Tara Hoot Defends the Arts | This Way Out Radio Episode #2010
Drag Queen Tara Hoot talks defending the Kennedy Center with Jeb Backe and a listen back to the first National Coming Out Day. In the news this week, Serbia's lesbian Prime Minister abruptly becomes President in a partisan pre-election gambit, while the US midterms separate the supportive progressives from the transphobic performers. US civil rights law is open to interpretation, and so is discrimination and sexual assault, or so it seems and a Virginia street gets a lesbian name and an English castle gets a rainbow ring.
Featured speakers: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, D.C. drag performer Tara Hoot (tarahoot.com).
Credits: Associate Producer Lucia Chappelle, Producer/ host Brian DeShazor, News writer Jeb Backe, the feature was produced by Brian DeShazor and Lucia Chappelle, NewsWrap reporters Melanie Keller and Joe Boehnlein. Feature produced by Jeb Backe music: Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington D.C. our theme music was written and performed by Kim Wilson.
All this on the October 5, 2026 Edition of This Way Out!
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Photos courtesy of Tara Hoot, Duhon Photography, Tracy Meehleib
This Way Out
NewsWrap
Program 2010 Distributed 10/05/26
Serbia’s long-serving lesbian Prime Minister is moving into the President’s chair. Ana Brnabić took office on September 28th, following the sudden resignation of populist President Aleksandar Vučić seven months earlier than his term’s end date. Brnabić’s 2017 election made her the Balkan nation’s first female and first queer P.M. and the world’s second woman head of government. After the ceremony handing over power Brnabić said, “It is a great honor for me to receive this position from such a person, and now it is my duty to hold this office until the people elect the next president of Serbia.” The people are set to do that within the next 90 days.
The abrupt shift in leadership is considered to be a political maneuver ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. If his SNS party is successful in the October 25th snap vote, Vučić is slated to be appointed Prime Minister. Ana Brnabić has been acting Prime Minister of Serbia since 2017 but will now serve as the interim President.
An influential student movement against government corruption and authoritarianism has been growing for nearly two years. The “Students Win” movement has had the support of LGBTQ+ activists who have been unimpressed with Brnabić. The Prime Minister has rarely spoken out for marriage equality or other civil rights during her almost a decade in power, although she has managed to secure those privileges for her own family.
The “Students Win” movement along with the coalition party, Platform for a European Serbia, have formally entered a list of candidates in the election opposing the Vučić government. If they are successful, Vučić’s domination of Serbian politics will come to an end. Brnabić is a close political ally of Vučić in the SNS party.
As the U.S. midterm elections approach, queer and trans rights remain a major talking point, even with some supposedly progressive politicians acquiescing to conservative exclusion campaigns. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom told the Associated Press that he found it “deeply unfair” for transgender women to compete against cisgender women. Iowa’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand has doubled down on his support for a law that would ban transgender athletes from competing in high school and college sports teams appropriate to their gender. Running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, James Talarico told Fox News that he would vote in favor of a national ban for gender-affirming surgeries for trans minors – procedures that are rarely recommended.
Still, some progressives are holding the line. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is urging colleagues not to fall into the trappings of the culture war against transgender athletes. Governor Beshear spoke on CNN about vetoing a red-state bill that would ban transgender girls and women from participating in sports:
[AUDIO - CNN]
“In Kentucky, we only had one trans athlete. She was a seventh grader that started a field hockey team in her middle school to make friends. But that bill you're talking about didn't just do that. It banned all trans care for youth, any and all, and removed the ability of any parent to make decisions on the health care for their children. So it was sweeping. But here's my take: We don't throw anybody under the bus. That is not the party that we are. We start as a party of compassion and empathy.”
80-year-old Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey is similarly refusing to buckle to Republican pressure, despite his hotly contested primary challenge. He spoke out last week about a congressional resolution urging the NCAA Protection Resolution to revoke its transgender athlete eligibility policy.
[AUDIO - MARKEY]
“Politicians in Washington, they don't get to decide who belongs in society and who does not. I lead the Trans Bill of Rights because it is our moral obligation to defend the rights of trans people. Trans people deserve the right to health care, to receive proper identity documents, to safe schools and workplaces, to serve their nation, to celebrate the same unassailable rights to education and to jobs and to housing as every other American. Simply put, to experience the freedom, the joy, the opportunity afforded to every other American.”
Tyler Hack is the executive director of the trans rights advocacy group Christopher Street Project. She spoke to WHYY about the division within the Democratic party. In their words, “The reality of being a transgender person in America in 2026 is that on election nights, while other folks are talking about who had a good night and who had a bad night, sometimes you are quietly wondering, ‘Am I going to be OK?’” Independent trans journalist Erin Reed agrees. She points to anti-trans Democrats' election losses as clear indicators of “why you don’t throw transgender people under the bus.”
In the state capital of Virginia, the City Council has approved an ordinance to rename a street after the late owner of one of the United States’ oldest lesbian bars. Vicky Hester was the proud owner of, “Babes of Carytown,” a bar nearing 50 years old. Known beyond the bar for her civic engagement and care for the Richmond community, Hester has been sorely missed since her passing in September of 2025.
Babes of Carytown weathered decades of discrimination including Virginia’s anti-gay Alcoholic Beverage Control legislation which lasted all the way to 1991, which could revoke a bar’s license if it was deemed a gathering place for homosexuals. Hester told RVA Magazine in 2025 how Babes not only survived but thrived through the 90s. She recalled packed happy hours and weekends throughout the decade providing a space she said was , “for those who needed acceptance and [to] find others like us.”
Hester not only provided generations with a space for queer joy and embrace, but also spent her life opening the bar to host fundraisers and donated food every week to a local food pantry, which also will carry her name.
The street beside Virginia’s one and only lesbian bar, Babes of Carytown, will soon be named “Vicky Hester Way.”
The U.S. Education Department has removed protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity from Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The law prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or education programs that receive federal funding. The big question is the definition of the word “sex.”
During Trump’s first term, the Education Department created additional work for those who file Title IX complaints in an already complicated procedure and weakened their protections. The Biden administration attempted to reverse some of the Trump era-restrictions, and Title IX was expanded to include protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as many courts had ruled. Biden’s 2021 executive order has now been rescinded, returning the civil rights law to Trump’s 2020 regulations. The September 28th decision narrows definitions of sex-based harassment, reduces schools’ investigation responsibilities, and rescinds protections for queer and transgender students.
Concurrently, a sexual assault case at Cornell University from 2024 has reopened. The student identified as Jane Doe did not feel justice had been served after her Title IX case resulted in the expulsion of only two of her seven assaulters. The punishment for the other five was an essay assignment.
Following the Education Department decision, Executive Director of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Fairness West Virginia Andrew Schneider issued a public statement. It read in part, "Every side of this public discussion agrees that all sexual misconduct should be reported and punished. This rule makes that sort of accountability more difficult to attain. [...] Instead of providing more protections for women from sexual misconduct, this rule provides more protections for perpetrators of sexual misconduct while trying to trick Americans into believing transgender students are the real danger.”
Finally…
Totnes, England’s town castle got a tremendous rainbow flag wrap during the local Pride festival. Local organizers called it “Capture the Castle” as they draped the nearly 1000 year old structure. Nearly 400 attendees gathered in the small market town to watch the unfurling.
A Totnes Pride spokesperson told The Telegraph, “Capture the Castle is the image that will define this year’s festival, but what we’ve built around it is a genuinely ambitious arts and culture programme – over 40 events.” With the Castle standing atop a hill on the edge of the town, the flag covering it nearly dominated the skyline. Totnes Pride says this work signifies that their town is, “a place that welcomes people, from all walks of life and gives them a soft place to land.”
Though not everyone saw it that way as some detractors took to the internet to ridicule the event. With remarks ranging from pure homophobia to concerns over the use of public money, critics were eclipsed by the queer joy of the four-day celebration. The ancient iconic structure swathed in rainbow chic gave a clear message of visibility and history. In the words of Totnes Pride organizer Cerri Goddard, the installation shows "queer people have always been here and we always will be."
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