The State of Queer Journalism | This Way Out Radio Episode #1967
- This Way Out
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
What life is like in the newsrooms and on the beat for LGBTQ+ reporters in a time when there’s too much news to and fewer jobs, according to Los Angeles chapter co-presidents Hansen Bursic and Katie Karl of NLGJA: the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (in a roundtable with This Way Out’s Lucia Chappelle, interviewed by Brian DeShazor).
Plus the reign of a lesbian queen, two music halls, human rights milestones, Southern Hemisphere civil unions and more in The Rainbow Rewind (produced by Brian DeShazor and Sheri Lunn).
And in NewsWrap: a raid on an alleged “gay male sauna sex party” in Kuala Lumpur another kind of bust when all 200 arrestees are released without charges, all 27 European Union member nations must recognize the civil marriages of same-gender couples legally performed in any other E.U. member nation under a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice, a ruling in Tokyo’s High Court contradicting four previous district court decisions in favor of marriage equality sends the issue to Japan’s Supreme Court, the United Kingdom’s Women’s Institute is being forced to require new and renewing members to confirm that they were documented female at birth, Reverend Dr. Phillippa Phaneuf tells the North Chili United Methodist Church in upstate New York “I’m giving up pretending to be a man,” and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Melanie Keller and John Dyer V (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the December 8, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of December 8, 2025
The State of Queer Journalism
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Two-hundred-and-eight men arrested during a raid on a sauna in a suburb of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur accused of participating in a “gay sex party” have all been released without formal charges, but the personal damage it causes to at least some of them lingers … the European Court of Justice issues a landmark ruling ordering all 27 member states to recognize civil marriages of same-gender couples legally performed in any other E.U. country, even if the country doesn’t offer domestic marriage equality … the Tokyo High Court bucks district courts elsewhere and decides that banning queer couples from civil marriage does not violate Japan’s constitution, setting up an eventual ruling to resolve the issue by the nation’s Supreme Court … the U.K.’s venerable Women’s Institute announces that trans women will no longer be able to join because of the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year that trans women are not legally women under the Equality Act, but ironically opening the door to membership by born-female transgender men … Reverend Doctor Phillippa Phaneuf announces that she is transitioning during Sunday services at the North Chili United Methodist Church in upstate New York [with extended excerpts from her announcement] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by MELANIE KELLER and JOHN DYER V).
Feature: This week’s Rainbow Rewind celebrates the queer early December birthday of Christina, Queen of Sweden, and key queer events including the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus becoming the first openly gay musical group to perform at Carnegie Hall, David Bowie’s Heroes being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the U.K.’s South Yorkshire Police making history by placing a full-page recruitment ad in a queer publication, the United Nations adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Psychiatric Association removing homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, and Buenos Aires, Argentina and New Zealand creating civil unions for queer couples.
Feature: In a roundtable discussion that includes TWO Associate Producer LUCIA CHAPPELLE, features producer BRIAN DeSHAZOR chats with Hansen Bursic and Katie Karl, the co-presidents of the Los Angeles chapter of the NLGJA, the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists about the current situation for queer journalists in mainstream newsrooms, the changing media landscape, and the challenges ahead (with intro/outro music by SHAWNEE KISH).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the 2 weeks ending December 6th, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle
reported this week by MELANIE KELLER and JOHN DYER V,
produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR
A raid on an alleged “gay male sauna sex party” in the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur is turning into a bigger bust than officials planned. After arresting more than 200 men on November 28th, Kuala Lumpur Police Deputy Chief Datuk Mohd Azani Omar was forced to admit, “not a single one of them admitted to being a victim of exploitation… so the case is gone.”
The 8pm Friday night operation in the suburb of Chow Kit was carried out with the cooperation of the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department and Kuala Lumpur City Hall.
Omar told reporters, “We detained 201 patrons and seven employees aged between 19 and 60, including 24 foreigners.” Condoms, lubricants and other items Omar said that they “believed to have been used for immoral purposes” were confiscated.
Same-gender sex is against the law in Malaysia. In the mostly Muslim Southeast Asian nation, those charged under two provisions of the Penal Code criminalizing “unnatural intercourse” and involvement in prostitution and exploitation could have faced up to 20 years in prison. However, 171 Malaysians were freed without charges for lack of evidence. Kuala Lumpur’s gay-bisexual-queer men’s support group Jejaka reports that many were held for more than 40 hours after a magistrate had ordered their release. Foreign men were remanded for two days and subsequently released. Muslim detainees could nevertheless be subjected to separate prosecutions under Sharia, or Islamic law.
Doctors, attorneys, teachers, and low-level government officials were among the detainees. The Education Ministry has already removed teachers caught up in the raid from their schools pending the completion of on-going investigations, according to the Straits Times.
Efforts are reportedly underway to revoke the sauna’s business license and shut it down.
Barely 24 hours later, 13 men were arrested at an alleged “gay sauna” in Perai, Penang as the crackdown on LGBTQ communities in Malaysia continues. The escalating anti-queer persecution is condemned by several domestic and global human rights groups.
All 27 European Union member nations must recognize the civil marriages of same-gender couples legally performed in any other E.U. member nation under a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice. The highest E.U. court’s November 25th ruling applies even where there is no domestic marriage equality.
A gay Polish couple’s 2018 civil marriage was performed in Berlin, where one of them also holds German citizenship. Poland refused to recognize their marriage. After Polish courts failed to rule in their favor, the couple took their case to the top EuroCourt.
All but five E.U. members offer some form of legal recognition to same-gender couples. In addition to Poland, E.U. member nations Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia don’t offer civil unions or marriage to their queer citizens.
Katrin Hugendubel is Advocacy Director for the European chapter of the global queer advocacy group ILGA. She celebrated the ruling that she says, “clearly states that the recognition of marriage status is key to enjoying E.U. citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of movement across the E.U.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s promised Civic Coalition Party bill to create same-gender civil unions was introduced in October. However, President Karol Nawrocki of the formerly ruling far-right Law and Justice Party has promised to veto any such law.
Tokyo’s High Court is the first to say that Japan’s marriage inequality is constitutional. Four District Courts have ruled otherwise, so the issue of opening civil marriage to gay and lesbian couples will now be up to the Supreme Court.
The Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka District Courts have each ruled over the past six years that the ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. However, Judge Ayumi Higashi’s November 28th ruling upheld the constitutional definition of a family as a man and a woman and their children. The court said that any changes to civil marriage laws must be made by the legislature. The eight plaintiffs’ demand for damages was also dismissed – 1 million yen, or about 6,400 U.S. dollars.
Public opinion polls show a significant increase in support for marriage equality, but don’t count recently installed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Japan’s first female head of government insists that the family is an institution based around “the equal rights of husband and wife.”
The United Kingdom’s venerable Women’s Institute will soon require new and renewing members to confirm that they were documented female at birth. Women’s Institute CEO Melissa Green announced on December 3rd, “As an organization that has proudly welcomed transgender women into our membership for more than 40 years, this is not something we would do unless we felt that we had no other choice.” They have no choice because of the U.K. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that trans women are not legal women under the Equality Act. The trans ban begins as of April 2026.
To Trans+ Solidarity Alliance founder Jude Guaitamacchi, “It’s cruel and a failure of this government to protect human rights, including freedom of association.”
For more than 100 years, the group has brought women together to learn, share skills, work together to become active citizens, and to improve lives in their local, national and global communities.
Ironically, transgender men are not covered in the Supreme Court’s ruling – that means that while they are legally men, they will be able to join the Women’s Institute because they were identified female at birth.
Finally …
[SOUND: Phaneuf]
Imagine if your doctor came and told you that your quality and outlook on life could transform exponentially to the positive. Would you listen to that doctor? If you felt God’s holy spirit surrounding you in ways that you haven’t felt in years, would you have a sense that that might be something that God’s okay with?
Reverend Dr. Phillippa Phaneuf had quite an announcement for the congregation of North Chili United Methodist Church near the city of Rochester in upstate New York on November 23rd.
[SOUND: Phaneuf]
I’m affirming and saying to all of you that I am transgender, and so … and so the best way to put this is that I’m not becoming a woman, I’m giving up pretending to be a man.
Phaneuf acknowledged that her announcement may still come as a shock to some of her parishioners even though North Chili United Methodist Church is already a welcoming congregation. She told congregants that the district would provide workshops and resources to support everyone concerned. She welcomed all questions and anticipated a few in advance:
[SOUND: Phaneuf]
Here’s some frequently asked questions:
Uh … is the United Methodist Church … did he tell the district superintendent about this? What about … what about the bishop? Is he … is he okay with this? Absolutely. Absolutely. They’re the first ones that I went to to say how can I do this in a pastoral sort of way to let the congregation know that I love them, and that we can do this in such a way that we can stay in ministry together. Is our Methodist theology okay with this? Absolutely. Thank God for our revised this year Book of Discipline, our Book of Resolutions, our Social Principles that affirm this.
Phaneuf may be thankful, but more than one in five congregations has chosen to disaffiliate from the denomination since restrictions on participation by same-gender-loving and transgender parishioners and clergy were relaxed in 2019, according to the United Methodist News Service.
Reverend Phaneuf honored her parents’ request that she note their opposition to her transition but told The Advocate that her 12-year-old daughter was her strongest supporter. The overwhelming support she’s felt from most everyone else has been a comfort.
[SOUND: Phaneuf]
I have to let you know that, um, this is now the third month that I’m in hormone replacement therapy. In that first week, going back to what I said earlier, is, if a doctor had something that could increase your … increase your quality of life exponentially I’m here to tell you that it was just within that first week that I was really truly happy for the first time in a long time. Truly happy.
That was Reverend Doctor Phillippa Phaneuf announcing her transition during Sunday Services on November 23rd at upstate New York’s North Chili United Methodist Church.