Efforts to restrict the rights of transgender Americans got a boost from the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court June 18, 2025, when justices ruled 6–3 that a law banning gender affirming health care for young people in the Southern state of Tennessee meets the barest standard of constitutional review. 

The ruling imperils the rights of transgender youth across the nation, allowing similar laws in 20 states to remain in force, despite the opposition of every major U.S. medical association.

Journalist David Hunt sat down with legal scholar Brad Sears of the Williams Institute to untangle the Supreme Court's twisted logic and discuss the ruling's ramifications for trans youth and their families.

Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

When Elon Musk and his cadre of juvenile tech bros took a chainsaw to the U.S. federal government this year, they said they were out to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. It just so happens that most of the departments they slashed were either regulatory bodies with statutory authority to regulate Musk’s businesses or agencies that had run afoul of President Donald Trump’s vision for a less inclusive America. At the top of the list: The United States Agency for International Development, which was gutted in March.

Among the 5,000 foreign aid programs shut down in the process: more than a hundred working to advance the health, safety and human rights of LGBTQ people in countries worldwide.

Journalist David Hunt talked with Ari Shaw, Ph.D., senior fellow and director of international programs at the Williams Institute, about the impact of those funding cuts. Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

You are what you eat, says the old adage. For a diverse group like the LGBTQ community, what and where we eat has defined us in myriad ways for generations. Coming out and dining out have long been complementary experiences, helping queer people find love, friendship and fellowship over patty melts, pizza or even lobster thermidor, if you’re in a fancy mood. In his new book, Dining Out, Erik Piepenburg explores the history and influence of America’s gay dining scene.

David Hunt sat down with the author to learn more about his culinary journey and how tastes — and tastebuds — have changed. Dining Out covers a lot of ground, from Walt Whitman’s weekly lunches with his bohemian pals at Pfaff’s Saloon in New York in the mid-nineteenth century, to drag brunch at Hamburger Mary’s in disco-era San Francisco, where regulars included then-mayor Diane Feinstein. From Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., arguably the oldest gay restaurant in the nation, renowned for its hefty steaks and strong cocktails, to Bloodroot in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a feminist salon and bookstore with no cash registers, no wait staff and a seasonal vegetarian menu.

Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

Dining Out is available from Grand Central Publishing.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The legacy of colonialism weighs heavily on member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, former territories of the British Empire. In the Caribbean Republic of Trinidad and Tobago that legacy is shackled to a 16th century law that bans same-sex intimacy. Efforts to strike down the antigay law were successful in 2018, heralding a new era for Trinidad and Tobago’s 100,000 LGBTQ citizens. But the fight isn’t over. An appeals court reinstated the sodomy law a few weeks ago, setting the stage for the next — and final — round of legal challenges. 

Journalist David Hunt talked with Jason Jones, the biracial, binational queer activist leading the fight to win freedom for LGBTQ people in Trinidad and throughout the Commonwealth. Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The Trump administration continues to rewrite history, scrubbing official websites of any mention of transgender, queer and gender nonconforming people and causes. Critics have called its efforts a digital book-burning, reminiscent of the public bonfires staged by the Nazis in the 1930s. The latest target of this growing right-wing cancel culture is Pauli Murray, a pioneering human rights leader whose childhood home in Durham, North Carolina, is a National Historic Landmark.

Journalist David Hunt visited the landmark to learn about Murray’s life and work — and to explore a queer legacy the National Park Service is trying to erase. Listen to Hunt's conversation with historian Angela Thorpe Mason, executive director of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.

Pauli Murray, who died in 1985, was a pioneering Black legal scholar whose ideas laid the foundation for Supreme Court decisions overturning segregation and outlawing discrimination based on sex. Murray was also a writer, poet, labor organizer and the first queer saint in the Episcopal Church.

Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

If President Donald Trump has his way, the United States Defense Department will soon discharge as many as 15,000 transgender service members from the nation’s armed forces. Among the brave men and women standing their ground against the purge is Col. Bree Fram, an officer in the U.S. Space Force.

Fram, who joined the military in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, brings decades of experience to the Pentagon, where she works to prepare the military for the high-tech threats of the future. Her own future is not so clear.

Journalist David Hunt talked with Fram about her life, her service and a family legacy of courage under fire. Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine. Fram's views are her own and do not represent the U.S. government or the Department of Defense.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

In its attacks on transgender Americans, the Trump administration is attempting to erase the T in LGBTQ — removing the initial from websites, publications and even the signage outside the Stonewall National Monument, where trans activists led the 1969 rebellion that launched the modern gay rights movement in the United States.

To counter the hate and transphobia promoted by the administration, far-right politicians and media outlets, one New York college student is exploring the history and joy of trans masculine community building.

In his thesis for a degree in peace and justice studies, Pace University undergraduate Eli Butler seeks to change the way trans people are studied and viewed in scholarly disciplines. His work is influenced by his journey as a transgender man and his longing to find — or build — a community of his own.

Journalist David Hunt talked with Butler about his life, his research and the possibilities of the future. Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Trans journalist Erin Reed covers a beat that hits close to home: Republican attacks on trans people across the United States. She’s a respected independent voice with a large following on social media, where her work has been viewed more than 250 million times in recent years. Reed met Jan. 30, 2025, with a group of trans people and their supporters to review the growing list of anti-trans executive orders coming out of the Trump White House. 

In this feature, which originally aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine, journalist David Hunt provides a front-row seat to the conversation and adds some important background and context to the information.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Colleges and universities in the United States are quickly abandoning their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. In this episode, David Hunt discusses this U-turn on DEI with Renee Wells, assistant vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Queens University of Charlotte. 

Wells formerly worked at North Carolina State University, where she worked to blunt the impact of the state’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill” that required public facilities to restrict the access of trans individuals. She developed a Queer Youth Leadership Summit for local LGBTQ high school students, created educational programs on social justice for faculty and staff, trained students to advocate for social change and launched a gender pronouns awareness campaign.

Wells believes the community-building work of DEI is foundational to higher education and will continue, regardless of the language used to describe it. It's likely that many institutions will come to regret their moves to defund and de-emphasize programs that strive to create a welcoming campus environment for everyone.

Time will tell.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Increasingly, work just isn’t working for LGBTQ people — especially for those of us who choose to come out and stay out on the job. New studies show a distressing trend, with companies backtracking on their support for a welcoming workplace. Alarmingly, 63% of LGBTQ workers say they have faced discrimination in their careers, and 70% feel lonely, misunderstood, marginalized, and excluded at work.

In this episode, David Hunt tackles the question: Can you really take pride in your work if you’re discouraged from taking pride in yourself? He talks with two trans women who faced challenges and discrimination on the job: university professor Khôra Martel and biotech executive Alaina Kupec. Martel's teaching contract was ended shortly after she came out as trans at the University of Tennessee. Kupec transitioned while working at Pfizer but left the company after her career stalled. She is the founder and executive director of GRACE: Gender Research Advisory Council and Education, a trans-led nonprofit that advocates for trans rights.

The program concludes with an interview with Dr. Jenna Brownfield, a bi/queer therapist who helps LGBTQ people with workplace issues. She provides advice for navigating a hostile work environment.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.