How does your first time at a gay bar compare with the experiences of others? Come cruising with curator Art Smith through his growing online collection of those stories — and you can add yours to thousands of others, like the one told by Daniel M. Jaffe (produced by David Hunt).
And in NewsWrap: going abroad to have a surrogacy baby is now a crime in Italy, Moscow police raid two downtown clubs popular with the queer community and arrest 50 on Coming Out Day, a groundbreaking New South Wales law establishes rights for transgender people and strengthens existing protections for sexual minority communities, the dishonorable discharges of 820 U.S. veterans kicked out of the military for being queer under Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell and other policies are being upgraded, Dr. May Lau of Dallas, Texas is being sued by anti-queer state Attorney General Ken Paxton for providing hormones to her pediatric transgender patients, U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris handily handles heckler, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Joe Boehnlein and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the October 21, 2024 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of October 21, 2024
GayBarchives = Gay + Bar + Archives
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Italian lawmakers make traveling abroad for surrogacy services a crime … some 50 people are roughly arrested on National Coming Out Day in raids by Russian riot police on two Moscow queer nightspots … New South Wales lawmakers approve the Equality Bill, which extends major new rights to trans people and strengthens rights and protections for all LGBTQIA+ people in the Australian state … U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announces upgrades from dishonorable to honorable discharges for more than 800 service members booted from the military for being queer … Texas’ notoriously phobic Attorney General Ken Paxton charges Dallas Dr. May Lau with violating state law by offering gender-affirming healthcare, specifically hormones, to more than 20 pediatric trans patients … and U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris deftly handles some rare hecklers during a campaign stop on October 17th in La Crosse, Wisconsin [with audio] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by JOE BOEHNLEIN and MICHAEL LeBEAU).
Feature: What is the history of the LGBTQ movement? Is it the story of the thousands who have loudly and proudly taken to the streets in cities around the world? Is it the story of monumental media moments like Ellen DeGeneres coming out on television? Or is it the personal stories of millions who have made queer history in their own quiet, individual ways: living openly, supporting LGBTQ causes, and tying the knot in front of family and friends?
Many of those stories of coming out, finding friendship and love, and building community are set in spaces that are hidden in plain sight — in dive bars, leather bars, dance clubs, and taverns. Art Smith is collecting stories of the gay bar scene in an online archive that takes This Way Out’s DAVID HUNT down memory lane (with a “first time at a gay bar” story from the Barchives by writer Daniel M. Jaffe, and music by SYLVESTER, ICARUS, IKOLIKS, and DUCE WILLIAMS).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending October 19th, 2024
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Joe Boehnlein and Michael LeBeau,
produced by Brian DeShazor
It’s now a crime in Italy for a couple to go abroad to have a surrogacy baby. The legislation was a pet project of rightwing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. It passed in the Senate this week by a vote of 85-to-58. Parliament’s lower House had already approved it. The harsh penalty is up to two years in prison on top of a fine equivalent to more than a million U.S. dollars.
Meloni has called surrogate arrangements to carry a pregnancy for another person "a symbol of an abominable society that confuses desire with rights and replaces God with money." To veteran queer Italian activist Franco Grillini, it’s the law that’s “monstrous,” when the Italian birthrate is plunging and same-gender couples want children. He told Reuters at a demonstration ahead of the vote, “If someone has a baby they should be given a medal … Here instead you are sent to jail.”
Since domestic surrogacy and domestic or international adoption by lesbian and gay couples are already banned, the new law seems to specifically target queer families.
Ninety percent of Italian couples who use surrogacy are heterosexual, according to Rainbow Families President Alessia Crocini. She pointed out to The Guardian that the new ban indeed targets lesbian and gay couples who cannot easily hide coming home with a new baby.
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party habitually persecutes sexual and gender minorities. Last year the country’s first female Prime Minister ordered city councils in Milan and elsewhere to stop registering the children of same-gender couples. One of Meloni’s 2022 campaign slogans was, “yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby.”
Crocini’s responded defiantly to the new law in ANSA and vowed, “We as Rainbow Families will not stop and will continue our battle in the courts and in the streets. We will fight every day to affirm the beauty and freedom of our families and our sons and daughters.”
Police raided two clubs popular with the queer community in downtown Moscow and arrested some 50 people during the early morning hours of October 11th. It was National Coming Out Day in North America, which has been adopted around the world. Two pro-Kremlin Russian Telegram channels claim that the raid on Central Station was to “fight drug trafficking.” There were also claims that drag shows there mocked the Russian military’s invasion of Ukraine.
Riot police showed up at Three Monkeys, which is operated by the same ownership as Central Station. Videos show patrons at both venues being either forced to the ground or with arms up leaning against walls for an aggressive frisking.
The official story is that the raids were prompted by “civilian complaints” of “indecent behavior.”
Similar invasions of queer Russian nightspots launched soon after anti-queer legislation was enacted in recent years. It's not yet known where this week’s detainees are being held.
A groundbreaking New South Wales law will establish rights for transgender people and strengthen existing protections for sexual minority communities. The Australian state’s Legislative Council approved Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023 after several starts and stops. It was first approved there last year, more than a year after its first introduction in Parliament. This week’s approval in the Legislative Assembly was the final step.
The bill was sponsored by independent out M.P. Alex Greenwich. He said, “We’ve got more work to do and we start that work now with new confidence from these significant wins for our community.”
Anna Brown of Equality Australia called the measure “the largest package of LGBTIQ+ reforms in N.S.W. history.”
The new law allows trans people to change the gender marker on their birth certificates without having to undergo surgery. It also creates a “non-binary” identity option.
Threatening to out a queer person becomes a criminal offense under the new laws. They also protect children born overseas via surrogacy and their parents from discrimination. Ashley Scott of All Kids Are Equal applauded the move. She said, “No loving and caring family should be unequal under the eyes of N.S.W. law.”
The dishonorable discharges of 820 U.S. veterans kicked out of the military for being queer are being upgraded to honorable. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that the move was “to redress the harms done by Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell and other policies on these former service members.” This week’s action follows a yearlong review of individual service records.
An estimated 13,500 people were booted from the U.S. armed forces under “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell.” President Joe Biden issued pardons in June to service members wrongly discharged for their sexual orientation or gender identity under the policy or then-existing anti-sodomy laws. However, applications for a certificate of pardon or a discharge upgrade required further review. There have been several complaints that the process is convolutedly complicated and unnecessarily antagonistic. Those obstacles have discouraged many from applying. Secretary Austin says that 96 percent of the applicants who made it through the system have been upgraded.
Upgrades to honorable allow queer veterans to access several major Veterans Administration benefits, including educational advancement, healthcare coverage and home loan programs.
CBS News reports that the Defense Department is sending letters to eligible veterans with information about how to get a copy of their new discharge papers. Because of confidential information in these papers, a vet must make the direct request personally.
Austin is promising to “continue to strive to do right by every American patriot who has honorably served our country.”
Dr. May Lau of Dallas, Texas is the first practitioner in the country to face legal jeopardy for providing hormones to her pediatric transgender patients. Infamously anti-queer state Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on October 17th accusing Lau of violating the state’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors.
Dr. Lau practices at the Children’s Health Center and is a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Paxton is demanding an injunction against her continued treatment of trans minors, and punitive fines of up to $10,000 for each of the more than 20 alleged violations.
Harper Seldin with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project called Paxton’s lawsuit the “predictable and terrifying result” of the anti-trans law. Seldin says it’s the first time that any state has tried to actually enforce its trans minors’ treatment ban. The law in the Lone Star State prevents trans people under the age of 18 from accessing hormone therapies and puberty blockers. It also bans surgery on minors, which is rarely recommended for children.
Paxton’s press release called the widely approved standard of care for transgender minors “dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects.” Extensive research has proved that’s just not true. Puberty blockers and hormone therapies are absolutely reversible. Despite all the evidence, Paxton vows, “Doctors who continue to provide these harmful ‘gender transition’ drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a case challenging Tennessee’s similar pediatric gender-affirming healthcare ban in December.
Finally, U.S. Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris was treated to rare heckling at a campaign rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin on October 17th. Her snap-worthy response was a hit:
[SOUND: Harris and Heckler]
Harris: We remember, Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the U.S. Supreme Court … (audience: boo) … with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended.
Heckler: Lies! Lies! Lies!
Harris: Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. (audience cheers) No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street. (audience: cheers)
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