Anti-trans legislation; plus, Broadway is back
MONTGOMERY, AL - MARCH 30: Sydney Duncan holds a sign during a rally at the Alabama State House to draw attention to anti-transgender legislation introduced in Alabama on March 30, 2021 in Montgomery, Alabama. There are so far 192 anti-LGBTQ bills under consideration in state legislatures across the United States. Of those, 93 directly target transgender people. Julie Bennett/Getty Images hide caption
MONTGOMERY, AL - MARCH 30: Sydney Duncan holds a sign during a rally at the Alabama State House to draw attention to anti-transgender legislation introduced in Alabama on March 30, 2021 in Montgomery, Alabama. There are so far 192 anti-LGBTQ bills under consideration in state legislatures across the United States. Of those, 93 directly target transgender people.
Julie Bennett/Getty ImagesLegislation targeting transgender Americans and trans children has increased sharply in the last year. Guest host Ari Shapiro speaks with the Florida mother of a trans daughter about how their family is coping with that state's new, more restrictive policies. Then, Ari discusses how this wave of law-making differs from so-called "moral panics" of past decades — and why that matters — with historian Jules Gill-Peterson, of Johns Hopkins University.
Then, Broadway is back and bigger than ever, with 16 new shows opening this month. But this Broadway burst hasn't been immune to the pandemic. "Macbeth" director Sam Gold talks to Ari about having to go onstage himself this month, when too many of his cast tested positive for Covid; and about what feels different as actors and audiences try to get back to normal.
This episode of 'It's Been a Minute' was produced by Anjuli Sastry Krbechek, Andrea Gutierrez, Liam McBain, Chloee Weiner, Janet Woojeong Lee and Aja Drain. We had engineering help from Patrick Murray. Our editor is Kitty Eisele. Our director of programming is Yolanda Sangweni. You can follow us on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at ibam@npr.org.