2025 Queer Year in Review | This Way Out Radio Episode #1969

2025 Queer Year in Review | This Way Out Radio Episode #1969

Author: Overnight Productions, Inc. December 23, 2025 Duration: 28:58
Twenty-twenty-five’s queerest news and feature stories in review; this week’s Rainbow Rewind remembers Frank Kameny, Ma Rainey and key late December happenings; quick-study Kazakh Senators pass a “no promo homo” bill, Trump’s vile war on trans kids escalates, Congressional Republicans criminalize trans kid caregivers, a North Carolina County disbands its library board over a trans kid picture book, and St. Petersburg, Florida counters demolished rainbow crosswalks with multi-colored bike racks... Those stories and more this week, when you choose “This Way Out.” [NOTE: “NewsWrap” and the “Rainbow Rewind” segments return on our week of 12 January 2026 program.] Credits: Hosted this week by Brian DeShazor and produced by Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon. “Rainbow Rewind” written and hosted by Sheri Lunn and Brian DeShazor and produced by Brian DeShazor, with music by Ma Rainey. The 2025 Queer News and Features in Review feature was produced by Greg Gordon, with archival news reports by Wendy Natividad, David Hunt, John Dyer V and Ava Davis. Theme music: Kim Wilson. Additional music: from “Peter and the Wolf”; and by Triumph, Melanie Safka, and Chappell Roan. In our 38th year satisfying your weekly minimum requirement of LGBTQ news and culture! Now more than ever, your financial support of our U.S. 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit will help keep us in ears around the world! (and we’ll acknowledge your 3-figures-or-more gift on the air if you wish.)

For more than three decades, This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine has been a vital, award-winning voice broadcast from community stations across the globe. Produced by Overnight Productions, Inc., this weekly program functions as a true radio magazine, weaving together urgent dispatches from the front lines of queer life with deep explorations of our culture and creativity. Every episode opens with a concise international news roundup, providing context on the political and social developments affecting LGBTQ communities everywhere. The conversation then expands into thoughtful features and interviews that delve into the arts, performing, and the intersections of identity and society. On a monthly basis, the Audiofile segment turns up the volume, offering a curated listen to the vibrant and evolving lesbigay and trans music scene. Tuning into this podcast means connecting with a long-standing, trusted source that documents both the struggles and the celebrations, always with an ear for the stories that might not make the mainstream headlines. It’s a consistently engaging mix of journalism and cultural reflection, all delivered with the warmth and clarity of a public radio staple.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine
Podcast Episodes
The Global Rise of Anti-LGBTQ Laws (Part One) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
In part one of a two-part series, This Way Out’s Ebony Joseph examines a growing global wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation—from Africa to Eastern Europe and Central Asia—where governments are increasingly criminalizing queer…
Zachary James Out on Stage [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
This Way Out’s Brian DeShazor talks with Out Opera and Broadway actor Zachary James about his roles in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, Broadway, and being out on stage. In addition to his current role as Amenhotep III in the Oli…
Echoes of Queer Poetry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
National Poetry Month revisits the 1979 March on Washington with poetry from the rally stage recited by Allen Ginsberg, Paula Gunn Allen, and Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde also reads a poem to close the program from 1980 reco…
Tribute to Greg Gordon Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
This Way Out’s founding Coordinating Producer Greg Gordon is honored in “In Memoriam Part 2,” continuing a legacy that helped shape international LGBTQ radio. This tribute features voices from across his life and work, r…
Tribute to Greg Gordon (Pt. 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:23
This Way Out’s founding Coordinating Producer leaves a legacy of historic LGBTQ audio that begins more than a decade before the only internationally syndicated queer radio show debuted. This memorial tribute features his…
Hoshino’s Light Bird Transition Is “Alright” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:56
Danni Hoshino brings us a preview of her Transgender Day of Visibility single release, “Alright”! The veteran folk-rock musician surprised everyone — not least herself — when she came out as a transgender woman in 2022,…
Anaïs Nin Writes of the New Woman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:59
“It is the woman who has to speak, and it’s not only the woman Anaïs who has to speak, but I who have to speak for many women.” So says the Cuban-French essayist and novelist in this 1966 reading from the first volume of…
Kestral Gaian’s “The Boy From Elsewhere” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:53
In a genre-bending story about a quest to conquer evil and save the world, the young-adult characters of Kestral Gaian’s “The Boy From Elsewhere” take a trek through the multiverse where nothing is quite what it seems. T…
Dating App Ambushes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:54
Anti-LGBTQI hate crimes are on the rise in Australia. In New South Wales nearly 200 violent incidents have been reported since 2023, many involving men lured by gay dating apps (Michael Brown reports from Sydney). Plus:…