This Way Out - Monday, June 15, 2026

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1. Zeke Stokes and to Christy Walker Watkins and the entire team at Aristo PR
2. for helping making tonight's conversation possible.
3. And I want to thank my wonderful co-producer, Anela Barbara,
4. our wonderful board operator, Irene,
5. and all of you for listening and supporting community powered radio.
6. If you'd like to learn more about Ty Herndon and who wouldn't pick up a copy
7. of his memoir. That's right, Ty. What mattered most?
8. Check out his latest music or learn about his advocacy work.
9. Visit his official website at guess what?
10. tyherndon.com. Coming up next on KPFK is Queer Community Calendar, followed by our international
11. LGBTQ plus news magazine, This Way Out. For IMRU, I'm Michael Taylor Gray. Stay proud,
12. stay visible, stay connected. And as I always like to say, this is good night, but not goodbye.
13. And the crowd
14. From the margins to the main stage
15. Heroes breaking every cage
16. Happy Pride Month, my gorgeous ones.
17. Yes, it's still me.
18. Aren't you lucky?
19. Listen up, kids.
20. Yes, grab your best fabulous,
21. put on something Judy,
22. grab your calendar,
23. and let's see what's happening
24. in our queer community this week.
25. Now on Tuesday, June 16th,
26. it's Queer Salsa Night
27. at the Victorian in Santa Monica
28. at 7 p.m.
29. Queer Salsa Night welcomes everyone
30. for an evening of music,
31. dancing and community. Honey, if it's not
32. shaken and bacon, start all over
33. again. And Wednesday,
34. June 17th, legendary drag
35. bingo at Hamburger Mary's in West
36. Hollywood. Yes, 7pm.
37. Remember, bingo is just
38. queer gambling with better outfits.
39. Now on Thursday, June 18th,
40. it's Pride House LA in West Hollywood
41. at 6pm. A celebration
42. of community, conversation,
43. art, activism, and queer
44. visibility. Make new friends, keep
45. the old ones. And if they're cute like Ty Herndon, get their phone number. And on Friday, June 19th,
46. Juneteenth celebrations, various locations throughout Los Angeles. Yes, celebrate culture,
47. resilience, and community with music, food, education, performances, and opportunities
48. to support Black-owned businesses. Because freedom looks fabulous on everybody.
49. On Saturday, June 20th, not only my 60th birthday, kids. Yes, gifts accepted. Yeah,
50. Yeah, it's tax-deductible.
51. See QCon, LGBTQIA+, comic convention, Plummer Park, West Hollywood, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
52. A magical place where a drag queen and a superhero are having brunch together.
53. Also on Saturday, June 20th, the Queer Mercado in East Los Angeles.
54. Shop queer, support queer, be queer, repeat as necessary.
55. Support queer artists, makers, creators, performers, and small businesses while enjoying food, music, and community.
56. and on Sunday, June 21st,
57. community gatherings and pride events
58. throughout Los Angeles.
59. Spend the day celebrating community,
60. making new connections,
61. supporting local organizations
62. and enjoying the last day of another,
63. shall I say it, fabulous week.
64. Hydrate, moisturize and make good decisions
65. or at least interesting bad ones.
66. Nobody ever said,
67. I wish I had less fun, right Ty?
68. And that wraps up this week's
69. Queer Community Calendar.
70. I would like to thank our ultra fabulous producer,
71. Ornella Barbara.
72. Until next time, be queer, be loud, be proud, just be.
73. And always remember, thou must glitter, never thou must litter.
74. Stay tuned for more of Queer Radio on This Way Out.
75. Ciao.
76. Give a gift to KPFK and yourself when you let us take your unwanted vehicle off your hands.
77. Not only will your donation help support the on-air programs our community relies on every day,
78. but you even qualify for a tax deduction.
79. Go to kpfk.org slash cars or call 877-573-5288.
80. That's 1-877-KPFK-AUTO to learn more.
81. Hi everyone, my name is James Mondades, and the poem I will be sharing today is titled, I Am Every Gay Man, which is in response to James Baldwin's piece, Tragic Sapphic, by Canthie.
82. If people expressed more humanity.
83. Welcome to This Way Out, the international LGBTQ radio magazine.
84. I'm Lucy Chappell.
85. In the U.S., the Trump administration has plans to slash funds for LGBTQ plus health research.
86. And the 10th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre is commemorated in Florida as neo-Nazis disrupt a Georgia pride parade.
87. In the UK, trans rights activists splash pink rage on the agency that banned them from public toilets.
88. In the theater, cheers for Queen Jean, who crashed the Tony Awards transgender ceiling.
89. Then this week's Proud Voices ignites around get-lit poets in dialogue with their predecessors.
90. All that and more coming up on This Way Out.
91. I'm Melanie Keller.
92. And I'm Joe Bainline.
93. With News Wrap, a summary of some of the news in or affecting LGBT communities around the world for the week ending June 13, 2026.
94. Funding for LGBTQ plus related health programs and scientific research in the U.S. is in danger as the Trump administration seeks further control over federal grants.
95. The recent 400 page proposal overhauls the federal government's distribution of billions of dollars.
96. Under the proposal, federal grants are to be evaluated according to whether they demonstrably advance the president's policy priorities.
97. If reviewing agencies decide a grant is no longer in alignment with the current government's goals or interests, they may terminate the award given.
98. The Trump administration's targets include LGBTQ plus health, diversity, equity and inclusion, vaccine safety, and the climate crisis.
99. So far, $800 million in LGBTQ plus health research and more than 200 federal HIV research grants have been eliminated in the second term of the Trump administration
100. The Human Rights Campaign stated that the proposal would
101. strip government money from any program that acknowledges diversity, abortion, or even the existence of transgender and non-binary people
102. The public is invited to comment on the federal grant review proposal until July 13th.
103. The White House Budget Office aims to implement it by October.
104. Joyous music and dancing abruptly ended in gunfire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016.
105. 49 of the mostly Latino patrons were killed and 58 others were injured.
106. the massacre at the lgbtq plus orlando florida nightclub 10 years ago this week was the deadliest mass shooting in the U up to that time Portraits of Pulse is an exhibit featuring depictions of each individual that was lost
107. The works went on display in City Hall for their anniversary.
108. Designed by local artist Jeff Songsen a year after the tragedy,
109. his outlines were filled in with color by family members and volunteers.
110. More than a thousand individuals have contributed to the paintings.
111. Some are fully painted, while others were left intentionally incomplete by family members.
112. The official remembrance ceremony was hosted at First United Methodist Church with musical performances by the Orlando Gay Chorus and others.
113. It concluded with a candlelight vigil.
114. LGBTQ plus activists from across the country recognized the 10th anniversary of the massacre.
115. over 30 Illinois organizations issued a joint statement
116. calling for the story of Pulse to be a reminder of why pride exists in the first place.
117. They wrote,
118. We remember that we are not strangers to grief and loss.
119. We are also not strangers to joy and the belonging that comes from a legacy
120. of LGBTQ plus change makers and the visionaries
121. who are co-creating inclusive, liberatory spaces today.
122. United Kingdom trans rights activists have driven the Equality and Human Rights Commission out of its own offices with a pink paint pressure campaign.
123. The nonviolent direct action group Bash Back recently claimed responsibility for the vandalizations.
124. Bash Back describes itself as a decentralized movement that targets transphobic institutions to effect change.
125. Shortly after the Equality and Human Rights Commission updated its code of practice last month,
126. Bashback daubed its windows with pink paint.
127. The EHRC's new code bars transgender women from using women's toilets and changing facilities.
128. In response to the protests, EHRC Chair Marianne Stevenson informed a committee meeting on June 9.
129. She told them,
130. we have had to move from our premises near Vauxhall to other premises because of an attack
131. on the building vandalism by a group that also had vandalized conferences and West Streeting's
132. office. West Streeting is a gay labor member of parliament who served as secretary of state for
133. health and social care until he resigned two months ago. Following the directives of the
134. National Health Service's controversial Cass review, he placed a ban on puberty blockers.
135. Streeting additionally banned general practitioners from conducting blood tests on trans patients utilizing hormone replacement therapy.
136. He also banned trans patients from being housed in hospital wards that fit their gender.
137. Last July, Bashback painted the words child killer in pink paint on Streeting's office windows.
138. The latest EHRC bathroom law comes about a year after the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on the biological sex determined at birth
139. The discriminatory ruling has had rippling impacts on the rights and protections of transgender individuals in the UK
140. A small group of neo-Nazis briefly disrupted a pride parade in Athens, Georgia
141. Disturbing accounts and videos show the faction with a large swastika flag,
142. performing Nazi salutes and shouting hateful epitaphs.
143. The band of men in mirrored sunglasses, flat caps, red shirts and black suits
144. have been identified as the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe.
145. In recent years, the group has specifically targeted LGBTQ plus and immigrant populations.
146. When the neo arrived in the midst of their celebration on June 6th The Athens Pride and Queer Collective officials were quick to deploy a large banner obstructing the group from the parade The sign read Joy is Louder Than Hate
147. The encounter did not become violent and no arrests were made.
148. In a public statement, the Pride event coordinators condemned Blood Tribe's actions.
149. They said that the hate group's appearance was intended to intimidate, divide, and spread fear.
150. but it failed to overshadow the overwhelming support of joy, solidarity, and love that defined our community celebration.
151. Finally, Queen Jean has sown her place into history as the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award.
152. She took home the coveted trophy for best costume design of a musical for her work on the queer ballroom-style revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats.
153. The new iteration titled Cats, The Jellicle Ball, features 500 looks from Queen Jean
154. Among her many designs are references to trans activists
155. including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major Griffin Gracie
156. It is Queen Jean's first season on Broadway
157. and Cats, The Jellicle Ball is one of two shows she worked on
158. The other is the Pulitzer Prize winning Liberation
159. which won the Tonys best play the same night.
160. Ladies and gentlemen, Queen Jean!
161. I think generally getting a plus one tonight was difficult, but we allowed it for Tony.
162. And truly, what makes this site so meaningful to me is looking out onto a room and seeing so many advocates,
163. so many activists, so many old friends, and so many new.
164. This is a room full of those who have long stood at the front of marches,
165. who have opened your hearts and your homes to those struggling,
166. even when you have had little to give.
167. It is a room full of those who have done the hard, often unseen work
168. of building a more dignified New York City,
169. because you know better than most how dignity has long been withheld
170. and how it has been withheld from so many.
171. I know moments of celebration like tonight can feel few and far between, especially in a time of such increased federal attacks on the mere existence of being a queer person.
172. Rights that were once considered settled are now at risk.
173. The progress won by many is now endangered.
174. And yet queer New Yorkers have always found a way to celebrate joy amidst hardship.
175. So let us take a moment to appreciate where we stand today,
176. and let us give this entire room a round of applause.
177. That's New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani applauding Queen Jean at his pride celebration held on June 9th.
178. Haitian-born Queen Jean has received significant recognition this year in addition to the Tony Award win.
179. She got a Drama Desk Award for Cats, a Dorian Award for LGBTQ Theater Artists of the Season,
180. and a Lucille Lortel Award for her work on the off-Broadway production Saturday Church.
181. Queen Jean's triumphant Broadway debut has continued alongside her ongoing activism.
182. She's the founder of the mutual aid organization
183. Black Trans Liberation, which provides food, clothes, and other resources to the trans population.
184. After stepping off the stage, Jean wasted no time speaking out about the immigrant detention center near Radio City Music Hall, where the Tonys take place.
185. She told Jordan Fisher at the First Impressions tent,
186. There are so many people that are being detained there without due process, without seeing a judge.
187. So it's just very horrific that these things are happening and the people are silent.
188. That's News Wrap, global queer news with attitude for the week ending June 13th, 2026.
189. Follow the news in your area and around the world.
190. An informed community is a strong community.
191. News Wrap was written by Jeb Bakke, produced by Lucia Chappelle and Brian DeShazer, and brought to you by you.
192. Thank you. Help keep us in ears around the world at thiswayout.org, where you can also read the text of this newscast and much more.
193. For This Way Out, I'm Melanie Keller. Stay healthy.
194. And I'm Joe Bainline. Stay safe.
195. It's never too late. I'm 84 and my wife is 80.
196. We both lost our partners at 30 years.
197. And we said, you know what?
198. Now it's our time.
199. And we're both activists, so we are working for senior rights, senior justice, all of it.
200. And you're here at Gay Pride LA in 2026.
201. We had to be.
202. We had to be.
203. And we've been married a week.
204. Your love is the most important thing you could give to the world.
205. what's your name first thing proximity my name's sarah dale um i am the director of public affairs
206. for mmd incorporated which is a retail cannabis company um what would i say to someone who
207. is coming out of the closet or having trouble coming out of the closet and is in the space
208. where they're not maybe feeling the support the first thing i would say is that the support and
209. the love is out there. Please come find it. I'm wearing a shirt right now that says free mom hugs
210. because there's a movement that we don't get enough support. And if you don't get that support
211. from our chosen family, I mean, from our birth families or from the community that we're born
212. into or surrounded by, find that love, find it online, find your support, find your friends
213. and find your voice.
214. And we're rooting for you, and we're here with open arms,
215. and we're proud of you.
216. Can I have a hug?
217. You can have a hug.
218. Sir, I'm Andy Salker.
219. I'm here at LA Pride,
220. and I'm the director and founder of The Lavender Effect,
221. which teaches queer history primarily about Los Angeles.
222. A lot of people know Harvey Milk.
223. A lot of people know Stonewall.
224. But there's a rich tapestry of diverse history here in Los Angeles that started with a grassroots movement that influenced the world.
225. And Andy, what do you say to people who think that pride is not relevant anymore?
226. Or somebody that's across the world that you might want to say something to?
227. Watch the news. It's more relevant now than ever before.
228. Do you have hope for tomorrow?
229. Oh absolutely We are such a resilient community And if you know your history you see that that resilience came from average people in the community that made a big difference It great talking to you Andy Best of luck Happy time
230. I'm Bruce Valanche, and you're listening to This Way Out,
231. the international gay and lesbian radio magazine.
232. Please do stay tuned.
233. Do James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Quentin Crisp, and Irvishi Vad still pack a punch for the younger
234. generation of queer writers today? Get Lit, Words Ignite is a Los Angeles non-profit that poses
235. similar questions, helping young people discover the power of poetry and storytelling.
236. My name is Brian Sonja Wallace, and I'm the Poet Laureate of the City of Los Angeles.
237. I'm excited this Pride Month to be featuring the voices of youth from Get Lit, Words Ignite, which is a teen literacy program based here in Los Angeles, and their responses to poems and writing by classic LGBTQ plus authors and thinkers.
238. This Way Out shared archival recordings with the young poets of Get Lit to hear what the voices of the past would inspire in them.
239. We offered this passage from LGBTQ plus icon James Baldwin to Los Angeles Pierce College student James Mondias, Los Angeles County Youth Poet Ambassador.
240. I have to say some very reckless things tonight.
241. And so I want to make it absolutely clear that I am talking for myself.
242. I am not, I might be at other platforms and other occasions more or less representing this or that organization or this or that committee
243. but tonight I am talking to you as Jimmy Baldwin who was born in Harlem 39 years ago
244. who has a certain responsibility to the people that produced him, that is all of you
245. and I'm speaking to you, if I may say so, not as an organizer and not as a Negro leader
246. and not as a public figure, not as any of those things, but as one of the poets that you produced.
247. Hi everyone, my name is James Mondades and the poem I will be sharing today is titled
248. I Am Every Gay Man, which is in response to James Baldwin's piece.
249. In middle school, I abandoned my religion the same way my father left me.
250. Neither Jesus nor my dad ever listened to my prayers.
251. Never heard out the layers of my pain that made onions look like amateurs.
252. Never heard my calls that begged me to turn into a real man.
253. When I first heard that boys like me would go to hell, I forced myself to quote-unquote become bisexual.
254. But even when I tried to assimilate, I could not swallow my own homo
255. And that was about as integral to me as my own two perverted eyes
256. The way I never found a way to satiate its manly hunger
257. Or the way it prized
258. In quarantine, I wanted to drown myself because
259. Boys never liked boys like me
260. Once bigger than my own sorrow
261. I swore subconsciously to myself I would never write about queer sadness.
262. I knew it too well and there was already so much of it I knew I wanted to do it justice but the grand story of my sad gay life cannot be held in the arms of a poem no more than it has been held
263. by another man. So I found ways to love myself and my sadness in any way that I can.
264. Nowadays, I play with silver chains through my fingers instead of rosaries. Mother Mary
265. turned mother Charlie XCX, the party boy who never grew apart from all the other
266. queers that raised him. RuPaul is the father I never had. The Bible I pray to
267. and the verses I cite and not top. Listen to choir music that is rave speakers
268. blasting out Kid Petras and dance pop. Smell nail polish removers instead of
269. incense and maybe in a sense the demons will understand me better than any God
270. ever can. The drag queen most certainly would. I down my curious sadness as to let the world know
271. that it has not killed me. In this world, my existence is protest, no matter how much I want
272. to hide it. Every day I am alive is proof that boys like me will be happy and deserve to be here.
273. I speak because my gay brothers and sisters have spoken up so I could use my own voice,
274. so I can talk about Madonna and Drag Race and all the different guys I want.
275. Because now, just making it another day is what pride is for,
276. so we can be ourselves freely.
277. And I know that I am free.
278. I have no bad faith.
279. I do not conform to something that'll call my pride a deadly sin.
280. And it's because of my community that I am able to share the beauty within.
281. I am every gay man because I am my own.
282. That was James Mandares.
283. The life and words of black lesbian poet Audre Lorde
284. spoke to Candy, better known as Vaughn,
285. who writes a poem called Tragic Sapphic.
286. We, young and black and fine and gay,
287. sweated out our first heartbreaks with no school nor office chums
288. to share that confidence over lunch hour.
289. Just as there were no rings to make tangible
290. the reason for our happy secret smiles, there were no names nor reasons given or shared for the tears
291. that messed up the lab reports or the library bills. We were good listeners and never asked
292. for double dates, but didn't we know the rules? Why did we always seem to think that friendships
293. between women were important enough to care about? Always we moved in a necessary remoteness that
294. made, what did you do this weekend, seemed like an impertinent question. We discovered and explored
295. our attention to women alone, sometimes in secret, sometimes in defiance, sometimes in little pockets
296. that almost touched. Why are those little black girls always either whispering together or fighting,
297. but always alone against a greater aloneness? We did it cold turkey, and although it resulted in
298. some pretty imaginative tough women when we survived too many of us did not survive at all
299. tragic sapphic by can't be
300. to be or not to be the question i've wondered about for years to be with thee
301. or to live free freedom that tastes like metal chains curling into my heart as my love
302. pools around us A sickening pink to purple to blue hue a tragic love Hiding within each other minds peeking out of the deep corners
303. no hearts on our sleeve.
304. It rests in our throats,
305. choking it down on top of the whispered,
306. I love yous.
307. Dancing around a world that shuns our rhythm,
308. we are sapphic.
309. a love story crafted by Satho's hands
310. rhythm like the queen's
311. and right in glittery decorum
312. yet we continue to dance
313. our feet take flight as our hands brush
314. the clouds
315. reality will never join us
316. for we are the wild thinkers
317. for we care not for gravity
318. for we have rules to follow
319. for we will not. So when I take your hand in mine, know that it is not a promise. It is a threat,
320. a threat to keep you in my life, to hold your heart hostage to candles burning wicks,
321. touching like our lips. Yet our hands will never be able to reach,
322. for the wall is too large for us to cross but for you I would jump jump hurdles jump candlesticks
323. jump waves so if you were to ask to be or not to be to love or not to love I would be every lifetime
324. So truly, I am one tragic sapphic.
325. That was Candy, better known as Vaughn.
326. We played the flamboyant raconteur Quentin Crisp
327. for 18-year-old get-lit poet Samantha Rios,
328. and she wrote Resculpting.
329. The time comes when you find yourself moving from statement
330. to protest. You find yourself doing things not to please yourself but to annoy the neighbors.
331. And you have to move back again because it is as absurd to try to offend the neighbors as it is to
332. try to ingratiate yourself with them. What you have to do, as I see it, is to decide what you
333. would be like if there were nobody else in the world?
334. If people expressed more humanity, I wouldn't have to wake up every day and prove my own
335. existence.
336. There would be no one to put me in a box labeled fantasy or indecisive.
337. I would have never had to sculpt myself into something easily digestible or put someone else's opinion above my own.
338. Instead, I would live as a collection of colors and never pick a preference.
339. I would awake to breakfast in bed made by a lover the world would never tell me to second guess.
340. We'd share laughs and relish in the type of smiles that make your cheeks hurt.
341. We'd watch New Girl for the 50th time.