Hoshino’s Light Bird Transition Is “Alright” | This Way Out Radio Episode # 1983
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- 6 min read
Danni Hoshino brings us a preview of her Transgender Day of Visibility single release, “Alright”! The veteran folk-rock musician surprised everyone — not least herself — when she came out as a transgender woman in 2022, just weeks before her planned wedding. Gender identity wasn’t the only thing that changed. She relocated, became Light Bird on stage, and began working on a soul-baring new album that’s expected out in June (interviewed by David Hunt).
Birthday wishes to the multi-award-winning Rachel Maddow, the first openly lesbian prime time news anchor in the United States, multi-award-winning David Hyde Pierce, best known for his portrayal of psychiatrist “Niles Crane” on the popular sitcom “Frasier,” and multi-award-winning Black and gay science fiction writer memoirist, and critic Samuel R. “Chip” Delany, known for groundbreaking works like “Dhalgren” and “Babel-17” — all in the Rainbow Minute, along with some memorable dates (written by Sheri Lunn, produced by co-host Brian DeShazor.
And in NewsWrap: India’s transgender people are stripped of their rights under a new law that upends their legal recognition process, the International Olympic Committee’s revived “sex testing” process for all women] effectively bans trans and intersex women from competing in Women’s Events, CBS Studios and Paramout Plus are pulling the plug on allegedly “too woke” Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Michael Lebeau and Nico Raquel (News Editor Ebony Joseph, News Producer Brian DeShazor).
All this on the March 30, 2026 edition of This Way Out!
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NEWS WRAP
Program #1983 Distributed 03/30/26
[AUDIO: India’s Parliament Livestream]
India’s parliament is stripping transgender people of the hard-earned fundamental rights established by a 2014 Supreme Court ruling. The new law completely upends how trans people are legally recognized. It narrows the definition of transgender, excluding people without official gender dysphoria diagnoses and those outside the four traditionally defined socio-cultural identities. Trans men and non-binary people are effectively erased.
Currently, citizens can apply for a certificate to legally identify as trans, allowing them to update their gender on official documents and apply for government welfare programs. With this amendment their applications will be reviewed by a screening committee. Queer activists warn this could be used to deny gender-affirming care.
This bill essentially rolls back legislation that declared transgender people as a third official gender and affirmed their fundamental rights would be protected under India’s constitution. Associate Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch Jayshree Bajoria believes the bill will put transgender people at risk and criminalize their existence by introducing legal punishments for “coercing or alluring” people to be transgender.
Trans woman and activist Akkai Padmashali expressed her sorrow on Instagram.
[AUDIO: Padmashali] “I’m so disappointed, I’m so disappointed, I’m so disappointed. I resist….I will not accept this bill. This is against my people. This is against my community. This is against our beliefs. This is against our identity.”
Transgender and intersex athletes are now officially banned from competing in Women’s Events by the International Olympic Committee. All women athletes will be required to take a genetic test to prove they are biologically female. Last week, public outcry from a coalition of more than a hundred sports and human rights advocacy groups called for the Olympics to stop its plans to resume so-called “sex testing.”
The IOC banned those tests thirty years ago on the advice of experts and doctors who said that genetic sex tests were inaccurate, unreliable, and harmful to women. However, IOC President Kirsty Coventry claimed the opposite in a video introducing the policy on March 26th.
[AUDIO: Coventry] “The policy we have announced is based on science, and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat, so it’s absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”
In the nearly 3,000 years the Olympics have existed, only one openly trans woman has competed. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard competed in the 2020 Summer Games. She placed seventh in her division.
Coventry said that athletes would only be required to undergo the invasive test once in their lifetime, and that the organization would offer counseling for those who request it.
Chris Mosier is a competitive triathlete and duathlete who made history as the first transgender man to compete in the 2020 Olympic Trials. He was on the front lines of advocating for a 2016 rule change that allowed trans athletes to compete in the Games. He says the policy makes sports less safe for everyone.
[AUDIO: Mosier] “It’s absolutely outrageous that the IOC would institute a ban on trans athletes under the guise of protecting fairness for women in sports, while simultaneously putting all women in harm’s way by forcing them to do this genetic testing. Sports has already tried this before. The IOC has already tried this before, and it failed scientifically, and it failed ethically. If we really cared about fairness in women’s sports, we wouldn’t police people’s bodies; we would build better sporting systems.”
The international queer advocacy group ILGA says the policy fails women and girls. Their statement says, in part, “any policy that invites scrutiny over certain women’s bodies harms all women. And the harm extends beyond sports, legitimising surveillance in schools, hospitals, workplaces, and every other sphere of life.”
IOC President Coventry said the policy will take effect for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. U-S President Donald Trump gave the credit to his so-called “Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports” Executive Order that penalizes organizations that don’t follow his anti-trans position.
While the I-O-C and President Trump attempt to keep trans women out of competitive sports, the United Nations blocked a vote to define gender in biological terms. Earlier this month at the annual U-N Commission on the Status of Women, the U-S was the only country to disagree. Thirty-seven countries voted against limiting gender to a binary, and six abstained. U-N Secretary General Antonio Guterres said gender equality has always been a question of power.
[AUDIO: Guterres] “Not a single step forward for women’s rights has ever been given. It has been won.”
Dominik Krause will become Munich, Germany’s first openly gay mayor. He’s also city’s first Green Party executive.
[AUDIO: Krause]
The 35-year-old Krause has served on the Munich City Council for twelve years. He won fifty-six point four percent of the vote against the former Social Democratic Party mayor Dieter Reiter. Krause’s victory ends forty-two years of SPD rule in the city.
Nepal is often recognized as one of the most LGBTQ-positive Asian countries, and voters proved it again on March 16th when they elected a transgender lawmaker to parliament for the first time. Thirty-seven‑year‑old activist Bhumika Shrestha is a transwoman and the second openly-queer elected official in the country’s history.
Girl Guiding in the UK is forcing all trans members to leave the organization. Girl Guides are known as Girl Scouts in the US. It’s the world’s largest volunteer organization for young women. According to their website, there are nearly four hundred thousand members across the United Kingdom. Transgender members have until September 6th to withdraw. Trans volunteers will be allowed to stay, but only in roles that are open to all genders.
The organization said the decision was made to comply with a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that declared that trans women are not women. Girl Guiding groups across the UK are protesting the policy. Guiders Against Trans Exclusion, an unaffiliated organization, released a PSA to reassure expelled Girl Guides.
[AUDIO: GATE PSA] We know you may be feeling angry, scared, and betrayed, and we are right there with you. This is going to have a devastating impact, and we are incredibly concerned that Girlguiding are putting people’s welfare at risk like this. … We are going to keep fighting with you and fighting for you for as long as it takes. We will not back down until all girls and women are allowed back into Girlguiding.
[AUDIO: Star Trek Theme]
Finally, school is out at Starfleet Academy. CBS Studios and Paramout Plus pulled the plug on the latest addition to the Star Trek universe after two seasons.
Critics of Starfleet Academy accuse it of being too “woke,” but the franchise has never shied away from sensitive social issues. Television’s first interracial kiss between William “Captain Kirk” Shatner and Black Communications Officer Nichelle “Uhura” Nichols during the third season of the original series caused pandemonium. There have been several LGBTQIA+ characters, and Starfleet Academy features the first gay Klingon.
Black British lesbian actress Gina Yashere who plays lesbian cadet master “Lura Thok” said in an Instagram post that she’s “gutted” by the cancelation, but retains her belief in the franchise.
[AUDIO: Yashere]
The message of Gene Roddenberry is still so apt. Obviously, the world is still not ready to hear the message of love, peace, infinite diversity, acceptance, the eschewing of violence and senseless wars. We're not ready to hear that message yet. And hopefully one day we will be, and “Star Trek” will be back stronger than ever, and preferably with the same message -- and not completely whitewashed.