Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, 1970 | This Way Out Radio Episode #2005
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An historic tape was found. This week features a remarkable 1970 recording of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and other members of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), made by 20-year-old WBAI reporter Liza Cowan. Rediscovered nearly 50 years later by Making Gay History in the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the tape captures Rivera and Johnson speaking candidly about their lives, gender expression, discrimination, sexuality, and activism, as well as their efforts to create community and support for street youth through STAR House. This is what is believed to be the earliest known recording of Rivera and Johnson and offering an extraordinary first-person glimpse of two pioneering trans activists at the beginning of their political lives.
In the news this week, a new report finds LGBTQ+ people make up more than 12 percent of the U.S. population, while a federal judge again strikes down Texas’s drag ban. LGBTQ+ asylum seekers face heightened danger amid a migration crisis in Spain’s Ceuta, and South African activists mobilize against an anti-LGBTQ+ “family values” conference. And in Ireland, Cork opens the country’s first permanent LGBTQ+ museum exhibition, featuring a historic Rainbow Flag from San Francisco.
Featured speakers: Brigitte Bandit, LGBT choir Choral Con Fusion, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Victor.
Credits: Associate Producer/Host Lucia Chappelle, Producer Brian DeShazor, News writer Jeb Backe, the feature was produced by Brian DeShazor with assistance from Making Gay History and the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
NewsWrap reporters Ava Davis and John Dyer 5th music: the Brotherhood of Man
All this on the August 31, 2026 Edition of This Way Out!
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NewsWrap
Program 2005 Distributed 08/31/26
LGBTQ+ people are a much larger percentage of the U.S. population than previously thought, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The Foundation analyzed official Census data from 2021 through 2024. That’s the most recent data on sexual orientation and gender identity available, since those categories were removed from the federal census in 2025.
The August 20th HRC Foundation report estimates that a hair more than 12 percent of the United States population identify as LGBTQ+ — more than one in nine people. That’s three percent higher than the Gallup Poll’s most recent estimate of nine percent, and includes adults who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual+, transgender or gender-expansive. Altogether that adds up to around 25.6 million people!
HRCF also found more than double the number of transgender people living in the country than Gallup did. Roughly one in 43 respondents identified as transgender or gender-expansive. The Foundation suggests that, unlike Gallup’s telephone interviews, the Census Bureau’s self-administered Household Pulse Survey ‘may offer greater privacy when people answer sensitive questions, which may contribute to differences in disclosure.”
It’s clear from both studies that there’s an overall trend of increasing LGBTQ+ identification, especially seen in younger generations. HRCF and Gallup note that the generational differences may reflect greater social acceptance and willingness to be “out.”
Independent journalist Erin Reed thinks the findings raise an important point about queer resilience. In her words, “The onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ panic has not reduced the number of LGBTQ+ people or scared the vast majority of them into hiding their identities. To the contrary, LGBTQ+ people feel more free to come out now than ever before.”
The resilience Reed talks about is apparently stronger than the Trump administration's fear of collecting federal data about LGBTQ+ people. The gaps in knowledge caused by the elimination of sexual orientation and gender identity questions from the 2025 and 2026 surveys are a big concern to Tari Hanneman. As Senior Director of Research and Education for the HRC Foundation, she’s advocating for the continued inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the Census. In a press release announcing the report she writes, “Reliable data are essential for understanding who lives in this country and what our communities need to thrive. These findings show that LGBTQ+ people are a substantial and growing segment of the population ….”
Focusing on research, advocacy and education is the mission of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, while the Human Rights Campaign promotes LGBTQ+ rights by lobbying government officials and mobilizing grassroots action. There is also an HRC super PAC that finances political campaigns.
A federal judge has struck down the Texas ban on drag performances once again. Reagan-appointed Judge David Hittner ruled that the ban was unconstitutional and violated the first amendment.
In 2023 Senate Bill 12 was signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, criminalizing what it describes as “sexually explicit” performances in the presence of minors. Though the law does not explicitly mention the word “drag,” the not-so-veilled language is “a male performer exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.”
The ban created fines of up to $10,000 for businesses that host family-friendly drag shows. Performers could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, risking up to one year in prison. Advocacy organizations challenged the law in court and won a permanent injunction to block its enforcement. However, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that injunction last November, thus allowing the law to go into effect while the case played out. Judge Hittner responded on August 25th, ruling that in spite of the 5th Circuit Court’s opinion, his earlier decision stands, and the ban is unconstitutional. He closed his ruling in part with the advice, “for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive, the solution is relatively simple … just don’t go.”
Plaintiff Brigitte Bandit spoke to local news station KXAN about the ruling. She’s known as the Dolly of Austin, Texas:
[AUDIO - KXAN]
“I was so happy, and actually Dolly is mentioned in the court documents because of the prosthetics and the costumes that I have to wear to do her looks and her impersonations, right? And it was very, very exciting, but then quickly, you know, overshadowed by the other news of Dolly. So, but yeah, it's been a roller coaster of a day.”
Brigitte Bandit received international attention for her testimony against the drag bans in 2023. She highlighted a line from a children’s book about Dolly Parton that read, “She wore big hair and lots of makeup, and some people might’ve thought it was too much, but she liked it, and the kids did too.” When she heard about the testimony, Parton sent Brigitte a signed, rhinestone-studded guitar.
Ironically, the ruling in Texas came the same day as the passing of the iconic musician, actor, philanthropist and treasured LGBTQ+ and drag ally.
LGBTI asylum seekers caught up in the migration crisis in Ceuta are facing heightened risks and inadequate protection, according to the advocacy group ILGA Europe. The mass crossing of some 72,000 migrants from Morocco in late July created an emergency in Spain’s North African enclave, a city of around 84,000. At this week’s Congressional hearings on the crisis, ILGA-Europe called on Spain to respect the rights of all people arriving in Ceuta.
Conditions were already precarious for the desperate migrants, most of whom swam around the border fence. At least 100 people died. The majority of asylum seekers have since returned to Morocco, though around 5,000 remain. The Spanish Government is expected to present a draft bill to align with the European Pact on Migration and Asylum. The pact enacted this summer effectively made it easier to reject asylum requests and accelerate expulsions.
However, ILGA-Europe warns that the pact does not undermine the rights of people seeking safety, and says in an August 26th statement that these unconditional rights “cannot be set aside because migration is being presented as a security or political threat.”
Senior Associate Director for Refugee and Migrant Rights at Human Rights Watch, Judith Sunderland has spoken out about Ceuta as well. In her words, “Spanish authorities should not let populist calls for mass summary deportations prevent them from acting in accordance with their obligations under international law. Nor should Spanish authorities be deterred from conducting fair, individual assessments of protection claims and treating all migrants with dignity.”
ILGA-Europe reports that, “Recent accounts from organisations working in Ceuta have highlighted serious concerns about the situation of LGBTI people among those arriving, including a Moroccan trans woman who was reportedly initially left without safe accommodation and exposed to violence and discrimination.”
The organization is requesting dignified reception, access to asylum procedures and measures to protect queer people from persecution and harm.
South African LGBTQ+ news site MambaOnline has launched a campaign against an upcoming anti-LGBTQ+ conference. The 3rd Pan-African Conference on Family Values is scheduled to take place in the city of Cape Town in May of 2027. Its organizers are backed by right-wing U.S.-based outfits classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are major exporters of campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights and comprehensive sexuality education across the continent.
Thousands have already signed MambaOnline’s petition titled “South Africa Must Reject Hate Conference Disguised as ‘Family Values’.” Managing Editor Nompilo Gwala told news site Erasing 76 Crimes, “We want this to be a conversation involving LGBTQ+ organisations, women’s rights groups, young people, faith communities, traditional leaders, politicians, businesses, academics and ordinary South Africans.” Gwala said, “South Africa’s constitution belongs to all of us. So does the responsibility to defend the dignity and equality it promises.”
The National Dialogue is a citizen-led process involving South Africans from all walks of life in the on-going work of democracy. Its Steering Committee’s LGBTQIA+ Sector has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa and senior government ministers, pleading for an intervention to block the so-called family values conference. Their campaign has snowballed, gaining over 4,000 supporters within the first two weeks.
South Africa is the only African country whose constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and whose laws recognise same-sex marriage. However, in practice discrimination remains a serious problem. Supporters of MambaOnline’s petition call on the government and leaders to reaffirm their commitment to LGBTQ+ rights.
Finally …
[AUDIO - CHORAL CON FUSION]
In the city of Cork, the local LGBT choir Choral Con Fusion serenaded visitors at the opening of Ireland’s first permanent LGBTQ+ museum exhibition. The song “What Was I Made For?” from the movie Barbie is a fine theme for the exhibit “We Were Always Here – Cork LGBT History,” now showing at the Cork Public Museum located in Fitzgerald Park.
The physical collection and a digital archive were created in collaboration with the Cork LGBT Archive. The exhibition emphasizes the work of individuals and groups who fought for LGBTQ+ protections throughout history. It is home to original documents, artifacts, and the personal belongings of LGBTQ+ people connected to Cork’s queer history. Cork’s “twin city” San Francisco loaned the exhibit the original Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag for four months, making Cork the first city in the world outside of the U.S. to host the iconic piece.
Homosexuality was illegal in Ireland until 1993. It would then take over 20 years after that for same sex marriage to be legalised. That same year the Gender Recognition Act was passed, allowing anyone over the age of 18 to self-declare their own gender identity.
Cork LGBT Archive Founder Orla Egan curated the display. Egan told The Irish Times, “It sends a powerful message of respect and inclusion for a community that too often has experienced prejudice, punishment and exclusion. This is even more important in today’s world when we are witnessing an increase in transphobia and homophobia.”
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