Bonus: Stonewall 50 Minisode: Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen

Guest Episode: Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows: Mourning in America: Valerie Reyes-Jimenez called it “The Monster.” That’s how some people described HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. Valerie thinks as many as 75 people from her block on New York City’s Lower East Side died. They were succumbing to an illness that was not recognized as the same virus that was killing young, white, gay men just across town in the West Village. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

37 min listen

Dismantling a Diagnosis: Episode 3: Out of the DSM & into the Present — A Conversation about LGBTQ+ Mental Health: Eric is joined in conversation by Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth and Dr. Ilan H. Meyer to delve into the past and present of mental health for LGBTQ people. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

50 min listen

Dismantling a Diagnosis: Episode 2: The Cure: A half-century ago, millions of homosexuals were cured with the stroke of a pen when the American Psychiatric Association decided to change its diagnostic manual and remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

48 min listen

Dismantling a Diagnosis: Episode 1: A Kind of Madness: In the 1950s, psychiatrists diagnosed all homosexuals with a mental illness, and the sickness label created new forms of oppression for gay people in America. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

28 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Chapter 6: Marching On: In 1978 Harvey Milk called on gay people to gather in D.C. the next year to protest the anti-gay campaigns of Anita Bryant and her ilk. Organizers were stymied by internal conflicts until Milk’s assassination galvanized them and a date for a national march was set. But would anyone show up? by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

62 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Chapter 5: Thank You, Anita: Eric gets an A on his freshman sociology paper, “Marginal Man: The Alcoholic and the Homosexual.” But his sunny predictions for the future of the gay rights movement are met with skepticism from his professor. Mere weeks later, Anita Bryant launches her anti-gay “Save Our Children” campaign. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

53 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Chapter 4: Respectable: Gay rights activists in NYC are first out of the gate to propose anti-discrimination legislation, confident it will sail through the City Council. Instead, they hit a wall of ignorance and bigotry. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Eric happens upon some revelatory literature in his dentist’s waiting room. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

51 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Chapter 3: Family Ties: When Jeanne Manford’s gay son is badly beaten at a 1972 GAA protest, the shy elementary school teacher takes a stand. She cofounds the organization now known as PFLAG and launches a movement that harnesses the strength of our fiercest allies: parents and the other people who love us. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

51 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Chapter 2: Fire Island and Other Stories: While activists are demonstrating, filing lawsuits, and pushing for anti-discrimination laws, 16-year-old Eric is on a ferry to Fire Island, a legendary gay refuge off Long Island, with his neighbor Rev. Mullen—a trip that would introduce him to a vivid slice of mid-1970s gay life, ready or not. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

50 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Chapter 1: A Surge of Energy: The Stonewall uprising ignites an explosion of protests and organizing that transforms a small, often tentative homophile movement into a newly assertive national force that demands gay liberation and equality. In a Puerto Rico hotel pool, 12-year-old Eric experiences a transformation of his own. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

31 min listen

Coming of Age During the 1970s: Preview: The decade between Stonewall and the 1979 March on Washington lives in the shadow of the AIDS crisis and all that came after. In this six-part season, Eric Marcus explores the heady years of gay liberation and the backlash that followed against the backdrop of his own coming of age as a gay teen. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

4 min listen

Guest Episode: Sidedoor: Lucy Hicks Anderson: Known for her smashing parties, lighter-than-air soufflés, and comedic wit, Lucy Hicks Anderson never let anyone tell her how to live her life—not even the courts. When her gender was put on trial in the 1940s, the publicity around her case made her one the first documented Black transgender figures in American history. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

28 min listen

Bonus: A Complicated Love Story: Wait, THAT Harvey? When activist Craig Rodwell told Eric in 1989 who his first serious boyfriend had been, Eric was stunned. In our special Valentine’s Day episode, hear how love unfolded—and unraveled—for two of our movement’s titans. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

14 min listen

Season 11: Episode 6: Kathleen Boatwright: When Kathleen Boatwright fell in love with a woman at church, she fell hard. But this was no carefree romance. The church was staunchly anti-gay. Kathleen was married to a man and had four children. She’d never had a relationship with a woman. As she told Eric in 1989, it was “Pentecostal hysteria.” by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

27 min listen

Season 11: Episode 5: Robert Bauman: In 1980, conservative congressman Robert Bauman was caught soliciting sex from a 16-year-old boy. The scandal landed the married father of four on the front page of newspapers across the country. It spelled the end of his political career—and the start of a years-long journey toward self-acceptance. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

31 min listen

Season 11: Episode 4: Urvashi Vaid: Indian-born activist and lawyer Urvashi Vaid was fiercely attuned to injustice from an early age. Adamant that the fight for LGBTQ equality cannot be separated from other progressive struggles, she became one of the most influential, outspoken, and inspiring movement leaders in recent history. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

30 min listen

Season 11: Episode 3: Faygele Ben-Miriam: In 1972, Faygele Ben-Miriam’s penchant for wearing dresses to the office got him fired from his government job in Seattle. The fact that he had recently brought one of the very first same-sex marriage lawsuits was another strike against him. Undeterred, he went back to court and sued his employer. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

30 min listen

Season 11: Episode 2: Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie: Growing up in the segregated South, Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie knew the challenge of finding an accepting place in the world—a challenge that only grew when her attraction to women came into conflict with her devotion to God. The predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church offered refuge. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

30 min listen

Season 11: Episode 1: Craig Rodwell: In 1954, Craig Rodwell was just 14 when he was arrested for having sex with a man. The experience set the young Chicagoan on the road to becoming a self-described “angry queer”— and one of the most consequential LGBTQ rights activists before and after Stonewall. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

21 min listen

Season 11: Preview: We’re back with more engaging voices from Eric Marcus’s MGH archive! Meet six history makers as they share stories of faith and redemption, of family, of scandal, and of radicalization and liberation. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

6 min listen

Guest Episode: Revisionist History: When Will Met Grace: A special guest episode from Revisionist History, which does a deep dive into the ’90s sitcom “Will and Grace,” which was quietly revolutionary in changing our collective beliefs around gay people and marriage equality. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

37 min listen

Rewind: Stonewall 50: Episode 4: Live from Stonewall: What made Stonewall different? How can we carry the lessons of the uprising with us today? Eric is joined by one archivist and four activists to answer those questions in an intergenerational conversation recorded at the Stonewall Inn on May 23, 2019. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

64 min listen

Rewind: Stonewall 50: Episode 3: “Say It Loud! Gay & Proud!”: Like so many other acts of LGBTQ resistance, the 1969 Stonewall riots could have become a footnote in history. But the protests and organizing that followed launched a new phase in the fight for LGBTQ rights. Hear how anger found its voice and how joy propelled the first Pride marches. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

40 min listen

Rewind: Stonewall 50: Episode 2: "Everything Clicked… And the Riot Was On": The Stonewall uprising began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Revisit that moment, and the hours and days that followed, with voices from the Making Gay History archive. Relive in vivid detail the dawning of a new chapter in the fight for LGBTQ rights. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

33 min listen

Rewind: Stonewall 50: Episode 1: Prelude to a Riot: Conflict has context. In this first episode of Making Gay History’s Stonewall season, we hear stories from the pre-Stonewall struggle for LGBTQ rights. We travel back in time to the turbulent 1960s and take you to the tinderbox that was Greenwich Village on the eve of an uprising. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

39 min listen

Season 10: Episode 6: Michelle Lopez: Women can’t get AIDS—or so Michelle Lopez thought until she tested positive for HIV in 1990. Viable treatments were years away, but the undocumented immigrant from Trinidad would not be defeated. She turned her diagnosis into an opportunity to help others while she fought for her life. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

25 min listen

Guest Episode: LGBTQ&A: Peter Staley: ACT UP Changed the World — Here’s How: As a complement to our episode featuring Ann Northrop, meet Peter Staley, another seminal member of ACT UP, in this 2021 interview courtesy of the LGBTQ&A podcast, hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate in partnership with GLAAD. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

34 min listen

Season 10: Episode 5: Ann Northrop: Fierce and unflappable, veteran journalist Ann Northrop is a natural activist. In this episode, she discusses her most dramatic ACT UP arrest, her work as an AIDS education advocate, her blue-blooded upbringing, and the lure of Angie Dickinson. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

27 min listen

Season 10: Episode 4: Randy Boyd: Randy Boyd’s “gay agenda” was to be radically open about who he was: a gay, HIV-positive writer—not the straight professional athlete he was always assumed to be. Determined to blow up stereotypes about Black people, gay people, and people living with HIV, he had his work cut out for him. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

24 min listen

Season 10: Episode 3: Sara Boesser: From her home in Juneau, Alaska, Sara Boesser watched with alarm as the AIDS epidemic rolled across the lower 48 states, threatening lives and hard-won gay rights. The soft-spoken building inspector decided there was no time to waste. She became an activist and got to organizing. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

20 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Bonus: Stonewall 50 Minisode: Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

Related podcast episodes