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.

Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David 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. Produced for 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.

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David 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. Produced for This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine.

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David 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.

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David 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.

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David 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.

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David 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.

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David 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 website
GayBarchives Facebook group

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David 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.