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Welcome to the Double X Gab Fest for Thursday, July 10th, the Baby's Books and Beaches Edition.

I'm June Thomas, editor of Outwards, so it's LGBTQ section. Hannah Rosen will be back next time. But until then, the Double X-Gadfest will be made in New York. I'm here in the studio with Slate's senior editor, Jessica Winter. Hello, Jessica. Hello, June. And Noreen Malone of New York Magazine. Hi, Noreen. Hi. Before we get started, I just want to remind listeners about the email address where you can send comments,

questions and expressions of appreciation and outrage.

That address is double-xgabfest at slight.com.

We got a bunch of mail in the last fortnight.

Thank you for writing.

And just to mention a couple, Catherine Hong pointed out that Slender Man,

which we discussed two podcasts ago, is eerily similar to the terrible trivium, the villain in the Phantom Tollbooth.

Although I remember reading that book. I don't remember anything about the villain, but I do have a copy, so maybe I need to pick that up again.

And a couple of people, including Marie Lipp, who wrote a very long impassioned email, felt that we were too harsh on Lana Del Rey, which kind of surprised me because I thought that you two especially were very sort of pro-LDR. I enjoy the musical stylings of LDR, so that does surprise me a little bit. I like the remix of summertime sadness. I'll ride for that. I really like the Born to Die video. It's in a palace. There's tigers. I can't watch those videos. They're much too long. I don't have the concentration for that kind of. After about 30 seconds, I just want to go, okay, give me the next one there. And I can watch hours and hours of television. Pause. But I don't know. Maybe that's just my personal LDR limit. Anyway, thanks to everyone who wrote to Double XGabFest at Slate.com. And finally, a reminder that if you ever need more information about the stories that we discuss on the podcast, as well as our recommendations, you can find all that stuff on our show page, Slate.com slash XX.

Okay, our three topics for today are why are gays winning in court while women seem to be losing rights, the complicated business of surrogacy,

and finally, summer reading.

First up, the contrasting fates of gays and women.

Jay Michelson had an interesting piece at The Daily Beast last weekend, offering 10 reasons

why women are losing while gays keep winning.

Michelson begins, quote,

the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision among its many troubling consequences is yet another entry in the latest disturbing trend of civil rights cases

in which gays win and women lose.

Juxtapose Hobby Lobby, with the recent fate of Arizona's Turn the Gays Away Bill,

in Arizona, a religious

...