As the Trump administration erases the T and Q in LGBTQ from government websites and publications — even the signage outside the Stonewall National Monument — New York college student Eli Butler seeks to counter the hate of far-right politicians and media outlets by exploring the hidden history and the joy of transmasculine community building (interviewed by David Hunt).
And in NewsWrap: two young men in the Indonesian province of Aceh are publicly beaten with a cane for having gay sex, British law does not recognize “nonbinary” as a gender according to the United Kingdom Court of Appeal, Iowa’s transgender people are no longer protected from discrimination, a federal judge rules that key provisions of Trump’s executive order targeting federal agencies and federally funded DEI programs in higher education and the private sector are “impermissibly vague,” a second Trump order to move transgender women in U.S. women’s prisons to men’s prisons is blocked, the U.S. Supreme Court lets Tennessee’s virtual ban on drag performances stand, the “reverse discrimination” case of a straight, white, cisgender woman is heard by the U.S. top court, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Ava Davis and Joe Boehnlein (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the March 3, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of March 3, 2025
Eli Butler’s Transmasculine Joy
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Two young gay college students in the Islamic-law-governed Indonesian province of Aceh are each sentenced to at least 80 public lashings after vigilante neighbors broke into their rented home and found them naked and hugging … an U.S. transplant loses their Court of Appeal bid to be legally recognized in the U.K. as nonbinary … Iowa’s Republican governor signs a bill approved by the Republican-dominated legislature to remove gender identity as a protected class in the state’s civil rights laws [with sounds of a massive protest of the move at the state capitol] … one U.S. federal judge temporarily blocks enforcement of Donald Trump’s executive order dismantling diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) initiatives in all federal agencies and in federally-funded higher education and private sector companies … another U.S. federal judge puts a hold on a Trump order to move transgender women inmates in U.S. prisons to male facilities … the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on drag … the U.S. high court justices do hear a case this week by a white heterosexual Ohio government worker claiming “reverse discrimination” after gay colleagues she says were less qualified got promotions she was seeking (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by AVA DAVIS and JOE BOEHNLEIN).
Feature: There’s a giant eraser moving across the U.S.A., and the letters T and Q are disappearing from the government’s LGBTQ-related websites and publications. The Trump administration has even wiped any mention of transgender people from the signage outside the Stonewall National Monument — despite the fact that it was trans activists who launched the 1969 rebellion it memorializes. While conservative politicians are using their network of far-right media outlets to power the transphobic purge, This Way Out’s DAVID HUNT met Eli Butler, one New York college student who’s focused on a new kind of narrative: the history — and the joy — of transmasculine community building. (with brief intro music by tRICKY j and additional music by PATRIC LEMIEUX and MICHAEL SHYNES)
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending March 1, 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Ava Davis and Joe Boehnlein,
produced by Brian DeShazor
Two young men in the Indonesian province of Aceh are to be publicly beaten with a cane for having gay sex. They were arrested on November 7th after anti-queer vigilantes broke into their rented room and discovered them naked and hugging each other. Under Islamic law they were tried for “morality offenses.” The 18- and 24-year-old college students were sentenced to 80 and 85 lashes respectively.
Sakwanah is the single name of the judge overseeing the trial – that’s a custom for many Indonesians. Her ruling found “During the trial, it was proven that the defendants committed illicit acts, including kissing and having sex.” While the maximum penalty is 100 lashings in public and up to eight years in prison, Sakwanah lessened the sentences because neither had a police record, both were polite in court, and they are otherwise considered to be outstanding students. The older of the two will be flogged the most. The pair accepted their sentences without appeal.
Sharia has been the law in Aceh province since a 2006 dispute with federal authorities allowed it to adopt Islamic legal practice. The rest of Indonesia is governed by secular laws. More than 100 people each year in the province have been publicly caned for various “morality offenses.”
The scheduled public canings in Aceh come on the heels of last week’s raid on what authorities called a “gay sex party” in Jakarta. Fifty-six men were arrested in a private hotel room and charged with violating the country’s secular laws against obscenity and pornography.
British law does not recognize “nonbinary” as a gender according to the United Kingdom Court of Appeal.
Cyber security expert Ryan Castellucci moved from Los Angeles in 2019. They obtained legal recognition as non-binary in California in 2021 and were issued a U.S. passport listing their gender as “X” the following year. They tried to have their gender recorded as non-binary on a U.K. gender recognition certificate - a document which changes someone's legal sex. They lost that bid in an earlier High Court challenge. Meanwhile, a Trump administration executive order has eliminated the “X” gender passport option.
Lord Justice Singh deferred to Parliament in dismissing the appeal, saying that the U.K.’s “two-gender” policy was up to lawmakers to address, not the judiciary.
Castellucci called their efforts to be legally recognized as non-binary an “ordeal,” but their lawyers say they are considering a further appeal. At thirty-something they’re looking ahead, saying, “I plan to live the rest of my life here, and eventually die here. Being denied the dignity of knowing my death certificate will be correct makes my stomach turn.”
Iowa’s transgender people are no longer protected from discrimination. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill that revokes the addition of gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in two-thousand-seven. Thus, the current Republican-dominated state legislature has undone the statute by the previous Democratic administration and affirmed by the state Supreme Court in 2022.
Hundreds of people rallied at the state Capitol building to protest the bill’s imminent passage:
[SOUND: protests]
Singing: We are trans-bi-queer together,
And we are singing, singing for our lives.
Crowd sounds
Iowa’s legislature ignored the voices of the people. The Republicans argued that revoking gender identity protections in civil rights laws will make it easier for the state to defend its other anti-trans laws, such as the ban on trans student competitors in female sports. That’s already being challenged in court.
Iowa is now the first state in U.S. history to excise a class originally granted civil rights protections. Max Mowitz of the queer advocacy group One Iowa told the Des Moines Register, “This law will cause real harm, making daily life harder and more uncertain for countless Iowans who simply want to live openly and authentically. History will not look kindly on this moment.”
Two executive orders by U.S. President Donald Trump that threaten the civil rights of LGBTQ people and other U.S. citizens are already being roadblocked in court. Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson said that key provisions targeting federal agencies and federally funded diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education and the private sector were, “impermissibly vague and threaten to chill constitutionally protected speech and activity.” Abelson issued a preliminary injunction this week blocking their enforcement. The ruling noted that the administration’s effort to uproot DEI programs failed to define key terms, such as “equity-related” and “illegal DEI.” Abelson was not convinced that the order was necessary to root out “illegal discrimination.”
This challenge is being led by national education groups and the city of Baltimore. At least one other lawsuit against the anti-diversity order has been filed by Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund on behalf of the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance and AIDS Foundation Chicago.
The block on a second Trump order is keeping transgender women in U.S. women’s prisons from being transferred to men’s prisons. That action was to comply with the Trump decree that U.S. law recognizes only two genders: male and female. Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the move would violate trans women’s constitutional rights and put them in jeopardy of serious harm.
Lamberth had previously issued an order to protect three trans women inmates from imminent transfer. The latest ruling expands that protection to nine additional plaintiffs who were “rounded up by Bureau of Prison officials” and told they would be immediately transferred to men’s prisons, according to court filings. The Trump order also terminates current gender-affirming healthcare for trans inmates. The judge believes the lawsuit challenging the Trump anti-trans order is likely to be overturned on Eighth Amendment protections against imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments.
Judge Lamberth questioned the Trump administration’s motives. He wrote that the order would “exacerbate the symptoms of their gender dysphoria, even if they are not subject to physical or sexual violence in their new facility—whether because they will be subject to searches by male correctional officers, made to shower in the company of men, referred to as men, [and] forced to dress as men.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is letting Tennessee’s virtual ban on drag performances stand. On February 24th it decided not to hear a case challenging the law.
The legislation was enacted by the Republican-controlled state in 2023. It was ruled “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad,” by a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. However, last July the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision on a technicality. The top court has now let stand its finding that the complainant Friends of George, Inc. drag theater company of Memphis lacked the legal standing to sue.
Another lawsuit challenging the Tennessee’s drag ban is still working its way through the U.S. judicial system. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of Blount County Pride Organizers because the law threatened prosecution of any violators during its 2023 Pride festival.
Finally however, there was one hearing the U.S. high court did hold this week: the “reverse discrimination” case of a straight, white, cisgender woman who claims that she was denied a promotion and demoted after allegedly less qualified queer colleagues gained positions ahead of her.
Sixty-year-old Marlean Ames worked for years for the Ohio Department of Youth Services, the state’s juvenile justice system.
A lower appeals court ruled in her case that a so-called majority group plaintiff must meet a higher evidentiary standard than plaintiffs in other bias cases. In other words, it’s harder for heterosexual workers to prove discrimination based on sexual orientation, or for white employees claiming racial bias.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling before the current term ends in late June. A number of civil rights groups are deeply concerned that a win for Ames could open a pandora’s box of countless ‘reverse discrimination’ cases – and that could be especially dangerous in the current climate against diversity, equity and inclusion.
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