commissioners:

I write on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to update you on two important and related matters. First, we wish to withdraw our letter dated May 31, 2011 in support of AT&T's application to merge with T-Mobile. We remain respectful of the decision of many of our civil rights community allies to submit letters of support for AT&T's application. We also remain deeply appreciative of AT&T's various commitments to equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans, as exemplified by its excellent employment policies and significant support of LGBT community institutions and initiatives. Nevertheless, we received many expressions of concern about our May 31st letter after its filing. We have taken those concerns under consideration, and have over the last several weeks engaged in a much more rigorous and consultative examination of the relative benefits and drawbacks to AT&T's application than we undertook in advance of the filing of our initial letter. We concluded at the end of this reconsideration process that GLAAD should return to a neutral position regarding AT&T's merger application. Please update your records in this proceeding to reflect this modification.

Second, our initial support of the proposed merger of AT&T with T-Mobile has led to some confusion about GLAAD's position on net neutrality, in part because of AT&T's own opposition to net neutrality regulation. Please be aware that GLAAD disagrees with AT&T's position in this area. GLAAD is a strong supporter of the general principle of net neutrality. Although this letter is not specific to any proposed or existing regulatory or legislative standards, we acknowledge that net neutrality is one of the principles most responsible for the Internet's emergence as the dominant platform for free expression. A nondiscriminatory and neutral Internet has allowed new digital media initiatives and the blogosphere itself to flourish online. Net neutrality has cultivated the plethora of online resources available to otherwise isolated LGBT Americans seeking help with coming out, coping with and countering discrimination, suicide and HIV/AIDS prevention resources, community building and political organizing tools, and general self-expression. GLAAD's own work has been effective thanks in large part to net neutrality. We hope that you will take these views into account as you consider the various net neutrality proposals before you.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,

Mike Thompson

Acting President

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)

On Vacation!

I'm off all week from the show, taking some summer vacation. But there will be guests hosts filling in most of the week, in addition to a couple of "best of" shows for those of you who have requested interviews and discussions from the recent past. Today is a "best of," but tomorrow Mike Rogers of Rawstory and Blogactive is back, and he'll be guest-hosting on Wednesday too. On Thursday, the very funny and very smart Judy Gold, who recently did a weekend show on OutQ for a four week run, will be taking over the show. And on Friday, the legendary Ann Northrop and Andy Humm of Gay USA will guest host.

I'm back on Tuesday of next week; a "best of" will air on Monday of next week. I may be popping in here though, and posting a blog post now and then, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter.

What Kind of "Doctor" is Marcus Bachmann?

Over the weekend, Truth Wins Out and The Nation exposed the truth about Michele Bachmann's husband's Christian counseling service: It tries to "cure" gay people with harmful, quack-science "ex-gay" therapy.

On the web site of Bachmann and Associates, readers are invited to "meet Dr. Marcus Bachmann" who's been "a clinical therapist in the Twin Cities for more than 20 years." But what kind of "doctor" is Marcus Bachmann and where did he get his degree? In his bio Bachmann lists a masters degree from Pat Robertson's Regent University in Virginia. The bio also lists a "PhD – Clinical Psychology, Union Graduate School, OH." As blogger JARS points out in a well-researched post, the punctuation he uses is "PhD," which should be Ph.D." Okay, that could be just a style choice, as a commenter points out, and people do use both. But it's important because he may or may not have a doctor of philosophy in clinical psychology. And the Union Graduate School no longer exists. Bachmann got a doctoral degree in something from a shady university that came under scrutiny from the Ohio Board of Regents and whose graduate school was dissolved:

The Union Institute's Ph.D. program came under scrutiny by the Ohio Board of Regents in the late 1990s, early 2000s which culminated in its 2002 Reauthorization Report. The report was critical of the Union Institute's Ph.D. program, noting in particular that " ... expectations for student scholarship at the doctoral level were not as rigorous as is common for doctoral work ... " (OBR 2002 Reauthorization Report, page 13) As a result, The Union was put on probation, the Union Graduate School was dissolved and the Ph.D. program was restructured.

JARS goes on to write that it seems highly suspect that Marcus Bachmann has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology because, if you follow the timeline, the school wasn't offering it:

What does all this mean? On his website Dr. Bachmann states he’s had 23 years experience. Simple math brings us to the year 1988. If Dr. Bachmann’s Ph.D. was completed prior to this date, he might have graduated from The Union Graduate School which offered ONLY a Ph.D. in Arts and Sciences. If he graduated later than 1986, then he would have graduated from The Union Institute (1986), or The Union Institute and University (2001) and his Ph.D. would have been in Interdisciplinary Studies.

If in fact Dr. Marcus Bachmann graduated from this institute, whatever it was named at the time, he would not have graduated with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. The ONLY doctorate in Clinical Psychology was offered after 2001, and the degree is a Psy.D. (Doctor of Psychology) and not a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy).

JARS doubts in his post that Bachmann is even a licensed therapist.But Politico indeed confirms that he is not licensed and that Minnesota is one of the few states where you can practice therapy without a license:

The Minnesota Board of Psychology and the Board of Marriage and Family Therapy confirmed to POLITICO that Bachmann is not licensed with them. And a search of the Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy license database returns no result.

Trisha Stark, of the Minnesota Psychological Association, said that the title “clinical therapist” is not widely used in professional circles and that Bachmann is able to operate his clinic because of state rules regarding mental health practice.

“Minnesota is one of the only states in which you can practice mental health without a license,” Stark said.

Hopefully some reporters will ask Michele Bachmann directly about these issues, though after seeing some of the softball interviews on TV I'm not holding my breath.

Today on the Signorile Show

Guest / 3:30pm EST - During the show yesterday, news broke on that a three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay on a September 2010 ruling by Judge Virginia Phillips that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was unconstitutional. Dan Woods, attorney for the Log Cabin Republicans in this case returns to the show to explain what this means for repeal.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Art & Homosexuality: A History of Ideas is the first book to thoroughly explore the long-standing link between art and homosexuality. It isn't until the modern periods that we see public arguments about the link of art and homosexuality, but to understand these arguments, Christopher Reed looks back on other eras to help inform us about the roots of these arguments and to explain why there is an interdependence between the two. He joins us this afternoon to talk about his book.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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

Guest / 2:30pm EST - Tara Borelli, staff attorney in the western regional office of Lambda Legal, joins us today to update us on Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, in which she is co-counsel for Karen Golinski, a married lesbian federal court employee who is suing so her wife can receive health benefits.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - Rachel Shtier, author of The Steal: A Cultural History Of Shoplifting, joins us this afternoon to talk about her new book which tracks the fascinating history of one of the most ancient of crimes.

Guest / 4:30pm EST -We've talked a lot about married bi-national couples, where one spouse is facing potential deportation because they cannot be sponsored for citizenship under federal law. Henry Velandia was one of those people, but in a surprising turn of events, the Department of Homeland Security decided to drop the deportation efforts against him last week. Henry Velandia and his husband, Josh Vandiver, join us to discuss his case.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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

Guest / 3:30pm EST - What's being called by some as an epidemic, there is a rise in the gap between the ratio of men versus women in Asia and Eastern Europe, leading to one in five men Chinese men will lack a female counterpart by 2030. Mara Hvistendahl, author of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls And the Consequences Of A World Full Of Men, joins us today to talk about what she found from her research.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Paul Schindler of Gay City News joins us today to talk about how Governor Cuomo's efforts to get the marriage equality bill passed in New York.

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 108 and on the Sirius XM iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps. 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.