There was no rest for the weary last night on The Agenda with Joe Solmonese. We just wrapped up HRC’s National Dinner and even though it was a federal holiday, we still had a fresh new show for you.

Kicking off, we previewed National Coming Out Day – celebrated October 11th every year to mark the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and the first public display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. With the 20th anniversary this year, HRC has created a YouTube video project encouraging people to tell their own stories to the world. We heard one of the submissions from previous Agenda guest Mary Matthews.

Then we were thrilled to welcome musician Michael Feinstein to the show. He’s one of the premier interpreters of American popular song and is perhaps best known for producing The Great American Songbook. He joined Joe and co-host Mary Breslauer to talk music and give us a preview of what else we can expect from him. Listen in parts one and two.

Then we turned to Hollywood with veteran actor Karen Black. She shared stories about Alfred Hitchcock and Jack Nicholson from her extensive filmography that includes an Oscar nomination for her role in Five Easy Pieces. Now she’s back with a new show opening next week with DC’s GLBT arts company Ganymede Arts. She was joined in the second segment by Ganymede’s Artistic Director Jeffrey Johnson. Listen to this off-the-wall interview in parts one and two.

In case you missed the magic of HRC’s National Dinner, we wanted to bring you a little taste of the evening so we aired some clips from the event including speeches by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Athlete Sheryl Swoopes, Bravo’s Tim Gunn and Actors Rebecca Romijn, Michael Urie and Matthew Broderick.

Finally, we got back to our usual political bailiwick with Jennifer Senior of New York Magazine. Her cover article in the current edition asks the question, what would a Hillary Clinton White House look like? Jennifer returned to The Agenda to talk about the presidential race and how these questions may factor into voters’ decisions. Listen in.

We mixed it up a little last night on The Agenda with Joe Solmonese – namely there wasn’t any Joe Solmonese. Unfortunately, Joe couldn’t make the show so Joe Sudbay filled in. He’s a DC-based political consultant with over twenty years of experience at both the state and federal level and also a blogger at AMERICAblog.com.

We started out the show looking at a new documentary called “Red Without Blue” which follows identical twins as one begins a gender transition. Filmmakers followed the pair for three years after Mark Farley came out as a gay man and Clair Farley began living full time as a woman. Filmmaker Tom Sills and Clair Farley were our guests.

Then we looked at GLBT issues on college campuses with the author of The Gay & Lesbian Guide to College Life. John Baez was our guest to discuss controversial and practical issues affecting GLBT students on college campuses; which colleges are in the forefront on GLBT issues; and the Princeton Review rankings of the top gay friendly and gay unfriendly colleges. Listen in.

After that we discussed a new documentary currently airing on PBS that follows a small-town reporter as he uncovers a molestation scandal. Peter Zuckerman discovered a cover-up involving the Boy Scouts and the Mormon church and he never expected that his sexual orientation would be used as a smear campaign weapon against him. “In a Small Town” tracks his story and Peter’s editor at the small town paper, Dean Miller, was our guest.
Listen in.

So having covered a film, a book and a TV special, we turned to magazines – The Advocate specifically. News Features Editor Sean Kennedy was our guest from our New York studios. He grabbed an exclusive sit-down with Presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton and he discussed this cover feature as well the magazine’s 40th anniversary.

Finally we celebrated another anniversary with filmmaker Deborah Chasnoff. Her film that turns 10 this year is “It’s Elementary,” which showcases the wonderful diversity of families and works to educate children on respect and tolerance. Only some local communities have banned the film after anti-gay organizers protested. Hear Deborah’s story.