A gay Christian activist-author who started out as the closeted ghostwriter for some of the most powerful televangelists in the U.S. came out in 1994 with the book “Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America.” Mel White could hardly have been more prescient about the religious right politics that would lead to the MAGA movement and Christian Nationalism (original interview by Ian Masters, thanks to the Pacifica Radio Archives).
And in NewsWrap: the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2026 Census will consider including a question about sexual orientation, the U.S. Census Bureau is developing better ways to include sexual orientation and gender identity, four more U.S. corporations are abandoning their commitments to DEI programs and support for the queer community, Aetna will be the first U.S. insurance company to extend fertility treatment coverage to LGBTQ people, the privacy rights of transgender public school students get the backing of New Hampshire’s Supreme Court, Austin, Texas Brewtorium Brewery and Kitchen is responding to violent threats with a “fruity” Big Gay Beer, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Elena Botkin-Levy and John Dyer V (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the September 2, 2024 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of September 2, 2024
Mel White at the Gate
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Australia’s 2026 Census will have some type of question about sexual orientation — but nothing about gender identity — following a firestorm of criticism after the government announces that there wouldn’t be any questions at all about those subjects [with brief comments by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] … the U.S. Census Bureau is testing new questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in its annual American Community Survey … The Ford Motor Company, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s Home Improvement, and Jack Daniel’s become the latest U.S.-based companies to bow to far rightwing social media pressure and restrict or totally abandon their DEI policies and programs to support diversity and inclusion in the workplace … Aetna becomes the first U.S. insurance company to cover fertility treatment for LGBTQ policyholders … the New Hampshire Supreme Court decides to protect the privacy rights of the state’s transgender public school students by ruling that staff must respect their names and pronoun choices and cannot “out” them to their parents or legal guardians … Austin, Texas’ Brewtorium Brewery & Kitchen responds to a Pride month bomb threat that stopped a drag show brunch event in mid-performance and forced the venue to close for the rest of the day and launches a new “fruity” brew — with proceeds to benefit a volunteer military veterans group that protects events by marginalized communities — that staff hopes will be “the Biggest Gayest beer we could possibly imagine” (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by MICHAEL LEBEAU and TANYA KANE-PARRY).
Feature: White Christian Nationalism didn’t come out of nowhere. The seeds of this dangerous, anti-democratic ideology that has a stranglehold on today’s Republican politics can clearly be seen in this 30-year-old interview. Mel White is a gay Christian activist-author who started out as the closeted Christian ghostwriter for some of the most powerful conservative Christian proselytizers in the U.S., including Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberston. He came out in 1994 with the book Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. Even then he was realizing the trend toward politicizing evangelical thought (highlights from a 1994 interview with White by KPFK-Los Angeles’ IAN MASTERS on his program Background Briefing, with thanks to the Pacifica Radio Archives, and with music by ERICA MASON and RYAN CASSETTA).
Feature: U.S. Library of Congress This Way Out Preservation Project Update (reported by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, with intro music by SAM COOKE).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending August 31st, 2024
Written this week by Greg Gordon, edited Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Tanya Kane-Parry,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Facing a firestorm of criticism from queer groups and progressive politicians, the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2026 Census will consider including one question about sexuality. The Labor Party had explicitly promised to survey LGBTQ+ Australians in the Census during their 2023 election campaign. However, Assistant Treasury Minister Andrew Leigh announced on August 25th that no questions about sexuality or gender would be added. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles excused the decision saying, “We … do not want to open up divisive debates in the community.”
The omission announcement and rationale sparked outrage, and a new question is now being drafted. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explained the process in an August 30th interview on ABC Radio Melbourne:
[SOUND: Albanese]
As long as the testing goes okay and a question can be developed in a way that is sensitive and that gets the information that is required, and the ABS will be testing that – there’s a draft question has been developed this week which they will go and test.
The Trans Justice Project was one of the organizations that pressured the government. CEO Jackie Turner argued, “What the government is saying by excluding us from the Census is that our communities, our families, and our friends don't count. … The trans community needs this data to tell us just how big our community is, where we are living, and to determine what our health and service needs actually are.”
Equality Australia Chief Executive Anna Brown applauded the government’s limited response, but it’s only the beginning. She said in no uncertain terms, “The federal government shouldn’t pick and choose those of us who are worthy of being counted. … [U]ntil questions on gender identity and intersex people are included, the census won’t include all Australians.”
The U.S. Census Bureau is also developing better ways to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Following a public comment period, the White House Office of Management and Budget approved new test questions in mid-July for its monthly American Community Survey. The current series of Survey questions began in August and will continue through the end of the year.
Results are expected in early 2026. It’s used to evaluate household information and determine how federal funds should be spent.
A 2022 Survey counted 1.3 million households headed by same-gender couples. About 741,000 were legally married – that’s 57 per cent. The Survey also found about 31 per cent of all queer couples were interracial – more than their heterosexual counterparts.
There are significant limitations to the survey, as noted by the Whitman-Walker Institute and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. They pointed out in an August 29th blog post that by only identifying queer couple-led households, the survey ignores five in six LGBTQ U.S. adults who are not living in coupled relationships.
A rightwing zealot’s campaign to stamp out the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs of U.S. corporations claimed four more victories this week. Whiskey-maker Jack Daniel’s, home improvement and supply retailer Lowe’s, motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson and the Ford Motor Company are now abandoning their queer commitments. They join Tractor Supply Company and home and farm equipment maker John Deere, all surrendering DEI efforts in their workplaces and public demonstrations.
The one-man-“anti-woke” band is far-right political internet troll Robby Starbuck. A self-styled giant corporation slayer, Starbuck crowed to his social media followers: “We are winning, and one by one we will bring sanity back to corporate America.”
Starbuck is a conspiracy theorist who’s claimed, among other things, that tap water is turning kids queer.
Virtually all of Starbuck’s hit list are high scorers in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. President Kelley Robinson called Starbuck a “MAGA bully.” She points out that his “only business experience is hawking vitamins marketed by people profiting off of COVID disinformation.”
Still, Starbuck can attest, “We’re now forcing multi-billion-dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting, just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose.”
This may bring an unexpected end to the clashes regarding the over-corporatization of Pride events.
On the other end of the corporate spectrum, Aetna will be the first U.S. insurance company to extend fertility treatment coverage to LGBTQ people. A lawsuit had challenged disparities in the company’s coverage of intrauterine insemination between heterosexual and queer policyholders. The settlement agreement helped prompt the change in policy announced this week.
Writer Emma Goidel was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with her partner Ilana Caplan. The couple was forced to pay $45,000 through the Student Health Plan for Columbia University before Aetna agreed to cover the procedure.
Aetna’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Cathy Moffitt called the new policy, “… yet another demonstration of Aetna’s commitment to women’s health across all communities, including LGBTQ+ and unpartnered people.”
Goidel’s press release said, “We hope other insurance companies will follow Aetna’s example and review their policies to make sure everyone has equal access to fertility care.”
The privacy rights of New Hampshire’s transgender public school students got the backing of the state’s Supreme Court this week.
Manchester School District policy requires staff to address all students by their requested names and pronouns. Such personal information cannot be shared with a parent or legal guardian without the student’s permission. The mother of a child in the district claimed that the policy infringed on her parental rights, but the August 30th ruling rejected her complaint. Justices found that the district’s rules “[place] no limits on the plaintiff’s ability to parent her child as she sees fit.”
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and the ACLU of New Hampshire defended the district’s policy with the support of a local mom and her trans high school son. The attorneys said in a joint statement, "we are pleased with the court’s decision to affirm what we already know, that students deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and have a right to freely express who they are without the fear of being forcibly outed.”
Finally, the Austin, Texas Brewtorium Brewery and Kitchen has cooked up an appropriate response to douse violent threats. Their June 9th Pride month drag event was stopped in mid-show by a bomb threat. A police search of the premises found nothing suspicious, but it forced the venue to close for the rest of the day.
Not to be drowned out, management announced the launch of a new tropical-flavored brew on August 23rd. It’s “fruited to the max” with grapefruit, mango, pink guava, and orange. A portion of its sales will go to Veterans for Equality, a group of military vets who provide protective services for events hosted by marginalized communities like the Brewtorium’s shuttered drag brunch. In announcing the birth of the fruity new brew blatantly named Big Gay Beer, Brewtorium proclaimed, “our continued commitment to being a safe place for queer people and all good, kind and loving individuals in our city.”
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