Internationally acclaimed poet, comedian, actor and author of “Beyond the Gender Binary” Alok Vaid-Menon critiques the LGBTQ+ movement’s myopia around intersectional politics, and, thanks to This Way Out’s archives, discovers that their perspective echoes their Aunt Urvashi Vaid’s analysis of “Virtual Equality” in the 1990s (Part 1, interviewed by Brian DeShazor).
And in NewsWrap: Thailand King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s royal assent officially redefines marriage as a legal union of two individuals, the Duma gives initial approval to a ban on the adoption of Russian children to countries that allow gender-affirming healthcare and marriage equality, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues the federal government to avoid training prospective foster families to support a child’s potential LGBTQ+ identity, free expression advocate PEN America finds that the number of books banned in U.S. public schools tripled during the 2023-2024 academic year, the FBI’s annual Crime in the Nation report reveals that one-in-five of the exploding number of hate crimes in the U.S. were motivated by anti-queer animus, a study in the journal Nature Human Behavior based on The Trevor Project’s new peer-reviewed research proves the link between anti-transgender legislation and youth suicides, and more international LGBTQ news reported by David Hunt and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the September 30, 2024 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of September 30, 2024
Alok Beyond the Binary
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Thailand’s king gives royal assent to the nation’s adoptions- and inheritance rights-inclusive bill opening civil marriage to same-gender spouses, making his country the first in Southeast Asia with marriage equality, and allowing queer couples to start walking down the aisle on January 22nd, 2025 … Russian lawmakers pass a measure banning the adoption of Russian children by prospective parents in countries that offer gender-affirming healthcare for trans people or those with marriage equality … the Vladimir Putin of Texas, rabidly anti-queer Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, sues the Biden administration over its new foster care guidelines that require prospective parents to be LGBTQ+ supportive and that ban the forced outing of queer kids to their prospective parents or to foster care agency staff … PEN America, the writers’ freedom of expression advocacy group, kicks off Banned Books Week by releasing its initial list of books with diverse themes that were removed from U.S. public school libraries during the 2023-2024 academic year — tripling last year’s numbers — and including some startling first-time bans like Alex Haley’s Roots, Terry McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, and James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain … the FBI has reported sharp decreases in overall crime in the U.S. during Joe Biden’s presidential tenure, but its Crime in the Nation report released this week reveals a sharp increase in anti-queer hate crimes … it’s hardly a surprise that a new study of transgender young people in the U.S. reports an alarming spike in suicide attempts in states whose Republican majorities have passed anti-trans laws, such as bans on school sports participation, denying them use of campus bathrooms that match their gender identities, and bans or severe restrictions on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by DAVID HUNT and MICHAEL LeBEAU).
Feature: Alok Vaid-Menon’s smashing of the gender binary (Beyond the Gender Binary) is a revolutionary act that opens up a whole new perspective on liberation politics. This Way Out’s BRIAN DeSHAZOR picked up on the fact that that new train of thought is rich with the echoes of Alok’s forward-thinking queer philosopher-activist nibling of the 1990s Urvashi Vaid (with snippets of Urvashi in the 1990’s, and thanks to the assistance of DANIEL HUECIAS, with music by JULIAN WINTER).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending September 28th, 2024
Written this week by Greg Gordon, edited by Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by David Hunt and Michael LeBeau,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Marriage in Thailand will now be defined as a legal union of two individuals. King Maha Vajiralongkorn made it official on September 24th with his royal assent to a bill amending the country’s Civil and Commercial Code. It won approval in the Senate in June by a lopsided vote of 13o-to-4. The previous definition of civil marriage referred to the parties as a man and a woman, or a husband and wife. Adoption and inheritance rights are included in the legislation. It takes effect 120 days from the King’s signature and the publication of his assent in the Royal Gazette.
Thailand is now the first Southeast Asian country to achieve marriage equality. Despite its global reputation for being queer-friendly, the struggle has been arduous. Activist Siritata Ninlapruek told Agence France Presse, “We’ve been fighting for our rights for over ten years, and now it’s finally happening.”
Same-gender couples will be able to walk down the aisle for the first time on January 22nd, 2025. Bangkok Pride is organizing a mass wedding ceremony for queer couples on the big day.
The Duma has given initial approval to a ban on the adoption of Russian children to countries where gender-affirming healthcare is practiced. Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proclaimed, “We are doing everything for the child not to end up in a country where same-sex marriage and sex change is allowed.”
The measure bars adoptive parents from countries that approve “the change of sex by medical intervention, including with the use of medicine.” Countries that allow trans people to change their legal gender on government documents are also prohibited. The vote in the first reading was 397-to-one.
Two more readings and passage by the upper house of Russia’s legislature are required before Vladimir Putin can sign it into law. His war on Ukraine has complicated the adoption process by making it close to impossible for prospective foreign parents to travel to Russia. Putin might also want to deflect attention from the thousands of Ukrainian children that have been illegally siphoned into Russian foster care.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is on the warpath against another Biden administration queer-supportive policy. This time the far-right Republican is suing over a requirement that foster care agencies equip prospective families to support a child’s potential LGBTQ+ identity.
The Department of Health and Human Services guidelines were issued on April 30th and took effect on July 1st. They flatly state, “all foster care placements must be safe and appropriate for all children—including LGBTQI+ children.” The guidelines also protect children from being forcibly outed to prospective parents or staff at foster care agencies.
The infamously anti-queer Paxton is arguing that the guidelines unconstitutionally violate his state’s sovereignty. Texas bans pediatric gender-affirming healthcare and has other repressive anti-trans laws. Paxton also complains that the additional costs of compliance “[threaten] substantial economic injury to Texas.” He’s asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas for a permanent injunction against implementation of the guidelines and monetary damages.
A leading free expression advocate reports this week that more than 10 thousand books were banned in U.S. public schools during the 2023-2024 academic year. That’s more than triple the nearly 3,400 books PEN America said were removed from public school libraries during the previous academic year. The group released its initial results on September 23rd to kick off Banned Books Week.
PEN America specifically blames bans passed in Republican-controlled state legislatures like Iowa, Florida, Utah, South Carolina and Tennessee under the guise of parental rights. In the words of their press release, “the stark increase includes books featuring romance, books about women’s sexual experiences, and books about rape or sexual abuse as well as continued attacks on books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes, or books about race or racism and featuring characters of color.”
The book-banning fever is starting to engulf some surprising mainstream titles along with the usual queer-related suspects like Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Mike Curato’s Flamer and Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell and Henry Cole’s And Tango Makes Three. Students are no longer supposed to study Alex Haley’s seminal Roots: The Saga of An American Family. Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile has been thrown overboard, along with Terry McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back. For some reason it took the censors until this round to catch iconic queer Black writer James Baldwin’s semi-autobiographical Go Tell It On The Mountain. PEN America promises that a final count and a more detailed analysis into the rationales behind particular objections is forthcoming.
The PEN America release concludes, “Book bans impede the freedom to read, limiting students’ access to a diversity of views and stories.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Crime in the Nation report reveals a major increase in hate crimes in the United States in 2023– particularly those targeting LGBTQ+ people. More than one-in-five hate crimes were motivated by anti-queer animus.
This week’s report counts more than 2,400 hate incidents based on sexual orientation. That’s an increase of more than 500 cases over the previous year. More than 400 incidents were based on gender identity or expression, and an additional 146 incidents targeted gender non-conforming people. Keep in mind that far more anti-queer hate crimes go unreported. The rise in hate crimes runs counter to a significant drop in crime overall during the presidency of Joe Biden.
The Human Rights Campaign contributed research to the report. The queer advocacy group pointed to the disproportionate number of hate crimes targeting transgender women of color, especially Black people and immigrants.
HRC officially declared a state of emergency for the queer community last year. In a statement released this week,
President Kelley Robinson challenged government officials to, in her words, “stop lying about our community and inciting hatred against us,” and called for comprehensive anti-bias protections.
To P-FLAG’s Brian K. Bond, the FBI report was “abysmal.” The queer ally group’s C.E.O. said, “Our LGBTQ+ loved ones need both our compassion and our action to make our communities safe and our laws inclusive, so every LGBTQ+ person can be safe, celebrated, affirmed and loved everywhere in the U.S.”
Finally, a study published this week in the scientific journal Nature Human Behavior is no surprise. In the words of Vice President of Research Ronita Nath of the youth suicide prevention group The Trevor Project, “[It] offers robust and indisputable evidence to support what we have already known: the recent wave of anti-transgender laws in the United States is quite literally risking the lives of young people across the country."
The report is based on new peer-reviewed research by The Trevor Project. It tracked self-reported suicide attempts by young people from 13 to 17 years of age across multiple years. The rate of attempted suicide increased by up to 72% following the passage of an anti-trans law in a respondent’s home state.
Bullying also played a role in those attempted suicides, which also led to increased substance abuse and missed school days. State laws weighing on trans youth include school sports bans, campus bathroom and changing room requirements, and severe restrictions or total prohibitions on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare.
Trevor Project C.E.O. Jaymes Black’s press statement reads in part, “As we get closer to critical elections this November, these young people will continue to be reduced to political talking points. … I urge every adult – no matter your political beliefs – to remember that transgender and nonbinary young people are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. It’s not necessary to fully understand their experience to acknowledge that they – like all young people – deserve dignity, respect, and the ability to lead healthy and full lives."