Memories of the havoc created and the massive response engendered by the recently deceased “orange juice queen” Anita Bryant can inspire a new generation to meet vicious attacks with creative resistance (produced by Brian DeShazor with This Way Out reports preserved in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting).
And in NewsWrap: Ghana’s in-coming President John Mahama announces that the anti-queer “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values” bill is “effectively dead,” a decades-long struggle to bring marriage equality to Thailand ends with wedding bells for more than a thousand gay and lesbian couples who registered their marriages the first day the law took effect, United States President Donald Trump’s inaugural salvo against human and civil rights puts transgender people near the top of his target list, Trump then rescinds President Joe Biden’s support for trans rights in federal agencies and the military, former senator from “Don’t Say Gay” Florida Marco Rubio is sworn in as Secretary of State and bans U.S. embassies from displaying LGBTQ Pride or Black Lives Matter flags, LGBTQ youth crisis hotlines report a dramatic rise in calls since Trump’s election, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde makes Donald Trump squirm at the traditional inaugural prayer service in the National Cathedral, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Wendy Natividad and David Hunt (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the January 27, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of January 27. 2025
The Late Anita Bryant’s Lost Cause
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Ghana’s new president declares the viciously anti-queer Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values bill “effectively dead” … same-gender couples begin legally marrying in Thailand as the Southeast Asian nation’s marriage equality legislation takes effect … newly-reinstalled President Donald Trump declares during his inauguration speech that there are only two legally-recognized genders in the U.S.: male and female [with a brief excerpt from his typically meandering remarks] … Trump officially issues an executive order confirming that there are only two possible genders in all federal government agencies and paperwork, another bans gender-affirming healthcare in U.S. prisons … the new head of the U.S. State Department, Marco Rubio, eliminates the “X” gender option from U.S. passports and visas, and forbids embassies from flying the Rainbow Pride flag and Black Lives Matter banners … another Trump executive order rescinds the Lyndon B. Johnson-era Equal Employment Opportunity statutes that had protected minorities from bias in the workplace … another orders the end of diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) in all federal government agencies … another rescinds Joe Biden’s executive order opening the U.S. military to qualified transgender enlistees … still another relieves authorities from being required to honor a trans or nonbinary person’s chosen name or pronouns on free speech grounds … LGBTQ+ supportive pages “vanish overnight” from whitehouse.gov and other federal agency websites … calls to queer youth crisis hotlines skyrocket following Donald Trump’s election and inauguration … Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. speaks truth to power face-to-face with a fidgeting Donald Trump during her sermon at the traditional inauguration prayer service the following day at the National Cathedral [with excerpts from her remarks] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by WENDY NATIVIDAD and DAVID HUNT).
Feature: She couldn’t have been more wholesome in her flowered, A-line, flute sleeved frock, strolling through an orange grove with an animated orange bird in her hand. Who would’ve thought that a benign juice promoter would become the LGBTQ community’s arch nemesis? This Way Out’s archivist extraordinaire BRIAN DeSHAZOR memorializes Anita Bryant, the pop singer whose anti-queer campaign ultimately backfired (with brief intro music by Anita Bryant, and thanks to LUCIA CHAPPELLE, DAVID HUNT, THE PACIFICA RADIO ARCHIVES, and THE AMERICAN ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending January 25, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Wendy Natividad and David Hunt,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Ghana’s “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values” bill is “effectively dead.” The virulently anti-queer measure was overwhelmingly approved by Parliament in February 2024, but out-going President Nana Akufo-Addo refused to sign the hot potato law until the Supreme Court ruled it to be constitutional. That ruling is still pending, the parliamentary session ended, and new President John Mahama took office on January 7th. He declared the bill’s demise this week.
Issues involving proper “family values” education of the West African nation’s children were at the center of that bill. It would have imposed prison sentences of up to three years for any Ghanaian who publicly identified as LGBTQ, and up to five years for anyone who organized or funded a queer equality group. Pro-queer activities in the presence of minors would have boosted the sentence to ten years.
Mahama told a delegation from the Ghana Catholic Bishop’s Conference, “If we are teaching our values in schools, we wouldn’t need to pass a bill to enforce family values. … we need to agree on a curriculum that instills these values in our children as they grow.”
Queer activists in Ghana are cautiously optimistic that Mahama’s words may imply a rollback on government attacks against LGBTQ people. Colonial-era laws still criminalize same-gender sex, and there are no discrimination protections or legal rights.
LGBT+ Rights Ghana Communications Director Berinyuy Burinyuy told The Washington Blade, “The fear, particularly among LGBT+ activists, is that the emphasis on education could inadvertently foster homophobia in Ghanaian children. If the content is not carefully structured, it could perpetuate harmful stereotypes and deepen existing prejudices.”
A decades-long struggle to bring marriage equality to Thailand ended with wedding bells on January 23rd. More than a thousand gay and lesbian couples registered their marriages on the first day that legislation approved by parliament in June 2024 took effect. The law amended the country’s civil code to guarantee married queer couples full legal, medical, financial, inheritance and adoption rights. It also changes the civil code to use gender-neutral rather than binary language.
About 200 couples tied the knot in a mass wedding ceremony at a high-end Bangkok retail mall that rolled out a literal rainbow Pride carpet. Rainbow flags flew outside the Parliament building. Weddings took place in Thai embassies in other countries, according to a government announcement.
Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to open civil marriage to same-gender couples. In all of Asia, it follows Taiwan and Nepal.
Transgender people are near the top of the list of marginalized people targeted in United States President Donald Trump’s inaugural salvo against human and civil rights. Speaking plainly in his meandering, bias-fueled January 20th address, he carried out one of his principle campaign promises.
[SOUND: Trump]
It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
Trump signed a head-spinning flurry of more than 200 executive orders on day one, some that contradict clear constitutional provisions. One order virtually denies the existence of transgender people. The Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government edict defines gender as only male or female based on “immutable biological reality.” It calls for government agencies to remove “all radical gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms.” The option of “X” as a gender marker on U.S. passports or visas will be eliminated. Federal funds will no longer support gender transition in U.S. prisons. It categorizes the failure to honor the chosen names or preferred pronouns of trans and nonbinary people as a matter of free speech.
Trump took the opportunity to slap both his predecessor and transgender rights by rescinding out-going President Joe Biden’s executive order that required all federal agencies to address anti-trans bias in their policies and actions – a marked difference between Biden’s first day in office and Trump’s. Another Trump executive order rescinded Biden’s directive to open service in the U.S. military to qualified transgender enlistees. He’s expected to issue a new ban soon. Trump has revoked almost 80 of Biden’s fairness and human rights-related executive orders, by The Advocate’s count.
Diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs in all federal agencies have similarly been shut down by the stroke of Trump’s pen.
The wicked wish list of the reborn Trump administration includes several things that are beyond his reach – like changing the name of The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America.
U.S. embassies will not be flying any flags other than the traditional stars and stripes. The policy was issued by newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio, formerly senator from the “Don’t Say Gay” state of Florida. It means that banners like LGBTQ Pride, Black Lives Matters flags and such can no longer fly over those foreign U.S. compounds. Prisoner of War/Missing in Action emblems and the Wrongful Detainees Flag are the exceptions.
A federal judge has already declared one Trump executive order out of bounds: his attempt to overturn an amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
Another Trump order revokes the well-established Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1965 signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. That bedrock civil rights provision prohibited bias in the workplace based on “race, color, religion, and national origin by those organizations receiving federal contracts and subcontracts.” Two years later, “sex” was added to those characteristics.
Work at home programs for all federal employees are being halted.
Queer advocates are discovering that references to LGBTQ+ identities and HIV-related resources have “vanished overnight” from white-house-dot-gov and several other federal agency websites.
An explosion of calls to LGBTQ youth crisis hotlines is one of the most tangible, real-life results of Trump’s election, inaugural vitriol, and dozens of anti-queer executive orders. The Rainbow Youth Project USA Foundation told The Advocate that it usually handles less than 3,800 calls per month. They fielded more than 8,000 calls in November and December following Trump’s election. On Inauguration Day they got more than 1,400 calls.
The story was the same at The Trevor Project, another nonprofit group supporting the mental health of LGBTQ young people. Calls to their crisis lines surged to almost double in October and November. Inauguration Day saw a 33% increase.
Finally, the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde made Donald Trump squirm at the traditional inaugural prayer service in the National Cathedral on January 21st. The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. dared to challenge the newly installed president’s anti-queer and anti-immigrant statements and policies face-to-face from the pulpit:
[SOUND: Budde]
Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families. Some fear who for their lives. And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals – they, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities, whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. May God grant us strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation and the world.
That was the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., quite literally speaking truth to power. Predictably, she says that rightwing trolls are wishing her dead.
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