Focussing on key queer vIctories in the huge blue wave of Democratic Party wins, Andy Humm and Ann Northrop of Gay USA assess the U.S. off-year election returns with all the delight and derision they deserve.

Plus a November-oriented Rainbow Rewind calls out the original Daughter of Bilitis, the man whose camera shutter caused right wing shudders, and queer historical turning points (produced by Brian DeShazor and Sheri Lunn).

And in NewsWrap: Tasmania will financially compensate victims of the state’s past oppressive anti-queer laws, voters in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, New York City and elsewhere in the U.S. strongly reject the politics of President Donald Trump in off-year elections, the U.S. Supreme Court lifts an injunction that blocked the Trump administration’s denial of the “X” gender marker option on passports, Texas can continue to enforce its ban on drag under a ruling of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, British actor and dancer Jonathan Bailey is People Magazine’s first openly gay “Sexiest Man Alive,” and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Marcos Najera and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the November 10, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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President of the National Association of LGBTQ journalists (NLGJA.org) Ken Miguel talks about how the organization promotes queer visibility and accuracy in the media (interviewed by Brian DeShazor).

Plus: The Rainbow Rewind notes the November birthdays of comedian Bob Smith and Canadian rocker ally Ryan Adams, the premiere of “The Crying Game” and the passage of Proposition 8, California’s ban on marriage equality (produced by Brian DeShazor and Sheri Lunn).

And in NewsWrap: Rob Jetten’s “yes we can” campaign makes him the youngest and first out gay Prime Minister of The Netherlands, 25 people remain in the custody of Nigeria’s Islamic religious police since the Hisbah arrested them at an alleged “gay wedding,” access to their gender-affirming healthcare for Queensland’s transgender youth opens by court order and closes again by order of state Health Director-General Dr. David Rosengren, the U.S. state’s Supreme Court allows Texas judges with “sincerely held religious beliefs” to refuse to officiate weddings of same-gender couples, British King Charles’ first “official engagement” directly supporting the LGBTQ communities is to lay a bouquet of flowers near the first memorial to U.K. LGBTQ service members, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by David Hunt and Ava Davis (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the November 3, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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We commemorate the birthday of the renowned gay Irish writer Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854- November 30, 1900) with the play he was writing in October, 1891 — Salomé.

Before we get to the play, listen to Brian DeShazor’s 2014 interview with the erudite Mr. Nimoy and his wife Susan more than fifty years after the play’s original broadcast, and learn how a chance encounter on the sidewalk outside of KPFK Los Angeles with the station’s Arts and Literature Director Ruth Seymour developed into almost certainly the first radio broadcast performance of Wilde’s 1891 classic tragedy.

In this extended podcast edition, we feature the full-length production directed for Pacifica Radio by a “pre-Spock” Leonard Nimoy.

Cast: Gail Kobe, Barry Atwater, Jeanne Bates, Andre Tayir, Peter Baldwin, Susan Bay, Gerald Renolds, Alan Montaigne, Lee Whiting, Marcel Ober, Milt Kogen, Charles Reyolds

Produced for Pacifica Radio Gerald Zellinger

Courtesy of Pacifica Radio Archives

We commemorate the birthday of the renowned gay Irish writer Oscar Wilde with an excerpt from the play he was writing in October, 1891 — a scene from a production directed for Pacifica Radio by a “pre-Spock” Leonard Nimoy (hear the complete performance at thiswayout.org, presented by Brian DeShazor).

Plus: The “Rainbow Rewind” recalls the end of the picket line, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s” demise, and no room at the National Council of Churches.

And in NewsWrap: security police in Surabaya, Indonesia arrest and humiliate 34 men for attending what they allege is a “gay sex party,” cohabiting same-gender couples will be counted in South Korea’s upcoming national Population and Housing Census, transgender and intersex people in the Virgin Islands now have two ways to change the gender markers on their birth certificates and official government documents under an executive order by Governor Albert Bryan, Jr., anti-bias protections in healthcare for transgender people are being stripped away by a U.S. federal judge, another U.S. federal judge keeps the Health and Human Services Department from withholding education funds to states that do not remove all references to “gender ideology” from public school sex education classes, one more injunction against the Trump administration brings “library books and curricular materials” that discuss race, sexual orientation, and gender back to Department of Defense-run schools, four are arrested when bulldozers come to destroy a Dallas, Texas rainbow crosswalk, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by David Hunt and Ava Davis (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the October 27, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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Jennie Arnau discovered her passion for music in her childhood home of Greenville, South Carolina, a place that called her back at a time of loss and grief. She’s now living and working in New York City, ending a self-imposed break from songwriting and performing with her new album, A Rising Tide (interviewed by David Hunt).

Plus: The “Rainbow Rewind” pays tribute to the Matthew Shepard Foundation and celebrates historic queer October moments for the U.K., South Africa and black lesbians in the U.S.

And in NewsWrap: autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ratchets up Turkey’s persecution of LGBTQ people with a series of proposed “judicial reforms,” Church of Norway Presiding Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit formally apologizes to LGBTQ people for years of bias and demonstrable harm, fired Wyoming book ban-battling local librarian Terri Lesley is vindicated in a 700,000-dollar settlement against the state, Australia’s High Court unanimously upholds Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s 2024 visa rejection for far-right U.S. podcast personality Candace Owens, former U.S. President Barack Obama talks about taking a gentler approach with opponents of gender-affirming healthcare for young people, 84-year-old British actress Miriam “Professor Pomona Sprout” Margolyse is an unapologetically woke left-wing dyke, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Sarah Montague and Joe Boehnlein (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the October 20, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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Extended 50-minute interview with Shaun Peterson’s about his film documentary that investigates the evidence that Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, would today be considered bisexual or queer (interviewed by Brian DeShazor).

Shaun Peterson’s “Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln” goes beyond investigating the love live of the 16th U.S. President to examine how the study of history evolves (interviewed by Brian DeShazor, part 2 of 2).

Plus: The “Rainbow Rewind” crosses generations to find outspoken October-born advocates and digs down to the roots of National Coming Out Day.

And in NewsWrap: the United States Supreme Court hears the case of a Christian licensed therapist who says Colorado’s conversion therapy ban violates her free speech rights, a volleyball league in Colombia’s Antioquia region must reverse its ban on transgender competitors by order of the Constitutional Court, Florida’s war on rainbow crosswalks continues with the bulldozing of an iconic installation on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, embattled U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel fires a decorated FBI trainee is fired for displaying a rainbow flag on his desktop, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney bears Trump’s anti-trans rant despite having a non-binary child, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Marcos Najera and Ret (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the October 13, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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Shaun Peterson’s film documentary investigates the evidence that Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, would today be considered bisexual or queer (interviewed by Brian DeShazor, part 1 of 2).

Plus: The “Rainbow Rewind” lists notable LGBTQ+ dates in October, and recalls the murder of Matthew Shepard 27 years ago this month.

And in NewsWrap: Slovakia’s legislature approves a constitutional amendment declaring male and female the only two genders that also bans surrogacy and limits adoption to straight married couples, Japan’s government includes same-gender relationships under nine more laws and ordinances that essentially makes them the same as de facto heterosexual marriages, Scotland forces all students and staff to use bathrooms and other sex-segregated campus facilities that match their biological gender, the Canadian government is advising residents with gender-neutral passports to reconsider plans to travel to the United States, 200 gay men looking to hook up in the cruisy toilets of New York City’s Penn Station are caught up in a massive sting operation, Harvard University’s hire of Professor Kareem Khubchandani (aka LaWhore Vagistan) to teach gender and sexuality has the rightwing apoplectic, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Melanie Keller and Tanya Kane-Parry (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the October 6, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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The venerable historical preservation organization celebrates LGBTQ+ History Month with an LA County-wide programming series where the past and the future intermingle. One Institute Executive Director Tony Valenzuela talks about the trailblazing histories and vibrant cultural contributions around the festival theme “Reclaiming Freedom” (interviewed by Jason Jenn).

And in NewsWrap: a report from the international track and field governing body World Athletics finds that up to 60 event finalists would not have passed its newly instituted genetic sex test, the U.S. government straddles a line between erasing its transgender citizens and labeling them dangerous terrorists, U.S. President Donald Trump puts the blame on trans rights in his diatribe over the current federal budget standoff, reparations for gay men in Tasmania who were victims of the Australian state’s laws against homosexuality and cross-dressing are approved by the Lower House, Filipina designer Veejay Floresca is Project Runway’s first trans winner and Vietnam’s entrant in the Miss Universe pageant will be transgender star and singer Nguyen Huong Giang, the Australian horror movie "Together" has been pulled from Chinese cinemas after censors used AI to replace one of the male grooms in a gay wedding with a woman, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg consider whether to discuss his gay sex life with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Marcos Najera and Ava Davis (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the September 29, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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With seven years experience as CEO of Rainbow Railroad, Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center at Harvard and Refugee Council USA board member Kamahli Powell is uniquely qualified to discuss the world’s refugee crisis and specifically how LGBTQ people are disadvantaged in seeking help when their countries, communities and sometimes even their homes are unsafe (interviewed by David Hunt).

Plus: gay novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor Truman Capote (September 30,1924 - August 25, 1984) reads from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (courtesy of Pacifica Radio Archives).

And in NewsWrap: 61 members of Congress call on U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to restore LGBTQ-specific data to the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Aka.) lead a bipartisan effort to reinstate a specialized LGBTQ youth service for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Pope Leo XIV clarifies that his stance on inclusion for LGBTQ people excludes same-gender marriage, the Trump administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce its denial of “X” gender passports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stops medical care for transgender detainees at a facility in Aurora, Colorado, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigns because he says his progressive activism is being silenced by the ice cream company’s Unilever multinational corporate owners, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Tanya Kane Parry and David Hunt (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the September 22, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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