Series Podcast: This Way Out

Take a tour of Sydney’s new Queer Centre of History and Culture, with a special look at its inclusion of women and how it handles the AIDS years (part 2 of 2 produced by Barry McKay). Featuring Aunty Nadeena Dixon, Dr. Liz Bradshaw, Greg Fisher, Ian Roberts and Elaine Czulkowski. And in NewsWrap: international pressure makes Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo think twice about signing the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill,” Serbian queer activists and allies protest the victimization of a young gay man and a bisexual woman during a police raid, U.S. President Joe Biden gives unequivocal support to LGBTQ and other marginalized communities in his State of the Union address, U.S. federal judge in North Dakota allows providers and employer-controlled health plans to cite religion as an excuse to refuse gender-affirming treatment, P-FLAG wins a temporary injunction to stop Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from rifling through its files for information about member families w

Qtopia Sydney opens its Queer Centre of History and Culture, the world’s largest LGBTQ museum, is located in the former police station where the arrestees of Australia’s Stonewall were abused (part 1 of 2 produced by Barry McKay). And in NewsWrap: Ghana’s legislature passes the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill” that would criminalize coming out or being an ally, a compromise bill to let registered queer partners adopt each other’s children passes the Czech Parliament’s lower house when marriage equality fails, an appeals court lifts an injunction that was keeping pediatric gender-affirming healthcare available in Indiana, the American Psychological Association condemns all state bans on gender-affirming healthcare for minors, New South Wales police officers will march in this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras despite the controversy over a cop who killed his ex-boyfriend, Washington lawmakers pass the “Stripper’s Bill of Rights” to repeal antiquated “lewd conduc

Curtis Chin’s family owned the famed Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine in Detroit, and growing up gay in the 1980s he discovered a world of diversity in the restaurant’s clientele. He’s interviewed by Dennis Hensley of “Dennis Anyone? A podcast about making things up and making things happen” (dennisanyone.net). And in NewsWrap: Canada’s terrorism assessment agency says anti-queer groups present an “extreme threat” of violence, Russian security forces step up their “unlawful propaganda” raids on LGBTQ venues, Tennessee allows authorized officials to use their religious beliefs to opt-out of performing same-gender wedding ceremonies, a bill to guarantee marriage equality in Virginia awaits governor’s signature, Montana repeats its unconstitutional rules to prevent trans people from updating their birth certificate gender markers, Washington state LGBTQ and stripper activists ally to repeal “lewd conduct” regulations and improve the entertainers’ working conditions, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week

Renowned playwright Edward Albee talks about life, sex and the theater (interviewed in 2009 by Dixie Treichel and John Townsend of KFAI-Minneapolis/St. Paul’s Fresh Fruit). Irish drag queen Panti Bliss (a.k.a. Rory O’Neill) responded brilliantly when calling out homophobic journalists and religionists drew criticism from both sides (a 2014 speech at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre). And in NewsWrap: Greece becomes the 37th country where same-gender couples can get married, Nepal’s Anju Devi Shrestha and Suprita Gurung become the first officially registered married lesbian couple in South Asia, a St. Vincent and the Grenadines High Court justice rejects two challenges to the nation’s sodomy laws, a Japanese trans man can change the gender marker on his official documents without undergoing surgical sterilization, a top host on state-run Polish television apologizes for years of anti-queer rhetoric, a sexy Seville Jesus riles Spanish traditionalists, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Marcos Najer

Looking back at actor/writer/producer Elliot Page’s coming out speech — the first time — a tribute to queer youth at the Human Rights Campaign's 2014 "Time to Thrive" conference. Prolific science fiction writer Ray Bradbury branched out into several genres, including a lesser-known play with a gay twist (interviewed by Chris Wilson). And in NewsWrap: Yemen’s Houthi rebels sentence 13 to death for engaging in same-gender sex, Britain’s Parliament hears for the first time exclusively from transgender people about the challenges they face, Mumbai Pride returns better than ever after a four-year COVID hiatus, Oklahoma lawmaker plans to replace Pride with “patriotism,” Seattle queer bar raids reminiscent of Stonewall prompt a review of antiquated Washington state “lewd conduct” rules, Tennessee town and South Dakota agency pay heavy fines for anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Daniel Huecias (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the Feb

The pressure for marriage equality had been building for years when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hit the release valve just ahead of Valentine’s Day, 2004. An archival report featuring Newsom, President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, S.F. Recorder-Assessor Mabel Teng, S.F. Supervisor Tom Ammiano, attorney Clyde Wadsworth, S.F. Chief Deputy District Attorney Therese Stewart and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. And in NewsWrap: Russians are now being convicted of “extremism” for petty violations like wearing rainbow earrings, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces planned anti-trans policies on Twitter/X, Idaho’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors is blocked again by a federal appeals court, trans people in Utah can now use bathrooms and locker rooms based only on their birth certificate gender, Florida will no longer allow trans people to change gender markers on their driver’s licenses, Switzerland gets is first gay m

U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler (D-CA) is the first Black lesbian to ever serve in Congress’ upper chamber. Appointed to fill the seat of the legendary Senator Dianne Feinstein, the life-long labor and community organizer devoted her maiden speech to the upcoming generations of political activists. And in NewsWrap: a report by Human Rights Watch finds Meta and other social media companies complicit in the persecution and arrests of queer people in the Middle East and North Africa, Texas activists go to the United Nations to seek relief from laws that target LGBTQ people, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban doubles down on homophobia as the EU withholds funds, Ohio trans adults and trans children’s families flee lawmakers’ restrictions on gender-affirming care and student athletes, a California judge blocks a rule forcing trans cops to out themselves, U.S. Gen Z-ers are more queer than Republican, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Ava Davis and Alan Tijamo (produced by Brian DeShazor). 

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) started organizing globally in 1978, and in 2004 its 22nd World Conference was held in Manila — the first event of its kind in Asia. One major issue on the table was Brazil’s United Nations resolution against sexual orientation discrimination, which finally passed the UN Human Rights Council ten years later. (Michael Schemer interviews attendee Uma Kali Shakti, both of Sydney, Australia.) The biggest queer news story out of Egypt in 2001 was the raid on The Queen Boat, a well-known gay venue in Cairo. Twenty-eight-year old Mazin was one of 23 men arrested for “debauchery” who served time in prison (interviewed by Jonathan Groubert of Radio Netherlands). And in NewsWrap: the United States Supreme Court declines to review an appeals court’s decision to allow a transgender student to use the bathrooms that match his gender identity, U.S. state legislatures have spawned a record number of deeply alarming anti-queer bills, Missouri l

With two queer daughters in homophobic Kenya, Mary Mumbi talks about spreading the word about tolerance and fairness to other parents and families, using her influence to create safe spaces in an increasingly hostile environment (interviewed by Diana Wanyonyi, part two of two, from wingsradio.org). And in NewsWrap: French President Emmanuel Macron promotes two gay men to the positions of Prime and Foreign Ministers, Taiwan elects LGBTQ-supportive Vice President Lai Ching-te to the presidency, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announces that a marriage equality bill will go to Parliament, Vietnamese women’s national football team member Tran Thi Thu makes history by marrying her girlfriend in a public wedding ceremony, a U.S. appeals court allows Alabama’s pediatric trans healthcare ban to go forward, the classics and reference books removed by a Florida school district for “sexual content” include several dictionaries, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Elena Botkin-Levy and Micha

After coming to terms with one daughter’s sexuality, a Mombasa mom becomes a community confidante and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights (interviewed by Diana Wanyonyi, part one of two, from wingsradio.org). And in NewsWrap: Burundi’s President Évariste Ndayishimiye says all LGBTQ people should be rounded up and stoned to death, a landmark decision of Israel’s High Court of Justice opens adoption to same-gender couples, Estonia begins accepting marriage license applications from gay and lesbian couples, Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine vetoes a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors and protects it from override with an executive order banning (practically nonexistant) pediatric gender-affirming surgery, federal judges temporarily halt enforcement of Idaho’s trans healthcare ban for minors and Iowa’s book ban, Massachusetts sues neo-Nazis for disrupting “Drag Queen Story Hours,” and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by David Hunt and Nico Raquel (produced by Brian DeShazor). 

Celebrate the fifth anniversaries of Australia’s first gay and lesbian legally married couples with a look back down their long road to marriage equality. From the 2004 “heterosexuals only” amendment to the Marriage Act to the 2017 postal survey on the issue and, finally, the legalization of same-gender marriages, Sydney correspondent Barry McKay covered the key developments. Included are former Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull; Senators Penny Wong, Sarah Hanson-Young, George Brandis and Dean Smith; MPs Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek; former High Court Justice Michael Kirby; journalists Karl Stevanovic and David Koch; right wing activist Lyle Shelton; LGBTQ+ activists Jo Ball, Tiernan Brady and Alex Greenwich; entertainer Magda Szubanski and swimmer Ian Thorpe. NewsWrap will return next week. All this on the January 1, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

The 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned state laws against non-commercial private consensual adult same-gender sex reverberates today in the pivotal decisions on reproductive rights, as well as the Courts own ethical scandals. Our flashback report features “Lawrence v. Texas” lead attorney Ruth Harlow of Lambda Legal and litigants John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, Dallas Gay & Lesbian Alliance President Roger Wedell, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, Robert Knight of the Culture and Family Institute, Revs. Rob Schenck and Jerry Falwell, Sr. of the National Clergy Council, Kate Kendall of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Dallas attorney Mitchell Katine, Houston activist Ray Hill and San Diego queer columnist Rex Wockner. NewsWrap will return the week of January 8th. All this on the December 25, 2023 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) goes viral by exposing U.S. House Republicans’ gender hypocrisy while questioning National Women’s Law Center president and CEO Fatima Goss Graves in a subcommittee hearing. Trans jazz band leader Billy Tipton’s career spanned from the 1930s to the 70s, and the music continues with The Tiptons Sax Quartet (produced by Steve Sims). And in NewsWrap: the European Court of Human Rights finds that Poland’s refusal to legally recognize lesbian and gay couples violates the European Convention on Human Rights, the United States Supreme Court rejects an appeal to review Washington state legislation that bans “conversion therapy” for minors, loopholes in a proposed conversion therapy ban in the Australian state of Tasmania get a “thumbs down” from activists, Argentina’s newly inaugurated right-wing President Javier Milei pulls the plug on the Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry, police in Yekateringburg raid a popular queer venue while Russian censors coral “My Little P

In the Texas state legislature, Christian Democratic Representative James Talarico gave a biblically-based rebuke against a Republican Christian nationalist bill to post the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms — and it went viral. The repeal of the U.K.’s notorious “no promo homo” Section 28 and the opening of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King made mid-December 2003 a joyous season for world-renowned actor Sir Ian McKellen. He greeted the news at an LGBTQ gathering at Premiere House in Wellington, New Zealand (recorded by Hugh Young of Access Radio’s GayBC). And in NewsWrap: Uganda’s infamous Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 faces a quadruple challenge in the nation’s Constitutional Court, Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill loses the first round of its fight for approval from the British government, Jordanian queer activists forced to flee from government persecution, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoes a Republican bill to ban pediatric gender-affirming healthcare, Florida defends schoo

Cody Connor is fighting for his trans daughter in the face of Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin’s “model policies” for schools. Writer/director Emile Gaudreault’s 2003 comedy remains a cross-cultural favorite (interviewed by John Frame in Brisbane). Plus, can exorcism save Illinois from marriage equality? And in NewsWrap: The Thai Cabinet approves an amendment to the Civil Code to open marriage to gay and lesbian couples, Nepal finally registers its first same-gender couple since the Supreme Court order in July, Russia’s Supreme Court outlaws the non-existent “international public LGBT movement,” Florida’s Republican lawmakers are bent on expanding “Don’t Say Gay” to clamp down on queer advocacy, Iowa’s book ban faces two separate lawsuits, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Ava Davis and John Dyer V (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the December 4, 2023 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

A spoken-word production featuring works by members of QueerWise, a Los Angeles-based, multi-generational writing and performance group. Living in the moment while facing the future, they tackle hard-to-relive histories and magical memories, present-day dangers and hopeful omens. The cast includes Gordon Blitz, Marie Cartier, Lucia Chappelle, Antonia Garcia-Orozco, Christine Papalexis, Jim Pentecost, Robin Podolsky and David Trudell. Robin Podolsky is the head writer, and the group is led by actor-activist-playwright Michael Kearns. Produced for This Way Out by Lucia Chappelle. (NewsWrap returns next week.) All this on the November 27, 2023 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

Private notes between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are the literature of love in “Precious Baby Always Shines” (commentary by Janet Mason). The funny, sophisticated, and slightly ribald 1931 film “Girls About Town” takes us on a festive cultural sojourn in search of vintage queer gold (commentary by John Dyer V). And in NewsWrap: the Church of England will “experiment” with special services to bless queer partners for a trial period, activists are not buying the official explanation of the shocking death of non-binary Mexican judge Jesús Ociel Baena, Asia’s first Gay Games leaps all of the official hurdles that China could lay before its Hong Kong hosts, the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to grant an emergency request to overturn an injunction against Florida’s ban on family-friendly drag shows, One Million Moms protest Macy’s “non-binary and transgender extravaganza” Thanksgiving Day Parade, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Joe Boehnlein and Elena Botkin-Levy (produced by Brian DeS

Two flashback reports in which we covered major high court rulings that led to marriage equality: one in the Canadian province of Ontario, and one 20 years ago this week in the US state of Massachusetts. Featuring Canadian litigant Michael Leshner; Mary Bonauto of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders; Massachusetts plaintiffs Gloria Bailey and Linda Davies, Mike Horgan and Hillary and Julie Goodridge; Massachusetts Republican Governor Mitt Romney; Democratic Massachusetts State Representative Phil Travis; Massachusetts U.S. Congressman Barney Frank.(Reporters: Heather Kitching, Greg Gordon) And in NewsWrap: Latvia’s Parliament creates civil unions for same-gender couples with fewer rights than their heterosexual counterparts, more than a million people celebrate Pride in Buenos Aires demanding anti-bias protections and a comprehensive trans law, the director of Budapest’s Hungarian National Museum was fired this week for allowing young people to see the inclusive World Press Photo Exhibit, a U.S. federal

The U.S. Episcopal Church and by extension the worldwide Anglican Communion was rocked by the selection of the first out gay bishop twenty years ago this week. We’ll take you back to the victorious consecration ceremony for the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore Center in Durham, November 2, 2003. And in NewsWrap: Jamaica’s Supreme Court leaves the nation stuck with its British colonial-era anti-queer sex laws, Hungary’s far-right government bars youth from the World Press Photo Exhibition because of five pictures of elderly queers, Taiwan’s Vice President Lai Ching-te joins an estimated 180,000 celebrants at the Taipei Pride March, Johannesburg Pride dedicates their parade to LGBTQ+ Ugandans and all Africans who “cannot march for themselves,” the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts Idaho’s school bathroom bill on hold again, new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson is a far right white Christian nationalist with a wealth of anti-queer skeletons i

A unique program for LGBTQ seniors led by West Hollywood, California’s first Poet Laureate Steven Reigns uses poetry as a tool to capture their life experiences and create a live performance piece. Reigns discusses the workshop’s process and goals, and participants Alicia Arbio, Hank Henderson, Ingrid Paulina Rodas, Louise Moore, Nick Paul and Terry Anglin are featured (produced by Brian DeShazor). And in NewsWrap: the Nigerian government’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown escalates with the arrest of 76 people at an alleged “gay wedding,” South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds the Military Criminal Act’s ban on gay sex between service members, Austria plans to compensate gay men who were unjustly prosecuted for adult homosexual acts, relatively obscure Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana is elected Speaker of the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives with a homophobic and misogynistic track record, “Libs of TikTok” social media influencer Chaya Raichik added to the Anti-Defamation League’s “Glossary of Ext