Season 3: Episode 2: Perry Watkins

FromMaking Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

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Season 3: Episode 2: Perry Watkins

FromMaking Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

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Length:

22 minutes

Released:

Oct 26, 2017

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Sergeant Perry Watkins played by the rules. The U.S military did not. Drafted in 1968, he was thrown out fifteen years later despite his honesty and stellar record of service. He fought back and won.

Released:

Oct 26, 2017

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Intimate, personal portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history brought to you from rare archival interviews.

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Wendell Sayers: Wendell Sayers is not in the history books, but you'll never forget his story. Born in 1904 in Kansas, Wendell was the first black lawyer to work for Colorado's Attorney General. He risked everything to join a gay discussion group. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Edythe Eyde a.k.a. Lisa Ben: In 1947, Hollywood secretary Edythe Eyde, a.k.a. Lisa Ben, had the audacity to publish “Vice Versa,” the first ever “magazine” for lesbians. Even more audacious, she imagined a future gay utopia that has all come to pass. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Hal Call: Hal Call never minced words. The midwestern newspaperman and WWII vet wrested control of the Mattachine Society from its founders and went on to fight police oppression and champion sexual freedom. He also made more than a few enemies along the way. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Shirley Willer: Shirley Willer had good reason to be angry—she was beaten by the police and a dear friend was allowed to die. Because they were gay. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Jeanne and Morty Manford: When Jeanne Manford's gay son Morty was badly beaten at a protest in 1972, she took action and founded an organization for parents of gays known today as PFLAG by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Chuck Rowland: A WWII veteran who turned theory into action, co-founding one of the first LGBT rights groups, the Mattachine Society, in 1950—a time when gay people were considered sick, sinful, criminal, and a threat to national security. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Barbara Gittings and Kay "Tobin" Lahusen: Barbara Gittings and Kay “Tobin” Lahusen described themselves as gay rights fanatics, and they helped supercharge the nascent movement in the 1960s and brought their creativity, passion, determination, and good humor to the Gay Liberation 1970s. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Greg Brock: He blazed a trail for LGBTQ journalists by being himself at a time when being yourself could sabotage your career. Greg Brock didn't just come out on the job, he came out to everyone on Oprah for the first National Coming Out Day in 1988. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Herb Selwyn: Herb Selwyn never hesitated to stick his neck out for others. That included gay people at a time when other straight attorneys cashed in on the persecution of homosexuals and gay attorneys were too frightened to represent a despised minority. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Ellen DeGeneres: Everybody loves Ellen. But that wasn’t always so. When she came out on screen and in real life the backlash was fierce and her future cast in doubt. In this 2001 interview hear a beloved icon at a crossroads. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Jean O'Leary - Part 1: Jean O’Leary was passionate - about women, nuns, feminism, and equality. She left an indelible mark on the women’s movement and the LGBTQ civil rights movement, but not without causing controversy. After all, she was a troublemaker. And proud of it. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Gittings and Lahusen: When the Stonewall uprising upended the 1960s homophile movement, Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen refused to be put out to pasture. They brought all their passion, humor, and determination to the gay lib ‘70s and showed the youngsters how it was done. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Bonus Episode - Love is Love: The right to love and be loved for who we are has always been a driving force in the fight for LGBT civil rights. Eric shares four special love stories featuring activists who helped change the course of history. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Vito Russo: Vito Russo loved movies, but he hated the way Hollywood portrayed LGBTQ people and pedaled homophobia. He decided that that had to change. He wrote a book, was one of the founders of GLAAD, and when his life was on the line, co-founded ACT UP. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Morris Kight: Morris Kight cut his activist teeth in the labor, civil rights, and anti-war movements, and from 1969 on brought all his passion to bear on catapulting himself and L.A.’s gay liberation efforts onto center stage. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Jean O'Leary - Part 2: Jean O’Leary had a vision for the national LGBTQ civil rights movement. On March 26, 1977 she led the first delegation of lesbian and gay activists to the White House. And in 1988 she co-founded National Coming Out Day. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Joyce Hunter: Joyce’s childhood and adolescence were stolen from her. Determined to keep that from happening to other LGBTQ youth, she survived years in an orphanage, suicide attempts, and a brutal anti-gay attack to change the lives of countless of young people. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Smith and Donaldson: Four years before the 1969 uprising at NYC’s Stonewall Inn, a San Francisco confrontation between the police and that city’s LGBT community proved a turning point. Gay attorneys Herbert Donaldson and Evander Smith were among the night’s heroes. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Love is Love: The right to love and be loved for who we are has always been a driving force in the fight for LGBT civil rights. Eric shares four special love stories from his archive featuring activists who helped change the course of history. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Deborah Johnson & Zandra Rolón Amato: In 1983, Deborah Johnson and Zandra Rolón Amato went to a Los Angeles restaurant for what was supposed to be a romantic dinner. Instead they wound up in court. They fought back against discrimination and won. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
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Perry Watkins: Sergeant Perry Watkins played by the rules. The U.S military did not. Drafted in 1968, he was thrown out fifteen years later despite his honesty and stellar record of service. He fought back and won. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
22 min listen
Morris Foote: On November 2, 1955, when 30-year-old Morris read on the front page of the newspaper that Boise police were rounding up and arresting gay men, he did the only thing he could think of. He ran. He didn't feel safe to go back to Boise for the next 20 years. by Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
17 min listen

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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
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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
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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
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Season 3: Episode 2: Perry Watkins

Season 3: Episode 2: Perry Watkins

Description

Titles in the series (100)

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