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Outlook: The Nun Campaigning for Gay Rights

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Sister Jeannine Gramick

06/01/2016 GMT

The Nun Campaigning for Gay Rights

BBC World Service - Outlook, The Nun Campaigning for Gay Rights

When Sister Jeannine Gramick joined a convent, she had never heard the word 'homosexual'

When Sister Jeannine Gramick joined a Catholic convent in the 1960s, she had never even heard the word 'homosexual'. A chance encounter with a young gay man then changed her life.

This is the tale of a rather unlikely gay rights campaigner. Growing up in a traditional 1940s American family, Sister Jeannine Gramick felt a calling to join the Catholic Church when she was just six-years-old. She had never even heard the word 'homosexual' before when she started at a Baltimore convent. It was a chance encounter with a young gay man that changed the direction of her life.

There is a new superhero protecting the streets in Mexico. But forget Superman, Batman or Spiderman, this caped crusader is Peatónito - Pedestrian Man! He's fighting to protect the rights of pedestrians in a city where one person dies on the roads every day.

If you were to write a song what would you base it on? Love? Regret? What about hand washing? This is the topic chosen by Mozambican musician Feliciano Dos Santos. As a child he contracted polio from contaminated water, an incident that made him determined the same wouldn't happen to others.

In Assam in north-east India, superstitious beliefs about witches are still commonly held. People accused of being witches are often thrown out of their villages and can be tortured or killed. Despite having little education and coming from a poor background, Birubala Rabha, has taken it upon herself to rid her state of these harmful practices - so far she says she has saved over 40 people whose lives were at threat after they were accused of being witches.

American singer, songwriter, film actress and comedian Bette Midler has been nominated for two Oscars and sold over 35 million records worldwide. But early in her career she was singing to small audiences in the Continental Baths, a gay sauna in New York. She speaks to the BBC's John Wilson.

(Picture: Sister Jeannine Gramick. Credit: Giampiero Sposito/Reuters)

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