This week was show No. 13 on The Agenda, but it was anything but unlucky. We started out with a conversation with Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., who serves the district that used to be represented by the late Rep. Gerry Studds, who died over the weekend. Studds became the first openly gay member of Congress, coming out in 1983.

Marc Ambinder, associate editor of the political tip sheet “The Hotline,” was our guest for Cup of Joe. Ambinder gave us a political lay of the land and talked about some of the hot races around the country. Listen to the interview in parts one and two.

Turning to Neilson ratings and plotlines, Gail Shister, the lesbian TV columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, joined us in The Skinny. Joe and Mary dished about some of their new favorites this season, as we all talked about the evolution of GLBT characters on television. Listen to the laugh-out-loud funny interview in parts one and two.

There are some new gay characters on television as of Monday night with the premier of “Jacob & Joshua: Nemesis Rising” on Logo. The openly gay twins are the pop-rock group Nemesis, and we aired an interview between them and Joe from when they stopped by HRC to visit last week.

Finally, we took a look at an interesting new research project being launched with the Human Rights Campaign and Hunter College. Political Science Professor Ken Sherrill joined us from New York to talk about a paper he released last week proving the people are more accepting of GLBT issues when they know an openly GLBT person.