Monday, June 8, 2026 - This Way Out celebrates Pride Month with a special look at the power of visibility, community, and resistance. Then, This Way Out visits Los Angeles' historic Founders Metropolitan Community Church for the unveiling of the Rainbow Liberation Steps, a permanent public art installation honoring LGBTQ+ freedom and liberation. The dedication ceremony features community leaders, activists, faith leaders, and members of the congregation reflecting on the continuing struggle for equality and inclusion. NewsWrap reports on Colorado's successful effort to restore its ban on conversion therapy, a federal appeals court ruling blocking the Trump administration's transgender military ban, Pride activists marching forward in Hungary despite government opposition, and Ghana's parliament approving a sweeping anti-LGBTQ law. Finally, This Way Out takes to the streets of Los Angeles to ask a timely question: What would you say to someone who believes Pride is no longer relevant? The answers reveal why Pride continues to matter for LGBTQ+ people and their allies around the world.

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1. Until next time, this is Michael Taylor Gray for IMRU, broadcasting out loud and out proud.
2. And as I always like to say, this is good night, but not goodbye.
3. Well, where have you been, people?
4. Yes, it's still me.
5. It's still me.
6. Do not change that channel.
7. Yes, this is our LGBTQIA2S plus queer community calendar.
8. Happy Pride Month, y'all, you beautiful people.
9. What an incredible Pride weekend here in Los Angeles.
10. I hope all of you got out and did something fabulous, whether you attended an event, celebrated with friends, danced the night away, or simply made your way to West Hollywood and Hollywood to watch the colorful floats, amazing performances, and beautiful energy that Pride brings to our city every year.
11. And remember, Pride means personal rights and defense and education.
12. Now let's take a look at what's happening in our queer community calendar this week.
13. on Tuesday, June 9th.
14. Shameless, book launch featuring Terrell J.A. Winder
15. and Daryl Stevens.
16. 7 p.m., Reparations Club, Los Angeles.
17. Queer Books, Queer Stories, Queer Community.
18. Darling, that's what we call a perfect Tuesday night.
19. Wednesday, June 10th,
20. Pantages Pride Night, Hell's Kitchen.
21. 7.30 p.m., Hollywood Pantages Theater.
22. Honey, if there's theater involved,
23. we're already dressed for it.
24. Thursday, June 11th, LA Pride Skate Party.
25. 7.30pm to midnight
26. Mi Vida
27. Los Angeles
28. Put on your skates and your confidence
29. If you fall, make it dramatic girl
30. Friday, June 12
31. An evening among the roses
32. 6pm, the Huntington, San Marino
33. One of my favorite places in town
34. Stop and smell the roses sweetheart
35. Romance may be hiding behind a bush
36. Just make sure it's romance
37. Saturday, June 13
38. LA Pride at Street Food Cinema
39. The Birdcage
40. Doors open 6 p.m., movie begins at 8.30 p.m.
41. Autry Museum, Griffith Park.
42. Food trucks, community, and the birdcage under the stars.
43. Nathan Lane would be proud.
44. Sunday, June 14th, 56th annual L.A. Pride Parade.
45. 11 a.m., Hollywood Boulevard.
46. Bring your sunscreen, your chosen family, and enough glitter to be visible from space.
47. Yes, and remember, Uber or take some other kind of form of transportation.
48. Parking's going to be a challenge, kids.
49. L.A. Pride Village, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Hollywood Boulevard.
50. Boulevard, L.A. Pride Village, they're calling it that.
51. Music, food, community, and fabulous people everywhere,
52. basically heaven with better outfits.
53. Yes.
54. Community moment.
55. Pride started as a movement because a celebration became a celebration
56. and remains a promise that we will continue showing up for one another.
57. Be kind, be proud, be visible.
58. and most importantly, be yourself.
59. This is Michael Taylor Gray
60. thanking all of our amazing listeners,
61. supporters, and chosen family
62. for being with us each and every week.
63. A huge rainbow-colored thank you
64. goes out to our fabulous producer
65. of the Queer Community Calendar,
66. Arnella Barber, the one and only,
67. for keeping us informed, connected,
68. and just a little bit more fabulous.
69. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
70. take care of each other,
71. and celebrate who you are
72. and never let anyone dim your sparkle.
73. Uh-uh.
74. Glitter, glitter, never litter
75. Stay proud, stay loud, stay fabulous
76. And stay tuned for This Way Out
77. Ciao
78. season We get into the heads of LGBTQ plus youth and elders
79. We'll march with dykes,
80. hear young poets respond to their ancestors.
81. And that's not all this week.
82. I'll bet you'll be glad you discovered this way out.
83. I'm Rhett.
84. And I'm Sarah Montague.
85. with News Wrap, a summary of some of the news in or affecting LGBT communities around the world
86. for the week ending May 30th, 2026. The latest raid on a so-called gay party in Kuala Lumpur
87. nabbed 51 men. An individual found unconscious in the lobby of a luxury hotel prompted the police
88. action. He was rushed to the hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. Details about the
89. cause of death have not been released. Four raids are said to have been carried out in the evening
90. on Sunday, May 24th. The men detained were taken from different rooms throughout the hotel.
91. Police seized MDMA, ecstasy, and ketamine. 36 people tested positive for drugs in initial
92. urine tests. The 51 men who were apprehended remained in custody for three to six days.
93. Some of those arrested allegedly were found using rooms at the hotel to party, abuse drugs,
94. and engage in immoral activities. Homosexuality is criminalized in Malaysia. No charges related
95. to queer activity have been announced so far. Criminal lawyer Goh Shih Yee criticized the
96. police for calling the men's gathering a gay party. He warned that unprofessional labeling
97. or comments from the authorities risk influencing judicial perception on the matter. As co-founder
98. of the Malaysian LGBTQ rights group, Justice for Sisters Thilaga Sulathire pointed out the fact
99. that LGBTQ people and their identities are perceived as a form of vice and immorality
100. in a context of criminalization of LGBTQ people,
101. makes LGBTQ people vulnerable to human rights violations.
102. The Kenyan High Court has ruled that it is a constitutional violation
103. to deny the right to change gender markers on official documents.
104. The major win for the rights of transgender and intersex Kenyan people
105. comes at the end of a legal battle that began in 2020.
106. Transgender activists Audrey Mbugwa Itibu
107. Itibu and two others who did not receive amended birth certificates sued Attorney General Dorcas
108. Odor, the Register of Births and Deaths, the National Registration Bureau, and Immigration
109. Services Director. On May 20th, the High Court ruled that Kenyan law does not expressly prohibit
110. altering gender markers. Applications to change gender markers on birth certificates and other
111. government IDs must now be processed on a case-by-case basis. State agencies must stop
112. automatically denying those requests. The Kenyan Advocacy Group Initiative for Equality and
113. Non-Discrimination chaired the ruling, saying access to legal identity documentation is not
114. just a human rights issue, it's a foundational pillar of socioeconomic inclusion. Transgender
115. Kenyans will ideally have fewer barriers to employment, travel, financial systems, and
116. participate in the political process now with accurate IDs and passports. The official Stone
117. National Monument in New York City is in jeopardy again. The National Trust for
118. Historic Preservation is adding it to the list of the United States most endangered historic places The Trust has identified 11 endangered sites each year since 1988
119. This year's list commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
120. featuring places that exemplify the equality of all people.
121. Earlier this year, the rainbow flag was removed from the Stonewall National Monument by the Trump administration.
122. Public outrage brought protesters into the streets and the federal government was sued.
123. The settlement required the government to rehang the flag.
124. The monument dedicated to the site of the Stonewall uprising in 1969
125. is the first and only national monument dedicated to LGBTQ plus history.
126. This year will mark the 10th anniversary of its designation.
127. The Pauli Murray Center, honoring the late black gender variant theologian and activist, was a national landmark until the same Trump policy demands recently stripped it of its status.
128. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation says their lists have galvanized public support to protect more than 350 sites.
129. Their statement warns that the National Stonewall Monument faces federal actions and policy changes that endanger the site's historically accurate interpretation, community representation, and educational impact, including the participation of the full range of LGBTQ plus people in the Stonewall uprising.
130. Student suspensions related to homophobic, transphobic, ableist, and racist abuse are on the rise in United Kingdom schools.
131. New data from the Department of Education shows a 68% increase in mentions of prejudicial abuse in the reasons for suspension over the past four years.
132. In 2020, abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity were added as reasons for suspensions in the Department of Education's data.
133. The BBC, Yahoo UK and other news outlets reported a jump in these abuses from 2021 to 2025.
134. However, the data appears to be a bit more complicated.
135. Further study shows that these outlets all had an incorrect starting number of suspensions.
136. The accounts of homophobic and transphobic suspensions
137. have stayed within the same ballpark over the last five years.
138. With the biggest jump actually happening last year,
139. the current numbers stay around the 1,000 mark.
140. So rather than homophobic and transphobic abuses specifically being on the rise,
141. the research indicates that prejudicial abuses in schools are generally on the rise.
142. However, homophobic and transphobic abuse is an ongoing crisis in UK schools.
143. It looks as if that'll be the way for some time.
144. Finally, Pornhub is coming out with some unexpected Pride Season 4 play.
145. The adult video sharing website is launching Pornhub Sapphic,
146. a wing designed specifically for queer women and non-binary people.
147. It's being advertised as a platform of content curated for the female gaze,
148. inclusive of lesbian, trans, and non-binary identities.
149. Lesbian was the most viewed category for women on the website in 2025.
150. VP of brand and community Alex Kasecki's press release proclaimed,
151. PornhubSaffik was created in direct response to feedback from lesbian, queer, and straight
152. women who told us they wanted an experience that felt made for them.
153. Nonetheless not everyone finds the idea titillating Initial dissenters are concerned that PornhubSaffik will just continue the industry exploitation and fetishization of lesbians Other critics say it capitalism under the guise of diversity and
154. inclusion. Paulita Papelle is the founder of Lustry.com. She told Metro that Pornhub responds
155. to market signals. Women and non-binary people watch porn. They are a demographic worth designing
156. for and making that visible matters. Poppel added, with anything related to pornography,
157. its industry, and its social impact, nothing is ever simply good or bad, and Pornhub's new
158. SAFIC site is no exception. The site is now available in a public beta format.
159. That's News Wrap, global queer news with attitude, for the week ending May 30th,
160. 2026. Follow the news in your area and around the world. An informed community is a strong community.
161. News Wrap was written by Jeb Bakke, produced by Lucille Chappelle and Brian DeShazel,
162. and brought to you by you. Thank you. Help keep us in ears around the world at thiswayout.org,
163. where you can also read the text of this newscast and much more. For This Way Out, I'm Rhett.
164. Stay healthy.
165. And I'm Sarah Montague. Stay safe.
166. you're listening to this way out the international lgbtq radio magazine now it's time to rewind the
167. rainbow this is the rainbow rewind where we take a quick look back at the people and the moments
168. that made queer history i'm sherry lunn this week we honor the early june birthdays of actor
169. Zachary Quinto, journalist Anderson Cooper, performer Josephine Baker, and poet Allen
170. Ginsberg. Now, let's rewind to a few June key queer milestones. Let's kick off Pride Month
171. with a look back at some landmark happenings in the early morning hours of June 1969.
172. New York City police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.
173. Instead of dispersing, patrons and local community members fought back against the police harassment.
174. Led heavily by trans women of color, drag queens, and street youth, the subsequent riots lasted for several days and served as the primary catalyst for the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
175. Exactly one year after the uprising, activists organized the Christopher Street Liberation Day March in New York City in June 1970.
176. Concurrently, marches were held in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco,
177. marking the first coordinated gay pride parades in history.
178. And the Supreme Court has issued some of its most critical decisions on LGBTQ civil rights in June.
179. In 2003, they ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional,
180. effectively decriminalizing same-sex relationships and establishing a constitutional right to privacy.
181. In 2013, the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down, ruling that the government could not deny federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples.
182. In 2015, they legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, requiring all 50 states to issue marriage licenses and recognize marriages performed in other states.
183. And in 2020, they ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ employees, making it illegal for employers to fire someone simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
184. or gender identity. That's this week's Rainbow Rewind, because remembering our past fuels our
185. pride. I'm Sherri Lunn. Stay tuned. More This Way Out is coming up.
186. How did the event that put lesbian visibility on the map get its start? Where is the next
187. generation that will shape queer identities? How does art fuel the movement? We'll be looking at
188. all those questions and more in Proud Voices, a series of special features for Pride season.
189. Today's program is a tray of hors d'oeuvres to whet your appetite. Here comes one of our special
190. guests now. My name is Brian Sonia Wallace, and I'm the Poet Laureate of the City of Los Angeles.
191. I'm excited this Pride Month to be featuring the voices of youth from Get Lit, Words Ignite,
192. which is a teen literacy program based here in Los Angeles,
193. and their responses to poems and writing by classic LGBTQ plus authors and thinkers.
194. Aristotle created his poetics within the context of a slave-based economy,
195. an imperialist democracy not unlike the corporate-controlled democracy we are witnessing in these United States.
196. The, in my view, idolatrous and indeed blasphemous idea that the United States or any other nation is a sort of pagan god, which has to have literature offered up to it as a burnt sacrifice.
197. American capitalism is not ready for people of color theater that holds members of its audience complicitous in the oppression of its characters.
198. And that one sort of literature should be unacceptable to its nostrils.
199. Prior to Hitler's taking over in the 20s, the gay movement in Germany was more advanced than the gay movement in San Francisco in 1978.
200. There were letters written to the Reichstag telling them to throw out the anti-gay laws.
201. Scientists, doctors, everybody was preaching for gayness and acceptability.
202. In Russia, 1917, they threw out the anti-gay laws.
203. And then Stalin took over.
204. That was the end of the gay movement.
205. Hitler took over, then the gay movement.
206. And if you think history doesn't repeat itself, you're crazy.
207. We, young and black and fine and gay,
208. sweated out our first heartbreaks with no school nor office chums
209. to share that confidence over lunch hour.
210. Just as there were no rings to make tangible the reason for our happy secret smiles,
211. there were no names nor reasons given or shared
212. for the tears that messed up the lab reports or the library bills.
213. We were good listeners and never asked for double dates,
214. but didn't we know the rules?
215. I introduced the word lesbian into the movement.
216. Didn't mean to do it, but I did it, and it worked fine.
217. We discovered and explored our attention to women alone,
218. sometimes in secret, sometimes in defiance,
219. sometimes in little pockets that almost touched.
220. Why are those little black girls always either whispering together or fighting?
221. I did a panel called, Is Lesbianism a Feminist Issue?
222. And that was the first time the word was said out loud.
223. and all hell broke loose in 1970.
224. Lesbian feminist is actually two dirty words.
225. These words are dirty to the ears of most people
226. because women who are lesbians and feminists
227. challenge the order and control of our society.
228. We represent a threat to the heterosexual norm.
229. We challenge the invisibility and powerlessness of womankind and we have a self mission to destroy the patriarchal world order Threatening You bet What you have to do as I see it is to decide what you would
230. be like if there were nobody else in the world. I have to say some very reckless things tonight,
231. and so I want to make it absolutely clear that I am talking for myself. I am not,
232. I might be at other platforms and other occasions
233. more or less representing this or that organization
234. or this or that committee
235. but tonight I am talking to you
236. as Jimmy Baldwin who was born in Harlem
237. 39 years ago who
238. has a certain responsibility to the people that produced him
239. that is all of you and I'm speaking to you
240. if I may say so, not as an organizer
241. and not as a Negro leader and not as a public figure, not as any of those things,
242. but as one of the poets that you produced.
243. I'm thinking of James Baldwin's poem in this response and the idea of what it means to
244. have the responsibility of speaking for someone or for a people and the ways in which,
245. in the words of a friend of mine about the current generation, we are all terminally unique
246. and our experiences are so individualized
247. that it can be tough to find shared experiences
248. or find analogous experiences from other people
249. and the importance of that as we are within that experience
250. and thinking as well what it means to be a leader in a community,
251. in a movement, and still to take care of your own story
252. and still to be able to tell your own story
253. and to get in trouble for your own story.
254. The Edge.
255. Epigraph.
256. Of all the unimportant things,
257. football is the most important.
258. Pope John Paul II.
259. Okay, you know, on second thought,
260. I think we'll keep Brian Sonia Wallace's poem
261. until the end of the program.
262. Right now, I'm going to speak with Emma Shulman,
263. who's working on another piece for our Pride series. Tell us about it, Emma.
264. Yes. So I will be interviewing a couple members, a couple clients of the LGBT Center,
265. one of whom is a member of the Youth Center named Cassie, and another member, which is
266. someone who is in senior services. And I am going to be doing a compare and contrast piece about how
267. Pride has changed and about how Pride has evolved and how generations view the future of Pride.
268. Since you're a younger person, what do you think about the future of Pride?
269. I have a lot of hope about the future of Pride. I think there's a lot of energy and a lot of
270. momentum and a lot of, of course, stride to be made. Trans rights are under attack everywhere.
271. the administration is trying to ban any form of mentions of queer people and trans people
272. in education and is basically trying to implement a national don't say gay bill,
273. essentially, that Florida had. But I am optimistic because I think that we are getting energized and
274. I think that we will have the spirit to fight it. It sometimes seems so strange to me that like
275. your generation is almost going to be starting where we started all the rights stripped away and you have to start again to get everything back And I think that even though it does seem like maybe we are moving
276. backwards, there's this quote by Mark Twain that I'm going to paraphrase a little bit.
277. And it's that history doesn't repeat itself, but sure does rhyme. And I think that that's
278. what we're saying right now. But that doesn't mean, just means it's rhyming, doesn't mean that
279. We can't be louder than that.
280. We'll have more previews of our Proud Voices series after this message.
281. Our listeners support This Way Out in many ways.
282. By subscribing to our e-newsletter.
283. Email us at info at thiswayout.org.
284. And through your financial contributions to our program.
285. More information about how you can give is online at thiswayout.org.
286. Thank you.
287. Our Pride programming preview now continues with Abigail DeRoberts.
288. As the 1993 March on Washington for LGBT Rights and Liberation was approaching,
289. the New York City-based direct action group the Lesbian Avengers had some plans.
290. Along with ACT UP groups from LA and Philadelphia and Puss in Boots in LA,
291. the Avengers put ads in lesbian publications and distributed 8,000 flyers promoting a dyke march
292. on the evening before the big event. They asked for no permission and no permits but came armed
293. with a manifesto that called for a fierce lesbian movement. On April 24, 1993, over 20,000 women
294. showed up to DuPont Circle in D.C. and marched to the White House and onto the National Mall
295. with dykes on bikes, fire-eating lesbians, and a united front for the movement. The manifesto
296. declared, calling all lesbians, wake up. It's time to get out of the beds, out of the bars,
297. and into the streets. It's time to seize the power of dyke love, dyke vision, dyke anger,
298. dyke intelligence, dyke strategy. It's time to organize and incite. It's time to get together
299. and fight. By directly confronting political issues faced by dykes in the queer community
300. and encouraging social justice activism, the Dyke March brought a whole new dimension to the
301. celebration of pride. Today, the spirit of the first Dyke Marches has blossomed into a decentralized,
302. grassroots constellation of lesbian pride and organizing, with lesbians still taking to the
303. streets to demand justice and liberation for themselves and their communities. Dyke Marches
304. happen in dozens of cities worldwide across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Spain, Italy,
305. France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, the Netherlands, and more. Dyke Days center inclusivity and
306. non-commercial celebration by and for queer women. Collectively, these events keep the radical fire
307. burning, encouraging organizing within the lesbian community and centering social justice issues.
308. One example is this year's D.C. Dike March, stepping up with the theme Dikes Against Ice,
309. Marching for Liberation, confronting intersectional issues of oppression faced by their own community.
310. Another hallmark of Dike Marches is the centering of safety and inclusivity for all,
311. ensuring that the breadth and depth of the SAFIC community is represented through language access,
312. disability access, strong marshals, and inclusive planning to represent a diverse tapestry of dikes.
313. As we celebrate Pride Month here in the U.S.,
314. This Way Out Radio will be covering dyke marches and events across the country from D.C. to West Hollywood.
315. Stay tuned for our extra special Pride Month programming and remember the words of the lesbian Avengers we dykes we out we out for power Los Angeles poet laureate Brian
316. Sonia Wallace started us off with his thoughts about James Baldwin. We end with his poem in
317. response. The Edge. Epigraph. Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important.
318. Pope John Paul II.
319. I built an athlete's body over a frightened youth.
320. Me, the queer kid in drama club.
321. The awkward American in another country, reaching for a way to speak.
322. How many of us find it on a soccer pitch?
323. In the calluses, a weight leaves on your palms.
324. My handprint tells the story of every time I overcame myself.
325. These muscles are another book I've written, poem in motion, memoir at rest.
326. To be queer is to have a history of trying to overcome your body.
327. We learn through practice which desires can be put aside and which are fundamental to who we are.
328. Queer means the body is not to be taken for granted.
329. Our village of outcasts pushed toward acceptance
330. Learned to embrace the sports that haunted us as kids
331. As a way of speaking proudly
332. We come back tomorrow, win or lose
333. And the world is a little lighter
334. We strain, which is to say we remember to breathe
335. The body never lies
336. It needs no translator
337. To grow up in Los Angeles is to grow up between cultures
338. In school they taught us folklorico dances and taiko drums
339. Shakespeare and how to make ice cream with just milk and ice and salt
340. Our playground screams spanned half a dozen languages
341. Tethered by the handball we passed between us
342. There is so much we cannot understand by speaking
343. We had to learn, to walk, to love, to sing
344. And some of us didn't stop
345. Knew if the body was capable of these miracles
346. It must be capable of others
347. My dad is patient
348. Every time I crash the bike
349. He does not reprimand the tears
350. On which I build my strength to try again
351. My mom holds my hands
352. While my feet learn to kick
353. Until I can tread water
354. We are all so much more than ourselves
355. It took family to get us here
356. We arrive with their strength in our fingertips
357. More than blood
358. I am made of every training partner and coach and friend and poet who ever scolded me, praised me,
359. pushed me to be more because we find our best selves through each other. Beyond every division,
360. competition, a wild, hoping heartbeat. You can learn to trust how someone else will move.
361. Where they'll be when the ball leaves your hand. In that moment, you'll understand both physics
362. and geometry, and yes, even poetry. Where a body moves so skillfully, it becomes not just a body,
363. but a story, not just a story, but a song.
364. I am a queer third culture kid still learning to embrace myself
365. in all my contradictions.
366. And when I do, this body will be waiting to tell me who I am.
367. Our bodies together become a village, halting, hollering,
368. a challenge whose edge we step up to and keep going.
369. Our villages join into a world we get to make,
370. not easily, but through effort, art and sport and spirit.