Elections and Insurrections | This Way Out Radio Episode #1963
- This Way Out
- Nov 11, 2025
- 8 min read
Focussing on key queer vIctories in the huge blue wave of Democratic Party wins, Andy Humm and Ann Northrop of Gay USA assess the U.S. off-year election returns with all the delight and derision they deserve.
Plus a November-oriented Rainbow Rewind calls out the original Daughter of Bilitis, the man whose camera shutter caused right wing shudders, and queer historical turning points (produced by Brian DeShazor and Sheri Lunn).
And in NewsWrap: Tasmania will financially compensate victims of the state’s past oppressive anti-queer laws, voters in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, New York City and elsewhere in the U.S. strongly reject the politics of President Donald Trump in off-year elections, the U.S. Supreme Court lifts an injunction that blocked the Trump administration’s denial of the “X” gender marker option on passports, Texas can continue to enforce its ban on drag under a ruling of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, British actor and dancer Jonathan Bailey is People Magazine’s first openly gay “Sexiest Man Alive,” and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Marcos Najera and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the November 10, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of November 10, 2025
Elections and Insurrections
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Tasmania becomes the first state or territory in Australia to financially compensate victims of since repealed laws banning private consensual adult same-gender sex and cross-dressing … Democrats virtually sweep U.S. off-year national elections in a strong rebuke to the Trump administration, including the landslide win of Democratic Socialist Muslim and queer ally Zohran Mamdani to become the next mayor of New York City [with brief comments during a campaign stop by Mamdani at a gay venue] … Abigail Spanberger becoming Virginia’s first female governor in her defeat of the current Republican Lieutenant Governor, whose campaign was based on hateful anti-trans political ads … Mikie Sherrill defeating a now three-time losing MAGA-allied former state lawmaker to become governor of New Jersey … voters in California overwhelmingly approving Proposition 50 to add five Democrat-leaning seats to the state’s congressional districting map to balance Texas’ Republican gerrymandering creation of five GOP-leaning districts … the U.S. Supreme Court allows the Trump administration’s ban on any gender marker other than “male or female” on U.S. passports to continue as its constitutionality is being challenged in a lower court … the Texas Supreme Court revives the state’s criminalizing of family-friendly drag shows … British actor/dancer Jonathan Bailey becomes the first proudly gay man to be named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive [with brief comments by Bailey on NBC-TV’s The Tonight Show] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by MARCOS NAJERA and MELANIE KELLER) +
This Just In: SCOTUS rejects Kim Davis’ challenge to marriage equality!
Feature: On this week’s The Rainbow Rewind, celebrating iconic activists Del Martin and Robert Mapplethorpe; the Berlin Wall falls, uniting queer groups in East and West Germany; and the U.S. Supreme Court rules for queer foster parental rights (written, hosted and produced by SHERI LUNN and BRIAN DeSHAZOR).
Feature: The horrific assassinations of San Francisco Mayor and queer ally George Moscone and pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk in November 1978 are recalled in Prelude to a Riot (produced by GREG GORDON, featuring the voices of Milk and Dianne Feinstein, with multiple Bay Area reports and music by THE TOM ROBINSON BAND).
Feature: A topsy-turvy political year has led to a Democratic blue tsunami in the Trump-engulfed U.S. on November 4th. From the cruelty of suspending food aid while the Congress deadlocks over healthcare to the madness of financially backing a corrupt Latin American autocrat, Gay USA’s ANDY HUMM and ANN NORTHROP reported the following day on the queer victories and painted the big picture of the off-year election results with all the delight and derision they deserve (with intro music by WILLIE NELSON).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the week ending November 8th, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle
reported this week by MARCOS NAJERA and MELANIE KELLER,
and produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR
Tasmania will financially compensate victims of the state’s past anti-queer oppression – the first Australian jurisdiction to do so. The Expungement of Historical Offences Amendment Bill 2025 passed unanimously in the Upper House of Parliament.
About 100 gay men and trans women were arrested under the old laws against private consensual adult same-gender sex or cross-dressing. Those simply charged with violations are eligible to receive up to $15,000. If they were convicted, they may receive $45,000. If they were fined or jailed, they’re eligible for up to $75,000.
Tasmania was once considered the worst place for LGBTQ people in Australia. It was the last to decriminalize homosexuality in 1997. It took until 2001 to lift the ban on cross-dressing that was often used to persecute transgender women.
Trailblazing Aussie activist Rodney Croome applauded the legislation on behalf of Equality Tasmania. In his words, "This reform will provide victims with financial redress for their trauma as well as knowledge [that] the state that once persecuted them now cares about what happened to them. Victims of our former laws faced forced outing, public humiliation, loss of employment, exclusion from family, jail time, cruel psychiatric ‘treatment,’ exile interstate, or took their own lives.”
Monash University Professor Paula Gerber is a human rights law expert who contributed to the parliamentary committees’ deliberations. As she told the Sydney Star Observer, “The compensation scheme will never take away the dehumanizing discrimination and deep harm they experienced, but it goes some way to righting the wrongs and acknowledging the state’s regret at the mistakes it has made.”
Tasmania’s state government formally apologized for making same-gender sex and cross-dressing criminal offenses in 2017. Victims could have their records expunged. They can now also apply for financial redress.
Tasmanian activists and lawmakers are calling on all other Australian states and territories to follow their lead.
Voters in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, New York City and elsewhere in the U.S. strongly rejected the politics of President Donald Trump in off-year elections. Democrats won many more state legislature and gubernatorial victories than expected on November 4th.
Virginians had two options for first woman governor. Abigail Spanberger clobbered Black Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, whose campaign focused on hate-filled ads targeting transgender people.
Mikie Sherrill defeated Trump-endorsed Republican former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli to keep New Jersey’s governorship in Democratic hands. Both Spanberger and Sherrill have strongly supported LGBTQ equality.
Thirty-four-year-old unabashed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani created a national political earthquake with his overwhelming election to be New York City’s youngest mayor in more than a century. He’ll be the city’s first Muslim and first immigrant Indian-American leader. “Affordability” was the winning word in his election.
Mamdani notably campaigned in all boroughs of the city, including areas thought to be hostile to his candidacy.
His strong allyship made him a queer community favorite, and the weekend before the vote he made several surprise appearances at queer venues. One of them was Papi Juice, an art collective that affirms and celebrates the lives of queer and trans people of color:
[SOUND: Mamdani]
Are we ready to beat Andrew Cuomo? [audience cheers] Are we ready to live in a city we can afford? [audience cheers] Are we ready to make history? [cheers] Let’s go out there and do it, my friends! [cheers fade out]
The 8,000 people of Downington, Pennsylvania elected the state’s first openly transgender mayor. Erica Deuso defeated Republican candidate Rich Bryant by the stunning tally of 65 to 35 percent. She called her victory “deeply meaningful,” and pledged to “carry that responsibility with pride and humility.” Her online statement went on to say, “I hope it reminds anyone who has ever felt unseen, unheard, or underestimated that your voice matters, and that you belong in the room where decisions are made."
All three Democrats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court were retained by wide margins. Their control of the state’s high court is seen as a guard against future Trump election challenges.
Also protecting fair midterm elections next November, voters in California soundly approved the Election Rigging Response Act, or Proposition 50. The resulting Congressional district map will favor Democrats in five jurisdictions to counter the Texas government’s move to gain five seats favoring Republicans.
Democrats have not won statewide constitutional office in deeply red Georgia since 2006. This time Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson were able to oust two Republican incumbents from the state’s Public Service Commission, which sets utility rates and promotes renewable energy programs.
The U.S. Supreme Court is lifting an injunction blocking the Trump administration’s denial of the “X” gender marker option on passports. The “only two genders” policy barrier to trans and non-binary people continues to be challenged in lower courts, where its enforcement was temporarily halted. However, it can now go forward as the high court’s conservative 6-to-3 majority claims in its November 6th ruling, “the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.”
Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayer and Elena Kagan dissented strongly. They warned that trans and nonbinary applicants could suffer what they called “increased violence, harassment, and discrimination.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the policy. To Senior Counsel Jon Davidson, the high court decision is “a heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves, and fuel on the fire the Trump administration is stoking against transgender people and their constitutional rights.” Davidson pledged, “We will continue to fight this policy and work for a future where no one is denied self-determination over their identity.”
The state of Texas can continue to enforce its ban on drag under a November 6th ruling of the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A 2023 measure fines and potentially jails artists and venue owners if minors could be in the audience where what the legislation calls “sexually oriented performances” are featured. A lower court determined that the language of the law is vague and an unconstitutional violation of the right to free speech.
Rabidly anti-queer Attorney General Ken Paxton said the federal court’s decision “protect[s] children from being exposed to sexually illicit content at erotic drag shows.”
The ACLU represents plaintiffs challenging the ban. Its statement called the decision “heartbreaking for drag performers, small businesses, and every Texan who believes in free expression.” Vowing to persist until the law is struck down it declared, “Drag is not a crime. It is art, joy, and resistance — a vital part of our culture and our communities. We are devastated by this setback, but we are not defeated.”
Finally, British actor and dancer Jonathan Bailey has become People Magazine’s first openly gay “Sexiest Man Alive.” He is perhaps best known for co-starring in Wicked and its upcoming sequel Wicked: For Good. He runs from dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Rebirth, and runs towards romance in the Netflix show Bridgerton. His stage work includes roles in King Lear with gay icon Sir Ian McKellen. Bailey won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for a 2019 gender-bending version of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
Offensively bigoted actor Mel Gibson was People’s first “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1985. The list has reflected minimal diversity since then with selections including Paul Rudd, Michael B. Jordan, Idris Elba, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and last year John Krazinski.
Bailey came out publicly in 2018 and created the nonprofit Shameless Fund to raise money for queer groups and issues.
Bailey’s selection was revealed on the November 3rd edition of NBC-TV’s late night “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” Like most of his predecessors, he took the honor with tongue firmly in cheek:
[SOUND: Bailey and Fallon]
Bailey: In 2025 just think, uh, I’m so thrilled that People Magazine, um, have invited someone in, uh, bestowed this honor on someone who can really cherish the value of a sexy man.
Fallon: Yes!
[audience cheers fade out quickly]
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