Murder in the WAC Part 2 | This Way Out Radio Episode #2004
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A flash rainbow rewind remembers lesbian purges in the military leading to the conclusion of Pat Bond’s classic tale of lesbians in the U.S. military during World War II, Murder in the WAC. In the news this week, Russia’s crackdown forces the Russian LGBT Network to shut down while England offers new hope to people with drug-resistant HIV. A U.S. federal judge blocks the Trump administration from excluding gender-affirming care from the Affordable Care Act and Ohio makes it harder for trans people to change gender markers on state IDs. Canada unveils a powerful new monument honoring victims and survivors of the historic LGBT Purge.
Featured speakers: Dara Adkison is Executive Director of trans equity organization, Visual artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Pat Bond.
Credits: Associate Producer/Host Lucia Chappelle, Producer Brian DeShazor, News writer Jeb Backe, Murder in the WAC was recorded and produced by Katherine Davenport and Frieda Werden of WINGS, the Women’s International News Gathering Service.
NewsWrap reporters Tanya Kane-Parry and RET. a music: 14th Army WAC Band, Gail Belmont of the WAC Band and theme music by Kim Wilson.
All this on the August 24, 2026 Edition of This Way Out!
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NewsWrap
Program 2004 Distributed 08/24/26
The Russian LGBT Network is shutting down. In a statement on Facebook, the group blamed the “extremist” label it’s been branded with by the government. In their words, the designation “has made the previous public format of its work impossible: any connection to the organization may create additional risks for the people we seek to support and protect.” Their social media accounts will also be deleted soon.
Russia’s Supreme Court banned what it called the “international LGBT movement” in 2023. The Russian LGBT Network was found to be an “extremist organization” according to the St Petersburg City Court this past April. This is just one example of the intensifying anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown across the country since the ruling. Queer venue owners have been thrown in jail. Displaying the rainbow flag or even similarly colorful items can lead to arrest and fines. Eight other LGBTQ groups have been banned in just the past few months after being dubbed “extremist,” according to Human Rights Watch.
Since 2006 the Russian LGBT Network has been pivotal in the fight for social acceptance and protection of LGBT rights, offering support and guidance to activist groups, local rights organizations, and professionals working with the LGBT community. Their farewell statement says, “The Russian LGBT Network may close. But dignity, solidarity, and people’s right to be themselves cannot be destroyed.”
England’s National Health Service is making a new life-saving treatment for multi-drug resistant HIV available. Following recommendations from the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group, patients who are resistant to other antiretroviral medications can access the drug lenacapavir under the brand name Sunlenca. NHS Scotland had already approved the drug, although the Scottish Medicines Consortium has yet to reach a pricing agreement with the manufacturer. The All Wales Therapeutics & Toxicology Centre rejected lenacapavir based on guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, but Wales normally falls in line behind NHS England.
Antiretroviral treatments are largely effective at reducing HIV to undetectable viral loads for most patients. However, among England’s nearly 100,000 HIV-positive people, hundreds endure a rare mutation of the virus. Lenacapavir’s novel approach offers new hope for them. Under the brand name Yeztugo, lenacapavir was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2025 for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. It was found to be almost 100 per cent effective at preventing HIV transmission.
The drug is administered through a combination of oral and injectable doses. After initial treatment, there is only a bi-annual maintenance shot. In the coming weeks, the treatment will be offered to reportedly 92 eligible recipients. Over the next three years, the treatment is expected to be given to around 300 individuals.
Health Minister Baroness Merron said the “landmark treatment will totally transform” the lives of those living with drug-resistant HIV. The announcement is in tandem with the National Health Service’s larger plan to eliminate the spread of HIV in England by 2030. That plan includes an increase in available testing and a national program to provide life-saving care and treatment for HIV. As of this August, lenacapavir is currently available in 10 countries and expected to reach 24 more by the end of 2026.
The Trump administration cannot exclude coverage of gender-affirming healthcare under the Affordable Care Act, according to a U.S. federal judge. Senior U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton of the District of Massachusetts ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services had exceeded its authority in cutting the treatment from the Affordable Care Act or “ObamaCare.”
In 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services aimed to curb enrollment in the programs to reduce federal spending. Its Marketplace Integrity and Affordability final rule reclassified certain gender-affirming care treatments as no longer essential health benefits. As a result, certain insurance plans were barred from covering those procedures.
A coalition of 20 states and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro sued the Trump administration over the rule change. They argued that the revisions were unlawful and would increase premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, not to mention the loss of health insurance altogether for many enrollees.
Judge Gorton sided with the states’ coalition to strike down the rule on August 14th. He found that the Department of Health and Human Services had unlawfully revised the scope of essential health benefits without submitting a congressionally required report with proper certification. Other marketplace provisions challenged by the coalition’s lawsuit continue to be litigated in other venues.
Ohioans must now jump through added hoops to change the gender markers on their state IDs and driver’s licenses. Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokesman Lindsey Bohrer announced that the form previously used to update gender markers is “not compatible with Ohio Revised Code Sec. 9.05.” That law makes it, “... the policy of the state of Ohio to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Instead of filling out a form provided by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, individuals are now required to update gender markers on their birth certificates or passports first, then present that to the BMV.
Dara Adkison is Executive Director of trans equity organization TransOhio. They spoke to NBC 4 - Columbus Local News, about the harms of the new policy.
[AUDIO - NBC 4]
“It's a safety issue. You know, you're pulled over for a traffic stop and immediately flagged as potentially having a fraudulent identification on you because your stuff doesn't match who you present as. You know, it's harder to access health care, harder to access insurance. When your matching ID documents, do not correspond to what is the gender designation on file.”
LGBTQ advocates additionally criticize the lack of a transition period prior to the policy change. Activists are taking quick action to provide support for those in need. TransOhio has identified at least 10 county probate courts that will process birth certificate updates for transgender Ohioans. The LGBTQ+ advocacy and legal aid organization Equality Ohio is providing free representation for legal name changes and birth certificate gender marker corrections for those at or below the federal poverty line.
Two Winnipeg artists have unveiled a new national monument in remembrance of Canada’s LGBT Purge. Visual artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan won an international competition in 2020 to design the work. Their Thunderhead Monument was introduced in the capital city of Ottawa on August 21st.
Dempsey and Milan came up with the idea to have the monument depicting a thunderhead cloud. Millan was inspired to use the imagery as she felt it represented the uplifting effects of community throughout the ongoing fight for queer rights. It’s also a direct response to the harm caused by the historic discrimination by the hand of Canada’s federal government between the 1950s and 1990s. The LGBT Purge was a systematic campaign to identify and expel thousands of queer members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and members of the federal public service. The rolling thunder of that injustice can still be felt today.
The monument is a large white column in the shape of a thundercloud. Visitors are able to walk through the hollow, cloud-shaped center to find the interior covered in disco ball mirror tiles. It’s described by the artists as a way of honoring the strength and resiliency of Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ community. Dempsey elaborated on her monument’s meaning in the Global News:
[AUDIO - GLOBAL NEWS]
“I think it will be in part a site of grieving because many people didn't survive. Many lives were lost due to the effects of homophobia and transphobia. But I also think being in that form, that thundercloud, that uplift with all of those disco tiles, I think there will be that same sense of power that Lori talked about. That we are together. We are powerful. Look at what we can do together.”
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