This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine

Gay researcher, author and historian Gert Hekma passed into history himself on April 19th. His groundbreaking 2004 book, “Homosexuality in The Netherlands from 1730 to Modern Times,” is still only available in Dutch, but soon after its publication correspondent Barry McKay sat down with Hekma for an extended English discussion of his work. And in NewsWrap: Australian P.M. Scott Morrison’s anti-que...

Straight teen Tomás was called gay when he was five, leading him to learn and help teach others how to be a queer ally (an OutCasting Overtime youth commentary produced by Marc Sophos). We honor the passing of famed lesbian activist Urvashi Vaid with excerpts from a 2012 conversation about her book, “Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics” (interviewe...

Reports from May of 2012 recall the watershed moment when President Barack Obama (with a push from then-Vice President Joe Biden) announced that he had finally come around to support marriage equality, featuring Freedom to Marry attorney Evan Wolfson, Congressmember Barney Frank, Mayor Cory Booker, Secretary Colin Powell, the NAACP’s Benjamin Jealous and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. And in NewsWrap: Tex...

The unprecedented leak of an early draft of their ruling on a Mississippi abortion rights case reveals the U.S. Supreme Court’s intention to overturn both of the key decisions that have guaranteed those rights — Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey — with dire implications for the civil rights of LGBTQ people. Andy Humm and Ann Northrop (GayUSA) discuss the legal details with ACLU LGBTQ a...

Excerpts from a May, 1997 interview with Tasmanian activist Rodney Croome celebrate the 25th anniversary of the repeal of Australia’s last state sodomy law (Sydney correspondent Greg Reading). Maiden, North Carolina Baptist preacher Charles L. Worley vitriolic rant about “how to get rid of lesbians and queers” went viral in May, 2012. 640305 And in NewsWrap: Canadian blood donors draw equal treatm...

In his zeal to retaliate against the state’s biggest company for opposing his “Don’t Say Gay” agenda, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may have bought taxpayers a Walt Disney World of trouble, while cynical conservatives offer Mickey Mouse arguments — and pose a serious political threat (also featuring White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Uni...

“Don’t Say Gay” laws spreading across the U.S. are allegedly to protect young students, but OutCasting Overtime’s LGBTQA+ youth commentators see through the deception and dissect the nefarious motives (OutCaster Tomas, produced by Marc Sophos). As “Tom Dooley Sails To Infamy” (read by Dan Roberts), producers Judd Proctor and Brian Burns row into broadcasting retirement and share their own “History...

Some of our favorite LGBTQ artists and their friends — like Doja Cat featuring SZA, Brothers Osborne, St. Vincent, Brandi Carlile and Tyler, the Creator — take home honors and deliver highlight moments at the 64th Grammy Awards ceremony, ably covered by Steve Sims of Queer Music Focus. From Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” firestorm to the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s fire hose, from Ohio stat...

We’re making sure that the post-Oscar hullabaloo doesn’t drown out the rainbow highlights at the 94th Academy Awards. Best Supporting Actress Ariana DeBose’s historic win and other notable themes are reviewed by Ann Northrop and Andy Humm of GayUSA TV, and independent filmmaker David Michael Barrett talks about some queer parallels in Best Picture CODA. A pair of “Rainbow Minutes” look at war and...

US Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson withstands her confirmation hearings despite the anti-marriage equality and transphobic “questioning” from Republicans like Senators John Cornyn and Marsha Blackburn. The penchant of some LGBTQ gatekeepers to shun those they judge to be “not queer enough” creates new barriers for young people just coming out or questioning their identities (OutC...

Deep in the heart of Texas, loving parents face traumatizing politically-motivated “child abuse” investigations into the treatment of their transgender children with gender-affirming healthcare. Activists, constitutional law experts and doctors dissect the issues, and some of the victims of the frightening official overreach that’s spreading to other Republican-controlled U.S. states tell their st...

Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education Bill” is ripe for Governor Ron DeSantis’ signature, but activists like The Trevor Project’s Amit Paley and U.S. Treasury Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband Chasten, Walt Disney workers Dana Terrace and Benjamin Siemon and their boss Bob Chapek, state Senators Anna Eskamani and Chevron Jones, and the ACLU’s Chase Strangio still insist on the right to say “gay...

LGBTQ people (including human rights activist Olena Shevchenko in Kyiv) come forward to fight and render assistance to keep Ukraine from falling into (more) homophobic hands as Russia invades! Republican-controlled state governments expand their assault on trans kids and queer families (with comments from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the ACLU’s Chase Strangio, Texas Values attorney Jonat...

The many complex consequences — unintended and intended — for LGBTQ rights and more as the U.S. Supreme Court considers reproductive freedom are analyzed by veteran journalist Lisa Keen (interviewed by Christopher Beale of “Out In The Bay.”) Pardoned presidential con man Steve Bannon and mercenary maven Erik Prince explain why it’s right for the U.S. right to love Putin’s Russia! And in NewsWrap:...

Israel’s Health Ministry bars medical professionals from practicing counseling and/or prayer aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and New Zealand’s Parliament prohibits such discredited “conversion therapy” after an emotional debate that included a speech by Green rainbow spokesperson MP Dr. Elizabeth Kerekere. The victories of Team LGBTQ at the 2022 Winter Olympics...

Family tragedy and his son’s non-conformity inform Australian M.P. Stephen Jones’ moving speech as P.M. Scott Morrison’s “Religious Discrimination Bill” is debated. The recent death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets the youth commentators of OutCasting Overtime about the true meaning of being an activist (“OutCaster” Tim, produced by Marc Sophos). And in NewsWrap: Poland "protects" students with ant...

The mayor of Ridgeland, Mississippi decides on his own for religious reasons not to release approved funding for the county library until it removes LGBTQ-related books, but other local officials and the community are up in arms! A Christian primary-secondary school in Brisbane is forced to withdraw an enrollment contract sent to parents that called homosexuality “sinful” and required students to...

A Florida House committee passes a “Parental Rights in Education” bill to outlaw encouraging the discussion of LGBTQ issues in primary grades, but Equality Florida’s Brandon Wolf and educator Chasten Buttigieg (husband of the U.S. Transportation Secretary) are fighting back! Trans Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider’s monumental winning streak breaks records in both episodes and cash (interviewed by...

A gay Syracuse, N.Y. high school student’s “senior spotlight” moment turns a beam on homophobia when he reveals on TikTok that the principal tried to censor his sexuality (Tyler Johnson, his mother Pamela Custer, Tully Schools Supervisor Robert Hughes and school social worker Kyle Taranto). An OutCasting Overtime queer youth commentary raises pertinent issues for LGBTQ and allied conservatives who...

Adelaide United footballer Josh Cavallo’s demand for redress after receiving anti-LGBTQ verbal abuse from Melbourne fans gets the full-throated support of team CEO Nathan Kosmina. Long-time Black activist Andrea Jenkins of Minneapolis, Minnesota is unanimously elected the first trans City Council President in the United States (featuring a 2014 interview with KFAI-Twin Cities “Fresh Fruit’s” Dixie...

Denise Ho has been on Beijing’s bad list since the lesbian Cantopop star came out in 2012, then her advocacy for democracy in Hong Kong and speech at the UN Human Rights Council in 2019 (excerpts included) increased the tensions, and now her association with an independent news website has led to her arrest! Black feminist theorist bell hooks leaves behind the challenge “Why Choose to Love?” and P...

Three more celebrities who made news by coming out in 2021: Australian footballer Josh Cavallo, Cassandra Peterson (“Yours Cruelly, Elvira”) and actor/political activist Kal Penn (“You Can’t Be Serious”) (part two of two). LGBTQ nominees for this year’s Grammy Awards are enumerated in “Queer Music Focus” (Steve Sims, producer). (“NewsWrap” returns next week.) All this on the January 3, 2022 editio...

Celebrities coming out who made news in 2021 include country music’s TJ Osborne, pro U.S. football player Carl Nassib, and the multi-talented Queen Latifah (part one of two). Canadian inspirational speaker Tyler Boyle raises coming out to the level of “Being Extraordinary” in a presentation adapted especially for “This Way Out.” (“NewsWrap” returns on our show for the week of 10 January 2022.) All...

The conclusion of our audio interpretation of “A Quilt for David,” a book of poetry by Steven Reigns (published by City Light Books) that centers on dentist David Acer, a victim of dueling epidemics — AIDS and media hysteria (part 3 of 3, produced by Brian DeShazor). OutCasting Overtime’s queer youth commentators consider the challenges — and potential opportunities — of spending time with family...

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy virtually carries on the Jewish tradition of going out for Chinese food for Christmas (Eric Jansen of outinthebay.org chats with producer/performer Lisa Geduldig). Comments and readings by poet Steven Reigns from his “A Quilt for David,” and period news reports about the dentist falsely accused of spreading AIDS to his patients (part 2 of 3, produced by Brian DeShazor). Melb...