Every month at AKBAR, a small neighborhood LGBTQ+ bar on the east side of Los Angeles, queer artists of all kinds find a place to play in a unique cabaret. Executive Director Travis Wood, Creative Director Ian MacKinnon, and performers Lore Randolph (aka Fleur The Tease) and Ari (aka Odious Ari) celebrate 13 years of Planet Queer — with a nod to the late playwright Robert Patrick (produced by Brian DeShazor).

And in NewsWrap: a pair of Indonesian college students caught hugging and kissing in a public restroom is set to receive 80 lashes for same-gender sex, Moroccan feminist and human rights activist Ibtissame Lachgar is under arrest for an anti-Islam post in which she wore a t-shirt that reads “Allah is lesbian,” Kathmandu LGBTQ Pride blends with Nepal’s traditional Gai Jatra festival with hundreds of queer celebrants and allies, Arkansas’ pediatric trans care ban is the second such law to be upheld by a U.S. federal appeals court, a school district in Virginia is standing by its trans-positive bathroom policy in defiance of the Trump administration’s order to abandon it, a Minnesota biracial cisgender lesbian teen fights back after a restaurant employees indecent toilet test, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Marcos Najera and Lucia Chappelle (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the August 18, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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