Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, many sick people across the island remain in serious danger, and despite the government’s upbeat announcements about the recovery effort there is a humanitarian crisis going on in the US territory. According to reports, seriously ill dialysis patients across Puerto Rico have seen their treatment hours reduced by 25 percent because the centers still lack a steady supply of diesel to run their generators and less than half of the islands medical employees have reported to work in the weeks since the storm. Joining me today to talk all about the crisis in Puerto Rico and what Congress needs to be doing to help is Rep. Luis V. GutiĆ©rrez (D-IL-04).
So much happening in the world of politics this week, what with Sec. of State Tillerson allegedly called Trump a ‘Moron’ and the President getting into a war of words with Sen. Bob Corker. Helping us to make some sense of it all is Michele Jawando, Vice President of legal progress at the Center for American Progress, and don’t forget to check out THINKING CAP, the podcast she does every Thursday with our friend Igor Volsky!
In 1993 when Margaret Witt was a young Air Force nurse, President Clinton’s plan for gays to serve openly in the military was quashed by Congress, resulting in the cynical political compromise known as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, which had the effect of making it harder for gay servicemen and women to fight expulsion. Over the next seventeen years more than 13,000 gay soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guard, and airmen and women were removed from military service. That is, until Margaret Witt who herself was outed as a lesbian and removed from her tightly knit medical evacuation unit, sued and put a stop to it in the landmark case Witt v. Department of the Air Force. Now, in her new memoir Tell: Love, Defiance, and The Military Trial at the Tipping Point for Gay Rights Major Margaret Witt tells her story and captures the tension and drama of the politically charged legal battle that led to the congressional repeal of the controversial law and helped pave the way for a suite of landmark political and legal victories for gay rights. Margaret joins me on the show today to talk all about the book and so much more.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show on SiriusXM PROGRESS ch.127
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