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Out-FM aired on Sept. 27, 2022

Havana

Havana Street Scene

A major reform of Cuba's Families Law was approved by a wide margin in a referendum on 9/26/22. This includes the rights of lesbians and gay men to marry, enter civil unions, and adopt children. The decision to enhance rights of LGBTQ Cubans follows decades of organizing by queer Cubans.
 

Mariela Castro Espin

Mariela Castro Espin

Mariela Castro, niece of Fidel, daughter of Raul and of Vilma Espin, and director of the National Center for Sex Education, played an essential role in these developments. Out-FM airs sound from a 2012 NYC public event in which Mariela responded to questions about the treatment of LGBTQ Cubans in the early years of the revolution. She discussed the work she has initiated to educate Cuban society about sexual issues. 
 
After airing that recording, co-host Naomi Brussel had a dialogue with Rev. Dorlimar Lebrón, Lead Pastor of the First Spanish United Methodist Church, aka The People's Church, of El Barrio/East Harlem and a Vice Chair of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, which sponsors frequent trips to Cuba to oppose the illegal U.S. blockade of that country.
 
This program was produced by Naomi Brussel and John Riley. 
 
 
 

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Tune into Out-FM on Tuesday Sept. 20

from 8:00-9:00pm, on 99.5FM WBAI/NY & listen at https://www.wbai.org/listen-live/

If you miss the live show, the sound file for the whole show will be posted by Wednesday evening on https://outfm.org/liberation/ . 

Kathy Boudin (center), flanked by son Chesa Boudin (l) and life partner David Gilbert (r)

Kathy Boudin (center), flanked by son Chesa Boudin (l) and life partner David Gilbert (r)

Tribute to prison abolitionist and AIDS activist Kathy Boudin

Tune in – live Tuesday or later on the archive – for a show celebrating the life and work of Kathy Boudin. Kathy was a lifelong activist, organizer, teacher, and champion of social justice who died on May 1st at the age of 79 after a 7-year fight with cancer. Besides her many contributions to aid and solidarity with incarcerated people, we at Out-FM especially pay tribute tonight to her trail-blazing work while held for 22 years at Bedford Hills Women’s Prison to co-create with other incarcerated women the nation’s first model of prisoner-directed education and support for people living with HIV and for effective HIV prevention programs.  

Chesa Boudin, Kathy Boudin & David Gilbert, top left; Katrina Haslip top right, Angela Davis bottom left

Chesa, Kathy & David, top left; Katrina Haslip top right, Angela Davis bottom left

We will feature excerpts from tributes at the recent celebration of her life at Riverside Church in Manhattan, including the voices of her friend and sibling prison abolitionist Angela Davis, anti-imperialist colleagues Bernadine Dohrn and David Gilbert, who was Kathy’s life partner. We will also hear recorded statements by one of Kathy’s cofounders of AIDS Counseling and Education (ACE), Katrina Haslip, who died in 1992 of what was unjustly never deemed “AIDS” BEFORE the campaign she co-led forced the Centers for Disease Control to expand the definition of AIDS to include conditions experienced by Katrina and thousands of women and injection drug users. Finally, we’ll have a brief live discussion with Laura Whitehorn, Kathy’s longtime anti-imperialist activist colleague, also a former political prisoner and AIDS activist in prison, and later co-founder with Kathy and others of Release Aging People in Prison, as well as an out lesbian.

The full video of the Riverside Church celebration (including a radiant opening photo collage) is here.