Transgender philosophy professor Talia Mae Bettcher (“Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy”) confronts a world that oppression has turned upside down, and has some bold suggestions for radical, liberating action to stop trans erasure (interviewed by Tanya Kane-Parry).
And in NewsWrap: the U.S. Department of the Navy puts its plans to expel Navy and Marine Corps personnel with a history of gender dysphoria into high gear, transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr eloquently convinces the Montana state House that drag performances are not inherently sexual, a licensed Colorado counselor’s free speech complaint against the state ban on conversion therapy goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, a new poll commissioned by a queer advocacy group shows that Australians highly oppose transgender people being scapegoated for political purposes, an insult to transgender U.S. Congressmember Sarah McBride and her ally’s defense blow up a House Foreign Relations Subcommittee hearing, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by David Hunt and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the March 17, 2025 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of March 17, 2025
Beyond Identity: Bettcher’s Transgender Philosophy
NewsWrap (full transcript below): The U.S. Secretary of the Navy announces the involuntary separation of all transgender members of the Navy and Marine Corps on March 28th, while a federal district court judge is expected to issue a preliminary injunction blocking those dismissals a few days before that … transgender member of the Montana state House Zooey Zephyr eloquently defends drag and helps defeat a bill to outlaw such performances [with excerpts from her remarks during debate of the bill] … the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear a challenge in its next term beginning in October to Colorado’s state ban on conversion therapy — the discredited claim that sexual orientation and gender identity can be changed through counseling and prayer … a press release from Equality Australia celebrates recent polling that found the vast majority of folks Down Under strongly support the rights of transgender people … the first and only openly transgender member of the U.S. Congress, Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride, snaps back at an insulting recognition of her by Republican committee Chair Keith Self of Texas, who is then raked over the coals by fellow Democrat and ranking committee member Bill Keating of Massachusetts, all leading to an abrupt adjournment of the committee hearing [with audio of the brouhaha] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by TANYA KANE-PARRY and MICHAEL LeBEAU).
Feature: Talia Mae Bettcher is a professor at California State University Los Angeles, chair of the Philosophy Department from 2012-2018 and past director of the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities. Her new book coning out this week is called Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy, published by University of Minnesota Press. This Way Out’s TANYA KANE-PARRY asked Bettcher to explain her core message (with music by SHEA DIAMOND and CJ BEARDS).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending March 17th 2025
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Michael LeBeau,
produced by Brian DeShazor
The U.S. Department of the Navy’s plans to expel Navy and Marine Corps personnel with a history of gender dysphoria are in high gear. New guidelines ordering the involuntary separations of trans service members after March 28th were announced just a day after a federal judge and a Trump administration lawyer clashed over the policy. A March 26th deadline for voluntary separations had already been declared. “Waivers” may be considered, but only for applicants who have lived for three years as their birth-assigned sex, and who never have and will not attempt to transition.
Navy Secretary Terence Emmert echoed the Trump administration’s stance in his memo saying, “The Department of the Navy recognizes two sexes: male and female. … An individual’s sex is immutable, [and] unchanging during a person’s life.”
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes sharply criticized the administration’s justification for the policy in a hearing earlier in the week. The openly lesbian judge appointed by President Joe Biden presides over one of two legal challenges to the ban. Reyes chastised the government for its failure to provide evidence that transgender service members negatively impact military readiness. In her words, “The question in this case is whether the military under the equal protection rights afforded to every American under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, if the military…can do that and targeting a specific medical issue that impacts a specific group that the administration disfavors.”
Reyes is expected to issue a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ban by March 19th. That would be more than a week ahead of the Navy Department’s separation deadlines for transgender enlistees.
[SOUND: Zephyr]
I first wanna start off and say at its very core drag is art.
Transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr was eloquent this week when the Montana state House was considering whether to label drag performances inherently sexual.
[SOUND: Zephyr]
Drag is a beautiful art. Drag has a deep history in this country, and it is a history that is important to my community. You know, if you are wearing … if you are a woman in this body wearing a suit today you are challenging gender norms that existed long ago, and in some ways drag does work to challenge those norms.
The proposed legislation would have mandated fines of up to $5,000 per performance and allowed parents or guardians to sue drag performers for allegedly harming their children.
[SOUND: Zephyr]
Drag story hours I have been to here in Montana … they are like Disney princesses reading to people. We had people come in and talk about this. These are spaces where people come up and they sit down in libraries and parents elect to bring their children and learn about books and the love of reading and also yes, be involved in part … and be … and to hear stories told from members of my community. That is important and that is beautiful, and I do not think that we should be standing up and saying that this art form, because it is somehow connected to my community, is not allowed.
After listening to Montana transgender state Representative Zooey Zephyr, 13 Republicans joined all the Democrats to reject House Bill 675. The final tally was 44 in favor and 55 against, with one Republican absent.
Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy is going to the United States Supreme Court. Plaintiff Kaley Chiles is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs arguing that the ban violates the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Her original 2022 filing claims that under the law she is forced “to deny voluntary counseling that fully explores sexuality and gender to her clients and potential clients in violation of her and her clients’ sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Virtually every professional medical and mental health organization in the country disagrees with Chiles. They’ve all discredited the assertions of religious practitioners that sexual orientation or gender identity can be changed through counseling and prayer. They find the so-called “therapy” to be ineffective at best, and at worst life-threatening.
Lower courts have ruled that the state has the right to set healthcare policies and regulate its professional providers, and that the law does not infringe on free speech as Chiles alleges. An appeals court subsequently backed those decisions.
Chiles is represented by the religious right Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear this case during its next term, which begins in October.
Colorado is one of 23 states and the District of Columbia that bans conversion therapy. A high court ruling in favor of Chiles could effectively overturn all of them.
Australians are highly opposed to transgender people being scapegoated for political purposes according to a new poll commissioned by Equality Australia. The country’s leading queer advocacy group released its data as right-wing billionaire Clive Palmer pushes his transphobic campaign ads.
The Redbridge Group polling was conducted between February 3rd and 7th with a sample of 1,013 Australians aged 18 and older.
Among its key findings:
91 percent of the respondents agree or strongly agree that transgender people should have the freedom and choice to live their lives in ways that make them happy …
81 percent agree or strongly agree that trans people deserve the same rights and protections as other Australians …
86 percent agree or strongly agree that trans issues should not be part of the political dialogue during the federal election campaign …
and 89 percent agree or strongly agree that LGBTQ people deserve to live with dignity and respect.
Redbridge Director Tony Barry said, “Australian voters are in the market for policies on cost of living relief, housing and public and private health. … The major parties cannot allow themselves to go off-message with self-indulgent culture wars because that’s the dog that isn’t barking.”
To Equality Australia’s CEO Anna Brown, “It’s clear from this polling that the vast majority of Australians … don’t want to see [trans people] used as a political punching bag.”
TransEquality Council Chair Teddy Cook confirmed the obvious, saying, “This polling shows that what is important to the Australian public is the cost of living and not trans lives. … Trans people are busy contributing to our communities and getting on with our lives. … Talking about gender and obsessing about a vulnerable 1% of the population won’t help pay the bills or find a home.”
Finally, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Relations Subcommittee became a battleground against Republican resistance to the existence of transgender people this week.
[SOUND: Self and McBride]
Self: I now recognize the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride.
McBride: Thank you, Madame chair.
Subcommittee chair Keith Self kicked off his hearings with an insult to the country’s first transgender Congressperson Sarah McBride. McBride swiped back at the Texas Congressman’s intentional offense. Then her fellow Democrat and ranking member Bill Keating of Massachusetts stepped in to rebuke Chairman Self.
[SOUND: Keating and Self]
Keating: Mr. Chairman, could you repeat your introduction again, please?
Self: Yes it's a … it's a … We set the standard on the floor of the House and I'm simply …
Keating: What is the standard, Mr. Chairman? Would you repeat what you just said when you introduced a duly elected representative from the United States of America, please?
Self: I will. The representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride.
Keating: Mr. Chairman you are out of order. Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I mean I’ve come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent.
Self: We will continue this …
Keating: You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way.
Self: [gavel] This hearing is adjourned.