The Early Years of AIDS | This Way Out Radio Episode #1965
- This Way Out
- 22 minutes ago
- 7 min read
As World AIDS Day 2025 approaches, the theme of community organizing versus government indifference today echoes the early years of the pandemic. Historic coverage includes AIDS patient/activists Robert Bland, Bob Cecchi and Daniel Warner, columnist Bobbi Campbell and journalist David Hunt.
Plus Rainbow Rewind shout-outs to Benjamin Britten, Bayard Rustin, Bruce Vilanch and more (produced by Brian DeShazor and Sheri Lunn).
And in NewsWrap: Ghana is once again poised to outlaw coming out or even advocating for LGBTQ rights, the Dominican Republic’s National Police and Armed Forces members are no longer barred from having intimate same-gender relationships, New Zealand’s underage transgender people will be denied puberty blockers as of next month, Victoria honors Transgender Day of Remembrance by becoming the first Australian state to offer free birth certificate gender marker updates, former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation intelligence specialist David Maltinsky sues charging he was fired for being “a proud gay man,” and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Ava Davis and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the November 24, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of November 24, 2025
The Early Years of AIDS
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, who took office in January, has promised to sign the latest version of the horrific “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill” after its expected parliamentary passage, which would increase prison time for private consensual adult same-gender sex and outlaw coming out and the “promotion” of LGBTQ rights; the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court strikes down laws that make same-gender sex in the National Police and Armed Forces a crime; New Zealand follows the U.K.’s lead, prompted there by the highly controversial Cass Review, and bans gender-affirming puberty blockers for new trans patients under the age of 18; Victoria becomes the first Australian state to make applying for a change in the gender marker on people’s birth certificates completely free of charge; former FBI agent-to-be David Maltinsky sues the agency for unconstitutionally wrongful termination after being fired for having an LGBTQ Pride flag on his desktop (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by AVA DAVIS and MICHAEL LeBEAU).
Feature: On this week’s Rainbow Rewind, we celebrate the November birthdays of gay British composer Benjamin Britten (with an excerpt from Immortal Fire: The Gay Life of Benjamin Britten, produced in New Zealand by Hugh Young and narrated by Barry Empson, and originally aired on TWO in November 1988); civil rights leader/1963 MOW organizer Bayard Rustin; comedy writer/Hollywood Square Bruce Vilanch. We honor the November 20th Transgender Day of Remembrance, while recalled key events in late November include the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and proudly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, and the lifting of the ban in the U.S. on gay and bisexual men donating blood (written, hosted and produced by SHERI LUNN and BRIAN DeSHAZOR).
Feature: “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response” is the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day. The UNAIDS website calls December 1st an “important opportunity to highlight the impact that the funding cuts from international donors have had on the response to AIDS as well as to showcase the resilience of countries and communities stepping up to protect the gains made and drive the HIV response forward.” It’s an ironic flashback to the early years of the pandemic, when the U.S. government was in denial and LGBTQ people banded together to meet the moment. This Way Out’s DAVID HUNT started covering the AIDS beat for Pacifica Radio more than 40 years ago and remembers what it was like (featuring early AIDS patient/activists Robert Bland, Bob Cecchi and Daniel Warner, and columnist Bobbi Campbell, with intro music from Light A Light by JANIS IAN and internal music by MICHAEL WITT).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the week ending November 22, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle
reported this week by AVA DAVIS and MICHAEL LeBEAU,
produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR
Ghana is once again poised to outlaw coming out or even advocating for LGBTQ rights. President John Dramani Mahama announced this week that he intends to sign the measure – an action his predecessor President Nana Akufo-Addo had delayed.
Under the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill,” publicly identifying as queer or transgender or having same-gender sex can carry three to five-year prison sentences. Forming or funding a queer advocacy group or “promoting” queer rights at all is worth up to 10 years behind bars. Landlords who knowingly rent to queer tenants can even be jailed for up to six years.
Parliament overwhelmingly passed the measure in February 2024 during Akufo-Addo’s administration. He asked the Supreme Court to confirm its legality before he would sign it. The high court eventually rejected two challenges to the bill, but it died without Akufo-Addo’s signature when his term ended in January of this year.
The current version of the bill was introduced in Parliament by a bipartisan group in October, and it’s expected to receive overwhelming support. However, it’s not yet clear whether it totally mirrors all the provisions of the original proposal.
Gay sex was first outlawed in 1892 when the West African nation was a British colony. Lawmakers downgraded the offense to a misdemeanor in the 1960 Ghanaian Criminal Code. The current bill raises the level of the charges again.
President Mahama told the Christian Council of Ghana that he is “completely aligned” with the group in support of the bill, according to Modern Ghana. He assured the attendees of the November 18th meeting in Accra, “[We] agree with the Speaker to relay the bill and let Parliament debate it. And if … it comes to me as President, I will sign it.”
Of course, global and domestic human rights groups are condemning the renewed anti-queer legislation. They warn that its passage would violate rights enshrined in the Ghanaian Constitution, including freedom of speech and association, and equal protection and non-discrimination guarantees.
The Dominican Republic’s National Police and Armed Forces members are no longer barred from having intimate same-gender relationships. The Constitutional Court overturned those statutes in a November 20th opinion, finding that the queer sex ban lacked “a legitimate constitutional interest or aim to strengthen and improve institutional efficiency.”
Until now, police or military officers who broke the law faced up to two years in prison. Like their heterosexual counterparts, LGBTQ officers may not enter relationships with each other.
Human Rights Watch Senior LGBT Researcher Cristian González Cabrera applauded the Court ruling. His organization filed an amicus brief in the case last year. To him the victory is “a resounding affirmation that a more inclusive future is both possible and required under Dominican law.” Cabrera and other equality advocates hope that the high court ruling opens the door to more rights advances. In his words, “President Luis Abinader and Congress should use the momentum of this landmark ruling to advance long-overdue protections for LGBT people.”
New Zealand’s underage transgender people will be denied puberty blockers as of December 19th. Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the ban for patients under 18 in a November 19th social media post. Brown echoes a similar ban in the United Kingdom, based on the findings of the highly disputable Cass Review. That controversial report questions the established science concerning such therapy, proving its safety and its sometimes literally lifesaving outcomes. Without citing credible evidence, Cass urges healthcare providers to use “extreme caution” in offering puberty blockers to pediatric patients. That led to their indefinite ban in the U.K. pending the completion of a clinical trial in 2031. As in the U.K., trans pediatric patients in New Zealand who are currently using puberty blockers can continue. Prescriptions for the treatment of early-onset puberty, prostate cancer, or other specific conditions are not affected.
Elizabeth McElrea is vice-president of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa. She believes that puberty blockers “have been prescribed safely for decades for transgender children.” McElrea warns, “The ban will lead to worsening mental health, increased suicidality and dysphoria for gender-diverse children and young people, and will put them at a higher risk of experiencing marginalization and discrimination.”
Victoria is honoring Transgender Day of Remembrance by becoming the first Australian state to offer free birth certificate gender marker updates. Until now, it cost trans and gender diverse people more than 140 dollars to file the required documents.
Capping Trans Awareness Week, Minister for Government Services Natalie Hutchins announced on November 20th, “We’re making sure money isn’t an obstacle for trans and gender diverse people to have documents that reflect who they really are.” The application fee for a name change will also be waived if the request is made along with the gender marker change — as will postage within Australia.
Trans Victorians have been allowed to change the gender marker on their birth certificates without surgery since 2020.
Transgender Day of Remembrance commemorates trans lives lost to violence and puts a spotlight on the bias faced by trans people around the world – most notably impacting trans women of color.
Minister for Equality Vicki Ward called this week’s action “An empowering measure that provides fair and proper legal recognition of [transgender peoples’] lived identity.”
Finally, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation intelligence specialist filed suit this week because he says that his Pride flag display was constitutionally protected expression, and that he was fired simply because he’s “a proud gay man.”
David Maltinsky had worked at the FBI since 2009 in operational support and then in an intelligence role. His lawsuit contends that he had displayed the Pride flag for several years after it was given to him in recognition of his diversity initiatives. Two supervisors in the Los Angeles field office had approved the display. Suddenly he received a letter from FBI Director Kash Patel on October 1st explaining that he was being fired for an “inappropriate display of political signage.” That was just three weeks before Maltinsky was set to graduate as a special agent from the FBI Academy’s Basic Field Training Courses. He had successfully passed all major legal and physical requirements before Patel unceremoniously fired him.
Soon after he became its Director, Patel banned official LGBTQ Pride celebrations at all FBI facilities, but his action against Maltinsky seems to be particularly vindictive.
The lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asks the court to reinstate Maltinsky, award back pay, and rule that the government cannot punish employees for LGBTQ+ identity or expression.
To quote lead counsel Christopher M. Mattei’s press statement, "This case is about far more than one man’s career—it’s about whether the government can punish Americans simply for saying who they are. Thanks to David’s courage, Patel … will be held to account for [his] unconstitutional assault on Americans who simply want to serve their country as they are.”