There’s a lot going on here in Washington and around the country and we took on a lot of it last night on The Agenda with Joe Solmonese.

Leading off the show, we took a look at the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which will face a committee mark-up this week. Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey chairs the subcommittee of jurisdiction and presided over hearings on the bill last week. He was our guest to talk about the bill’s prospects and why the issue is so important to him. Listen in.

The Sen. Larry Craig scandal started a lot of conversation on bathroom behavior and the propensity of particularly closeted men to seek anonymous sexual encounters in public. We wanted to take a broad view of the issue so we talked to two guests with different perspectives. First, Matt Coles who heads the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project joined us. The ACLU filed a legal brief yesterday in support of Sen. Craig saying nothing he did should be illegal. Hear what Matt had to say. Then we looked more at the psychology of anonymous encounters with noted psychiatrist Dr. Jack Drescher.

We switched gears to talk about GLBT healthcare with Rob Falk of the Human Rights Campaign and Justin Nelson of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. NGLCC and HRC have partnered with Aetna to present Out & Healthy: The National Health Conference on LGBT Healthcare Delivery and Opportunities coming up in November.

Sticking with health care but from a different angle, more than 100 organizations this week issued a call for a National AIDS Strategy to end the epidemic in the United States. We welcomed AIDS Action’s Rebecca Haag and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s David Munar to talk about the plan to significantly reduce HIV infection rates, ensure access to care and treatment for those who are infected and eliminate racial disparities. Listen in to their fascinating conversation.

Finally, we ended on a lighter note with Andrew DePrisco, author of the book, Woof! A Gay Guy’s Guide to Dogs. He takes an irreverent look at our fascination with our four legged friends including a top ten list of breeds for gay men and the kinds of dogs celebrity divas prefer. Enjoy this segment here.

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