PEN: Mightier Than the Book Bans

PEN: Mightier Than the Book Bans

Author: Overnight Productions, Inc. July 22, 2025 Duration: 28:58
Just how far is it from book bans to bonfires? PEN America’s Los Angeles Director Allison Lee tracks the alarming censorship trend across the U.S. and how to stand up against it (interviewed by Jason Jenn). And in NewsWrap: a gay male Ukrainian couple wins recognition as a legal family in a Kyiv district court, the Church of England votes to stop teaching prospective clergy that so-called “homosexual practice” is “especially dishonourable,” Puerto Rico now bans hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for trans patients under the age of 21 and criminalizes medical providers, New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoes two specifically anti-queer measures and three more culture war bills, a federal judge forces the Trump administration to restore 6.2 million dollars in federal funding to nine queer and HIV organizations, lesbian comedian and former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell refuses to be cowed by Trump’s empty threat to revoke her citizenship, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Joe Boehnlien and David Hunt (produced by Brian DeShazor). All this on the July 21, 2025 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

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
Audio Archive Saves Queer History [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
This Way Out’s own collection of programs dating back to 1988 is already becoming a valuable tool for LGBTQ+ researchers and educators, even as the extensive process of data sorting and cataloging is getting underway. Pr…
Poetic Duet: Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Classic appearances by two giants in the world of poetry regardless of gender or orientation, reading from their work and responding to their audience, brought together by the magic of recording tape (!) and the courtesy…
Jason “Journeyman’s” Queer Ecology [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Oppressive governments like the Trump administration may try to erase queer identities and histories, but California Naturalist and educator Jason “Journeyman” Wise reveals how science is recognizing that the rigid, patr…
De Waal: “It Wasn’t Dutch Courage” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Decades of LGBTQ+ organizing in Australia are captured in the memoir of Peter De Waal, and the spirit of his book launching at the site of the early movement’s first meetings is captured by Sydney correspondent Barry McK…
Meet Trinidad and Tobago Plaintiff Jason Jones [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Biracial, binational, queer human right activist Jason Jones began his lawsuit against Trinidad and Tobago’s British colonial ban on same-gender sex in 2017. It was struck down in 2018, but an appeals court recently over…
Resisting the Erasure of Pauli Murray [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Even at the National Historic Landmark dedicated to a queer civil rights activist, legal scholar, author and Episcopal priest, the Trump administration is rewriting U.S. history. Executive Director Angela Thorpe Mason of…
Garcia Checks Greene & Pritzker Preaches to HRC [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Infamous U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) didn’t know what she was getting into when she defamed the drag artist with a doctorate Professor Lil Miss Hot Mess, but gay Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA)…
Thank You For Trans Service, Col. Fram [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
While transgender members of the U.S. military wait on tinder hooks for the courts to rule on President Donald Trump’s order to expel them, Col. Bree Fram of the Space Force refuses to give up her frontline post. The cou…
Beyond Identity: Bettcher’s Transgender Philosophy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:58
Transgender philosophy professor Talia Mae Bettcher (“Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy”) confronts a world that oppression has turned upside down, and has some bold suggestions for radical, liberating acti…
Signs: What You Say, How You Serve, Who You Marry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:59
In the cycle between LGBTQ+ inclusion and exile, you can see the same signposts in either direction. Whether the queer community is on the rise or whether rights are being extinguished step by step, three bellwether issu…