• Washington Takeout: The Takeaway's Todd Zwillich says many people were surprised when the American Medical Association took a position that the U.S. military's policy towards gay service members – 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' – is harmful to the health of gay servicemen and women.
• Business Takeout: New York Times reporter Louise Story joins us to discuss frustration over executive compensation at AIG and other bailed-out companies.
• Sports Takeout: Our own Ibrahim Abdul-Matin talks about tonight's Bears/49ers matchup in the NFL, as well as a controversy below the Mason-Dixon line over a fight song at "Ole Miss."

Marcus Mabry, international business editor of The New York Times, and Nick Childs, political correspondent for the BBC, help us take a look at what's coming up in the news this week. We talk about the president's decisions on Afghanistan, the ongoing health care debate, and President Obama's promise to the gay and lesbian community.

Last Friday, when we talked about young people coming out at younger ages, we got phone calls, emails and comments on our website, including one from Susan in Oklahoma who told her 14-year-old daughter she would love her no matter what her sexual orientation turned out to be. We also heard from an anonymous listener who said that her husband of 19 years just came out after years of knowing he was gay.

Nick Weaver revealed to his mom that he was gay when he was 12 years old. Now he is 15 and lives in Tulsa, Okla. Both he and his mom, Pam Anderson, talk with us about the challenges pre-teens face when coming out of the closet. We also speak to Benoit Denizet-Lewis, who wrote a cover story in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine about a growing trend among young gay men and women: coming out earlier in life.

Sasha Baron Cohen has made himself famous by mocking himself and others in his roles as Ali G and perhaps most famously as Borat, the Kazakh reporter. Now he's turned his barbs on another group: gay Austrian fashionistas. His film Bruno opens today. Joining The Takeaway to discuss whether Mr. Cohen is mocking homophobia or homosexuals themselves is Alfons Haider, Austrian TV host of Strictly Come Dancing —the number one television show in Austria. Some say he's the person on whom Bruno is based. We are also joined by Rashad Robinson, the senior director of media programs for GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).

Click through for a transcript of the discussion with Alfons Haider and Rashad Robinson.

To listen to New York Times Film Critic A.O. Scott's review of the film, click here.

Judge for yourself! Here's the trailer for Bruno

In this week's agenda segment: U.S. troops pull out of key Iraqi towns and cities, Bernie Madoff is sentenced to prison, the Supreme Court holds its last session before break and monthly unemployment numbers are out. For analysis, The Takeaway talks to Marcus Mabry, International Business Editor of The New York Times and Jonathan Marcus, Diplomatic Correspondent for the BBC.

President Obama said yesterday that he will extend some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees. But with the Defense of Marriage Act still in place, how big a step forward is really possible? The Takeaway talks to Kenji Yoshino, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at the NYU School of Law.

To see a map of the state of gay rights across the globe, click here.

President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum today to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees as far as allowed under the Defense of Marriage Act. It's a surprise move that comes as the president faces criticism from several gay rights leaders over what they suggest has been a failure to live up to campaign promises in the first months of his presidency. For more on what the memorandum might provide, we're joined by Politico's Ben Smith.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will not review the Pentagon's controversial "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, which requires U.S. service members to keep their sexual orientation under wraps. In 2000, the UK armed forces integrated gay and lesbian service members nearly overnight with some surprising results. The Takeaway talks to Retired Lieutenant Commander Craig Jones of the British Royal Navy. He was a fierce advocate of British military integration.

The California Supreme Court stopped same sex couples from calling themselves married, even though they can have the same rights. But what if society decided that "marriage" is just a word? Conservative law professor Douglas Kmiec is proposing that government get out of the business of marriage altogether and allow gay and straights to have civil unions.

For more, read Douglas Kmiec's article, Equality in substance and in name, in the SF Gate.

Advocates for gay marriage in California hoped the State Supreme Court would overturn last November’s ballot initiative that took away the right to same-sex marriage, but their hopes were dashed yesterday when the court upheld Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. The Takeaway is joined by John Schwartz, the legal correspondent for The New York Times to discuss the repercussions of this ruling.

A ruling is expected today from the California Supreme Court that will either uphold Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, or overturn it as unconstitutional. Whatever the California court decides, gay marriage is now legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, and it will be legal in Vermont and Maine in September. And, inevitably, with marriage comes divorce. As couples and attorneys are learning, same sex divorce is at least as complex and controversial as same sex marriage. Frederick Hertz, an attorney in Oakland California and author of Making it Legal: A Guide to Same-Sex Marriage, Domestic Partnership & Civil Unions joins Farai and John with a look at the issue.

It's Monday, which means it is time to pull out our road map for the week. Our guide this week is our own Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich. On the agenda? A California court is expected to rule on the controversial ballot initiative Proposition 8 that barred gay marriage. The court will decide whether the initiative is legal and the fate of those couples already married in California. And President Obama is expected to announce his pick for the U.S. Supreme Court this week. Also this week Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass and the U.K.'s Prince Harry will be in the U.S. Abbass will talk about Mideast peace, while Harry is likely to play polo.

The Europe-wide song contest Eurovision isn't just about music anymore. The event is turning out to be one of the biggest landmarks in Russia's gay-rights movement. Joining us from Moscow with a report is the BBC's Paul Henley.

For more of The Takeaway's coverage of Eurovision, click here.

Here's a recap of the Eurovision Grand Final:

Gay marriage has been a longtime wedge issue in the United States, but the pace of change has quickened in the last few months. Last month, Iowa and Vermont legalized same-sex marriage and last week, Maine became the fifth state to allow gay couples to wed; similar legislation is advancing in New Hampshire. Washington D.C. also got into the mix, voting last week to recognize same-sex marriages that have been performed in other parts of the United States. Joining us to talk about this latest round of legislation and to look ahead at whether this momentum could carry across the country is Suzanne Goldberg. She is a professor at Columbia Law School and the director of the Gender and Sexuality Law Program.

Last week Maine became the fifth state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Maine's Democratic-controlled Senate voted 21-13 in support of the bill, which redefines marriage as the legal union of two people rather than between a man and a woman. Maine's Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 89-57. The House spent nearly three hours in what has been described as an emotionally-charged debate. One of the seven Republicans Representatives to vote in favor of the bill is Representative Pat Flood. He talk sabout how he wrestled with the issue and reached his decision.

A strange thing happened yesterday on web megastore Amazon.com: all the gay-themed literature was suddenly recategorized as "adults only" and was removed from the all-important Amazon rankings. When the blogosphere and the twitterers noticed, the debated over Amazon's actions erupted online. Twitter went crazy. The hashtag #amazonfail quickly rose through the Twitter ranks as a top topic.

The company claims it was only trying to limit access to adult material, and that gay literature was inadvertently swept up in the category changes. So is Amazon anti-gay? Or just clumsy? It's not completely clear what happened, rumors of hacks and customer hate-based tagging abound, but the company is not helping clear the air over exactly what happened although they did apologize for being "ham-fisted".

Baratunde Thurston, better known by some as @baratunde, joins The Takeaway with his thoughts on what happened on Amazon.com.

With both Iowa and Vermont legalizing same sex marriage within the last week, we wanted to take a step back and talk about the future of gay marriage in the United States. What is the next step for the gay rights movement, and which state will be the next one to let same sex couples marry? Or are these court decisions the spark that will mobilize those opposed This morning will be present both sides of the argument. We'll begin first with Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU’s LGBT Project and representing the other side of the conversation is Maggie Gallagher. She is the President of the National Organization for Marriage.

Here are two of the PSAs released by the campaigns:

Iowans spent the weekend reacting to the Varnum v. Brien court decision that made same-sex marriage legal in their state. On Friday, Iowa's Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a case brought by gay rights group Lambda Legal and threw out a law that said marriage could only be between a man and a woman. The Hawkeye State now joins Massachusetts and Connecticut as the only places in the nation where same-sex marriages are legal. While some Iowans plan their weddings, others plan to launch a campaign to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Iowa Public Radio Statehouse Reporter Joyce Russell joins us with the details.

Read the full opinion of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Read a summary of the decision here.

Today, Vermont’s House of Representatives votes on a controversial bill that would legalize gay marriage in the state. The bill has come under fire from Vermont Governor Jim Douglas who has vowed to veto the legislation if it passes. Douglas's statements have drawn both praise and condemnation. The Takeaway talks to Ross Sneyd, news editor with Vermont Public Radio.

Portia de Rossi did a public service announcement on the gay marriage issue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!: