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Tune into Out-FM on Tues., July 28, 2026 from 8:00-9:00 pm ET, on​ WBAI​, 99.5 FM​ in NY/NJ/CT, also livestreaming at wbai.org/listen-live

The mp3 file will be posted here by Wednesday evening or sooner.

For the latest updates, visit our website at outfm.org

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Sign up for Out-FM's Weekly Newsletter with show announcements.

Please note: Listener-sponsored WBAI is in its annual Summer fundraising drive, continuing until Sept. 20. We urge you to be generous in helping keep our grassroots, kick-ass station -- and Out-FM in particular -- on the air. Please donate either a one-time amount, or better yet, become a sustainer, a "BAI Buddy" -- either option at buddy.wbai.org. More details on other ways to make your donation at the bottom. If you donate, we hope you will mention Out-FM as your favorite show.

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Berlin in rainbow colors (Senatskanzlei Berlin @RegBerlin, 7.27.26)

Berlin in rainbow colors (Senatskanzlei Berlin @RegBerlin, 7.27.26)

Berlin police shot and killed a man who killed one woman and injured 29 others as he plowed a rented van into people at the Christopher Street Day (CSD) — Germany's largest annual LGBTQ pride event — in the Tiergarten (Berlin's Central Park) on Saturday night; the act of terrorism by a German citizen of Lebanese descent could boost the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that is leading in all the polls by fanning the flames of Islamophobia — already raging across the country. Germany's chancellor Friedrich Merz of the conservative ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party responded to the incident by calling for draconian new 'security' measures that may be used to suppress freedom of speech — including criticism of Apartheid Israel — even as the German government continues to support the ongoing genocide in Gaza; yet the presence of 2,200 police (up from 1,300 in the previous year) at the CSD event did not prevent this attack and very aggressive policing in the German capital has not prevented homophobic and transphobic attacks such as this one on members of the LGBTQ community in Berlin and elsewhere across the country. Out-FM's Pauline Park has lived in Germany and follows German politics closely; she will discuss this disturbing situation with Out-FM's John Riley.

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Queer AIDS Activism in a California Prison

Credits: The Vacaville Reporter and AIDS Memorial Quilt 

 
At the height of the AIDS crisis in the early 1990s, incarcerated activists inside California Medical Facility-Vacaville, supported by ACT UP, organized powerfully against carceral policies of HIV/AIDS segregation, discrimination, and medical neglect. They used the weapons of hunger strikes, medication strikes, powerful advocacy to the media, and stimulating legislative investigations to successfully fight for more humane HIV care. This segment is the audio of a presentation made in April 2026 by Emily K. Hobson, Associate Professor of History and of Gender, Race, and Identity, University of Nevada, Reno.
 
Professor Hobson's full PowerPoint slide show is available below.

Emily Hobson, University of Nevada, Reno.

Credit: Yashila Sanchez 

 

 

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About Out-FM

Out-FM is a weekly progressive, intersectional queer show by and for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, non-binary, gender non-conforming, intersex, queer, and questioning communities. Our program originates from listener-sponsored, noncommercial WBAI/Pacifica Radio in New York, 99.5 FM and wbai.org. Our programs are archived at outfm.org. You can also follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

Sign up for Out-FM's Weekly Newsletter with show announcements.

Support us by following, liking and sharing our content on social media. Find us at:

 

Details

  • Out-FM show aired on July 21, 2026 

Press play to stream show or green down arrow to download mp3 file.

Sign up for Out-FM's Weekly Newsletter with show announcements.

Please note: Listener-sponsored WBAI is in its annual Summer fundraising drive, continuing until Sept. 20. We urge you to be generous in helping keep our grassroots, kick-ass station -- and Out-FM in particular -- on the air. Please donate either a one-time amount, or better yet, become a sustainer, a "BAI Buddy" -- either option at buddy.wbai.org. More details on other ways to make your donation at the bottom. If you donate, we hope you will mention Out-FM as your favorite show.

“A Queer Book Changed My Life”   OR  “Books Change Our Lives”  

Out-FM's Pauline Park joined Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Sarah Chinn, Emmett Levy, Erik Piepenburg & Dan Jacobson on a panel at the Rainbow Book Fair in May to discuss books that changed their lives; organized by Sarah Chinn, the multi-racial & multi-generational panel included discussion of books by LGBTQ and non-queer authors that have profoundly influenced the lives of readers across the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity such as Andrew Holleran, William Burroughs, Gore Vidal, Stephanie Wambugu and Michel Foucault.

We know that books can change lives, and this is especially true for LGBT people. Lurking in libraries, sharing books hand-to-hand, encountering a poem or essay or novel in a college classroom, and finding community through searches on Goodreads, queers have a unique relationship with reading. So often we learn about ourselves from reading about others like us or like us enough. On this intergenerational panel, ranging from a veteran of the Gay Liberation Front to Gen Z to everything in between, presenters talk about the book that helped them become who they are today. Moderated by Sarah Chinn.

Sarah Chinn is one of the organizers of the Rainbow Book Fair

Sarah Chinn is one of the organizers of the Rainbow Book Fair

Sarah Chinn is one of the organizers of the Rainbow Book Fair. In her actual life she teaches 19th-century US literature and cultures at Hunter College, CUNY. She’s the author of a number of scholarly articles and several books, the most recent of which is Disability, the Body, and Radical Intellectuals in the Literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction (Cambridge University Press, 2024). She’s on the editorial collective of Radical Teacher and co-editor-in-chief of J19: The Journal of 19th Century Americanists. Emmett Levy is an artist and writer living in Brooklyn. His work is located at the intersection of painting, film, and sculpture. Emmett graduated from Wesleyan University in 2024 with a BA in sociology and currently works as a Marketing Coordinator at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.  Pauline Park  is a New York City-based transgender activist. She is the president of the board of directors and former executive director of Queens Pride House (QPH) and chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), both of which she co-founded. She led the campaign for the Transgender Rights Bill enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, and in 2005, she became the first openly transgender grand marshal of the New York City Pride March. She has been honored as one of the “Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons” by the Huffington Post and among the “50 Transgender Icons."

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz

Author Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz has been a librarian and archivist in and around NYC for nearly 20 years and recently left the position of Dean of Barnard College Library.  In May 2026 she was appointed Commissioner for the New York City Department of Records and Information Services by Mayor Mamdani. She is also the managing editor for Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, and series co-editor for the Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies of Litwin Books/Library Juice Press. At Pratt School of Information, Shawn administers and teaches the core Reference and Instruction course, which collaborates with NYPL's Jail and Prison Services to distribute reference letters to people who are incarcerated. Shawn is often reading and writing about queer narrative formation, indigenous epistemologies, ancestral connection, and black lesbians' herstories and spaces, but also, her MFA is in Fiction! For the past three years, she has been a judge for the Publishers Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut LGBTQ Fiction, which means she's received hundreds of new fiction titles by queer novelists from around the world at her doorstep and inbox. You can find her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Emmett Levy is an artist and writer

Emmett Levy is an artist and writer

Emmett Levy is an artist and writer living in Brooklyn. His work is located at the intersection of painting, film, and sculpture. Emmett graduated from Wesleyan University in 2024 with a BA in sociology and currently works as a Marketing Coordinator at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. 
 

Dan Jacobson

Dan Jacobson, writer

Dan Jacobson is a writer, mainly on dance, and has published in Ballet Review and other publications, including the Los Angeles Times. Originally from California, he has been living in New York since 1982 and has been involved in a number of LGBT organizations, including the Publishing Triangle, the LGBT+ Opera Club, the Sundance Outdoor Club, and Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the LGBT synagogue. He also chaired a French Conversation Club at the LGBT Center on 13th Street. Dan came out well before Stonewall and is still very much a pre-Stonewall gay man who has lived through a lot of gay history. He is now in his ninth decade of life.

Erik Piepenburg

Erik Piepenburg, writer

Erik Piepenburg has been writing for The New York Times since 2004, covering LGBTQ+ issues, film, theater, television, food and travel. His writing has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Time Out New York, the Chicago Reader, Out magazine, and other publications. Originally and proudly from Cleveland, he lives with his partner in New York City.

Pauline Park is a New York City-based transgender activist

Pauline Park is a New York City-based transgender activist and co-host of Out-FM Radio on WBAI

Pauline Park  is a New York City-based transgender activist. She is the president of the board of directors and former executive director of Queens Pride House (QPH) and chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), both of which she co-founded. She led the campaign for the Transgender Rights Bill enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, and in 2005, she became the first openly transgender grand marshal of the New York City Pride March. She has been honored as one of the “Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons” by the Huffington Post and among the “50 Transgender Icons."

About Out-FM

Out-FM is a weekly progressive, intersectional queer show by and for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, non-binary, gender non-conforming, intersex, queer, and questioning communities. Our program originates from listener-sponsored, noncommercial WBAI/Pacifica Radio in New York, 99.5 FM and wbai.org. Our programs are archived at outfm.org. You can also follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

Sign up for Out-FM's Weekly Newsletter with show announcements.

Support us by following, liking and sharing our content on social media. Find us at: