World Wide Wave

This is the special extended interview – The Economics of Equality with Professor Lee Badgett. This podcast includes additional content to that contained in the podcast and broadcast of World Wide Wave on August 11, 2020.

Have you heard about “the pink dollar”? Highly paid, same-sex couples with no kids and lots of money to spend. It’s supposedly a highly sought-after market for businesses, who are keen to cash in on the pot of pink gold at the end of the rainbow. But is the whole thing just a myth…and can true equality result in ever greater riches?

One person who lives in a world of LGBTIQ data is Professor Lee Badgett. Lee is an Economics Professor at the University of Massachusetts in the USA and Research Director for the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. Lee has been studying the economics of equality across the globe for many years and has now released a book titled: The Economic Case for LGBT Equality.

Listen to the week’s World Wide Wrap where we round up all that was in international LGBTIQ+ news for the week to August 11, 2020.

World Wide Wave aims to promote awareness of international LGBT issues. Our program provides in-depth analysis and interviews. We focus on the challenges facing the global LGBT community as well as some of our successes.

We take pride in interviewing a wide range of international LGBT people and supporters including politicians, activists, academics, parents, authors, students, professionals and more.

When it comes to coming out publicly, sport seems to be the final frontier. As an athlete, coming out or identifying as LGBT in the professional sport area can be challenging. There are perceptions, whether rightly or wrongly, that coming out can jeopardise a career or sponsorship deals – or even a loss in public support.

Emma Twigg is a rower from New Zealand who has reached the top of her sport. At 33, her rowing career spanned 16 years including three Olympic Games and being crowned world champion. Emma retired in 2015 but last year decided that she wanted to come back and use her profile of being an openly lesbian athlete to inspire others as a positive role model.

Listen to the week’s World Wide Wrap where we round up all that was in international LGBTIQ+ news for the week to August 4, 2020.

World Wide Wave aims to promote awareness of international LGBT issues. Our program provides in-depth analysis and interviews. We focus on the challenges facing the global LGBT community as well as some of our successes.

We take pride in interviewing a wide range of international LGBT people and supporters including politicians, activists, academics, parents, authors, students, professionals and more.

When rumours began to surface in 2017 of a “gay purge”, Russia was silent. It was extremely hard at the time for international media to verify what was actually going on as victims either disappeared or were too afraid to speak out. We now know that what was going on was a purge – a liquidation – of the LGBT community. LGBT people being rounded up, tortured and even being given back to their families to commit so-called “honour killings”.

But through the darkness there was light. Oscar nominated film Director David France went undercover in Chechnya to capture these harrowing stories – and the inspirational efforts of the LGBT activists who risked their lives to save them. The result is his new documentary, Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge.

Listen to the week’s World Wide Wrap where we round up all that was in international LGBTIQ+ news for the week to July 28, 2020.

World Wide Wave aims to promote awareness of international LGBT issues. Our program provides in-depth analysis and interviews. We focus on the challenges facing the global LGBT community as well as some of our successes.

We take pride in interviewing a wide range of international LGBT people and supporters including politicians, activists, academics, parents, authors, students, professionals and more.

India’s LGBTI rights have been on a rollercoaster ride this past decade with a fight over the colonial-era Section 377 laws. First decriminalisation in 2009, then same sex acts became a crime again in 2013 before the law was again reversed by the Supreme Court in 2018. It was a great cause for celebration in the world’s second most populous nation. But legalisation doesn’t mean acceptance. And queer people still suffer discrimination and exclusion, even by their own families.

One way to improve acceptance is to tell the stories of queer people in film. It’s exactly what our guest – filmmaker Onir did in 2005, creating the first film about AIDS and same-sex relation in India. Now he has joined forces with the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne to help filmmakers tell stories of diversity.

Listen to the week’s World Wide Wrap where we round up all that was in international LGBTIQ+ news for the week to July 21, 2020.

World Wide Wave aims to promote awareness of international LGBT issues. Our program provides in-depth analysis and interviews. We focus on the challenges facing the global LGBT community as well as some of our successes.

We take pride in interviewing a wide range of international LGBT people and supporters including politicians, activists, academics, parents, authors, students, professionals and more.

June and July are traditionally the months when many pride events take place in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the majority of the planned events. However, many events have been successfully held online. In the Georgian capital, Tbilisi Pride had ambitious plans for their events this year after a very violent Pride in 2019.

As the main opponents to last year’s Tbilisi Pride – the Far Right Georgian Movement – create their own political party, we go back to the events of 2019. John Eames is British film maker that documented the 2019 pride events in Tbilisi with the documentary March For Dignity. We see the sometimes violent events in Tbilisi last year through his lens.

Plus we talk to Giorgi Tabagari from Tbilisi Pride about the 2020 events and where LGBTIQ rights are up to now.

Listen to the week’s World Wide Wrap where we round up all that was in international LGBTIQ+ news for the week to July 14, 2020.

World Wide Wave aims to promote awareness of international LGBT issues. Our program provides in-depth analysis and interviews. We focus on the challenges facing the global LGBT community as well as some of our successes.

We take pride in interviewing a wide range of international LGBT people and supporters including politicians, activists, academics, parents, authors, students, professionals and more.