Queer Journalism on a Mission: This Way Out Radio Episode #1962
- Jason Jenn
- 29 minutes ago
- 8 min read
President of the National Association of LGBTQ journalists (NLGJA.org) Ken Miguel talks about how the organization promotes queer visibility and accuracy in the media (interviewed by Brian DeShazor).
Plus: The Rainbow Rewind notes the November birthdays of comedian Bob Smith and Canadian rocker ally Ryan Adams, the premiere of “The Crying Game” and the passage of Proposition 8, California’s ban on marriage equality (produced by Brian DeShazor and Sheri Lunn).
And in NewsWrap: Rob Jetten’s “yes we can” campaign makes him the youngest and first out gay Prime Minister of The Netherlands, 25 people remain in the custody of Nigeria’s Islamic religious police since the Hisbah arrested them at an alleged “gay wedding,” access to their gender-affirming healthcare for Queensland’s transgender youth opens by court order and closes again by order of state Health Director-General Dr. David Rosengren, the U.S. state’s Supreme Court allows Texas judges with “sincerely held religious beliefs” to refuse to officiate weddings of same-gender couples, British King Charles’ first “official engagement” directly supporting the LGBTQ communities is to lay a bouquet of flowers near the first memorial to U.K. LGBTQ service members, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Ret and Michael Taylor-Gray (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the November 3, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of November 3, 2025
Queer Journalism on a Mission
NewsWrap (full transcript below): 38-year-old Rob Jetten of the D66 Party is on track to become the youngest-ever and first openly gay Prime Minister of The Netherlands … 25 men and women are netted in the latest Islamic religious police raid on an alleged “gay wedding” in Nigeria … the government of the Australian state of Queensland reinstates its ban on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare for trans patients just hours after a Supreme Court judge declared the ban to be unlawful on procedural grounds … the Texas Supreme Court decides that justices of the peace who refuse to marry same-gender couples based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs” are not violating the U.S. state’s judicial ethics … King Charles III helps dedicate the U.K.’s first memorial to closeted but often persecuted queer military veterans who served even though they were legally barred from doing so until 2000 (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by RET and MICHAEL TAYLOR GRAY)
Feature: Early November birthdays of some queer pioneers and key queer moments are recalled in this week’s Rainbow Rewind, written and hosted by SHERI LUNN and BRIAN DeSHAZOR and produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR.
Feature: To paraphrase their slogan, “They’re here, they’re queer, they’re on deadline!” In the competition to control information, they’re on a frontline defending LGBTQ+ visibility. You know their work from the outside, but what’s it like on the inside? This Way Out’s BRIAN DeSHAZOR takes a peek behind the press badges with Ken Miguel of NLGJA: the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists (with intro music by GARBAGE).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the week ending November 1st, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle
reported this week by RET and MICHAEL TAYLOR GRAY,
and produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR
[sound: crowd cheering “Yes we can!” in Dutch]
Rob Jetten’s “yes we can” campaign is set to make him the youngest-ever and first out gay Prime Minister of The Netherlands. His socially progressive, economically centrist Democrats 66 party gained 17 seats in parliament, clobbering the far-right Party for Freedom. It’s led by the man called “the Dutch Trump,” current P.M. Geert Wilders, whose party lost 11 seats.
Sexuality did not play a major role in the 38-year-old’s campaign. Instead Jettten successfully expanded the voter base of the party founded in 1966 by hammering Wilder for his divisive anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policies.
The October 29th election was also seen as a test of the slow swing to the right evidenced elsewhere in Europe. Jetten told English-speaking press on election night:
[sound: Jetten]
This is an historic election result because we’ve shown not only to the Netherlands, but also to the world that it is possible to beat populous and extreme right-wing movements, and I'm very eager to cooperate with other parties to start an ambitious coalition as soon as possible.
Before a crowd of his cheering supporters Jetten proclaimed:
[sound: Jetten in Dutch fades under translation]
“Millions of Dutch people today turned a page and said farewell to the politics of negativity, of hate, of endless ‘No we can’t’.”
To former Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, Jetten is “without a doubt one of the most talented politicians the Netherlands has ever had,” as she told the Independent.
Twenty-five people remain in the custody of Nigeria’s Islamic religious police since the Hisbah arrested them at an alleged “gay wedding” on October 25th. The investigation in the northern city of Kano reportedly continues while the 18 men and seven women each face up to 14 years in prison. The men were identified by the pre-Islamic term “yan daudu,” which refers to males exhibiting female traits. They’re charged with violating laws that criminalize same-gender weddings and their promotion in the West African nation.
Sheikh Dr. Mujahid Aminuddeen Abubakar is the Deputy Commander General (Special Operations) of the Hisbah Board. He said that they acted on a tip from a “concerned resident.” He told 21st Century Chronicle that the Board is committed to promoting a morally upright society and safeguarding the city’s reputation as a community deeply rooted in discipline and Islamic values.
Islamic law governs 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, all in the northern part of the country. That Sharia runs parallel to the state and federal criminal justice systems. Sharia punishes same-gender sex with the death penalty, although there are no records of an actual execution. Offenders in the south of the country face up to life in prison.
Nigeria is considered one of the most anti-queer countries on the planet. Raids on so-called “gay weddings” began in two thousand seven, according to Agence France Presse. There was an eight-year lag, then they recurred every three to four years. The last was in 2022. There has never been a conviction.
Queensland’s transgender youth saw access to their gender-affirming healthcare appear under a Supreme Court ruling and disappear again after just six hours. The Australian state’s Health Director-General Dr. David Rosengren had issued a ban on treatment for patients under the age of 18 that was challenged by the mother of a transgender child. Supreme Court Justice Peter Callaghan decided that it was illegal because it was made “without adequate consultation and at the direction of [Health Minister Tim] Nicholls.” He did not rule on its clinical appropriateness. In Callaghan’s words, “The Minister may give a service a direction if he is satisfied it is necessary to do so in the public interest. However, if the Minister gives a direction, it must be in writing and published in a way that allows it to be accessed by members of the public.”
After the Supreme Court ruling it only took Nicholls six hours to be “satisfied it was necessary in the public interest” to deny puberty blockers and hormone therapies to new pediatric patients. He reassured Parliament that he had given written notice to Hospital and Health Services. He told them that the new directive would remain in place “while an independent review of gender services is completed.” That’s expected by the end of November.
The plaintiff is anonymous for legal reasons, but the trans child’s mother is “not backing away from the fight.” She’s vowing to “do everything I can to see it overturned [again]. … Politicians should not make decisions about medical care. I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself.”
The president of the Australian Medical Association Queensland agrees. Dr. Nick Yim told reporters that the denial of care causes real harm to pediatric patients. He said, “Treatment decisions must always be made by clinicians based on science, not ideological, political or other clinically irrelevant beliefs.”
Texas judges can refuse to officiate weddings of same-gender couples based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs” -- this according to an October 24th decision by the U.S. state’s Supreme Court. The original Texas Code of Judicial Conduct specifically forbids judges from demonstrating “bias or prejudice, including but not limited to bias or prejudice based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.” However, the all-Republican high court concluded that justices of the peace who decline queer couples for religious reasons are not violating judicial ethics.
McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley refused same-gender couples while continuing to marry heterosexuals. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct found that her actions cast doubt on her ability to act impartially and publicly reprimanded her in 2019. For six years Hensley has argued that the action was illegal because it punished her for adhering to her devout Christian beliefs.
The Texas Supreme Court’s decision amends Canon 4 of the state’s Judicial Code. The justices wrote, “It is not a violation of these canons for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief.”
Texas state House LGBTQ Caucus Chair Jessica González is “disappointed but not surprised [by the ruling].” In her words, “Our right to marriage should never depend on someone else’s religious beliefs. This change in the Judicial Conduct Code will only further erode civil rights in Texas.”
The Texas case mirrors a federal lawsuit brought by Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis. She refused to issue marriage licenses to lesbian and gay couples soon after the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in 2015. A decade later, the high court is considering her challenge to that ruling. We may learn whether they will hear her appeal by November 10th, according to Pink News.
Finally, British King Charles III laid a bouquet of flowers near the first memorial to U.K. LGBTQ service members on October 28th, his first “official engagement” directly supporting the LGBTQ communities. The memorial honoring queer military veterans who served before the ban on their service was lifted is located at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England.
As the Royal Family acknowledged in a social media post, “Throughout the 20th century, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people were banned from serving in the U.K. Armed Forces.” The ban on their service was finally lifted 25 years ago.
The British government issued a formal apology to those who suffered under the ban in 2023. Queer veterans who suffered under the ban can apply for financial reparations of up to 70,000 pounds, about 93 thousand U.S. dollars.
The memorial is titled “An Opened Letter,” a bronze sculpture designed by the artist collective Abraxas Academy. It looks like a crumpled letter with specific words that were used in investigations of closeted queer service members. Words of hope and progress are concealed on the other side. The narrative on its British York stone base ends with a plea to “embrace our diversity & fight for our country.”
The memorial’s website calls it “a place of reflection, recognition and remembrance, ensuring that the stories of those who served, and those who suffered, are never forgotten.”