Garcia Checks Greene & Pritzker Preaches to HRC

Infamous U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) didn’t know what she was getting into when she defamed the drag artist with a doctorate Professor Lil Miss Hot Mess, but gay Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA) had the skillful sarcasm to shut her down (Lauren Schmitt reports).

lIllinois Governor JB Pritzker’s fiery address lights up the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Los Angeles dinner with a call to move the movement into the streets.

And in NewsWrap: same-gender sex is outlawed again by Trinidad and Tobago’s Court of Appeal, six European countries warn their transgender and nonbinary citizens to beware of traveling to a Trump-ruled United States, U.S. officials pull the funding for research projects from seven Australian universities as the Trump administration’s war on “wokeness” spreads, a preliminary injunction by District of Columbia Court Judge Ana Reyes continues to halt the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service, Judge Benjamin H. Settle of the Western District of Washington state adds his injunction to Judge Reyes’ while New Jersey’s District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn saves two more trans airmen from expulsion, Texas A&M University’s embattled “Draggieland” show takes the prize for persistence, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Marcos Najera and Ret (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the March 31st, 2025 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at thiswayout.org/donate/

Complete Program Summary

for the week of March 31, 2025

NewsWrap (full transcript below): The Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal reinstates the Caribbean nation’s laws banning private consensual adult same-gender sex … Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. each issue warnings to their trans and nonbinary citizens planning to visit the U.S. that they could face obstacles trying to enter the country under the new “only two genders” policy of the Trump administration if the gender marker on their passports or visas do not match their birth gender … the Trump administration cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding to seven Australian universities because they are too “woke” and are not anti-trans enough … U.S. federal judges in Washington, D.C. and the states of Washington and New Jersey each conclude that the Trump administration’s efforts to discharge transgender service members are likely unconstitutional and temporarily block the government from taking action against them … the show must go on: another federal judge orders Texas A&M University to stop blocking the annual student-sponsored “Draggieland,” an evening of drag performances, on campus [with brief comments by winning drag queen Maria Maria] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by RET and MARCOS NAJERA).

Feature: Conservatives in the U.S Congress are once again set on dismantling publicly funded media. Under the Trump administration, the right’s reality is even more threatened by community broadcasters, where honest truth and LGBTQ+ voices are heard with support from the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio. PBS and NPR’s funding was the subject of a House committee hearing on March 26th. One rabid Republican representative tried to “drag” the proceedings into a “lil hot mess,” but a California Democratic congressman queered her line of questioning. This Way Out correspondent LAUREN SCHMITT has the story (featuring comments by California drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess and Congress members Marjorie Taylor Greene and Robert Garcia, plus very brief intro music by QUEEN).

[lilmisshotmess.com]

Feature: One of the speakers at the star-studded Human Rights Campaign’s annual Los Angeles dinner on March 22nd was Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. The Democratic firebrand has become a leading “alpha liberal,” advocating for aggressive opposition to Republican authoritarianism. We offer highlights from Pritzker’s passionate address (with intro music by JOHN LENNON).

NewsWrap

A summary of some of the news in or affecting

global LGBTQ communities

for the week ending March 29th, 2025

Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,

reported this week by RET and MARCOS NAJERA

and produced by Brian DeShazor

Same-gender sex is against the law in Trinidad and Tobago – again. The Caribbean nation’s High Court had called provisions of the Sexual Offenses Act “irrational and illegal” in 2018 when it overturned those laws. The government appealed, and on March 25th Court of Appeal Justices Nolan Bereaux and Charmaine Pemberton concluded that “judges cannot change the law.”

The High Court ruling had said that laws banning private consensual adult activity violate constitutional guarantees of privacy and freedom of expression. However, the two prevailing Appeal Court justices agreed with the government’s argument that only Parliament can overturn those statutes. The lone dissenter of the three-judge panel was Justice Vasheist Kokaram. Trinidad’s Daily Express reported that Kokaram thought the government’s appeal should have been dismissed.

While the Appeals Court has made same-gender sex a crime again, it lowered the original penalty from 25 years in prison to five.

Jason Jones filed the original challenge to the British colonial-era laws in 2017. He’s a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago who currently lives in the U.K. Jones condemned this week’s appeals court decision, posting on social media, “… this regressive judgement has ripped up my contract as a citizen of T&T and again makes me an unapprehended criminal in the eyes of the Law.” In his words the Justices have “effectively put a target on the back of LGBTQIA+ people and made us lower class citizens in our own country.” Jones vows an appeal to the Privy Council, a U.K. appellate court for British territories that also considers cases from Commonwealth countries like Trinidad and Tobago.

Six European countries are warning their transgender and nonbinary citizens to beware of travelling to a Trump-ruled United States. The governments of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom cite the administration’s edict that there are only two legal genders: male and female. The U.S. State Department has removed the option of an “X” gender marker on U.S. passports for trans and nonbinary people. Therefore, foreign travelers whose government ID’s do not reflect their birth gender could face serious obstacles to entering the country. The European travel advisories urge citizens to check with U.S. embassies in advance.

The Trump policy could discourage tourists who want to visit the District of Columbia for WorldPride later this year from entering the country. Trans or nonbinary athletes planning to compete in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles could also be targeted.

The door can apparently swing both ways, however. Canada’s leading queer organization Egale says its members will not be attending WorldPride or any other U.S. event. The pro-LGBTQ+ African Human Rights Coalition is calling for a boycott of WorldPride in protest of the “antagonistic fascist regime.”

The Trump administration’s war on “wokeness” is spreading from starving children in Africa to starving science in Australia. U.S. officials have now pulled funding for research projects at seven universities in Australia because of their policies encouraging diversity, equity and inclusion.

A 36-question survey went out to Australian researchers soon after Trump’s January inauguration. It inquired about steps taken to “protect women and to defend against gender ideology.” It also asked about addressing what it called “Christian persecution.”

In announcing the funding cuts, a U.S. government memo warned, “The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Australia’s Department of Education confirmed that the funding cuts affect the Australian National University, Monash University, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of New South Wales, Charles Darwin University, Macquarie University and the University of Western Australia.

According to the Sydney Star Observer, the total in lost funding approaches $600,000,000.

Education Minister Jason Clare defended the lauded international reputation of Australian research universities. He says, “Ultimately, the U.S. will fund the research it wants to fund, but we will continue to make the case to the U.S. that collaborative research benefits both U.S. and Australia’s interests.”

Australia’s National Tertiary Education Union president Alison Barnes called the actions “blatant foreign interference in Australia’s independent research.” In her words, “Donald Trump’s hateful agenda is racist, transphobic and misogynistic. The idea of research funding being tied to any of those values is sickening.”

A preliminary injunction continues to halt the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service. U.S. District of Columbia Court Judge Ana Reyes heard the government’s emergency motion to lift the injunction last week, but reinstated it on March 26th. That was the deadline the Pentagon had set for trans service members to voluntarily leave the armed forces. The reinstated temporary injunction prevents the discharge of active-duty transgender service members and the refusal to consider otherwise qualified trans enlistees.

Trump administration lawyers claimed that the expulsions only affect enlistees with gender dysphoria, but Reyes has called that a distinction without a difference. She wrote “[The order] affects only one group of people: all persons with gender dysphoria are transgender and only transgender persons experience gender dysphoria.” Reyes further concluded that the Pentagon’s anti-trans policy was based on anti-trans animus and “likely violates Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment rights.”

A second preliminary injunction is also barring enforcement of Trump’s efforts to expel trans troops from the U.S. military. U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle of the Western District of Washington state announced his ruling on March 27th. He agrees with District of Columbia Court Judge Ana Reyes that the anti-trans policy is probably unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, on March 24th a federal judge in New Jersey granted a temporary restraining order to stop two U.S. Air Force discharges. The Pentagon has been trying to boot Master Sgt. Logan Ireland and Staff Sgt. Nicholas Bear Bade. After serving with distinction for years, the two airmen were recently removed from their posts and placed on involuntary administrative absence.

U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn wrote that Ireland and Bade were both likely to succeed in challenging the ban, and to prove the risk of irreparable harm — including loss of career, damage to their reputations, and violation of their constitutional rights.

All these federal court rulings combine to keep transgender U.S. service members from being forced out of the military – at least for now.

Finally …

[SOUND: Maria Maria]

This was gonna be stripped away from us, but luckily we fought the good fight. We spoke our word like we needed to. That’s our unalienable right. Yeah, yeah, yeah [cheers].

Texas A&M University’s embattled March 27th drag show went on, after a federal judge upheld its constitutional free speech protections. Houston-based U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ruled on March 24th against the university’s ban on drag performances.

Rosenthal wrote, “To ban the performance from taking place on campus because it offends some members of the campus community is precisely what the First Amendment prohibits.”

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of anti-abortion fame had backed the ban two years ago. He claimed it contained “sexualized content” that could be more regulated than other forms of speech.

The sponsoring student group the Queer Empowerment Council appealed the case last year, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it.

In the current ruling, Judge Rosenthal rejected the university’s argument that allowing the show on campus could jeopardize federal funding due to the Trump administration’s rejection of what it calls “gender ideology.” She said that allowing the event does not imply the university’s endorsement of it.

The Queer Empowerment Council was represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – or FIRE. FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh called it “a resounding victory for the First Amendment at public universities in Texas.” He said, “State officials should stop trying to score political points at the expense of students’ First Amendment rights.”

Texas A&M’s grand production is called “Draggieland” – for “drag” and “Aggie,” the school nickname. The highlight was, of course, the crowning of the Queen. Contest winner Maria Maria addressed her subjects, saying,

[SOUND: Maria Maria]

Drag is art. Drag is love. The message is love, and that is what we spread. And that is just all that there is to it.

Garcia Checks Greene & Pritzker Preaches to HRC | This Way Out Radio Episode #1931

Complete Program Summary

for the week of March 31, 2025