homo-centric: BANNED Camp | This Way Out Radio Episode #1948
- This Way Out
- 7 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
PEN America (see last week’s This Way Out) teams up with queer Los Angeles writers for readings from some of the most targeted works threatened by the rise in book bans (correspondent /participant Jason Jenn interviews organizer Hank Henderson and author Abdi Nazemian).
And in NewsWrap: police in the Malaysian state of Kelantan are investigating themselves after raiding an official HIV/AIDS prevention event they thought was a “gay sex party,” a ruling striking down two statutes that criminalize Hong Kong’s trans people for using sex-segregated public facilities is suspended for a year to allow for the government to respond, a nonbinary U.S. citizen can temporarily stay in Canada after a judge delays their removal proceedings, gay Venezuelan makeup artist Andry José Hernández Romero is back in his hometown while his advocates continue to seek a safe place, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis tries to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality in her ongoing appeal of the court-ordered damages from a lawsuit by the gay couple whose marriage license she denied, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the July 28, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of July 28, 2025
homo-centric: BANNED Camp
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Malaysian cops trumpet a raid on a “gay sex party” that netted some 20 men in their 20s and 30s that turned out to be a Health Ministry-supported HIV/AIDS education and prevention event … a Hong Kong judge rules that trans people can use public bathrooms in the Chinese city that match their gender identity, but delays enforcement for 12 months to give the government a chance to respond … a Canadian judge pauses deportation proceedings against non-binary American Angel Jenkel, who had overstayed her visitor’s visa to care for the epileptic man who would become her fiancé, because of the hostile situation for queer people in Donald Trump’s United States [with brief comments by one of Jenkel’s attorneys, Sarah Mikhail via the CBC] … gay U.S. asylum-seeking Venezuelan makeup artist Andry José Hernández Romero is freed from El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison after being caught up in a mass ICE round-up of alleged gang members in Southern California and is sent back to his hometown of Capacho, apparently warmly welcomed, but still under threat of an anti-queer environment that caused him to seek U.S. asylum in the first place … homophobic Bible-thumping former Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis asks the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its June 2015 marriage equality ruling in appealing a judgment against her later that year in a civil suit of $360,000 in damages and attorney fees to the gay couple to whom she refused to issue a marriage license (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by TANYA KANE-PARRY and MICHAEL LeBEAU).
Feature: Last time on This Way Out, Allison Lee of PEN America Los Angeles warned about the explosion of book bans across the United States. In the conclusion of this two-part feature, some of those marginalized stories got to be told at a PEN-supported presentation highlighting endangered authors. This Way Out’s JASON JENN participated in the reading event, and takes us behind the scenes to meet organizer Hank Henderson, and Abdi Nazemian, one of the writers in the crosshairs.(with intro music by BETWEEN THE LIONS, and internal music by CARLA ULBRICH and LAUREN MAYER, and MADONNA.
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the week ending July 26th, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Michael LeBeau,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Police in the Malaysian state of Kelantan are investigating themselves to determine how they managed to mistake a Health Ministry-sponsored HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention event for a so-called “gay sex party.” Kelantan Police Chief Datuk Mohd Mamat Yusoff had trumpeted his June 17th raid on a bungalow in the village of Kota Bharu. He displayed “evidence” consisting of confiscated condoms and HIV medications. Public tips and surveillance of the venue led them to expect more than 100 people in attendance, but only about 20 men were left to arrest when police arrived – and they were waiting for their voluntary test results. The gathering included sexual health and HIV-related information and free condoms to encourage safer sexual practices. The truth finally came out on July 19th when a coalition of civil rights groups, backed by the Malaysian AIDS Council issued a press statement demanding that authorities “correct the inaccurate statements immediately.”
All the detainees were forced to take urine tests to determine drug usage, but none tested positive. Three men were reportedly arrested on separate charges after alleged pornography was found on their mobile phones.
The trans advocacy group Justice for Sisters led more than 30 civil rights groups in condemning the police falsehoods. Among them were Amnesty International Malaysia, the Malaysian Association of Women Lawyers and Malaysia’s Centre for Independent Journalism. They charged police officials with the further stigmatation of LGBTQ people who are already subjected to discrimination, harassment, verbal abuse and physical violence in the conservate, primarily Muslim nation.
Two statutes that criminalize Hong Kong’s trans people for using sex-segregated public facilities have been struck down, but the ruling has been suspended for a year. Judge Russell Coleman cited the city charter’s guarantee of equality before the law on July 22nd. However, he gave the government time to “consider whether it wishes to implement a way to deal with the contravention.”
A transgender man identified as K filed the legal challenge in 2022. K sought to amend Hong Kong’s Public Conveniences (Conduct and Behaviour) Regulations to permit individuals undergoing medically supervised gender-affirming treatment to use public toilets that match their gender identity. The Regulations currently criminalize anyone over the age of five for entering a public bathroom designated for the “opposite sex.”
Judge Coleman suggested that the issue “is more appropriately a matter for legislation.”
It's another incremental advance for trans people in the special administrative region of China. Hong Kong’s government has in recent months relaxed rules to allow trans people to legally change their gender on official documents without undergoing gender-affirming surgery. The requirement that they be sterilized as part of that surgery was also dumped. They can apply to change the gender marker on their government documents after undergoing hormone replacement therapy for at least two years.
The government has announced that it will carefully study the judgment and consult the Department of Justice on the appropriate follow-up action.
A nonbinary U.S. citizen can temporarily stay in Canada after a judge delayed their removal proceedings. Angel Jenkel arrived from Minnesota in August 2022 but overstayed their six-month visitor visa to care for their ailing fiancé. Jenkel was set to be deported on July 3rd, but federal court Justice Julie Blackhawk decided that the immigration officer’s “flawed and unreasonable” approach did not consider up-to-date information about the risks for queer people in the United States.
Jenkel and their fiancé live in a part of London, Ontario that allows him to be close to medical care for his frequent epileptic seizures. He requires 24/7 care.
Jenkel told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the threat of being sent back to Trump’s America “was just really stressful for me to think of going back to such an environment ….” Even their America-loving Southern grandmother expressed terror about their possible return.
Sarah Mikhail of Smith Immigration Law in Toronto told the CBC how Jenkel reacted to Blackhawk’s ruling:
[SOUND: Mikhail]
This decision was a huge relief for Angel. I believe there was so much uncertainty that was leading into this and so much concern about returning back to United States given what the conditions are and how they’re presently you know, changing very quickly and becoming much more difficult to live in as a non-binary American.
Jenkel can now stay in Canada until a full judicial review of Blackhawk’s decision is complete. If the result is favorable, then Jenkel’s application to stay in Canada will be reopened and reviewed by a different immigration officer.
Gay Venezuelan makeup artist Andry José Hernández Romero is back in his hometown. Romero had a tearful reunion with his parents on July 23rd in the village of Capacho Nuevo
where “His entire town was waiting for him, preparing a meal,” according to Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at the Southern California-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Romero entered the U.S. legally last year and was following all the legal requirements to gain asylum because of anti-queer violence in his homeland. His “Mom” and “Dad” tattoos were falsely interpreted as the marks of the deadly Tren de Aragua street gang. U.S. immigration officials rounded him up earlier this year with of hundreds of Venezuelan men and sent him to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. They were freed as part of a prisoner swap that was complicated by power plays between U.S. officials.
In Romero’s words, his 125 days at CECOT were “an encounter with torture and death. … Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs, others have marks on their chests, on their face … from [being shot with rubber bullets.]”
Of course, he had known nothing about the international support he had received. He told Reuters, “It fills me with so much peace, so much comfort, so much tranquility that I was never alone, from day one. … There were many people who worried for me.”
U.S. Congress member Robert Garcia was one of them. The gay Californian led several fellow Democrats demanding protective action by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. No solace there! Garcia celebrated Romero’s release in a social media post saying, “[W]e are working to make sure he’s safe. He never should have been sent to the CECOT prison, and he still deserves due process. We won’t stop fighting for him.” Immigrant Defenders Law Center is seeking Romero’s relocation to another country.
Finally, say what you will about former Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, but she is, if nothing else, persistent.
She’s now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an ongoing appeal of the court-ordered damages from a lawsuit by the gay couple whose marriage license she denied – and to overturn its 2015 federal marriage equality Obergefell decision.
Davis spent five days in jail ten years ago for contempt of court after refusing to issue a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore, citing her devout Christian beliefs. The couple sued, and the clerk was ordered to pay them 100,000 dollars in damages and 260,000 dollars in legal fees to the couple’s attorneys. She lost her re-election bid in 2018.
The infamously anti-queer Liberty Counsel continues to represent Davis. In February a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected her claim that her freedom of speech was being violated. The Supreme Court had already refused to hear Davis’ appeal in 2020, but on July 24th she filed a request for the Justices to review the damages award. It goes on to ask the Court to reverse Obergefell and return the regulation of civil marriage to each individual state.
The Liberty Counsel was no doubt encouraged to think that overturning Obergefell is possible by Justice Clarence Thomas. He suggested such a reconsideration in his 2022 concurrence with the Dobbs decision that overturned the 50-year-old Roe versus Wade ruling on reproductive rights.
The Respect for Marriage Act does offer equality advocates some comfort. President Joe Biden signed the federal law to protect the civil marriage rights of U.S. same-gender couples in 2022. Of course, that law could also be struck down by the high court.
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