Dykes on the March | This Way Out Radio Episode #1997
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We celebrate the history and continuing activism of Dyke Marches across the U.S. with Professor Sara Angevine and voices from the streets of Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. In the news, the U.S. Supreme Court rules against transgender student athletes, a Russian court convicts the staff of an "extremist" drag club, Republicans erase Pride Month from military recognition, and Turkish authorities arrest Pride demonstrators while blocking a cruise ship's drag performance. And the Rainbow Rewind honors gay military pioneer Lt. Leonard Matlovich
Featured speakers: Camilla B. Taylor, Professor Sara Angevine
Credits: Associate Producer/Host Lucia Chappelle, Producer Brian DeShazor, News writer Jeb Backe, feature producer Abigail DeRoberts, NewsWrap reporters Ava Davis and Michael Lebeau music: Isis and Kim Wilson
This Way Out
Program 1997 Distributed 07/06/26
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of banning transgender girls and women from school sports. Currently, 29 states have laws or policies blocking young trans women from joining the teams consistent with their gender identity.
The cases centered around two young track and field athletes, Lindsay Hecox and Becky Pepper-Jackson. Prospective Boise State University player Hecox claimed that Idaho’s 2020 transgender athletics ban violated her rights under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. Pepper-Jackson was in a West Virginia middle school when she was not allowed to try out for girl’s sports. She argued that her rights were violated under Title IX and the 14th Amendment.
All nine justices on the court decided that the bans do not violate Title IX, the federal civil rights law meant to prohibit sex-based discrimination in education. The six conservative justices carried the ruling that the bans do not violate the 14th amendment.
The ruling reaches beyond Idaho and West Virginia, it also provides more cannon fodder for the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against trans participation in school sports. Until now, institutions could stand on Title IX precedents from the 11th and 7th Circuit Courts to rebuff the administration’s accusations of Title IX violations. The latest Supreme Court decision nullifies those arguments.
Camilla B. Taylor is the Legal Director of the queer advocacy group Lambda Legal, who joined the ACLU in representing Pepper-Jackson’s case against West Virginia. She told CBS News:
[AUDIO- Camilla B. Taylor]
“This sort of athlete ban is not just bad for trans young people who wish to participate on a team. It's also bad for any woman or any girl who could be targeted because they don't conform in some way to a stereotype about what a girl looks like. Who's going to be doing sex testing in schools to determine if a girl is female enough to participate on a sports team? How dangerous is that?”
The Delaware General Assembly has approved an amendment enshrining protections for marriage equality. The amendment would establish the right to marry as a fundamental right – one that may not be denied or abridged on the basis of gender, race, color, national origin, or sex.
The legislation had failed to receive enough support the week before, but passed on the final day of their session, June 30th.
As of now, the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act requires that any marriage that is valid under state law must be federally recognized as legitimate. However, after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, lawmakers have feared the Supreme Court will revisit the landmark Obergefell marriage equality case.
State Senator Russ Huxtable is the prime sponsor of the bill. He
declared, “By enshrining the right to marry into Delaware’s Constitution, we send a clear message that Delaware will protect the humanity of our citizens and affirm marriage equality regardless of sexuality, race, or gender.”
The bill must now pass a second vote in next year’s General Assembly session to be enshrined in the Delaware state Constitution.
Republican governors from six U.S. states are pushing alternative labels for June, hoping to introduce conservative counter-programming to Pride. Tennessee Republican Representative Bud Hulsey introduced a “Nuclear Family Month” resolution in 2025, but only recently got the votes for it.
The resolution advocates for the families they claim are under attack – “one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted or fostered children.” U.S. Representative Andy Ogles celebrated Tennessee’s rebrand by posting on his official X/Twitter account, “Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month.” After some pushback, Ogles claimed that the post came from a staffer and it was taken down.
Tennessee Equality Project president Chris Sanders said the resolution adds “insult to the existing injury.” He cited the myriad anti-LGBTQ measures adopted in the state in recent years, including a ban on transgender care for minors.
Indiana also adopted the “Nuclear Family Month” moniker for June. Alabama made it “Strong Families Month,” Nebraska fashioned up “Marriage and Family Month.” To top it off, Arkansas and Utah spawned what they call “Fidelity Month.”
Fortunately no state resources or personal commitments are required.
A Russian court has sentenced the country’s first conviction under the ban of the alleged “ international LGBT Movement.” The owner and two employees of a queer nightclub in the southwestern city of Orenburg, Russia have been convicted of organizing and participating in an “extremist organization.”
The club called “Pose” was a space for drag performances, music, and dancing; marketing itself as a “parody bar theatre” to evade Russian LGBT restrictions. “Pose” was raided by Orenburg regional authorities and Russia’s National Guard in 2024, months after the fictitious global queer conspiracy was added to Russia’s official list of extremists and terrorists. The three Pose workers were arrested by armed police in body armor. All three defendants plead not-guilty.
Pose owner, Vyacheslav Khasanov has been sentenced to seven years in prison. Manager, Diana Kamilyanova was sentenced to six years and three months, and art director, Alexander Klimov, is to serve two years and three months.
Russian LGBT rights lawyers now warn that the Pose case will serve as a precedent for future prosecutions against LGBT people and their advocates. They fear it will also destroy "safe havens" for LGBT people in Russia.
It’s practically an expected ritual in the streets of Istanbul every June. LGBTQ+ activists take the streets in protest, and are met with a severe police crackdown. This year’s event in Taksim Square was no different, with Turkish police arresting over 50 people on June 28th.
Since 2015, the Turkish government has banned pride parades, historically using tear gas and water cannons to break up the crowds.
With the knowledge that police brutality would likely occur again this year, defiant protestors gathered to stand up for their rights.
Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, where more than 100,000 people
attended Istanbul Pride in 2014. However, after Right-wing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected a month later, Pride was outlawed the following year. Erdoğan frequently uses LGBTQ people as scapegoats for economic-uncertainty and civil unrest.
The city of Izmir saw a similar police crackdown with 36 people detained. Here is the sound of a father calling out in support of his child who is being taken away.
[AUDIO of Izmir Protest]
He shouts to his son, "You didn't steal or act dishonestly. You defended your rights. I'm proud of you, my son."
Finally, after battling to keep Pride marchers out of the streets of its major cities, authorities in Turkey have banned an LGBTQ+ cruise ship from docking in the country’s ports. Expected to dock in the port town of Kuşadası on July 7th, the tour organized by Atlantis Events was supposed to take its “epic all-gay voyage” to Istanbul for two days. Atlantis CEO Rich Campbell says they’ve taken the same trip 13 times in the past 25 years without a problem.
However, this time local authorities instead canceled the arrival, stating that the passengers are what they called incompatible with the fabric of their “society and moral values.” They vowed that there is “absolutely no possibility of the group in question visiting our province for an event of this nature.”
The incident enraged the cruise’s star entertainer, Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone. She ranted on social media, “A ship − a magnificent ship − full of gay men. And me. Denied entry to Turkey simply because of who is on board. I am furious, but I am sailing […] I am ready to perform for all the wonderful men […] who deserve so much better than this."
And so LuPone and 1900 gay men will set sail for Cairo and Crete instead of Turkey on the Virgin Voyages-owned ship called “The Scarlet Lady.”
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