Ep. 335: This Is Everything: Trans Sports Bans, Book Bans, HIV Cuts & Why We’re Still Listening

Zach returns with a solo This Is Everything segment, working through the headlines that have been weighing on him and on the LGBTQ+ community. He starts with the Supreme Court’s two trans sports ban cases, asking how a ruling could collide with the dozens of state laws and school policies already in place, and points to Massachusetts as proof that anti-trans talking points can cost a candidate. From there he takes on HIV/AIDS funding cuts that threaten medication, testing, and clinics at home and in Africa; the Kansas move that voided trans residents’ driver’s licenses overnight; and book bans targeting LGBTQ characters and people of color. He widens the lens to Ecuador’s new adoption restrictions and the independent LGBTQ journalists forced into hiding in Russia. Then the episode turns hopeful: Zach shares that Listen Up Girl has been trending in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, where being LGBTQ is criminalized, and what it means that people there are quietly listening through their headphones. A short message from one listener sums it up and becomes the reason he keeps going. He closes with his belief that change is coming.

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