There’s a reason why October is LGBTQ History Month. The community historically laid claim to it with a 1979 event in the U.S. capitol. Just ten years after Stonewall and long before the age of acronyms, the massive October 1979 march and rally for LGBTQ rights surpassed all expectations — for good and for ill. Excerpts from an hour-long radio documentary that you can stream at thiswayout.org.
And in NewsWrap: Poland’s coalition government introduces civil unions legislation, Saskatchewan’s Parliament votes to require parental consent “when a student requests that their preferred name, gender identity, and/or gender expression to be used” at school, 97 percent of transgender and nonbinary young people receiving gender-affirming health care in a JAMA Pediatrics study are “highly satisfied,” U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign ads deride Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights, and more international LGBTQ news reported by Melanie Keller and David Hunt (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the October 28, 2024 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of October 28, 2024
The National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights Radio Documentary
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Poland’s government introduces a civil unions bill for same-gender couples in a significant departure from the previous eight year rule of the rabidly anti-queer Law & Justice Party … Saskatchewan’s rightwing government enacts measures to restrict the rights of transgender young people in the Canadian province … a major survey published in JAMA Pediatrics discovers close to 97 percent of U.S. trans youth getting reversible gender-affirming healthcare, specifically hormone therapies and puberty blockers, are “highly satisfied” with that care, and less than 4% expressed any regrets for seeking it … Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, are spending millions in the waning weeks of the U.S. national elections campaign on political ads deriding Democratic candidates, including Kamala Harris, for supporting the rights of transgender people [with audio from a Trump ad, and an ad debunking its claims by the Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed by anti-Trump Republicans and former Republicans that has endorsed Harris (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by MELANIE KELLER and DAVID HUNT).
Feature: Just ten years after Stonewall and long before the age of acronyms, the massive October 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights surpassed all expectations — for good and for ill. Nothing had ever pulled the broad spectrum of the queer community together before, and the powerful national political organizations of today have their roots there. The network it established prepared the community to unite to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic to come. It was also long before the internet, and building a network happened by word-of-mouth, in little trickles, not rushing streams of information. As recorded in a 1979 documentary by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, the first trickle for the March began during St. Paul, Minnesota’s fight to defend their inclusive civil rights ordinance with lesbian comic/activist Robin Tyler; homophobic media bias was alive and well, and rally emcee Tyler’s demand for accurate press coverage ultimately went unheeded. As it is today, reality is defined by who controls the flow of information (with music by KAI WINDING and MARGIE ADAM).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending October 26th, 2024
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Melanie Keller and David Hunt,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Poland’s coalition government is introducing civil unions legislation. The proposed measure is for both same-gender and heterosexual couples, giving them joint inheritance rights and medical decision authority. They will also have the option to create either “a shared property arrangement” or “a separation of property with equalization.”
Equality Minister Katarzyna Kotula called the bill’s introduction "a new chapter in the long march for equality, which, thanks to the many years of work of many LGBT organizations and civil society, has led us to this historic moment." Kotula can personally thank LGBT activists because a civil union would make her own informal male partner “entitled to participate” in raising their daughter living with them. However, couples in civil unions will not be able to jointly adopt, and a partner cannot adopt the biological children of their spouse. The adoption ban was apparently necessary to win the approval of one of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s three coalition government partners, the Poland Peasants’ Party.
Tusk had vowed to move civil union legislation within his first 100 days in office. However, the messy transition of power from the far-right Law and Justice Party last year led him to form a three-party coalition government with more socially conservative factions. They were not comfortable expanding the rights of gender and sexual minorities. Neither was the Roman Catholic Church, a powerful political presence in the Eastern European country. Law and Justice had a stranglehold on Polish life for eight years, and used homophobia and transphobia to stoke fears of ‘the other.” The party also ignored rulings by the European Court of Human Rights calling for the legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples. Now in the minority, Law and Justice and the equally conservative Confederation Party are likely to oppose the civil union bill in spite of the concession on adoption.
The legislation will now be discussed among government ministries and be open for a public consultation period before being debated in Parliament. If it gets parliamentary approval,
Law and Justice ally Polish President Andrzej Duda would also need to sign the measure. He has yet to take a public position on civil unions. In the background, all of the country’s political parties are jockeying to influence the choice of his successor as his term expires in May of 2025.
The Parliament of Saskatchewan has voted to require parental consent “when a student requests that their preferred name, gender identity, and/or gender expression to be used” at school. This Parents’ Bill of Rights had faced a court’s temporary injunction, but Premier Scott Moe’s government used the “notwithstanding clause” to push it through parliament on October 18th. The “notwithstanding clause” allows the government to disregard the court and Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The new legislation establishes a parent or legal guardian’s right to be the “primary decision maker” in their children’s education.
Opposition leader Carla Beck of the progressive New Democrats condemned the measure, calling it a backward step in the history of Saskatchewan politics. Students in the provincial capital of Regina and in other cities took a forward step and staged a walk-out/protest.
Saskatchewan’s Human Rights Commissioner Heather Kuttai resigned over the legislation. To her, the Parents’ Bill of Rights is “an attack on the rights of trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse children.” Her resignation letter declared, “My husband and I have a kid who is trans.”
Premier Moe is promising that banning so-called “biological boys” from sharing changing rooms with “biological girls” would top the Saskatchewan Party’s agenda if he wins re-election on October 28th.
The vast majority of transgender and nonbinary young people receiving hormone therapies and puberty blockers are satisfied with their gender-affirming health care – this according to a study published this week in JAMA Pediatrics. In fact, 97 percent said that they were “highly satisfied” with the care they were getting.
The study began in 2013 with 317 young people aged 12 or older in the U.S. and Canada. They were each followed closely for the next decade with regular one-on-one interviews. When parents were also surveyed, their responses tended to match those of their children. Some 270 respondents remained through 2023.
Only four percent of respondents who were polled six to ten years after transitioning expressed any regrets. The exact nature of their dissatisfaction was not specified, and not all of them decided to discontinue transitioning because of it. By comparison, 47 percent of people who have breast augmentation surgery reportedly express regret.
The respondents were predominantly white and wealthy. Lead study author Kristina Olson acknowledged the less-than-diverse sample. The Princeton University psychology professor blamed inequities in the availability of gender-affirming healthcare across the country.
Virtually every reputable medical and mental health association in the United States has expressed strong support for the types of pediatric gender-affirming healthcare examined by the study.
It’s not the first. JAMA Pediatrics had already published an Australian study that found only four percent of trans youth deciding to detransition.
The findings rebuke critics of pediatric gender-affirming healthcare. They claim there’s a much higher rate of regret, or that such reversible treatment can lead to actual physical or mental health problems. That was the conclusion of the controversial U.K. study called the Cass Report. It’s been used to restrict access to gender-affirming healthcare in England, Scotland and Wales for trans young people, and even for some adults.
The same challenged hypotheses are the bases for oppressive legislation targeting transgender young people in more than two dozen Republican-controlled U.S. states.
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare in early December.
Finally …
[SOUND: Trump ad]
Voice over: He murdered a father of three; sentenced to life in prison. Kamala Harris pushed to use tax dollars to pay for his sex change.
The New York Times counts more than 65 million dollars spent on ads like that one by Republican candidates for office, including U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump. The waning days of the current campaign are deriding Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights.
[SOUND:N Trump ad]
Harris: I made sure that they changed the policy, so that every transgender inmate would have access.
Voice over: It sounds insane, because it is insane.
It sounds highly edited because it is highly edited. This Trump ad is airing incessantly during sporting events. It goes on to accuse Harris of being first to enforce a legal interpretation that was actually in place during the former president’s term. The political action committee the Lincoln Project produced a rebuttal ad.
[SOUND: Lincoln Project ad]
Voice over: Tax-payer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens is a Trump administration policy. He’s attacking Kamala Harris for his own record, and he thinks you’re too dumb to get it.
The Lincoln Project was formed by a group of prominent anti-Trump Republicans, known for their tit-for-tat comebacks to their adversary. A play on pronouns was the obvious result of this volley.
[SOUND: Trump ad]
Voice over: Kamala’s agenda is “they/them,” not you.
[SOUND: Lincoln Project ad]
Voice over: Trump is for “he/him.” Kamala is for us.
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