Sex Law Victory in St. Lucia | This Way Out Radio Episode #1950

This Way Out
Aug 12
9 min read

Fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in the Caribbean has been difficult, but the winds of progress are blowing strong in Saint Lucia. ECADE, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, just won its fourth court victory since 2022 over long prison sentences for same-sex intimacy. Executive Director Kenita Placide talks about the legal tempest sweeping across the islands (interviewed by David Hunt).

And in NewsWrap: the early retirement benefits transgender U.S. Air Force personnel with 15 to 18 years of service were promised for voluntarily agreeing to leave the military have been withdrawn, a majority of people in China support LGBTQ rights according to a new study released by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, pediatric gender affirming healthcare will be illegal in New Hampshire under a law signed by Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte, Massachusetts’ existing protections for transgender and reproductive healthcare are enhanced under legislation signed by lesbian Democratic Governor Maura Healey, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supports the denial of a preliminary injunction to prevent Oklahoma’s ban on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare from being enforced while its constitutionality is litigated, Bishop of Monmouth Cherry Vann is voted the Church in Wales' first female and first out Archbishop, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Nathalie Munoz and Allan Tijamo (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the August 11, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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Complete Program Summary

for the week of August 11, 2025

Sex Law Victory in St. Lucia

NewsWrap (full transcript below): The U.S. Air Force and Space Force renege on post-separation benefits for trans enlistees who voluntarily leave the service in Donald Trump’s effort to purge the armed forces of trans members, and will now offer a substantially less valuable “lump sum” instead, while still threatening dishonorable discharges and loss of any benefits to trans personnel who don’t leave of their own accord … a survey of Chinese citizens by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law reveals majority support for LGBTQ rights, even though the government continues to resist granting them … the Republican-dominated U.S. state of New Hampshire becomes the first in the New England region to ban pediatric gender-affirming healthcare … the Democratically-controlled state of Massachusetts strengthens protections for that care and for reproductive rights … the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sites the U.S. Supreme Court’s Skrmetti ruling that backed Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for patients under the age of 18 to reject a challenge to a similar law in Oklahoma … Cherry Vann becomes the first female and first partnered lesbian Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Wales (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR with thanks to DAVID HUNT, and reported this week by NATHALIE MUNOZ and ALLAN TIJAMO).

Feature: After an appeals court in Trinidad and Tobago reinstated the nation’s anti-sodomy laws in March, it looked like the drive for legal equality for LGBTQ people in the Caribbean was facing strong headwinds. But the winds of progress are blowing strong in Saint Lucia, where a queer coalition just won its fourth court victory since 2022, striking down laws that imposed long prison sentences for same-sex intimacy. This Way Out’s DAVID HUNT chats with Kenita Placide, the veteran activist leading the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality’s legal tempest sweeping across the islands (with intro music by BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS and internal music by YOUNG LORDS and ROGER RIVAS).

[Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality/ECADE: https://ecequality.org/]

NewsWrap

A summary of some of the news in or affecting

LGBTQ communities around the world

for the week ending August 9th, 2025

Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,

reported this week by NATHALIE MUNOZ and ALLAN TIJAMO

with thanks to David Hunt,

produced by Brian DeShazor

Transgender United States Air Force personnel with 15 to 18 years of service will not be getting their early retirement benefits for voluntarily agreeing to leave the military after all. Trans and nonbinary people being forced out of the U.S. military under President Donald Trump’s executive order were initially offered the right to apply for a Temporary Early Retirement Authority, or TERA. As of August 4th, all TERA offers have been withdrawn, effectively denying full retirement benefits to voluntarily separating trans Air Force veterans.

Before the sudden change, longer serving trans and nonbinary Air Force personnel could leave the military early with prorated retirement benefits, including health insurance coverage, disability benefits and access to housing on military bases. Those troops now have two choices: accept a lump sum payout typically offered to junior service members for voluntary separation, or face being dishonorably discharged and denied any post-service benefits.

There’s been no logical explanation of why the policy was reversed. A spokesperson for the Air Force admitted to the The Guardian that about a dozen TERA applicants had “prematurely” received approval. However, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs stand-in Brian Scarlett intervened. His memo stated, “After careful consideration of the individual applications, I am disapproving all Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) exception to policy requests ….”

Colonel Bree Fram of the Air Force’s recently created U.S. Space Force is the highest-ranking transgender servicemember in the U.S. military. Now on administrative leave pending separation at the end of the year, she posted on LinkedIn, “Even with all the upheaval of the past few months, these individuals finally felt that there was some sense of closure. Some had moved, accepted jobs, or had otherwise made plans. Now all of that is up in the air in addition to their loss of benefits.”

To Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights the denial of benefits is “devastating” and a “betrayal of a direct commitment made to these service members.”

The Human Rights Campaign and the queer legal advocacy group Lambda Legal are representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender people. HRC Chief of Staff Jay Brown called the reneged separation policy “cruelty for cruelty’s sake.”

A majority of people in China support LGBTQ rights -- this according to a new study released by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Fifty-three percent of the respondents in the August 4th report agreed that LGBTQ people should be accepted in society. A similar majority supported marriage equality, and 46 per cent believe that those same-gender couples are capable of successfully raising children.

Once again, visibility fuels acceptance. Seventy percent of the respondents said that they know at least one LGBTQ+ person, and almost half said that they know two or more.

Additionally, 62 percent of respondents said that queer people should be treated fairly in the workplace and even more said that the government needs to provide better protections for queer students.

Those results underscore that the Chinese people are far ahead of their government. While private consensual adult same-gender sex has been legal in China since 1997, there are no discrimination protections and same-gender couples have no legal rights. Positive portrayals of queer people in the media are all but banned.

Equality advocates in China applauded the survey results. One Beijing-based activist told the queer news outlet The Edge, “Public support is a powerful force for change, and this data shows that more Chinese people than ever want to see their LGBTQ+ friends and family treated fairly and equally.”

Pediatric gender affirming healthcare will be illegal in New Hampshire, the first state in the New England region to institute such a ban. Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte signed HB377 to specifically prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from getting puberty blockers or hormone treatments to assist gender transition. It also forbids surgery on minors, more of a hateful political specter than an actual treatment option.

The law carries no criminal penalties for medical providers, but they can lose their state medical licenses. They can also be sued by minors and their parents. Minors already receiving gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormone therapies are allowed to continue treatment when the ban takes effect on January 1st, 2026.

Ayotte’s characterization of the “a balanced, bipartisan effort to protect children” is misleading. In fact, only two Democrats supported the measure in the Republican-dominated state legislature.

Courtney Reed of the ACLU of New Hampshire was just one of a chorus of queer advocacy groups condemning the new laws. She called them “merciless, cruel, and painful for transgender young people, their families, and their doctors.”

Massachusetts’s existing protections for transgender and reproductive health care are enhanced under legislation signed by Democratic Governor Maura Healey. The nation’s first out lesbian governor signed The Shield Act 2.0 on August 7th.

The state's original shield law was signed by Democratic Governor Charlie Baker in July 2022. It prohibited states that have banned pediatric gender-affirming care and abortions from punishing those who travel to Massachusetts for treatment. The new law goes on to prevent the disclosure of a physician’s name and other sensitive data. Local law enforcement is prohibited from cooperating with other jurisdictions in their investigations. The law also requires hospitals in the state to conduct abortions during an emergency if they are deemed be a “medical necessity.”

Arlington Democratic Senator Cindy Friedman was a key architect of the law. In her words, “The legislation … is fundamentally about protecting our state from those outside who wish to decide how we in Massachusetts choose to deliver health care, and the values we decide should drive that care.”

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will not hear a challenge to Oklahoma’s ban on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare. Plaintiffs had requested a preliminary injunction to prevent the ban from being enforced while their challenge to its constitutionality is litigated. The appeals court upheld a lower court’s denial.

Tenth Circuit Judge Joel M. Carson III stressed that the Oklahoma decision was delayed until last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Tennessee’s similar law in the Skrmetti case. He wrote for a three-judge panel, “Relying on Skrmetti, we affirm the district court’s preliminary injunction denial.”

Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Oklahoma represent plaintiffs challenging the ban. In response to the appeals court rejection, their a joint statement reads in part, “While we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all transgender people and their families across Oklahoma to know we will never stop fighting for the future they deserve and their freedom to be themselves.”

Finally, the Anglican Church of Wales has its first female Archbishop. Cherry Vann makes double history as the Welsh church’s first out lesbian leader.

Vann was one of the first women to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1994. She became the Archdeacon of Rochdale in 2008, making her the first woman to become a senior priest in the Anglican Diocese of Manchester.

When she was elected Bishop of Monmouth in the Church in Wales in 2019, she became only the third woman to hold the rank of bishop in the Welsh church.

Joining the Anglican Church in Wales allowed Vann to go public about her three-decades-long civil partnership with Wendy Diamond. Unlike the Church of England, the Church in Wales does not require its clergy to be celibate and allows them to have same-gender civil partnerships.

Vann’s predecessor Andrew John was essentially forced into retirement following allegations ranging from financial improprieties to sexual abuse under his watch at Bangor Cathedral. Promising to “work to bring healing and reconciliation, and to build a really good level of trust across the church and the communities the church serves,” Vann won a two-thirds vote in the Church’s Electoral College out of five candidates.

Speaking for the global Anglican Communion’s conservative network, Archbishop of Nigeria Henry C. Ndukuba said, “The Church of Nigeria … condemns, unequivocally rejects and will not recognize the election of … Cherry Vann as Archbishop of Wales.”

On the other hand, Vann’s election was welcomed by her fellow patron of the ecumenical Christian LGBTQIA+ community Open Table Network, The Reverend Rosemary Hill. Hill says it’s “a source of great joy and celebration. For LGBTQIA+ Welsh Anglicans, this is a momentous occasion that demonstrates how far the Church in Wales has come in terms of equality and inclusion in the last decade.”

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