Tell Me, David

Veteran folk-rock musician Danni Hoshino surprised everyone — not least herself — when she came out as a transgender woman in 2022, just weeks before her planned wedding. But her gender identity wasn’t the only thing that changed. She moved from her native Boston to New York, changed her stage name to Light Bird, and began working on a new album of songs that bare her soul with gritty honesty and raw emotion.In this audio feature, Light Bird shares some of her new songs with journalist David Hunt, including “Alright,” a single released for Transgender Day of Visibility. The full album is due out in a few months, likely in June 2026.In the interview, Light Bird discusses the intersection of her transgender identity with her life and career as an aspiring singer-songwriter.Her upcoming album is her first full-length album as Light Bird. It tracks her journey of self-discovery and self-love, with songs written both before and after she realized she was trans. She chose the name Light Bird to signify a fresh start, moving from a "dark bird" that was reserved and hidden to a free spirit "stepping into the light" and celebrating herself in the spotlight. Light Bird describes her musical style as having an "old soul" feel, heavily influenced by 1970s singer-songwriters and classic rock introduced to her by her parents. She feels her music is now more "honest and raw" because she finally has a real perspective and voice to share.Despite the challenges of being a small artist in New York, she feels it is vital to keep singing out and making her story visible. She writes to move people and to help both trans and cis audiences find shared humanity in her experiences.Raised in a suburb of Boston, Light Bird was living a traditional life with a 9-to-5 job and was about to get married when she realized she was trans in her 30s. She describes this realization as a "lightning strike" that upended all her previous plans. The heavily gendered expectations of her upcoming wedding—such as being pressured to wear a suit when she really wanted to wear a dress—acted as a final catalyst for her realization.While her gender dysphoria was not always acute before her transition, it became an "urgent imperative" once she understood it. She views her transition as a "beautiful gift" but also mourns the younger version of herself who didn't understand why she felt "off" for so many years. Ultimately, she has never felt this good and finally feels a sense of peace.Light Bird reflects on how a lack of positive trans representation in 1990s/2000s media—where trans people were often the "butt of the joke"—delayed her own realization. She now emphasizes the importance of trans visibility.Transitioning meant moving from the status of a cis man to a member of a group facing significant oppression. She acknowledges she is still learning about trans history and culture, but asserts that one's queerness is legitimate even without knowing everything.Find her music at https://www.lightbirdmusic.com/Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Kestral Gaian brings a queer sensibility to their new book, The Boy From Elsewhere, putting a queer spin on that universal trope: the hero’s quest to conquer evil and save the world. It’s a genre-bending story featuring a young-adult cast of characters on a trek through the multiverse. The landscape is familiar at first, but beware. Nothing is quite what it seems.Gaian’s creative energy is nearly as boundless as their stories. They’re a poet, playwright, essayist, composer and author whose previous books include Tubelines: The Poetry of Motion, Hidden Lives, and Counterweights.Gaian discusses their new book and the importance of queer visibility in young adult fiction in a conversation with journalist David Hunt.Learn more about Kestral Gaian at https://kestr.al/Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

In the early 1980s, the LGBTQ movement experienced the first tremors of a shockwave that would shake its very foundations. A disease outbreak diagnosed in just five gay men in Los Angeles in 1981 would eventually claim the lives of more than 700,000 Americans. Nearly 60% of the dead would be gay or bisexual men.It was the beginning of a global pandemic: AIDS — the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.To mark World AIDS Day — December First — journalist David Hunt revisits a story he first covered for Pacifica Radio more than 40 years ago: the early years of the AIDS epidemic. The program includes rare audio recordings of the nation’s first AIDS demonstrations, some of the first media interviews of AIDS patients and AIDS activists, and an inside look at the panic sweeping the gay community as the death toll mounted and the Reagan administration remained silent.The program documents the greed, bigotry, and misinformation that would give the AIDS virus a deadly head start as it spread among some of society’s most marginalized populations: gay men, Haitian immigrants, and IV drug users. And it follows the first steps a small number of progressive leaders, journalists, and ordinary people would take to meet the crisis and rouse the nation to action.Featured voices include AIDS activists Bobbi Campbell, Bob Cecchi, Bill Bader, Matt Redman, Douglas Wright, and Daniel Warner. You’ll hear pioneering gay journalist Randy Shilts and San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt discuss their efforts to pressure gay bathhouses to protect their patrons. You’ll find out about a meeting with the blood bank industry that had public-health officials pounding the table in frustration. You’ll learn about the health threat sociologist Laud Humphreys said was greater than AIDS. And you’ll meet the self-described “sexual prima donna of New York City.”Adding context to the archival recordings are recent interviews with retired Rep. Henry Waxman, who helped secure the first federal funding for AIDS research in 1983; Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter B.D. Colen, who covered the epidemic for Newsday; and AIDS activist Colin Clews, a writer and social worker who spearheaded AIDS information and treatment programs in the U.K. and Australia.Special thanks to the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California and the Pacifica Radio Archives. Photo by Daal Praderas.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Jennie Arnau lives and works in New York City. But her childhood home is in the American South, in Greenville, South Carolina. It’s the place she discovered her passion for music. And the place that called her back in a time of loss and grief. As she ends a self-imposed break from songwriting and performing, Arnau sat down with journalist David Hunt to discuss her musical journey, life’s ebbs and flows — and her new album, "A Rising Tide."Find Arnau's music on your favorite streaming platform or visit https://www.jenniearnaumusic.com"A Rising Tide" will be released Nov. 7, 2025.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The world faces a refugee crisis. More people are displaced today — by war, famine and climate — than at any time in human history. Among the most vulnerable are people persecuted for their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.But even as the number of refugees and asylum-seekers skyrockets, countries that once provided a safe haven are pulling up the welcome mat — and demonizing immigrants, especially LGBTQ immigrants.Kimahli Powell, an activist, scholar and former CEO of Rainbow Railroad, talks with journalist David Hunt about the challenges confronting queer refugees and asylum-seekers in an increasingly hostile world.An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

In a wide-ranging interview with David Hunt, Jessica Stern recounts pivotal moments in her career, from her work as a scholar and global human rights activist to her tenure as the top queer diplomat in the U.S. State Department during the Biden administration. Stern, now a senior fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard, critiques the Trump administration’s retreat on LGBTQ human rights and offers her optimistic prescription for reasserting progressive ideals in the U.S. and beyond.Stern gives a behind-the-scenes look at a historic U.N. Security Council meeting she helped organize in August 2015 that focused the council’s attention — for the first time — on LGBTQ human rights. And she discusses the difficult decision to move to Washington, D.C., in 2021 to become the U.S. Special Envoy Advancing the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons. During her three-year tenure at the State Department, Stern worked to raise the profile of LGBTQ rights in U.S. foreign policy and to assist LGBTQ people facing violence and discrimination around the world.An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Mainstream news outlets regularly cover LGBTQ stories, reporting on everything from queer culture and the arts to political and legal struggles for equality around the world. But that’s a relatively recent phenomenon. Until the 1990s, most news organizations paid little attention to LGBTQ news beyond coverage of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In the decade after Stonewall, most news about the gay and lesbian community was covered by a few local LGBTQ newspapers, such as Gay Community News in Boston and the Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco.But who covered queer news in the bad old days, the pre-Stonewall era, when most LGBTQ people were closeted? It turns out, it all started with a few brave soldiers stationed in the American South during World War II and a young lesbian who worked in the entertainment industry in Hollywood. They published what are believed to be the first gay and lesbian newsletters in the United States — in the 1940s.David Hunt got the scoop from a pioneering gay historian, Allan Bérubé, at the 1983 convention of the Gay and Lesbian Press Association in San Francisco. An edited version of this featured aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Jennifer Knapp burst onto the Christian music scene in the late 1990s with an energy and honesty that resonated with thousands of young people searching for meaning and connection. Knapp’s first three albums sold over 1 million copies and earned the singer/songwriter two Grammy nominations and a Dove Award for New Artist of the Year in 1999.But success took its toll. Exhausted by the pace and pressures of the industry, Knapp stopped performing in 2002 and left the United States, moving to Australia to clear her head and nourish her heart. Seven years later, she returned to the U.S. with unexpected news: she was coming out with a new album, “Letting Go,” and coming out of the closet as a proud lesbian in a long-term relationship.After a firestorm of controversy in the media, Knapp settled down in Nashville and settled into the work of recreating her career — this time outside of contemporary Christian music. On the eve of her upcoming U.S. tour, Knapp sat down with David Hunt to recall the early days of her career and to discuss her recent work, which still focuses on the human search for love and meaning. An edited version of this featured aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Over 5 billion people around the world use social media — and each of them spends, on average, about two-and-a-half hours a day texting, watching videos, gossiping, posting cat pictures and getting the latest news. But in an era of A.I. hallucinations and deepfakes, can you really trust what you hear and see online? One queer journalist is taking up the challenge of building trust — and an audience — on TikTok and other social media platforms. David Hunt sat down to talk shop with reporter Enrique Anarte, a correspondent at Context, the Thomson Reuters Foundation's journalism platform.Anarte is an experienced journalist with a master’s in European Union studies and proficiency in five languages. Much of his work for Thomson Reuters involves traditional reporting, which is abundantly sourced and rigorously documented. Less traditional is his presence on social media. Anarte has a large following on TikTok and Instagram, where he posts short, sometimes humorous videos on LGBTQ topics. It’s a new day, he says, and not everyone looks for news and information in traditional formats.“Social [media] cannot be an afterthought,” he says. “If that happens, you are not serving people with the kind of formats or journalism that they need. We need to understand that social audiences are humans. As Walt Whitman said, ‘I contain multitudes.’ When someone opens the newspaper in the morning and then opens TiKTok before bed, they might be seeking the same kind of information, but in slightly different ways.”An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The drive for legal equality for LGBTQ people has faced strong headwinds in the Caribbean in recent years. In February 2024, a court in St. Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to the nation’s archaic antigay criminal codes, saying the laws were justified on the grounds of public health and morality. And an appeals court in Trinidad and Tabago reinstated that nation’s anti-sodomy laws in March 2025, ruling that the colonial-era statutes were constitutionally untouchable.But the winds of progress are blowing strong in St. Lucia, where a coalition of community groups just won a stunning court victory, overturning laws that imposed long prison sentences for same-sex intimacy. This was the coalition’s fourth court victory since 2022, when it successfully challenged anti-queer criminal statutes in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados. A similar case in Grenada is pending.David Hunt talked with Kenita Placide, executive director of the Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE), the organization behind the legal tempest sweeping across the islands. An edited version of this featured aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

In more than three decades as a proud transgender man, Jamison Green has worked to advance the social, legal and civil rights of the trans community. Now he’s moved from making history to writing history as one of the authors and editors of a new book, “A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States.”The book, eight years in the making, includes the voices of 42 contributing authors. In nearly 800 pages, it spans more than a century and includes profiles of transgender pioneers, a dive into the history of trans-focused psychiatry and psychology, and chapters on research ethics, the biological underpinnings of gender identity, the history of voice and communication interventions, and the treatment of gender-diverse children — among other topics.Green spoke with David Hunt about the importance of trans history in the face of growing intolerance on the right. An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine. "A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States" is published by SUNY Press.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The Trump administration has Harvard University in its sights, threatening to cut off federal research dollars and bar international students from enrolling. It’s part of a wide-ranging assault on higher education, designed to force schools to abandon their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.While the battle rages in federal court, Harvard is breaking new ground in its efforts to advance LGBTQ Human Rights in the U.S. and around the globe.In May 2024, the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, a think tank in the Harvard Kennedy School, stood up the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program. The program is tasked with increasing the capacity of established and emerging leaders, creating educational curricula for movement building, facilitating research into LGBTQI+ issues, and advancing global collaboration and partnerships among activists, academics, policymakers and the media.Journalist David Hunt talked with the program’s founding director, Diego Garcia Blum, about the program’s inaugural year and the challenges confronting higher education in the Trump era.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The global struggle to secure the human rights of LGBTQ people has a powerful advocate at the United Nations: the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But the advocate’s voice could be silenced in July 2025 if the U.N.’s Human Rights Council fails to renew its mandate. Behind the scenes, an international coalition of nongovernmental organizations is campaigning for the mandate's renewal.Journalist David Hunt talks with human rights activist Fabiana Leibl of the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva about the upcoming vote. The program also features audio of human rights experts Jessica Stern and Ignacio Saiz, courtesy of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School.An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine. Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Efforts to restrict the rights of transgender Americans got a boost from the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court June 18, 2025, when justices ruled 6–3 that a law banning gender affirming health care for young people in the Southern state of Tennessee meets the barest standard of constitutional review. The ruling imperils the rights of transgender youth across the nation, allowing similar laws in 20 states to remain in force, despite the opposition of every major U.S. medical association.Journalist David Hunt sat down with legal scholar Brad Sears of the Williams Institute to untangle the Supreme Court's twisted logic and discuss the ruling's ramifications for trans youth and their families.An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

When Elon Musk and his cadre of juvenile tech bros took a chainsaw to the U.S. federal government this year, they said they were out to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. It just so happens that most of the departments they slashed were either regulatory bodies with statutory authority to regulate Musk’s businesses or agencies that had run afoul of President Donald Trump’s vision for a less inclusive America. At the top of the list: The United States Agency for International Development, which was gutted in March.Among the 5,000 foreign aid programs shut down in the process: more than a hundred working to advance the health, safety and human rights of LGBTQ people in countries worldwide.Journalist David Hunt talked with Ari Shaw, Ph.D., senior fellow and director of international programs at the Williams Institute, about the impact of those funding cuts. An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

You are what you eat, says the old adage. For a diverse group like the LGBTQ community, what and where we eat has defined us in myriad ways for generations. Coming out and dining out have long been complementary experiences, helping queer people find love, friendship and fellowship over patty melts, pizza or even lobster thermidor, if you’re in a fancy mood. In his new book, Dining Out, Erik Piepenburg explores the history and influence of America’s gay dining scene.David Hunt sat down with the author to learn more about his culinary journey and how tastes — and tastebuds — have changed. Dining Out covers a lot of ground, from Walt Whitman’s weekly lunches with his bohemian pals at Pfaff’s Saloon in New York in the mid-nineteenth century, to drag brunch at Hamburger Mary’s in disco-era San Francisco, where regulars included then-mayor Diane Feinstein. From Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., arguably the oldest gay restaurant in the nation, renowned for its hefty steaks and strong cocktails, to Bloodroot in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a feminist salon and bookstore with no cash registers, no wait staff and a seasonal vegetarian menu.An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Dining Out is available from Grand Central Publishing.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The legacy of colonialism weighs heavily on member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, former territories of the British Empire. In the Caribbean Republic of Trinidad and Tobago that legacy is shackled to a 16th century law that bans same-sex intimacy. Efforts to strike down the antigay law were successful in 2018, heralding a new era for Trinidad and Tobago’s 100,000 LGBTQ citizens. But the fight isn’t over. An appeals court reinstated the sodomy law a few weeks ago, setting the stage for the next — and final — round of legal challenges. Journalist David Hunt talked with Jason Jones, the biracial, binational queer activist leading the fight to win freedom for LGBTQ people in Trinidad and throughout the Commonwealth. An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The Trump administration continues to rewrite history, scrubbing official websites of any mention of transgender, queer and gender nonconforming people and causes. Critics have called its efforts a digital book-burning, reminiscent of the public bonfires staged by the Nazis in the 1930s. The latest target of this growing right-wing cancel culture is Pauli Murray, a pioneering human rights leader whose childhood home in Durham, North Carolina, is a National Historic Landmark.Journalist David Hunt visited the landmark to learn about Murray’s life and work — and to explore a queer legacy the National Park Service is trying to erase. Listen to Hunt's conversation with historian Angela Thorpe Mason, executive director of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.Pauli Murray, who died in 1985, was a pioneering Black legal scholar whose ideas laid the foundation for Supreme Court decisions overturning segregation and outlawing discrimination based on sex. Murray was also a writer, poet, labor organizer and the first queer saint in the Episcopal Church.An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

If President Donald Trump has his way, the United States Defense Department will soon discharge as many as 15,000 transgender service members from the nation’s armed forces. Among the brave men and women standing their ground against the purge is Col. Bree Fram, an officer in the U.S. Space Force.Fram, who joined the military in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, brings decades of experience to the Pentagon, where she works to prepare the military for the high-tech threats of the future. Her own future is not so clear.Journalist David Hunt talked with Fram about her life, her service and a family legacy of courage under fire. An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine. Fram's views are her own and do not represent the U.S. government or the Department of Defense.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

In its attacks on transgender Americans, the Trump administration is attempting to erase the T in LGBTQ — removing the initial from websites, publications and even the signage outside the Stonewall National Monument, where trans activists led the 1969 rebellion that launched the modern gay rights movement in the United States.To counter the hate and transphobia promoted by the administration, far-right politicians and media outlets, one New York college student is exploring the history and joy of trans masculine community building.In his thesis for a degree in peace and justice studies, Pace University undergraduate Eli Butler seeks to change the way trans people are studied and viewed in scholarly disciplines. His work is influenced by his journey as a transgender man and his longing to find — or build — a community of his own.Journalist David Hunt talked with Butler about his life, his research and the possibilities of the future. An edited version of this feature aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Trans journalist Erin Reed covers a beat that hits close to home: Republican attacks on trans people across the United States. She’s a respected independent voice with a large following on social media, where her work has been viewed more than 250 million times in recent years. Reed met Jan. 30, 2025, with a group of trans people and their supporters to review the growing list of anti-trans executive orders coming out of the Trump White House. In this feature, which originally aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine, journalist David Hunt provides a front-row seat to the conversation and adds some important background and context to the information.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Colleges and universities in the United States are quickly abandoning their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. In this episode, David Hunt discusses this U-turn on DEI with Renee Wells, assistant vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Queens University of Charlotte. Wells formerly worked at North Carolina State University, where she worked to blunt the impact of the state’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill” that required public facilities to restrict the access of trans individuals. She developed a Queer Youth Leadership Summit for local LGBTQ high school students, created educational programs on social justice for faculty and staff, trained students to advocate for social change and launched a gender pronouns awareness campaign.Wells believes the community-building work of DEI is foundational to higher education and will continue, regardless of the language used to describe it. It's likely that many institutions will come to regret their moves to defund and de-emphasize programs that strive to create a welcoming campus environment for everyone.Time will tell.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Increasingly, work just isn’t working for LGBTQ people — especially for those of us who choose to come out and stay out on the job. New studies show a distressing trend, with companies backtracking on their support for a welcoming workplace. Alarmingly, 63% of LGBTQ workers say they have faced discrimination in their careers, and 70% feel lonely, misunderstood, marginalized, and excluded at work.In this episode, David Hunt tackles the question: Can you really take pride in your work if you’re discouraged from taking pride in yourself? He talks with two trans women who faced challenges and discrimination on the job: university professor Khôra Martel and biotech executive Alaina Kupec. Martel's teaching contract was ended shortly after she came out as trans at the University of Tennessee. Kupec transitioned while working at Pfizer but left the company after her career stalled. She is the founder and executive director of GRACE: Gender Research Advisory Council and Education, a trans-led nonprofit that advocates for trans rights.The program concludes with an interview with Dr. Jenna Brownfield, a bi/queer therapist who helps LGBTQ people with workplace issues. She provides advice for navigating a hostile work environment.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

In 1977, with singer Anita Bryant leading a crusade against gay rights across the country, a small group of gay men met in Los Angeles to form the first political action committee advancing the cause of gays and lesbians in the United States. MECLA, the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles, had modest goals: its members simply wanted to live their lives free of discrimination. At first, they had to beg candidates to take their money.After helping turn the tide against the Briggs Initiative, a 1978 measure that would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in California’s public schools, the organization saw its fortunes turn. Seemingly overnight, candidates for local, state and national office clamored for MECLA’s blessing — and its money.In this retrospective, journalist David Hunt — who covered MECLA for Pacifica Radio in the 1980s — revisits the people and issues that put MECLA at the forefront of America’s culture wars. Listen to his archival recordings of some of MECLA’s breakfast and dinner meetings, featuring political heavyweights of the time such as presidential candidate Gary Hart, vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, California Gov. Jerry Brown and former Representative Bella Abzug. Discover how MECLA’s push to close gay bathhouses caused a rift in the gay community, and how its reliance on “checkbook activism” met with mixed results. Explore the heartbreaking reasons for its demise in 1992 in the dark days of a global pandemic.In its 15-year existence, MECLA did what no other LGBTQ organization had done before: it earned the respect of America’s political establishment as a “special” special interest group with political clout and generous financial resources. Its rise — and fall— is a queer story of power politics in the Reagan era.A note on language: The initialism used today to identify sexual and gender nonconforming people and communities, such as LGBTQ, was not common until well into the 1990s. "Gay" was a common shorthand word for the movement before then. MECLA generally identified itself as a "gay" or "lesbian and gay" organization. I follow that practice in this program. Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The history of the LGBTQ movement has been lived — loudly and proudly — in the public spotlight, in the face of relentless opposition. Thousands marched on the U.S. Capitol to demand lesbian and gay rights in 1979. Forty-two million tuned in to hear Ellen DeGeneres declare, “I’m Gay” on her TV sitcom in 1997.But millions more have made queer history in their own quiet, personal ways: living openly, supporting LGBTQ causes, and tying the knot in front of family and friends. For many, the process of coming out, finding friendship and love, and building community began in spaces hidden in place sight — in dive bars, leather bars, dance clubs, and taverns.For a deeper dive into our collective past, journalist David Hunt talks with Art Smith, whose online archive, Gaybarchives, documents the storied history of the gay bar scene.Journey back to the 1970s and 1980s and experience the specialized and often exclusive nature of gay bars post-Stonewall. Art Smith reveals how his project seeks to preserve the legacy of these influential venues, capturing the essence of a time when bars like the Hippopotamus in Baltimore were lifelines for many. As Daniel Jaffe recounts his eye-opening first night in Boston's gay scene, listeners will appreciate how these spaces once served as cultural classrooms, bridging generational gaps and fostering community connections. Join us in celebrating these establishments' transformative role in personal and collective journeys of self-discovery.Links:GayBarchives websiteGayBarchives Facebook groupSend us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Relations between law enforcement and the LGBTQ community were hostile in the decades after Stonewall. Queers breaking out of the closet were often unlucky enough to find themselves handcuffed in the back seat of a police cruiser — picked up in police raids on bars and baths. So, you may be surprised to learn that cops and queers set aside their differences in Los Angeles in 1981, at least long enough to bring a killer to justice.In this true-crime feature, journalist David Hunt has the story of a West Hollywood manhunt with a Hollywood ending. Hear retired LAPD Detective Mike Thies recount his relentless efforts to solve a random assault case, ultimately uncovering a sinister pattern: a serial killer targeting gay men in local bars. The episode explores how Thies, in an unprecedented move, sought the help of the gay community to crack the case, marking a profound shift in police-community collaboration. Despite legal setbacks that saw the suspected killer released twice, Thies and the gay community refused to give up, tracking down witnesses who provided enough evidence to charge the prime suspect, Donald Miller, with multiple murders on Christmas Eve, 1981.In a deeply personal narrative, Madeline Brancel shares her poignant discovery about the life and death of her uncle, Robert Sanderson, one of Miller's victims. Her journey uncovers not only the tragedy of his untimely death but also the broader societal shifts since then. David Hunt, who covered the murders as a reporter for Pacifica Radio in the 1980s, brings the story to life through court documents, interviews, archival sound recordings and personal recollections. This feature originally aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Drag may be under fire today by the enforcers of “family values,” but in the early 1900s female impersonators were the mainstay of family entertainment — on the vaudeville stage and the silver screen. Julian Eltinge, largely forgotten today, was hailed as America's greatest female impersonator at that time, entertaining audiences in the United States and Europe with perfect displays of feminine grace and manners. In a conversation with journalist David Hunt, historian Andrew L. Erdman, author of "Beautiful: The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator,"  shares fascinating insights into Eltinge's unique ability to engage audiences with his charismatic and boundary-pushing performances. Erdman explains how Eltinge's portrayals of women offered a thrilling yet non-transgressive lens through which audiences, especially men, could rethink societal norms.As we trace Eltinge's transition from vaudeville to the silver screen, we uncover the challenges he faced in an evolving cultural landscape post-World War I. The shifting societal views on gender and sexuality, along with the decline of vaudeville, posed significant hurdles for his career. Yet, Eltinge's legacy remains an intriguing chapter in entertainment history.This feature originally aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 4, 2024, in a case that could decide whether transgender youth are protected by the Constitution’s promise of equal protection. Although the case seems to stand on shaky ground before the high court’s conservative majority, a transgender attorney arguing the case stood firm. Chase Strangio of the ACLU made history as the first transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court, challenging Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming health care for minors. In this episode, transgender rights attorney David Brown unpacks the potential ramifications of this landmark case and explores some of the court's options. As we dissect the court's deliberations, we focus on the probing questions from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who exposed the state's conflicting justifications for banning gender-affirming care. In the program's second half, Kathie Moehlig, executive director of TransFamily Support Services, discusses the struggle for gender-affirming care in America, where 26 states have banned the treatment. Families face the harsh reality of relocating to "sanctuary" states for their transgender children's medical needs — if they can afford it. Listen in to gain insights into the emotional and legal landscapes families navigate and the pressing challenge of ensuring health care access for all transgender youth nationwide.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.

Meet Jimmy and Megan, a North Carolina couple who may be forced to move their family out of state to safeguard their nonbinary child's health. The Republican-dominated North Carolina legislature passed a series of laws targeting trans and nonbinary youth in 2023. One of those laws bans gender-affirming health care for children. Jimmy and Megan's middle child, who is nonbinary, may need puberty blockers in the next few years. With that option outlawed in North Carolina, the family is looking at other states, where gender-affirming care is protected. But moving means leaving behind friends and family members, a heartbreaking prospect for the family.In an audio feature that first aired on This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine, Jimmy and Megan discuss their life in Raleigh, the new state laws targeting trans and nonbinary youth, and their efforts to help their child understand and express their gender.Send us Fan MailDavid Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.