This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine

Australian soap opera “Number 96” was an amazing breakthrough for LGBTQ visibility, made possible by a unique moment in the social and political scene … and one television network’s last ditch effort to stay afloat! Producer Andrew Mercado’s new documentary reveals the surprising story (part 1 of a three-part interview by Barry McKay). And in NewsWrap: India’s Supreme Court reserves judgement on a...

We honor gay American playwright, poet, lyricist, short story writer and novelist Robert Patrick, who passed away on April 23rd in Los Angeles. The tribute includes Patrick reading from his 1994 novel, Temple Slave. (Produced by Brian DeShazor.) And in NewsWrap: Uganda’s Parliament returns the revived Anti-Homosexuality Bill to President Yoweri Museveni without most of his requested revisions, Tur...

Veteran Ugandan LGBTQ activist Frank Mugisha lobbies for support against the world’s most draconian legislation, an infamous measure that’s been circulating in various forms for more than a decade (interviewed by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!). Plus: U.S. President Joe Biden serves humor at White House Correspondents Dinner. And in NewsWrap: Hungarian President Katalin Novák vetoes an Orban-backed...

Ukrainian activist Olena Shevchenko shares her observations about Russia’s homophobic oppression and class exclusivity in the LGBTQI movement, while maintaining her hopes for future liberation in her country and around the world (Part 3 of 3, interviewed by Barry McKay in Sydney, Australia). Plus: India’s Supreme Court begins hearings on a combination of petitions from around the country seeking o...

Under occupation and in the free zones, TIME Woman of the Year Olena Shevchenko and LGBTQ volunteers are serving the needs of the marginalized people forgotten by the major aid organizations, building coalitions and gaining respect and visibility for queer heroes. (Part 2 of 3, interviewed by Barry McKay in Sydney, Australia). And in NewsWrap: Florida state Rep. Webster Barnaby boldly brings his b...

Olena Shevchenko has been in the forefront of Ukraine’s LGBTQ campaign for rights, and now, at the center of her country’s resistance against the Russian invasion, she’s been named a Time Woman of the Year (interviewed by Barry McKay in Sydney, Australia). And in NewsWrap: the U.S. Supreme Court rejects West Virginia’s appeal and blocks the state’s ban on transgender student athletes, majority Rep...

“This Way Out” debuted on April 1, 1988, bringing LGBTQ programming to community radio stations around the world. In observance of our 35th anniversary, CEO and NewsWrap Producer Brian DeShazor talks to Josh Shepperd of the U.S. Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force about the show’s historic legacy and the project to maintain it. And in NewsWrap: Scotland’s new First Minister Humza You...

Exiled Zimbabwean activist Rikki Nathanson of OutRight Action International, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel L. Levine, co-founder of the Colorado Transgender Educators Network science teacher Sam Long and gender-fluid multi-disciplinary artist Dorian Wood reflect on the impact of their visibility for individuals and the community as...

World Pride participants from Japan, Thailand and the Philippines bring their own flavor to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade (correspondent Barry McKay reports). Florida’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans children goes into effect and Georgia’s legislature tries to follow that example, but President Joe Biden, his Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Georgia state Representa...

At the climax of World Pride 2023, Sydney throws a huge street festival in the heart of the LGBTQ community, and thousands walk across the Harbour Bridge in a demonstration for equality and justice the likes of which Australia hasn’t seen since the 2003 aboriginal Walk for Reconciliation (Barry McKay reports)! And in NewsWrap: a revival of Uganda’s infamous “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” would make eve...

The famed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade returns to Oxford Street on its 45th anniversary to celebrate World Pride 2023, and we meet the people in the colorful throng (with correspondent Barry McKay). And in NewsWrap: Panama’s Supreme Court overrules the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to reject marriage equality, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says marriage inequality isn’t u...

Global galas merge as World Pride 2023 and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras bring the first such LGBTQA+ event to the Southern Hemisphere. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins the parade, and popular Aussie weatherman Nate Byrne predicts rainbows for the television coverage (interviewed by Sydney correspondent Barry McKay). And in NewsWrap: Kenya’s National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commi...

A blitz of anti-gay arrests swept over Newcastle, New South Wales in the 1950’s inspired by nothing more than a display in a gay-owned mens’ clothing store became one of the most terrifying chapters in Australian queer history. John Witte of the Hunter Rainbow History Group and Kevin Coleman, partner of infamous haberdasher Keith Robinson, (interviewed by Sydney correspondent Barry McKay). And in...

Black History Month in 2023 finds political hucksters questioning the meaning of history and repeating the racist policies of the past, so the words of African American LGBTQ icons Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde, Pat Parker and James Baldwin ring true again! And in NewsWrap: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fires his top aide for making homophobic remarks, the heads of the Anglican Communion and...

Australian religious abuse campaigner Anthony Venn-Brown talks about the psychological trauma suffered by LGBT people subjected to supposedly “Christian” conversion therapy (interviewed by Barry McKay). And in NewsWrap: Finnish lawmakers approve reforms to the process for transgender people changing their government identification documents, Canadian study finds no competitive advantage for transg...

Out in the Bay radio’s Eric Jansen interviews Mathew Shurka co-founder of the National Center for Lesbian Right’s Born Perfect campaign in 2014. Kristine Stolakis director and producer of Pray Away, a Netflix documentary inspired by her late transgender uncle’s horrific experiences trying to not be trans. And in NewsWrap: Pope Francis says that private consensual adult same-gender sex should not b...

An award-winning documentary examines the exploits of Los Angeles’ iconic transgender ACT-UP activist. Director Dante Alencastre and writer-researcher John Johnston chat with This Way Out’s Brian DeShazor about the “AIDS Diva” whose life inspired the film. And in NewsWrap: Taiwan opens civil marriage to foreign same-gender spouses (except those from China), the U.K. attempts to pull rank over Scot...

The celebration is on for World Pride in Sydney, Australia starting February 12th, but ACON’s Director of HIV and Sexual Health Matt Vaughan advises getting vaccinated for monkeypox and COVID-19 well before the event (interviewed by Barry McKay). The diversity-challenged Hollywood Foreign Press Association put its queer foot forward for the 80th Golden Globes, honoring gay television producer Ryan...

There were high-profile coming-outs and outstanding achievements for queer people, allies — even the animated! Our year-end review concludes with a sample of the interesting array of unique individuals in politics, sports and entertainment who characterized the queerest news of 2022. And in NewsWrap: Peru’s legislature freezes marriage equality, a Taipei court reinstates a Taiwan-Hong Kong lesbian...

On the plus side there were legislative and electoral wins in the U.S. and Australia, and conversion therapy bans in Israel and New Zealand. On the scary side rights were challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court and trampled at the World Cup, and the flames of religious bigotry burned pro-LGBTQ books and immolate queer students. Part 2 of our 2022 news review recalls these events, crowned by the Golde...

With attacks on LGBTQ (especially transgender) youth by Republican-controlled U.S. state legislatures, the war in Ukraine, and WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner’s captivity in Russia, it’s been a year of living dangerously for the queer community. Part 1 of our 2022 news review covers these major stories, easing the pain with satire by John Oliver and Jon Stewart, and a salute to the Bondian spy-adver...

The marriage equality decade in the U.S. has come full-circle from the December 2012 Supreme Court hearings on California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act to the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act on December 13. A flashback to the Supreme Court’s first foray into LGBTQ marriage equality sets the stage for signing the bill that spells DOMA’s demise. Plus: lesbian activi...

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a complaint about the right to refuse services for same-gender weddings, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Katanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan examine the dangerous implications, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch conjure false equivalencies in questioning Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson and plaintiff attorney Kristen Waggoner; analysi...

The Respect for Marriage Act passes the U.S. Senate with a bipartisan majority after adopting a “religious freedom” amendment debated by Senators Tammy Baldwin, Mike Lee, Cynthia Lummis and Chuck Schumer (our report also features commentary by James Obergefell and GayUSA’s Andy Humm and Ann Northrop). The queer youth commentators of OutCasting Overtime reflect on living under the shadow of anti-LG...

Truman Capote’s autobiographical short story of the season is read by James Gavin, author of the recently released “George Michael: A Life” (recorded for our 2020 Global Queer Read-IN). Plus: an update on the Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Our full NewsWrap segment returns after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday break.) This special program on the November 28, 2022 edition of Thi...