Celebrating Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray | This Way Out Radio Episode #1998
- 12 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Hear amazing tales of the binary-defying civil rights activist, labor organizer, lawyer, author and first Black woman Episcopal priest the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray. In the news, marriage equality is outlawed in Senegal, there’s no port for the gay Scarlet Lady cruise ship in Egypt either, and New Hampshire and California adopt different attitudes about transgender youth while Trans and Intersex Pride Marchers in Dublin target the One Percent.
Featured speakers: Trans and Intersex Pride Co-Founder Ollie Bell, Sara Canning, Associate Professor of History at Antioch College Dr. Kevin McGruder, Associate Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary Dr. Sarah Azaransky, Cathedral of St. John the Divine Rev. Canon Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas
Credits: Associate Producer/Host Lucia Chappelle, News writer Jeb Backe, NewsWrap reporters Marcos Najera and Tanya Kane-Parry Music: Rev. Delores Berry and Kim Wilson
Special thanks to the American LGBTQ+ Museum and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for their permission to air the Celebration of Pauli Murray.
All this on the Juy 13, 2026 Edition of This Way Out!
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NewsWrap Standard Intro/Outro
Program # 1998 Distributed 07/13/26
Senegal’s National Assembly has made same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The words "Marriage is the union between a man and a woman" were added on June 29th to the original language.
This is the government’s latest attack on LGBTQ+ rights. A bill doubling the maximum penalty for same-sex relations was passed by the Assembly in March of this year. Since then, there have been hundreds of arrests. Those found in violation of the law are punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Even advocates for queer relations can be given up to seven years in prison.
Since gaining independence over half a century ago, Senegal’s penal codes have criminalized LGBTQ+ people. While the amendment banning marriage equality only reinforces what was already in the Constitution, the new wording highlights the discriminatory intent.
“The Scarlet Lady” will not be cruising into Alexandria, Egypt, just like the excursion was denied permission to dock in any port in Turkey last week. No reason was given.
Homosexuality is not explicitly criminalized in Egypt, but repression and discrimination are rampant, worsened by so-called “debauchery laws” which have been used as an umbrella to criminalize behavior related to homosexuality or supporting homosexuality. Ironically, the city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great, who captured the region in 331 B.C.E. Historians believe that Alexander likely had same-sex relationships over the course of his life. That fact did not escape passenger Steve May, who posted on social media, “Just a few hours before arriving in Alexandria, Egypt — a city founded by and named for one of the ancient world’s best-known homosexuals — government authorities rescinded permission for our ship of 2,000 gay men to enter Egypt.”
The ship has arranged to stop in Kotor, Montenegro in lieu of Egypt.
New Hampshire state law now requires schools to out students’ gender identity to parents. The bill signed on July 2nd by Governor Kelly Ayotte trumps a 2024 ruling by the state Supreme Court. It requires state-credentialed educators to disclose any information requested by parents about their child. Teachers must disclose information even if a student asks for the matter to be kept confidential or fears for their own safety at home. However, teachers are not required to disclose the information if doing so would be prohibited by state or federal law, or if they have made a “good faith determination” that doing so would put the child “at imminent risk” of abuse or neglect by a parent.
The 2024 case involved an anonymous Manchester-based woman who sued the district after the school withheld information about her child’s gender identity. When she discovered her child was using a different name and pronouns at school, she asked the district to instead use the child’s given name and pronouns. The school refused. The state’s Supreme Court sided with the rights of the school and the student.
However, under the new law, a teacher who fails to respond to a parent’s request could face disciplinary action. The State Board of Education is ordered to update the educator code of ethics and code of conduct to include this “duty to out” by July 2027.
California LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are celebrating a victory for trans youth healthcare in the state budget. Governor Gavin Newsom has approved 26 million dollars in one-time funding to establish a safety net for vulnerable patients and families, according to news outlet, LAist. There will also be a fund of 30 million dollars for providers of reproductive and transition-related care in the California Assembly’s budget package for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
Governor Newsom’s original version of the budget did not include the fund for gender-affirming care. It took heavy lobbying and advocacy to get the fund added for the legislature's final version.
TransFamily Support Services is among the organizations that lobbied for the bill. Director Kathie Moehlig declared, “This historic investment will help keep care accessible, support the providers doing this lifesaving work, and remind trans young people that California will not abandon them.”
Trans and Intersex Pride Marchers took the streets of Dublin on Saturday, July 11th. Just last year, 10,000 people marched in their largest gathering up until that point.
Ruth Coppinger is Teachta Dála for the Dublin West constituency. Dovetailing with the March, she’s proposing legislation that would introduce an “X” marker on gender recognition and birth certificates. The bill would allow individuals to change their gender markers beyond just male and female, thus recognizing non-binary and intersex status. It would also allow people to identify their child as intersex or other on their birth certificate. This addition could prevent parents from being forced to choose between the binary, which has been shown to lead to pressure for potentially unnecessary surgery.
The Trans and Intersex Pride March is a political protest, self-defined as an anti-capitalist, militant grassroots movement advocating for not only the liberation of trans and intersex people, but for the liberation of all.
“You’re focusing on the wrong one percent” was a theme for this year’s March. Co-founder of the group Ollie Bell elaborated on social media:
[AUDIO- OLLIE BELL]
“(0:00) Why are multimillionaires, billionaires and one trillionaire so obsessed with trans people? Scapegoating marginalized groups like migrants, people of colour and LGBTQI plus people is a part of their strategy. If everyone is busy debating whether certain groups deserve rights, it shifts the focus away from their wealth hoarding and tax evasion. (00:30) [...] (1:15) Fascist billionaires and trillionaires like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk are using their vast wealth to uphold the gender binary. The 1% has a stake in maintaining the status quo.
The nuclear family, where women bear the brunt of unpaid care work, saves capitalism at least $10.8 trillion a year, according to Oxfam. This means less money is put to health care, housing and other public services.”
That was Dublin Trans and Intersex Pride March Co-founder Ollie Bell, who successfully organized thousands this past weekend.
A British Court is set to issue a final ruling on the criminalization of sex between men in Trinidad and Tobago. The case was first filed in February of 2017 by Jason Jones, who argues that the ancient so-called “buggery” laws instituted during British colonization are unconstitutional. The Buggery Act dates back to 1533 England. In Trinidad and Tobago those found guilty of breaking the law’s prohibition on sex between men could receive up to five years in prison.
Jones is up against Trinidad and Tobago’s government. In April of 2018, the Trinidad High Court found the laws unconstitutional, but a local appeals court partially reversed their ruling in March of 2025. Since then, Jones has been allowed to seek a ruling from the final court of appeals.
That would be the British Privy Council. The country has pushed for their own Court of Justice to replace the Privy Council, but for now Jones, is looking to the United Kingdom for a final victory in his nearly decade-long battle to decriminalize sex for gay men in the eastern Caribbean.
A Northern Ireland court has failed to find justice for the murdered lesbian journalist Lyra McKee. Three men accused of assisting the masked gunman were acquitted on July 9th due to weak, mostly circumstantial evidence against them. The dissident republican group the New IRA took responsibility for the April 2019 shooting, apologizing for what it called an “accident.” McKee was covering a riot in Derry when she was struck by a stray bullet. Altogether nine men have faced charges in connection with the incident, all have pleaded not guilty. The two-year trial that just concluded in Belfast Crown Court was held without a jury before Justice Patricia Smyth.
Sara Canning was McKee’s fiancé. She says the actual gunman is known, but he has eluded arrest. Canning told Channel 4 News how grueling the trial and its inconclusive outcome was.
[AUDIO-CANNING]
"... incredibly disappointing. But we've always known it was a difficult case to try. [...] I mean, in a word, it's been hellish. For one thing, I went to court for almost all of it. I had to watch footage over and over and over again of that night. I had to hear the gunshots. I had to listen to myself scream, see footage of Lyra being carried, and it's just like reliving the worst thing you've ever dealt with from a thousand different angles. And I was doing that on a daily basis for weeks."
Lyra McKee was an investigative journalist who believed that human relationships could heal the conflict in Northern Ireland and the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights as well.
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