Portland Queer Poets | This Way Out Radio Episode #1968
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Portland, Oregon’s twice monthly live open mic performance event, Slamlandia, yields the work of three queer poets: Joshua Merritt, Evey Rothwell and Ret (produced by Brian DeShazor).
Plus December birthdays including anthropologist Margaret Mead and historic queer moments from the declassification of homosexuality as a disease to the dawn of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the Rainbow Rewind (written and produced by Sheri Lunn and Brian DeShazor).
And in NewsWrap: Kazakhstan’s so-called “LGBTQ propaganda” bill is on an indefinite hold while the Senate takes more time to study the measure, Egypt and Iran object when their World Cup teams are chosen to play in host Seattle, Washington’s “Pride Match,” Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony is being charged with allowing and participating in a banned LGBTQ Pride parade, the Arlington, Texas City Council votes to remove “sexual orientation” and “gender identity and expression” from the city’s anti-bias policies to placate the Trump administration, the official portrait of four-star Admiral Rachel Levine in the Health and Human Services Department deadnames the first transgender person ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Ret and Sarah Montague (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the December 15, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of December15, 2025
Portland Queer Poets
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Kazakhstan’s Senate surprisingly delays consideration of a bill banning “LGBTQ propaganda” for “further study” after it unanimously passes in the lower legislative house; Iran and Egypt each vigorously object to being chosen to play in football’s (soccer’s) World Cup “Pride Match” next year in Seattle, Washington; Hungarian police inform Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony that he’s being charged with participating in and helping to organizer his city’s banned LGBTQ Pride march earlier this year which drew a record number of participants and dozens of foreign officials; a slim majority of lawmakers in the North Texas city of Arlington vote to rescind anti-discrimination protections for their LGBTQ citizens; Robert F. Kennedy’s Health and Human Services Department deadnames in her official portrait the first transgender government official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, former Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Rachel Levine (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by RET and SARAH MONTAGUE).
Feature: This week’s Rainbow Rewind celebrates the birthdays of Laura M.Ricketts, Noel Coward, Sarah Paulson, and Margaret Mead [with a brief comment courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives); historic events like the first international Gay Rights Conference, Quebec adding sexual orientation to its Charter of Human Rights, and the Clinton-era enactment of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (written, produced, and hosted by SHERI LUNN and BRIAN DeSHAZOR).
Feature: Portland, Oregon, USA. City of the sketch comedy show satirizing hip-conscious modern culture, or the flaming hellhole depicted by the Trump administration? Residents of Portland — and fans of Portlandia — looked at the federal deployment of the National Guard with disbelief. The poets of Portland deploy their skills twice a month for a live open mic performance event called “Slamlandia. A trio of LGBTQ Slamlandia participants are now sharing their work with the listeners of This Way Out: Evey Rothwell, Ret and Joshua Merritt (with intro music from the Portlandia TV show and internal music by MYSTIQUE).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
LGBTQ communities around the world
for the week ending December 13th, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle
reported this week by RET and SARAH MONTAGUE,
produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR
Kazakhstan’s so-called “LGBTQ propaganda” bill is on an indefinite hold. The Senate Press Service offered up the surprise on December 4th after the lower legislative house had unanimously approved the bill in November. Senators need more time to “study” the measure, according to the independent Kazakh Telegraph Agency. Its many amendments and additions to the Labor Code and 12 other laws present what the Senate Press Service calls “a significant amount of work [requiring] additional time.” The report goes on to explain that legislation regarding children’s rights “is always a matter requiring special consideration and increased attention.”
The bill would ban what it defines as “LGBT propaganda” from online platforms and the media. Violators could be fined and repeat offenders could spend up to 10 days in jail.
The Kazakh “no promo homo” proposal echoes similar versions in Russia and Hungary. Kazakhstan is a predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic in Central Asia that borders Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is very friendly with Russia’s Vladmir Putin. Tokayev has lobbied hard for the bill, calling its passage necessary to uphold “traditional values.” He leads a secular government, but its citizens are socially very conservative.
It’s not now clear how much time the Senate will need to “study” the measure.
Little did Seattle, Washington’s World Cup Organizing Committee know when they scheduled a “Pride Match” for June 26h, 2026 that teams from two of the world’s most anti-queer countries would be drawn. Egypt and Iran are up in arms.
The Egyptian Football Association wrote to FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström this week stating that “it categorically rejects holding any activities related to supporting (homosexuality) during the match between the Egyptian national team and Iran.”
Mehdi Taj leads the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He announced on December 8th that the country will file a formal appeal during a FIFA Council meeting in Qatar in the coming week.
Iran remains one of a handful of countries that punish consensual adult same-gender sex with execution.
In Egypt sexual activity between males has been included under the charge of “debauchery” as a violation of “family principles or values,” according to the Human Dignity Trust.
That international organization cites “consistent reports of discrimination and violence being committed against LGBT people in Egypt, including abuse, harassment, forced anal examinations, and the forced payment of bribes.”
Local organizers in Seattle are still planning a World Cup Pride Match – they just don’t know which two countries will be competing.
World Cup matches are being hosted next year across North America.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony is being charged with allowing and participating in an LGBTQ Pride parade on June 28th. Hungarian police notified the mayor that the municipal parade that drew tens of thousands violated the national Pride ban. The law presumes that such events are harmful to children. Officials in the administration of Hungary’s authoritarian President Viktor Orbán warned that they would use facial recognition software to identify and charge each and every pride marcher with a crime. Offenders could be fined up to the equivalent of $550U.S. Organizers were threatened with up to a year in jail.
In a Facebook post this week Karácsony called the allegations “completely absurd” and said that the ban violates the basic right to freedom of assembly. In his words, “In a system where the law protects power rather than people, in this system that stifles free communities, it was inevitable that sooner or later, as the mayor of a free city, they would take criminal action against me. … I am proud that I took every political risk for the sake of my city’s freedom, and I stand proudly before the court to defend my own freedom and that of my city.”
Arlington, Texas no longer protects its LGBTQ citizens from discrimination. The shocking 5-to-4 City Council vote specifically removed “sexual orientation” and “gender identity and expression” as protected categories in the city’s anti-bias policies. The slim majority bowed to threats by the Trump administration to halt some 70 million dollars in federal funding as punishment for the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. It’s the first time in the 21st Century that a U.S. city has rescinded its anti-bias protections for LGBTQ people.
The Arlington anti-discrimination ordinance was first introduced in 2021 in response to the death of George Floyd. Protections based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, and other protected classes were included.
The Council temporarily suspended all discrimination protections in August. Mayor Jim Ross joined three Council members in the December 9th failed effort to reinstate them.
Despite the loss, Mayor Ross said after the vote, “[T]he City of Arlington remains committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable community for all residents and ensuring that no one individual faces discrimination.” He pledged “to collaborate with community leaders, council members, and city staff to reach a solution that is palatable to all.”
Arlington is located in Tarrant County along with the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. Pride has a 40-plus-year history in the region, but the smaller Arlington’s first Pride was in 2021 around the time the anti-discrimination ordinance was passed. The event organized by the HELP Center for LGBTQ+ Health has since drawn more than 30,000 celebrants with some 70 percent coming from outside the city. It’s generated more than $8million for the local economy – but not next year. The HELP has announced that it is suspending the 2026 edition in view of the loss of protections.
CEO DeeJay Johannessen said in the statement, “We cannot in good conscience invite attendees to an event in a city that refuses to provide even the most basic protections. … Pride is about safety, celebration and community. Without the local anti-discrimination safeguards, we cannot guarantee those values for our attendees, performers or partners.”
Finally, the official portrait of four-star Admiral Rachel Levine in the Health and Human Services Department deadnames the first transgender person ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The change was apparently made during the government shutdown. A digital photograph first revealed by National Public Radio shows the male name Levine has not used since 2011 typed on a placard beneath the portrait. It’s under mounted glass typically used for permanent institutional displays.
Levine served in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps during the Biden administration and was appointed the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health. She distinguished herself overseeing the federal COVID-19 response, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, and developing strategies to combat the exploding opioid epidemic. Levine resigned the day that Trump was inaugurated.
In response to a question from NPR about who authorized the change and why, spokesperson Andrew Nixon stood by the dubious “gold standard science” of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s H.H.S. Nixon claimed that the same department responsible for undermining universal vaccination programs is "committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health."
Levine told NPR through a spokesperson that it was an honor to serve and that her focus remains on public health. She said, "I'm not going to comment on this type of petty action."