Defending Becky at the Supreme Court | This Way Out Radio Episode #1999
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Lambda Legal’s non-binary and transgender rights project director Sasha Buchert helped fashion Becky Pepper-Jackson’s Title IX and Equal Protection arguments for the U.S. Supreme Court. She explains how the case evolved from the legislative process to litigation, the broader political environment that led to the recent trans sports bans, and how this ruling will impact the future (interviewed by Jeb Backe).
And in NewsWrap: LGBTQ+ foster children in the U.S. won’t be protected from unsupportive families anymore, trans-positive soccer star Megan Rapinoe cries foul after being ejected from a World Cup ad, there’s a flag on a play by Reform UK, a lesbian couple in Botswana is fighting for marriage equality and Madison Square Garden is WIRED for “risky” guests (reported this week by Chris Wilson and Joe Boehnlein).
Featured Speakers: Botswana marriage equality plaintiff Bonolo Selelo, Lambda Legal’s Sasha Buchert.
Credits: Associate Producer/Host Lucia Chappelle, News writer/Feature producer Jeb Backe, NewsWrap reporters Chris Wilson and Joe Boehnlein. Music: Against Me! and Kim Wilson
All this on the July 20, 2026 Edition of This Way Out!
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This Way Out
NewsWrap
Program 1999 Distributed 07/20/26
LGBTQ+ children in foster care are losing potential federal protections, thanks to the removal of a Biden-era rule published by the U.S. Health Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Barely two years ago, funding was set aside for LGBTQ+ foster children to be placed in supportive homes, protected from “conversion therapy” and potentially hostile environments. It created a formal process for children to report mistreatment and self advocate for better living conditions. Before the rule could take effect, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle blocked it in March 2025. By June, the protective rule was set-aside without any legal force. The July 14th rescission marks its final death blow.
Women’s soccer star, Megan Rapinoe, is speaking out about being removed from a World Cup advertisement. Despite holding her own two World Cup championships, the lesbian Olympic gold medalist and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient was identified as a “risk” by AI software. Rapinoe’s stance as a transgender ally was the source of the alleged “risk.”
In an op-ed for Marie Claire magazine, Rapinoe criticizes anti-trans legislation and its broader social impact, instead advocating for inclusivity in sports. She warns about the troublesome discrimination against trans athletes, black and brown athletes, and young women athletes who don’t fit a narrow standard of femininity. In her words, “If we really cared about safety and fairness in sports, we’d be breaking down barriers facing girls at every level, protecting them from sexual violence and harassment, and paying professional women athletes on the same scale as their male counterparts.”
Rapinoe claims that the brand planning to include her in a World Cup commercial implemented an AI software that flags potential talent for supposed “risk.” Her support of trans rights was determined to be too “risky" for the unnamed brand and she was pulled from the shoot.
Rapinoe is a strong opponent of Washington state's Initiative 638, which would require sex testing for all girls to participate in sports. The outspoken player writes, "Standing up for our trans siblings and welcoming them on the field sends a powerful message to these politicians that we reject their hate and division—and to keep their hands off of our bodies."
A lesbian couple in Botswana is entering a legal battle to bring marriage equality to their country. Bonolo Selelo and Tsholofelo Kumile appeared in court on July 14th to argue that Botswana’s Marriage Act is unconstitutional. The 2001 law does not explicitly state that marriage is between a man and a woman. However, it does use gendered language such as "husband," and "wife.” The two women were denied permission to register their marriage in 2025.
Back in 2019, Botswana’s High Court decriminalized same-sex relationships. Then in April of this year, Botswana finally formally repealed the anti-sodomy penal code.
However, this queer-positive trend has not stopped the opposition.
[AUDIO-PROTEST CHANTS]
The Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana, the House of Churches, and the Dingwetsi Association are all seeking to participate in the trial to prevent marriage equality. Plaintiff Bonolo Selelo tried to make sense of this when she told YTV Botswana earlier this year.
[AUDIO- BONOLO SELELO]
“It's in our blood as Batswana to fight for love. [...] We're seeing a lot of activity by Christians, but it's very odd that the Christians are the Goliath in this situation, when now we're two people just saying, let us live our lives, let us get married.”
The main hearing is scheduled for October later this year. If the couple succeeds, Botswana would become the second African country to legalise same-sex marriage, after South Africa in 2006.
Reform UK is waving the flag issue again – this time calling for Pride flags to be banned from the Southampton city council’s headquarters. The right-wing party’s recently elected councillor Philip Crook submitted a motion calling on the Labour-run council to limit the flags it displays to the Union flag, the flag of St George and the Southampton city flag.
The proposal was met with harsh criticism and vehement protest. Green Party councillor Misty Burgess is the city’s first trans elected representative, and she led the way, saying , “I think it’s very important when dog whistles like this motion come along that they should not be granted any oxygen.”
The oxygen was definitely sucked out of the room by a public gallery filled with Trans Pride Southampton protestors gathered to object to the motion on the steps of the Civic Centre. In a last minute shift, councillor Crook withdrew his flag restriction proposal on July 15th. Though he promises to bring it back later, claiming that he was only making a strategic move to push ahead two other motions for his party instead.
Reform UK was successful just weeks ago in banning Pride at all 47 libraries in Norfolk. The Reform-dominated administration at County hall instructed staff that they may not exhibit any material or stage presentations or events which promote political messaging. They claimed that the directive was not intended to single out Pride, despite the timing of its rollout.
Madison Square Garden is suing WIRED Magazine over their reporting on the venue’s surveillance system. Madison Square Garden is taking legal retaliation against what it calls “cherry-picked fragments of that data to manufacture a false narrative portraying MSG as targeting the LGBTQIA community for discriminatory purposes.”
One incident WIRED recounts is the intensive tracking of a transgender woman. MSG’s security team recorded her every movement through the venue, even compiled investigative dossiers about her. The reason? Simply because she is transgender. The security chief did not want her to be seen on camera during TV broadcasts for fear that an “openly” trans woman could, in his words, “damage MSG’s reputation.”
Billionaire James Dolan is the CEO of Madison Square Garden, and also owns the New York Knicks, the Rangers, Radio City Music Hall, the Las Vegas Sphere, and other venues. WIRED’s Noah Schachtman calls Dolan’s surveillance machine his “deepstate.”
Schachtman and investigative journalists Maddy Varner and Robert Silverman got inside Dolan’s “deepstate” through seven current and former employees, as well as combing through confidential internal reports and Signal group chat messages. The MSG database was found and released by a hacker collective called ShinyHunters. That database holds nearly 40,000 people, with many documented for their level of so-called “risk.” Almost 100 entries are marked as “LGBTQIA,” according to the WIRED team.
WIRED released a statement about the Madison Square Garden lawsuit on social media that reads in part, “We stand by this reporting, and plan to vigorously defend it against this baseless and ridiculous lawsuit. We look forward to continuing our coverage of MSG, and on billionaire James Dolan's use of technology across his entertainment empire. It's one part of our wider mission and the critical job of journalists, now more than ever: holding power to account.”
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