Filmmaker-writer-activist Marlon Riggs challenged popular — even progressive — culture when his video documentary depicting Black gay men with their “Tongues Untied” was banned by television stations across the U.S. (interviewed by Joey Flyer and Mike Alcolay).
Lakhiyia means “home,” and Lakhiyia’s work in revolutionary creativity offers an opportunity for listeners to bring out their own “sermons you wish you’d heard,” like “Duckwalk to Freedom” — and you can participate @lakhiyia on Instagram, HOMEplxce.com and thiswayout.org! (interviewed by Lucia Chappelle).
Bonus: Watch Lakhiya's video performance of Duckwalk to Freedom
And in NewsWrap: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declares 2025 “The Year of the Family” that doesn’t include queers, more U.S.-based trans-national companies are obeying in advance to restrict or totally abandon workplace diversity programs, the Boards of Apple and Costco are bucking the anti-DEI trend, U.S. federal protections from bias in education based on sexual orientation or gender identity are struck down by a federal court in Kentucky, a bill that denies federal funding to schools that allow transgender students to compete in girls’ and women’s sports was passed by the U.S. House, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Sarah Montague and Marcos Najera (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the January 20, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
Join our family of listener-donors today at thiswayout.org/donate/
Complete Program Summary
for the week of January 20, 2025
Riggs Untied & Lakhiyia at Home
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launches the “Year of the Family” during a speech in Ankara that outlines financial incentives for young familiies who expand theirs to boost his country’s flagging birth rates on the backs of “perverse” LGBTQ people, whom he rants against as threats to traditional Turkish values … Nissan Motors, McDonald’s, Amazon and Meta begin 2025 by joining about a dozen other multi-national companies that have abandoned their programs and policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, bowing to online pressure threatening consumer boycotts against such “woke” corporate culture … the Boards of giant retailer Costco and computing behemoth Apple each urge a “no” vote at their respective upcoming annual shareholder meetings on resolutions demanding rollbacks of each. company’s DEI programs … a federal judge in Kentucky rules that the Biden administration’s policies that Title IX, the federal law that bans bias based on sex in education, extends to sexual orientation and gender identity are a government overreach and says that those protections can only be delineated by lawmakers … the thin Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, joined by two Texas Democrats, advances a bill to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports programs [with excerpts from passionate comments against the bill on the House floor by Oregon Congressperson Suzanne Bonamici and Vermont Congressperson Becca Balint, both Democrats] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by MARCOS NAJERA and SARAH MONTAGUE).
Feature: The life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is being honored this week. That dream King said was “deeply rooted in the American dream” is still frequently belied by the American reality. Nearly three decades after his indelible call for equality rang through the U.S. Capitol Mall, an award-winning documentary that revealed the lives of black gay men was still apparently too much for television. Writer-director Marlon Riggs talked about the controversy over Tongues Untied in 1990 by phone with This Way Out’s JOEY FLYER in Los Angeles and in-studio with our MIKE ALCALAY in San Francisco (with additional comments by Essex Hemphill and music by SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK).
Feature: Martin Luther King’s speech at the 1963 March on Washington may be the best-known sermon of all time, but it carried a liberating message that’s not usually associated with “sermons” anymore. Lakhiyia is a spoken word consultant and public health cultural shapeshifter who’s known for her series of Sermons I Wish I’d Heard. The poem Duckwalk to Freedom is an excerpt from one of them. Lakhiyia joins us on This Way Out to talk about Lakhiyia’s work and how you can participate — starting with the meaning of Lakhiyia (with music by Lakhiyia).
[@lakhiyia and @thiswayoutradio on Instagram; info@thiswayout.org]
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending January 18, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Marcos Najera and Sarah Montague,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is declaring 2025 “The Year of the Family.” Regurgitating familiar homophobic rhetoric, Erdoğan claims that the struggle for LGBTQ equality is part of a foreign conspiracy to undermine Turkish values. In his words, “It is our common responsibility to protect our children and youth from harmful trends and perverse ideologies. Neoliberal cultural trends are crossing borders and penetrating all corners of the world. They also lead to LGBT and other movements gaining ground.” Erdoğan says that what he calls “gender neutralization policies” are “a battering ram” against the traditional family. Taking the victim stance, the president complains, “Anyone who defends nature and the family is subject to heavy oppression.”
Erdoğan announced the new initiative during a speech in the capital city of Ankara on January 13th. The plan is to reverse declining birth rates and offers financial incentives to young families to have several children.
LGBTQ Pride celebrations have been banned in Turkey since Erdoğan gained power in twenty-fourteen. Riot police in major Turkish cities like Ankara and Istanbul have used tear gas and rubber bullets to make arrests and disperse crowds attempting to celebrate queer culture.
More U.S.-based trans-national companies are obeying in advance to restrict or totally abandon workplace diversity programs, while others are bucking that trend. Nissan Motors, McDonald’s, Amazon, and Meta are joining about a dozen other major corporations that have bowed to conservative pressure so far in the new year. Right-wing rabble rouser Robby Starbuck is taking credit for the shifts after his threats to rally his social media followers to turn consumer boycotts on such “woke” companies. Starbuck has worked diligently to make “diversity, equity and inclusion” corporate dirty words.
The regression began with the pilgrimages of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to kiss incoming President Donald Trump’s ring. Both ponied up millions of dollars for his inauguration. Surplus funds from Trump’s first inauguration remain unaccounted for.
Changes in policies at Meta-owned Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Threads are opening the door to unregulated anti-queer hate speech. Amazon has removed statements in support of LGBTQ rights from its policy pages.
At least so far Apple is maintaining its diverse workplace programs and policies, although openly gay CEO Tim Cook has personally donated a million dollars to the Trump inaugural.
The Boards of Apple and giant retailer Costco are urging shareholders to vote against anti-DEI resolutions submitted by the conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research. They argue that diversity programs are discriminatory and pose financial risks according to The Advocate. The Costco resolution claims, “With 310,000 employees, Costco likely has at least 200,000 employees who are potentially victims of this type of illegal discrimination because they are white, Asian, male or straight. … Accordingly, even if only a fraction of those employees were to file suit … the cost to Costo could be tens of millions of dollars.”
Apple’s Board has advised a “No” vote ahead of their shareholders’ annual meeting. The recommendation argues that “the proposal inappropriately attempts to restrict Apple’s ability to manage its own ordinary business operations.” It also reaffirms Apple’s commitment to being an equal opportunity employer, one that “does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, or promoting on any basis protected by law.”
The Costco annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for January 23rd, and Apple’s convenes on February 25th. Shareholder-initiated resolutions are often non-binding and rarely succeed.
U.S. federal protections from bias in education based on sexual orientation or gender identity have been struck down by a federal court in Kentucky. U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves decided on January 9th that the Biden administration overstepped its authority with its interpretation of the law that bans discrimination based on sex. Reeves ruled that it was up to lawmakers to delineate the protections under Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments.
Lawsuits initiated by the attorneys-general of Republican-controlled states have stripped LGBTQ students of Title IX protections in more than half the United States. Reeves ruled specifically on the lawsuit filed by Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. He also found that the inclusive interpretation violates free speech rights because it requires teachers and school administrators to use chosen names and pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity.
GLAAD’s Sarah Kate Ellis was among queer advocacy group leaders to criticize the ruling. In her words, “All students deserve to be themselves and be safe in school. Transgender and nonbinary students are among the most bullied and harassed. Protections for the most vulnerable students make the entire school safer and stronger for everyone.” The district court ruling will likely be appealed.
Finally, a bill that denies federal funding to schools that allow transgender students to compete in girls’ and women’s sports was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Texas Democrats Vincente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar joined the thin Republican majority on January 16th. Gonzalez and Cuellar both have anti-trans legislative histories.
Opponents charge that the ironically named “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” actually holds more dangers for girls and women as described by Democratic Representative Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon.
[SOUND: Bonamici]
I rise today in strong opposition to the so-called 'Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act'. ... this bill will empower child predators, putting students across the country at increased risk. This legislation would revoke all federal funding from schools that include transgender students on girls and women's sports teams, and this is damaging and discriminatory to transgender students who benefit as all students do from participating in school sports, and also damaging to the entire school that's threatened because federal funding benefits all students. Keep in mind colleagues, that as of last month, of the approximately 510,000 athletes who play at the NCAA level 10 are transgender. Not 10,000, 10 out of five hundred and ten thousand.
Oregon Congressperson Susanne Bonamici was joined by Vermont Representative Becca Balint. Balint co-chairs the Democratic LGBTQ Caucus:
[SOUND: Balint]
Trans Americans are not the problem. This obsession with monitoring kids’ genitals is absolutely the problem. Let’s be clear. This is about kids. My kids, your kids, all kids. All kids, even elementary school kids playing basketball. I’m a mom of two teens. I’m a former teacher. I know what kids are going through in school. They're already self-conscious about their bodies. They just want to be on the soccer field with their friends. They certainly do not want to be humiliated by members of Congress. ... So, come on, let’s talk about what enforcement looks like, because you guys, you don’t want to talk about it. We know there is only one logical conclusion to this. This is interrogation of young girls. About their bodies. This is asking people to show them what is underneath their underwear. ... So, it’s vile. It’s twisted. ... Far from protecting anyone, it puts our children at risk. And actually, I urge colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this government overreach.
That was Vermont Representative Becca Balint.
Several queer advocacy groups are predictably members of the condemnation chorus. Allison Scott of the Campaign for Southern Equality urged the Senate to “do the right thing here, refuse to exclude and marginalize children, and reject this legislation.”
The incoming Trump administration has vowed to eliminate any federal protections based on gender identity and to abolish all gender-affirming healthcare. It would essentially deny the existence of transgender and nonbinary people. You could be next.
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