Jamison Green and the History of Trans Medicine | This Way Out Radio Episode #1949
- This Way Out
- 48 minutes ago
- 7 min read
In more than three decades as a proud transgender activist, Jamison Green has moved from making history to writing it as one of the authors and editors of a new book, “A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States, From Margins to Mainstream” — an important contribution to the discussion during these times of growing intolerance (interviewed by David Hunt).
Belgium’s DJ Mistiek brings out “I Became Me,” a new queer anthem honoring the trans experience.
And in NewsWrap: the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court rules the laws prohibiting same-gender sex in Saint Lucia unconstitutional, Cuba’s trans people can now legally change their gender on official government documents without the previously required surgery, close to 100,000 people fill the streets of London to stand for “Existence and Resistance” at the Trans+ Pride March, Berlin’s Christopher Street Day Parade brings out thousands of dancing celebrants, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony is questioned by police as a suspected organizer of the banned LGBTQ Pride Parade, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Joe Boehnlein and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the August 4, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of August 4, 2025
Jamison Green and the History of Trans Medicine
NewsWrap (full transcript below): The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court strikes down St. Lucia’s British colonial-era anti-queer “indecency” and “buggery” sex laws [with brief comments by Kenita Placide of the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality] … Cuban lawmakers unanimously vote to allow trans people to change their legal gender without undergoing previously-required gender-affirming surgery … an estimated 100,000 people at London’s Trans+ Pride Parade — which organizers said was the largest such event in history — protest the U.K. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year that essentially says only biologically-born women qualify as legally female [with brief on-scene audio] … tens of thousands march in or watch Berlin’s Christopher Street Day Parade, thumbing their noses at the edict issued by the Bundestag’s leader banning the rainbow flag from flying over the building for Pride because it would be a “political demonstration” [with brief on-scene audio] … Hungary’s National Bureau of Investigation grills Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, who faces up to a year in prison if charged and convicted of being an organizer of the city’s record-breaking but illegal Pride march in June that defied Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ban (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR with thanks to DAVID HUNT, and reported this week by JOE BOEHNLEIN and MELANIE KELLER).
Feature: In more than three decades as a proud transgender man, Jamison Green has worked to advance the social, legal and civil rights of the trans community. Now he’s moved from making history to writing history as one of the authors and editors of a new book, A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States, From Margins to Mainstream. Green spoke with This Way Out’s DAVID HUNT about the importance of trans history in the face of growing intolerance on the right.(with a cameo by Christine Jorgensen, and with special intro music by DJ Mistiek and internal music by MARC ROBILLARD).
[SUNY Press: https://sunypress.edu/; DJ Mistiek Instagram: @djmistiek]
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the week ending August 2nd, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by JOE BOEHNLEIN and MELANIE KELLER
(with thanks to David Hunt),
and produced by Brian DeShazor
The laws prohibiting same-gender sex in Saint Lucia are unconstitutional, according to a July 29th ruling by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. The island nation’s old British colonial laws called it “gross indecency” and “buggery,” and if convicted a person could get up to 10 years in prison.
As a statement from the U.K.-based Human Dignity Trust explained to the Associated Press, “The mere existence of [these laws are] a violation of human rights and underpin further acts of discrimination.” That was true even though the government was not enforcing them.
Lawsuits were filed in 2019 seeking to strike down St. Lucia’s laws and similar ones in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, and Saint Kitts and Nevis by the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality. ECADE’s suits have been successful everywhere except Grenada. The regional high court is based in St. Lucia’s capital city of Castries, and ECADE Executive Director Kenita Placide told This Way Out that the lawsuit there was built on cases challenging anti-LGBTQ laws in other British Commonwealth nations.
[SOUND: Placide]
“The case in Belize referenced the case in India. We had learnings from the case in Botswana and Kenya. It came back to the case in Trinidad and Tobago. There were lessons learned from the case out of Jamaica. So I think it really took a global approach in terms of understanding what had transpired in different cases across the globe, and thinking about how can we do this for us?”
Placide will be our guest on the next This Way Out, exploring the growing movement for LGBTQ rights in the Caribbean with reporter David Hunt.
The Dominica decriminalized queer sex last year, but it was recently re-criminalized in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago when an appeals court overturned a 2018 ruling. Guyana also still outlaws private consensual adult same-gender sex.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a decision in 2021 ordering Jamaica to repeal its colonial-era sodomy law, but the government has failed to follow through. A Jamaican Supreme Court ruling in 2023 rejected a gay man’s challenge to those laws.
A judge on St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ top court dismissed two cases that challenged sodomy laws there in 2024.
Now that the laws in St. Lucia have been struck down, the Australian news outlet qnews.com.au counts 64 countries around the world that still outlaw consensual adult same-gender sex.
Cuba’s trans people can now legally change their gender on official government documents without the previously required surgery. The law that also amends Cuba’s national civil registry to legally recognize common-law partnerships was approved unanimously. A celebratory statement by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean proclaimed, “Cuba advances toward equality.”
The island nation was the first to fully cover gender-affirming care under its healthcare system. However, access to hormone therapy medications and the necessary surgical supplies can be extremely difficult under the U.S. trade embargo.
Journalist and activist Francisco Rodríguez Cruz said the changes also open the door for same-gender couple parental rights and the legal recognition of trans and intersex children. A national referendum in September 2022 opened civil marriage, adoption and surrogacy to Cuba’s same-gender couples.
Argentina, Uruguay and many other South American countries allow trans people to legally change their gender without surgical intervention. That’s also true in Canada, Germany and Malta.
[SOUND: crowd noise]
Close to 100,000 people filled the streets of London to stand for “Existence and Resistance” at the Trans+ Pride March on July 26th. The theme specifically brought out many to protest the U.K. Supreme Court’s April decision defining the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act of 2010 to those with a female gender marker at birth. Organizers called it the largest such event in history – an increase of 40,000 people over last year’s event. This year’s miles-long procession included several Palestinian flags expressing solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza.
Lewis G Burton bragged, "Our community came together to show what real strength, solidarity and care looks like." Burton is one of London Trans+ Pride's founders. In his words, “The message was clear: we will not be erased. Our existence is natural, historic and enduring. You can try to take away our rights, but you will never remove us from society. We are a part of humanity – and the public will not stand by while harm is done to our community.”
Berlin’s Christopher Street Day Parade had tens of thousands of celebrants dancing to techno beats blaring from several floats under cloudy skies on July 26th. The LGBTQ Pride marchers happily dodged heavy rains that had poured down in previous days. Their enthusiasm was in part a protest against ruling Christian Democratic Party Parliament President Julia Klöckner. In May she declared a ban on flying the rainbow flag over the Bundestag building during Pride month because it constituted a “political” statement.
An anti-queer counter-demonstration attended by about four dozen neo-Nazis and members of the fledgling far right Alternative for Germany political party was quickly disbanded. The organizer and five others were arrested on their way for possession of weapons and explosives, according to the German news outlet Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Berlin’s first Christopher Street Day Parade was held on June 30th, 1979. Organizer Thomas Hoffmann thinks the crowd this year exceeded previous records. He told the Associated Press, “We want to stand up for our rights together here.”
Finally, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony was questioned by police as a suspected organizer of the banned LGBTQ Pride Parade. Up to 300,000 people thumbed their collective noses at Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the capital city on June 28th. Orbán’s governing party had rammed through a ban on all Pride events, calling them “harmful to minors.” Officials threatened to use facial recognition software to identify and fine every participant, with a special emphasis on punishing accused organizers. Karácsony was openly defiant when the bans were announced, declaring, “Neither freedom nor love can be banned in Budapest.” According to organizers, the result was the largest Pride crowd in the nation’s history.
Before he entered Hungary’s National Bureau of Investigations building on August 1st, the mayor told some 200 supporters that if it cannot be banned, “then it cannot be punished.” He pointedly wore a T-shirt featuring the capital city’s coat of arms overlaid with rainbow colors.
The mayor emerged from the investigators' headquarters after a little more than an hour. He told reporters that he had been formally accused of organizing a prohibited event. He said that he provided police with a formal statement but refused to answer specific questions.
If charged and convicted, Karácsony faces up to a year in prison. He expressed optimism that national elections next year would be a chance to "take Hungary back onto the European path," and predicted that the charges against him would be dropped before then.
Karácsony believes that Orbán’s government has been weakened by its failed efforts to ban Pride, and that it “no longer has any effect over people´s thinking."
He said that so many people had defied the government to participate in Pride "because we know exactly that either we are all free together … or none of us are."