Erik Piepenburg’s “Dining Out” | This Way Out Radio Episode #1940

The rich history of LGBTQ+ eateries and the role they’ve played in encouraging community is served up by Erik Piepenburg in his new book, “Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights and Last Call Disco Fries at America’s Gay Restaurants” (interviewed by David Hunt).

And in NewsWrap: more than 70 members of the European Parliament plan to defy the Orbán-backed ban on Budapest Pride, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s guidance based on a recent U.K. Supreme Court ruling allows male cops to strip-search transgender women suspects, a U.S. immigration judge dismisses the asylum case of the illegally remanded gay Venezuelan makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero, a district judge orders that a gay Guatemalan man be returned to the U.S., the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ upcoming “no more drag queens” season features plenty of men in dresses, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Ava Davis and Marcos Najera (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the June 2, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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Complete Program Summary

for the week of June 2, 2025

Erik Piepenburg’s Dining Out

NewsWrap (full transcript below): More than 70 members of the European Parliament vow to defy Hungary’s new constitutional amendment banning LGBTQ Pride events by marching in this year’s Budapest parade on June 28th, while the foreign ministers of 20 E.U. member nations send a letter to autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán demanding that the bans be lifted … the U.K.’s National Police Chiefs’ Council issues guidelines to all law enforcement agencies in England, Scotland and Wales, citing the April Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally women under the Equality Act of 2010, to allow male officers to strip search trans female detainees … a San Diego, California immigration judge dismisses the asylum claim of endangered gay Venezuelan make-up artist Andry Hernбndez Romero, who was sent without due process to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT maximum security prison in a round-up of supposed Tren de Aragua gang members … a U.S. federal judge orders the return of a persecuted gay Guatemalan male asylum seeker known only as “OCG” who was deported without due process first to Mexico, where he had been raped and held for ransom, and then returned to his hostile homeland … despite President Donald Trump’s “war on drag shows” take-over of the Board of Directors of Washington, D.C.’s venerable Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, shows announced for the 2025-2026 season include Mrs. Doubtfire, Chicago, Moulin Rouge and Spamalot! —all musicals with notable female characters played by men in drag [with a brief excerpt from the musical MRS. DOUBTFIRE] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by AVA DAVIS and MARCOS NAJERA).

Feature: Are you what you eat? What, where and with whom to eat have been defining traits of the community as queer people have found love, friendship and fellowship, be it over patty melts, pizza or Lobster Thermidor. That rich history is served up by Erik Piepenburg in his new book, Dining Out. This Way Out’s DAVID HUNT lays out a feast from Piepenburg’s culinary journey to show how tastes — and tastebuds — have changed (with intro music from OLIVER! and additional music by AVES and DIAMOND LIL).

[https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/erik-piepenburg/dining-out/9780306832161/]

NewsWrap

A summary of some of the news in or affecting

LGBTQ communities around the world

for the week ending May 31st, 2025 

Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,

reported this week by AVA DAVIS and MARCOS NAJERA,

produced by Brian DeShazor

   More than 70 members of the European Parliament plan to defy a ban on Budapest Pride. They’re heeding the call of Pride organizers for “international allies, activists and friends” to support their standoff against Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister Victor Orbán, according to CNN.

Orbán’s compliant parliament approved his constitutional amendment earlier this year outlawing all LGBTQ Pride events – ostensibly in the name of “child protection.”  Budapest police say they’ll use facial recognition software to identify and fine everyone who attends the June 28th parade.  

Twenty of Hungary’s fellow European Union member nations condemned the anti-queer legislation in a letter this week.  Foreign ministries including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden said the European Commission should “expeditiously make full use of the rule of law toolbox at its disposal” if the Pride ban is not lifted.

The letter reads in part, “Respecting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is inherent in being part of the European family.  This is our responsibility and shared commitment of the member states and the European institutions.”  

Orbán has been at odds with the E.U. for years now. He’s turned his nose up at significant E.U. funding that’s been withheld because of the Eastern European country’s escalating anti-democratic, anti-queer and racist anti-immigrant laws.  

   Transgender women suspects in the U.K. can now be strip-searched by male cops. The National Police Chiefs’ Council issued its “interim guidance” to every police force on May 22nd in keeping with the Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legal women under the 2010 Equality Act.  The N.P.C.C. guidance says the ruling “makes clear that thorough police searches, such as those which expose intimate body parts, should be carried out by police officers and staff of the same biological sex as the detained person.”  The guidelines extend to transgender officers and prison staff. “Very limited exceptions”

may be allowed if someone asks to be searched by a police officer in their affirmed gender.  The guidance demands that “any search not conducted in line with biological sex must have the written consent of the detainee, the officer carrying out the search as well as the authorizing officer.”

N.P.C.C. chair Chief Constable Gavin Stephens posted on the group’s website, “We understand the depth of feeling there is on these issues, both among transgender communities as well as those who hold gender critical views.  Policing remains committed to treating everyone with fairness, dignity and respect.”

The April 16th U.K. high court ruling was the result of a case filed by the gender-critical group For Women Scotland. They sued the Scottish government for a policy declaration that trans women were considered women on government boards that require equal male-female membership.  

Angry protests over the continued degradation of transgender rights have erupted in Edinburgh and London, according to Qnews.com.au. One group of trans women stood topless outside the Scottish Parliament following its decision to weave the Supreme Court’s ruling into federal policy.  Lawmakers decided that the use of all sex-specific facilities in the building must now be based on a person’s birth gender.

Hundreds of protestors marched from Marbie Arch to Downing Street in London organized by the activist group STRIVE – Standing for Trans Rights, Inclusion and Visibility Everywhere.  Demonstrators were invited to remove their tops, and several waved trans flags defiantly bare-chested at the gates of Number 10.

    The asylum case of gay Venezuelan makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero has been dismissed by an immigration judge in San Diego, California. As far as his attorneys know, he’s languishing in El Salvador’s infamous maximum security CECOT prison, remanded there in March without warning by the Trump administration.  They have not been able to confirm his whereabouts, communicate with him, or determine his current physical and mental condition.

Hernández Romero’s asylum claim was based on the persecution he endured for being queer and expressing progressive political beliefs in Venezuela. He had complied with all aspects of the process and was waiting for his hearing at San Diego’s Otay Mesa Detention Center, according to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. He’s now the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in March by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and the A.C.L.U. of D.C. demanding the return of all the men shipped off to CECOT without due process.

Close to 200 Venezuelans have gone to CECOT in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign against what the president has called “terrorists.” Like others, Hernández Romero has tattoos that supposedly “prove” his membership in the notorious Tren de Aragua gang. His lawyers say that the gay man’s tattoos represent nothing of the sort. 

U.S. immigration judges work for the Department of Justice and are not part of the independent federal judiciary.  Hernández Romero’s supporters worry that a Justice Department politicized under Trump will never give him a fair hearing.               

The dismissal of his asylum case robs Hernández Romero of a key link to the U.S. system of due process. This week’s ruling means he can apply again – but only if he returns to the U.S., according to NBC News. Of course that’s impossible under the circumstances.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has rebuffed requests for intervention from openly gay U.S. Congressman from California Robert Garcia and other sympathetic lawmakers.

   In better queer immigration news, a district judge is ordering that a gay Guatemalan man be returned to the U.S. The man identified only by the initials O.C.G. was seeking asylum because of the anti-queer violence he had suffered at home. He was presumably protected under an immigration order issued last year, but the Trump administration suddenly sent O.C.G. to Mexico, where he had been raped and held for ransom on his journey to the U.S. He was returned to Guatemala two months ago. Since then, he said in a declaration to the court, “I have been living in hiding, in constant panic and constant fear.”

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said the deportation “lacked any semblance of due process.” In Murphy’s words, “No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat. … In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped.”  Whether the Trump administration obeys the ruling remains to be seen.

    Finally, for an “anti-woke” schedule that’s supposed to be free of drag, the 2025 – 2026 season at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will still feature plenty of men in dresses. President Donald Trump’s all caps rant on his feeble Truth Social platform screamed, “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA” when he announced in February that he had fired the board and installed himself as chair.  Gay sycophant Ric Grenell was named as the head of the nation’s Washington, D.C. showplace.  Trump declared, “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP!” 

Maybe it escaped the reality TV star’s notice or maybe it’s just a classic Trumpian reversal of policy, but here’s a taste of the upcoming Kennedy Center season: 

[SOUND: Mrs. Doubtfire]

Hillard/Doubtfire: Guys! I need you to make me a woman.

Friends: What?! 

Hillard/Doubtfire: Miranda is hiring a nanny, and I put myself up for the job as a woman and I have an interview tomorrow! 

Friends: What?! 

Hillard/Doubtfire: Guys, please! I’m begging you … [singing] Make me a woman, give it a shot. Come on give me the best that you’ve got.

The hit Broadway musical Mrs. Doubtfire tells the story of a father posing as a female nanny to spend more time with his children after a divorce. 

That’s not all. The Kennedy Center will also host Monty Python’s Spamalot! with men dressed as women in prominent scenes. Moulin Rouge will be performed including a drag queen character named “Baby Doll.” Someone will take the role of Chicago’s “Mama Morton,” made famous by queer icon Queen Latifah and drag queen Jinkx Monsoon. Chicago character “Mary Sunshine” is revealed to be male in one of the show’s most memorable scenes.  

So maybe just a few more drag shows, Mr. President!

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