This week on Queer News: The WNBA is back, Idaho’s new anti-trans bathroom ban is alarming, and Windy City Times 30 Under 30 nominations are open.
This week on the Queer News podcast, in top news, the WNBA and the Players Union have a verbal agreement! In politics, Idaho’s ant-trans bathroom bill is on the move, and New York makes queer history again. In culture and entertainment, we caught up with the authors of the newly released book: Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports, and the Windy City Times is accepting nominations for their 30 under 30 outstanding LGBTQ+ individuals. Let’s get into it.
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00:26 Welcome to Queer News 02:23 Join the QCrew, https://bit.ly/JoinQCrew 02:57 Leave a Queer News Tip, Email info at e3radio.fm or leave a message here https://www.speakpipe.com/msg/s/243669/19/rc6z5z67pp1op502 04:18 Queer News Headlines 05:15 We Have A 2026 WNBA season y’all! 10:45 Idaho’s Newly Passed Trans Bathroom Ban Comes With A 5 Year Prison Sentence. 15:26 Newly Elected Judges Juliet Howard her wife, Norma Jennings make New York History 19:36 Book an ad today! Email info @ e3radio.fm 21:15 Subscribe to the Queer News Newsletter, https://bit.ly/QueerNews 21:55 The Authors of Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports celebrates their book release in Chicago! 29:37 Get your nominations in for Windy City Times 30 under 30 outstanding LGBTQ+ individuals 31:05 Anna’s Word
This week’s episode of Queer News is packed with historic milestones, urgent calls for justice, and accountability. Here is your social-media-ready breakdown of every story from Episode 330.
This Week’s Top Story
We Have A 2026 WNBA season y’all!
Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a historic announcement on Friday, March 13th at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center in Crown Heights. He was there to sign an executive order establishing a mayor’s office on LGBTQIA+ affairs. As part of the order he appointed civil rights attorney Taylor Brown who was currently serving as the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Bureau as its first director. Taylor becomes the first trans woman to lead any city office or agency in New York City.
This Week In Politics
Idaho’s Newly Passed Trans Bathroom Ban Comes With A 5 Year Prison Sentence.
Idaho’s majority republican House of Representatives has just passed HB 752, one of the most aggressive anti-trans bathroom bills advancing to the Senate this year. The bill states that “any person who knowingly and willfully enters a restroom or changing room in a government-owned building or a place of public accommodation designated for use by the opposite biological sex of such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor”.
A misdemeanor in Idaho is equivalent to a year in prison. Anyone unfortunate enough to be caught twice would be looking at up to five years in prison and the charge would be upgraded to a felony. That’s not all, If a trans person was caught violating a bathroom ban in a different state, they could automatically qualify for a felony charge should they be caught in Idaho. The exact diction in the bill of “a similar statute” is rather vague and could open things up for that similar stature to be something as simple as a civil fine. Idaho’s Senate is also a republican majority, but Governor Brad Little has not communicated publicly either way on how he’ll sign when the bill hits his desk.
Newly Elected Judges Juliet Howard her wife, Norma Jennings make New York History
New York makes queer history with two newly elected Judges. Happily married couple Juliet Howard and wife Norma Jennings made history as the first queer married couple to be “concurrently sworn in as judges in the New York courts.” The duo have made names for themselves long before this as trailblazers in the New York legal system. Norma Jennings made history last year as the first Black LGTBQ+ elected judge in Brooklyn and Native New Yorker Juliet Howard has known the court systems from a young age when her mother would take her to work in a court room. Jennings discussed the new position in part by saying “I believe it is our duty to introduce young people of color to the court, and to show that this is a profession to aspire to.”
This Week In Culture & Entertainment
The Authors of Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports celebrates their book release in Chicago!
Authors Anna Baeth, Ellie Roscher, and Chris Mosier celebrated the release of their new book Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports at Babes Sports Bar in Chicago. The book “offers an insightful, timely examination of the ongoing battle for equality in athletics. As LGBTQ athletes break barriers in the Olympics, transgender athletes still face harsh restrictions in many areas.” Tune in to the podcast to hear Anna DeShawn talk to the authors about their inspiration for writing the book and how important it is in this current time. Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports is available now and if you’re local to Chicago, the independent bookstore Three Avenues Bookshop may have some copies in stock!
Get your nominations in for Windy City Times 30 under 30 outstanding LGBTQ+ individuals.
The Windy City Times has announced that they’re accepting nominations for their 30 under 30 outstanding LGBTQ+ individuals (and allies) of 2026. The award honors those who “have made substantial contributions to the LGBTQ+ community in the fields of entertainment, politics, health, activism, academics, sports or other areas.” To qualify the nominee should live in the Chicago land area and be no older than 30 by June 30th. If you like to nominate yourself or someone else for this prestigious award, please do so before the April 10th deadline. Email Senior Writer of the Windy City Times Andrew Davis at syntax3733@gmail.com. And include “30 Under 30” in the subject line.
Anna’s Word
Every week Anna drops a word and the word for this week is anger. We all feel it and we shouldn’t stray away from it. We never want to feel numb in the face of this hellscape. It’s important to feel and its important to direct that anger into action. As James Baldwin said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. So that the first problem is how to control that rage so that it won’t destroy you”.
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About Queer News
An intersectional approach to a weekly news podcast where race & sexuality meet politics, entertainment and culture. Tune-in to reporting which centers & celebrates all of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & comrade communities. Hosted by Anna DeShawn. New pod every Monday by 7am CT.
Edited by Ryan Woodhall.
Brought to you by E3 Radio, and distributed on The Qube.
