We continue our review, highlighting of some of the news and feature stories on This Way Out during 2025.

We continue our review of some of the news and feature stories on This Way Out during the past 12 months, including trans lawmakers defending drag and their own dignity, celebrating a venerated Aussie activist, challenging anti-queer laws in the Caribbean, marching for gender rights in the U.K., greeting a drag virtuoso violist, analyzing a major setback at the U.S. Supreme Court, and reviewing the upcoming season at what used to be the The Kennedy Center for the Performing A

Twenty-twenty-five’s queerest news and feature stories in review; this week’s Rainbow Rewind remembers Frank Kameny, Ma Rainey and key late December happenings; quick-study Kazakh Senators pass a “no promo homo” bill, Trump’s vile war on trans kids escalates, Congressional Republicans criminalize trans kid caregivers, a North Carolina County disbands its library board over a trans kid picture book, and St. Petersburg, Florida counters demolished rainbow crosswalks with multi-

Portland, Oregon’s twice monthly live open mic performance event, Slamlandia, yields the work of three queer poets: Joshua Merritt, Evey Rothwell and Ret (produced by Brian DeShazor). Plus December birthdays including anthropologist Margaret Mead and historic queer moments from the declassification of homosexuality as a disease to the dawn of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the Rainbow Rewind (written and produced by Sheri Lunn and Brian DeShazor).

What life is like in the newsrooms and on the beat for LGBTQ+ reporters in a time when there’s too much news to and fewer jobs, according to Los Angeles chapter co-presidents Hansen Bursic and Katie Karl of NLGJA: the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (in a roundtable with This Way Out’s Lucia Chappelle, interviewed by Brian DeShazor).

Part One of Outliving Michael, a new book by Los Angeles-based poet Steven Reigns, a memorial memoir chronicling Steven’s profound friendship with Michael Church from 1994 until Michael died of AIDS in 2000. The book is captured in BRIAN DeSHAZOR’s original sound collage, using Steven’s reading of poems from Outliving Michael juxtaposed with NewsWrap reports from This Way Out’s archives. The soundtrack is drawn from some of Steven and Michael’s favorite music (Part One)

As World AIDS Day 2025 approaches, the theme of community organizing versus government indifference today echoes the early years of the pandemic. Historic coverage includes AIDS patient/activists Robert Bland, Bob Cecchi and Daniel Warner, columnist Bobbi Campbell and journalist David Hunt.

In commemoration of the November 21, 1999 passing of “The Naked Civil Servant,” listen to excerpts from one of his last interviews and a reading of one of his last pieces by publicist Chris Snell at his March 3, 2000 memorial service (produced by Brian DeShazor).

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.

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).

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.

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).

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).

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).

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).

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).

For more than two decades, activist, educator, diplomat Jessica Stern has worn a variety of hats in her efforts to advance LGBTQ human rights around the world, always at the forefront — unafraid, unapologetic, speaking truth to power. Currently serving as Senior Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy Fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, Stern talks about her pioneering work at the U.N., her tenure as the top queer diplomat in the U.S. S

The late historian Allan Bérubé documented in Coming Out Under Fire (1990) how queer soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have always been a vital part of military readiness. He revealed in a 1983 talk that the first queer news source in the United States was published at an airfield in the deep South more than 80 years ago (produced by David Hunt).

On her journey from Kansas to Oz and back, Jennifer Knapp’s spiritual rock and roll harmonizes “Christian” and “lesbian" with the unifying power of music (interviewed by David Hunt).

As the world turns away from traditional news sources, gay journalist Enrique Anarte is building trust — and an audience — on social media (interviewed by David Hunt).