Proud Voices: GetLit Poets #1 | This Way Out Radio Epsiode # 1994
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- 7 min read
In a special Pride Month feature produced by Brian DeShazor, young poets from Los Angeles-based Get Lit – Words Ignite respond to the words of LGBTQ trailblazers across generations. After listening to archival recordings by James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and Quentin Crisp, the poets James Mondares, Candi aka Vonne, and Samantha Rios created original spoken-word pieces inspired by those voices and their enduring messages.
The result is a moving intergenerational conversation that connects LGBTQ history, literature, and activism with the experiences of today's emerging writers, demonstrating how the power of queer storytelling continues to inspire new generations.
This week on This Way Out, NewsWrap reports on growing concerns over proposed cuts to LGBTQ+ health research and federal grant programs under a new Trump administration plan. We also mark the tenth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, follow protests by transgender rights activists in the United Kingdom over new public-facility restrictions, report on a neo-Nazi disruption of Pride events in Athens, Georgia, and celebrate Broadway history as Qween Jean becomes the first openly transgender Tony Award winner.
Featured speakers: Zohran Mamdani, Bruce Villanch, Brian Sonia-Wallace, James Baldwin, James Mondares, Audre Lorde, Candi aka Vonne, Quentin Crisp Samantha Rios
Credits: Associate Producer/Lucia Chappelle, Producer/Host Brian DeShazor, News writer Jeb Backe, feature producer Brian DeShazor, NewsWrap reporters, Joe Boehnlein and Melanie Keller, music by Raye and Kim Wilson.
All this on the June15, 2026 Edition of This Way Out!
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NewsWrap
Program # 1994 Distributed 06/15/26
And in NewsWrap: The Trump Administration meddles more in LGBTQ+ health funds. The victims of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy are honored 10 years later. Trans-rights direct-action group, BASH BACK, make a splash with pink-paint vandalism. Athens Pride parade community makes quick work of neo-nazi agitators. Qween Jean goes down in history with style as the first openly trans winner of a Tony Award— and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Melanie Keller and Joe Boehnlein (News Writer Jeb Backe, News Producers Lucia Chappelle and Brian DeShazor).
Funding for LGBTQ+ related health programs and scientific research in the U.S. is in danger as the Trump Administration seeks further control over federal grants. The recent 400 page proposal overhauls the federal government’s distribution of billions of dollars.
Under the proposal, federal grants are to be evaluated according to whether they “demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities.” If reviewing agencies decide a grant is no longer in alignment with the current government’s goals or interests, they may terminate the award given. The Trump administration’s targets include LGBTQ+ health, diversity, equity and inclusion, vaccine safety, and the climate crisis.
So far, 800 million dollars in LGBTQ+ health research and more than 200 federal HIV research grants have been eliminated in the second term of the Trump Administration.
The Human Rights Campaign stated that the proposal would “strip government money from any program that acknowledges diversity, abortion, or even the existence of transgender and nonbinary people.”
The public is invited to comment on the federal grant review proposal until July 13th. The White House budget office aims to implement it by October.
Joyous music and dancing abruptly ended in gunfire at the Pulse Nightclub on June 12, 2016. 49 of the mostly Latino patrons were killed and 58 others were injured. The massacre at the LGBTQ+ Orlando, Florida nightclub 10 years ago this week was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. up to that time.
“Portraits of Pulse” is an exhibit featuring depictions of each individual that was lost. The works went on display in City Hall for the anniversary. Designed by local artist Jeff Sonksen a year after the tragedy, his outlines were filled in with color by family members and volunteers. More than a thousand individuals have contributed to the paintings. Some are fully painted, while others were left intentionally incomplete by family members.
The official remembrance ceremony was hosted at First United Methodist Church with musical performances by the Orlando Gay Chorus and others. It concluded with a candlelight vigil.
LGBTQ+ activists from across the country recognized the 10th anniversary of the massacre. Over 30 Illinois organizations issued a joint statement calling for the story of Pulse to be a reminder of why Pride exists in the first place.
They wrote, “We remember that we are not strangers to grief and loss; but we are also not strangers to joy and the belonging that comes from a legacy of LGBTQ+ changemakers and the visionaries who are co-creating inclusive, liberatory spaces today.”
United Kingdom trans-rights activists have driven the Equality and Human Rights Commission out of its offices with a pink paint pressure campaign. The nonviolent direct action group BASH BACK recently claimed responsibility for the vandalizations..
BASH BACK describes itself as a decentralised movement that targets transphobic institutions to effect change. Shortly after the Equality and Human Rights Commission updated its code of practice last month, BASH BACK daubed its windows with pink paint. The EHRC’s new code bars transgender women from using women’s toilets and changing facilities.
In response to the protests, EHRC Chair Mary-Ann Stephenson informed a committee meeting on June 9th. She told them, “We have had to move from our premises near Vauxhall to other premises because of an attack on the building, vandalism, by a group that had also vandalised conferences and Wes Streeting’s office.”
Wes Streeting is a gay Labour Member of Parliament who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care until he resigned 2 months ago. Following the directives of the National Health Service’s controversial Cass Review, he placed a ban on puberty blockers. Streeting additionally banned general practitioners from conducting blood tests on trans patients utilizing hormone replacement therapy. He also banned trans patients from being housed in hospital wards that fit their gender. Last July, BASH BACK painted the words “child killer” in pink paint on Streeting’s office windows.
The latest EHRC bathroom law comes about a year after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex determined at birth. The discriminatory ruling has had rippling impacts on the rights and protections of transgender individuals in the U.K.
A small group of neo-nazis briefly disrupted a Pride parade in Athens, Georgia. Disturbing accounts and videos show the faction with a large swastika flag, performing nazi salutes, and shouting hateful epithets.
The band of men in mirrored sunglasses, flat caps, red shirts, and black suits have been identified as the neo-nazi group, “Blood Tribe.” In recent years, the group has specifically targeted LGBTQ+ and immigrant populations.
When the neo-nazis arrived in the midst of their celebration on June 6th, the Athens Pride and Queer Collective officials were quick to deploy a large banner obstructing the group from the parade. The sign read, “Joy is louder than hate.”
The encounter did not become violent and no arrests were made. In a public statement, the Pride event coordinators condemned “Blood Tribe’s” actions. They said that the hate group’s “appearance was intended to intimidate, divide, and spread fear, but it failed to overshadow the overwhelming spirit of joy, solidarity, and love that defined our community celebration.”
Finally, Qween Jean has sewn her place into history as the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award. She took home the coveted trophy for Best Costume Design of a Musical for her work on the queer ballroom-style revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats.” The new iteration titled “Cats: the Jellicle Ball” features 500 looks from Qween Jean. Among her many designs are references to trans activists, including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.
It is Qween Jean’s first season on Broadway and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is one of two shows she worked on. The other is the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Liberation,” which won the Tonys’ Best Play the same night.
[AUDIO MAMDANI]
(00:37) “Ladies and gentleman, Qween Jean! I think… I think generally getting a plus one tonight was difficult but we allowed it for Tony.
And truly, what makes this site so meaningful to me is looking out onto a room and seeing so many advocates, so many activists, so many old friends, and so many new. This is a room full of those who have long stood at the front of marches, who have opened your hearts and your homes to those struggling, even when you have had little to give. It is a room full of those who have done the hard, often unseen work of building a more dignified New York City.
Because you know better than most how dignity has long been withheld, and how it has been withheld from so many. I know moments of celebration, like tonight, can feel few and far between, especially in a time of such increased federal attacks on the mere existence of being a queer person. Rights that were once considered settled are now at risk. The progress won by many is now endangered. And yet queer New Yorkers have always found a way to celebrate joy amidst hardship. So let us take a moment to appreciate where we stand today, and let us give this entire room a round of applause.”
That’s New York Major, Zohran Mamdani, applauding Qween Jean at his Pride celebration held on June 9th.
Haitian-born Qween Jean has received significant recognition this year in addition to the Tony Award win. She got a Drama Desk Award for Cats, a Dorian Award for LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season, and a Lucille Lortel Award for her work on the Off-Broadway production Saturday Church.
Qween Jean’s triumphant Broadway debut has continued alongside her ongoing activism. She is the founder of the mutual aid organization “Black Trans Liberation,” which provides food, clothes, and other resources to the trans population.
After stepping off the stage, Jean wasted no time speaking out about the immigrant detention center near Radio City Music Hall, where the Tony’s take place. She told Jordan Fisher at the First Impressions tent, “There are so many people that are being detained there without due process, without seeing a judge, so it's just very horrific that these things are happening and that people are silent.”