I should first say I've admired David Gilmore's work on the series Outright Radio for some time. Each program tackles a different theme from various points of views, with interviews, personal stories and his own insightful commentary. The use of music within and between segments is always just right, and the production values extremely polished.

I listened to "Bashing Back" because last year, a few days after the first International Day Against Homophobia, the local Amsterdam LGBT program I co-host had as a guest the editor of Washington D.C. LGBT newspaper who was viciously attacked three weeks earlier on the streets of this city I now call home - once famed for tolerance and openness. I was hoping for some different perspectives about violence against LGBT men and women. I wasn't disappointed.

The show is framed by two sensitively written first-person stories looking back at experiences of homophobia and harrassment, and how the writers overcame their fears and "bashed back" - not physically, but psychologically. Between them, Gilmore talks with (as opposed to "interviews" - his technique is great!): a transgender IT expert who won a job discrimination settlement against a Christian high tech company; and, in the strongest and most surprising piece, a young man who turned protests by a religious right organization into a means to support high school Gay-Staight Alliance clubs and literally laughs in the face of homophobia. It's not easy to find humor in such a serious topic, but that's what makes this item very special.

Any station with an hour to spare should broadcast this during June for Gay Pride month. Or any time for that matter - unfortunately, homophobic attacks and harrassment of gay youth in schools are year-round phenomena. As Chris Cain, the D.C. journalist who was attacked in Amsterdam, wrote in an editorial, "A more vigorous approach to openness would make a case for a society where each group is entitled to its own values, but not to impose them on others- whether through laws or through fists in the streets."