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Segment 1:
ICE Threatens to Deport Longtime AIDS Activist
Michelle Lopez
Women Don't Get AIDS They Die from It.
Michelle Lopez is a beloved national and international pioneer in HIV advocacy, research. and community care. She is a proud Black Latina bisexual woman who is now facing the threat of deportation by ICE to Trinidad, a Caribbean island where she hasn't lived for decades. This despite having a U.S. green card and so-called "alien" ID number, and having lived in the U.S. for 42 years. She has absolutely no criminal record.
Michelle Lopez was diagnosed with AIDS at age 25 in 1991, so she’s been a long-term survivor for 35 years, now age 59, using a combination of modern prescription drugs and nutritional treatments. She has two children, Raven, 35, also living with HIV and also an AIDS activist, and Rondell, age 39, as well as three grandchildren.
Women Demand Access to Treatments
Since the 1990s Michelle has been a fierce advocate and counselor for people with HIV, especially women, people of color, and immigrants. In 1994, Michelle was one of several women with HIV who testified at a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing, held in response to an ACT UP Women’s Caucus protest campaign about the urgency of requiring drug companies to test experimental drugs in women. That advocacy, and years of pressure led by women AIDS activists, led to a major change in government policy. Today, drugs have to be tested in women before FDA approval. This is just one of many advances for people with HIV won with the strategic role of Michelle as part of this community-based movement.
Among many other roles over three decades, Michelle has served as Board Chair of the Bronx Community Pride Center; Board member of Caribbean Women Health Association; Co-Chair of the Consumer Advisory Committee of the NYS Dept. of Health Quality of Care Community Advisory Board; Campaign Coordinator of NY HIV Treatments Work at the CDC; and professionally as a licensed clinician, credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor, and Director of HIV Programs at the Brooklyn Multi-specialty Group. In addition, she has repeatedly met with the manufacturers of HIV drugs, seeking to ensure their proper testing and availability for women and children.
Michelle has been repeatedly honored, including being listed as one of the POZ 100 HIV/AIDS leaders – and POZ is the national magazine about living with HIV -- and subject of a cover feature in 1996.
The GoFundMe appeal for Michelle’s legal expenses (now paused) is here.
A 2022 interview with Michelle by Making Gay History is here.
Any questions or letters attesting to Michelle’s character can be sent care of Out-FM at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Segment 2:
Caribbean Equality Project
As Trump clamps down on immigration to the U.S., there are resources in New York City to fight back. One such resource is the Caribbean Equality Project (CEP), founded in 2015 by Mohamed Q. Amin, an Indo-Caribbean queer Muslim immigrant and survivor of anti-LGBTQ hate violence, to serve Caribbean LGBTQ immigrants with culturally competent, intersectional support. We’ll play an interview with Mr. Amin and Tiffany Jade Monroe, a multiracial trans woman from Guyana and undocumented asylum seeker. Tiffany is CEP’s Trans Justice Manager; she rose from volunteer to lead trans-centered programs.
CEP provides culturally grounded legal help (asylum, name/gender marker changes), emergency relief, housing and immigration assistance, peer support groups, mental health referrals, and gender-affirming care navigation. The organization centers Afro- and Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ communities, using storytelling, oral histories, and trans-led programming to combat invisibility and stigma rooted in family, religion, and colonial-era laws.
CEP engages in policy and coalition advocacy: wins include contributions to the Trans Equity Fund (~$13.725M), Housing Access Voucher funding, Safe Haven protections for trans youth, and campaigning for right-to-counsel/representation for immigrants.
CEP reports increased barriers to asylum and heightened deportation risks under current federal immigration policy, stressing lack of counsel, language/technology/literacy barriers, and detention concerns. CEP’s website is caribbeanequalityproject.org and its social media reachable at @CaribbeanEqualityProject.
(4/18/26 presentation at Center for LGBTQ Studies [CLAGS] conference by Out-FM's Bob Lederer)
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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.
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Please note: Listener-sponsored WBAI is in its annual Spring fundraising drive, continuing until April 30. 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.orgor 833-922-4692. 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.
Tonight we bring you excerpts from a cross movement forum called the People vs. the New York Times put on by Adalah Justice Project, Black Trans Liberation, Jewish Voice for Peace NYC, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and Queer|Art. This is to enhance public understanding of the unfriendly role the New York Times plays with regard to transgender rights coverage, and the pro-Palestinian movement in particular, and why it is so.
Mohammed El-Kurd is a Palestinian writer, poet, and journalist who gained prominence for his descriptions of Palestinians' lives under occupation in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.[He has sparked controversy for his support for queer rights. He has supported the work of the Palestinian LGBTQ+ organization alQaws, whose representatives have appeared on Out-FM several times.
Sabrina Imbler is a science journalist who identifies as queer, non-binary, and transgender, using they/them pronouns.
Chase Strangio is an U.S. lawyer and trans rights activist. He is the deputy director for transgender justice and staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. He is the first known trans person to make oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.
We begin with the moderator Morgan Bassichis, who is a Jewish, gay, comedian, writer, and musician.
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:
