The U.S. elections were a wake-up call for the “woke,” yet even though the overall results spell danger, there are a number of queer bright spots to celebrate. With commentary by Andy Humm and Ann Northrop of GayUSA, our coverage includes homophobic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, trans U.S. Congressmember-elect Sarah McBride (Delaware), lesbian Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, lesbian U.S Congressmember Angie Craig (Minnesota), Native American lesbian U.S Congressmember Sharice Davids, gay U.S Congressmember Eric Sorensen, Rocky Mountain Equality Deputy Director Bruce Parker, former U.S, Senator and MSNBC analyst Claire McCaskill and U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. And in NewsWrap: Mali’s ruling military junta sends a law banning gay male sex to the president for his approval, a previously dismissed lawsuit challenging Connecticut’s transgender-supportive statutes for school sports is going forward again, diversity-equity-inclusion programs crash at global plane-maker Boeing, controversial trans woman darts star Noa-Lynn van Leuven is facing three-time champion Michael van Gerwen in the first round of the Grand Slam of Darts, the MUBI streaming service is cancelling its international film festival in Istanbul after authorities block a screening of the film “Queer,” and more international LGBTQ news reported by Sarah Montague and Joe Boehnlein (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the November 11, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: The weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will soon include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

While the world waits on pins and needles to find out who will win the grand prize in the U.S. elections, there are notable queer campaigns that link to the same themes and could be significant in the big picture, such as the marriage equality Proposition 3 in California, and the Sen. Tammy Baldwin reelection campaign in the all-important state of Wisconsin. The specter of the conservative manifesto Project 2025 creates even more pressure. Psychologists S. Lee Tepper and Dr. Jonathan Mattias Lassiter help people handle the election anxiety. And in NewsWrap: Tel Aviv is taken off the list of potential hosts for a future ILGA World Conference, a second Japanese High Court has ruled that the federal government’s resistance to marriage equality is unconstitutional, more than one in 10 Australian teenagers identify as queer in a University of Sydney survey, Dr. Hector Granados is the second gender-affirming healthcare physician taken to court by rabidly anti-queer Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ACLU’s AIDS/HIV project co-director Chase Strangio will be the first out transgender attorney to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Michael LeBeau and John Dyer V (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the November 4, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: The weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will soon include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

This “audio scrapbook” of the first national LGBT march and rally in the U.S. capital on October 14, 1979, produced by “This Way Out” Coordinating Producer Greg Gordon and Associate Producer Lucia Chappelle, illuminates the problems and the passion of the first demonstration of its kind. As rich with the music and culture of the period as it is with the politics, the hour traces the event from the initial planning conference and some activists’ heartfelt and sometimes humorous cross-country trip to D.C. on a “Freedom Train” to the big day itself, and its coverage (or lack thereof) in the conventional media. To help us continue to pursue the stories of significance in our community, consider joining our family of listener-donors today at thiswayout.org/donate. Produced by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle. Music by Blue Dot Sessions (Jazzberry).

There’s a reason why October is LGBTQ History Month. The community historically laid claim to it with a 1979 event in the U.S. capitol. Just ten years after Stonewall and long before the age of acronyms, the massive October 1979 march and rally for LGBTQ rights surpassed all expectations — for good and for ill. Excerpts from an hour-long radio documentary that you can stream at thiswayout.org. And in NewsWrap: Poland’s coalition government introduces civil unions legislation, Saskatchewan’s Parliament votes to require parental consent “when a student requests that their preferred name, gender identity, and/or gender expression to be used” at school, 97 percent of transgender and nonbinary young people receiving gender-affirming health care in a JAMA Pediatrics study are “highly satisfied,” U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign ads deride Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Melanie Keller and David Hunt (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the October 28, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: The weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will soon include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

How does your first time at a gay bar compare with the experiences of others? Come cruising with curator Art Smith through his growing online collection of those stories — and you can add yours to thousands of others, like the one told by Daniel M. Jaffe (produced by David Hunt). And in NewsWrap: going abroad to have a surrogacy baby is now a crime in Italy, Moscow police raid two downtown clubs popular with the queer community and arrest 50 on Coming Out Day, a groundbreaking New South Wales law establishes rights for transgender people and strengthens existing protections for sexual minority communities, the dishonorable discharges of 820 U.S. veterans kicked out of the military for being queer under Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell and other policies are being upgraded, Dr. May Lau of Dallas, Texas is being sued by anti-queer state Attorney General Ken Paxton for providing hormones to her pediatric transgender patients, U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris handily handles heckler, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Joe Boehnlein and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the October 21, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning in October, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

Author and journalist Nico Lang’s new book “American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era” tells the stories of eight trans and nonbinary teenagers from across the United States, highlighting their triumphs and struggles (interviewed by Daniel Huecias). And in NewsWrap: about one in 20 Kiwis came out in New Zealand’s first Census to count LGBTQIA+ people, the Toyota Motor Corporation is latest company in the U.S. backpedaling on its DEI policies and withdrawing support from queer events, Colorado rightwing Christian baker Jack Phillips loses a state Supreme Court appeal in another Masterpiece Cakeshop anti-LGBTQ bias lawsuit, Arkansas Christian nationalist Republican politician Jason Rupert says the queer movement is “of the devil,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris touts her pro-queer credentials and warns about the tenuous status of LGBTQ rights on a presidential campaign visit with Howard Stern, and more international LGBTQ news reported by John Dyer V and Ava Davis (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the October 14, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning in October, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

Activist-author Urvashi Vaid’s gender politics may have been ahead of her time, but her nibling, poet-comedian Alok Vaid-Menon, finds contemporary resonance in recordings of her from This Way Out’s archives (part 2 of 2, produced by Brian DeShazor). And in NewsWrap: the European Court of Justice orders all 27 E.U. states to recognize a person’s legal gender transition secured in any other member state, Georgia’s Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili signs a “no promo homo” Protection of Family Values and Minors law after President Salome Zourabichvili refuses, detained gay Chechen men are forced to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa will not allow bishops to approve blessing same-gender couples, California Governor Gavin Newsom signs a bill to protect state-funded public libraries from book bans, families attending an LGBTQ Pride event in small town of Grove City, Ohio are unfazed by a dozen armed Nazis spewing hate, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Tanya Kane-Parry and Marcos Najera (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the October 7, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning in October, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

Internationally acclaimed poet, comedian, actor and author of “Beyond the Gender Binary” Alok Vaid-Menon critiques the LGBTQ+ movement’s myopia around intersectional politics, and, thanks to This Way Out’s archives, discovers that their perspective echoes their Aunt Urvashi Vaid’s analysis of “Virtual Equality” in the 1990s (Part 1, interviewed by Brian DeShazor). And in NewsWrap: Thailand King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s royal assent officially redefines marriage as a legal union of two individuals, the Duma gives initial approval to a ban on the adoption of Russian children to countries that allow gender-affirming healthcare and marriage equality, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues the federal government to avoid training prospective foster families to support a child’s potential LGBTQ+ identity, free expression advocate PEN America finds that the number of books banned in U.S. public schools tripled during the 2023-2024 academic year, the FBI’s annual Crime in the Nation report reveals that one-in-five of the exploding number of hate crimes in the U.S. were motivated by anti-queer animus, a study in the journal Nature Human Behavior based on The Trevor Project’s new peer-reviewed research proves the link between anti-transgender legislation and youth suicides, and more international LGBTQ news reported by David Hunt and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the September 30, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning October 1, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

At the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, a keynote address by Democratic vice presidential nominee, coach and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz recounts his own track record as an LGBTQ ally, which is as long and cutting-edge as that of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris. And in NewsWrap: Georgia’s Parliament passes a package of bills modeled on Russia’s infamous “no promo homo law,” Kharkiv’s “auto Pride” links equality and Ukrainian victory in a motorcade through the city, Taiwan will recognize the marriages of its queer citizens to mainland Chinese spouses, one of the men convicted of murdering gay student Matthew Shepard in 1998 loses a bid to commute the rest of his two consecutive life sentences after 25 years in prison, the Denver-based Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a law banning conversion therapy for minors in the state of Colorado, Kentucky’s governor issues an Executive Order banning conversion therapy on minors, Paige Johnson becomes the first out transgender person elected to public office in the Australian state of New South Wales, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Tanya Kane-Parry and Joe Boehnlein (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the September 23, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning October 1, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to Soundcloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

The bold, brash and bawdy life and artistry of Sophie Tucker is captured in a risqué and raucous one-woman cabaret show written and performed by Laural Meade (interviewed by Brian DeShazor). And in NewsWrap: the largest LGBTQ Pride March in Serbia’s history had several thousand people marching through the capital of Belgrade in defiance of violent threats, an accusation of theft in the midst of a contentious break-up gets two gay male Zimbabweans arrested for sodomy, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is refining questions about sexual orientation and gender identity for its 2026 Census, New South Wales has produced a study on puberty blockers for transgender young people that contradicts the U.K.’s controversial Cass Report, U.S.-based corporations Molson/Coors Brewing Company and toolmaking Stanley Black and Decker bow to right-wing pressure to abandon their workplace DEI programs, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Michael Taylor Gray and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the September 16, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning October 1, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to Soundcloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].

Drag may be under fire today by the enforcers of “family values,” but not so back in the early 1900s according to scholar and historian Andrew L. Erdman, author of “Beautiful: The story of Julian Eltinge, America’s Greatest Female Impersonator” (interviewed by David Hunt). And in NewsWrap: openly gay Malcolm Bishop’s appointment as Lord Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tonga draws immediate calls for his removal, Iran’s government summons Australian Ambassador Ian McConville for a post celebrating Australia’s “Wear It Purple Day” for queer youth. six major U.S. publishers sue Florida for its book ban policy, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will now “annotate” trans Mormons’ membership records like child pornographers and church embezzlers, Virginia’s Sweet Briar College changes its admissions policy to exclude trans and non-binary applicants, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Elena Botkin-Levy and John Dyer V (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the September 9, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: Beginning October 1, 2024, the weekly program uploaded to Soundcloud will include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica’s AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact [email protected].