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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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

Dining Out is available from Grand Central Publishing.

Send us a text

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.