Season 10: Preview

Season 10: Preview

Author: Eric Marcus February 17, 2022 Duration: 3:51
We’re back with more stories from the AIDS crisis. Hear Eric Marcus in conversation with six people whose lives and activism were transformed by the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and beyond. For exclusive Making Gay History bonus content, join our ⁠Patreon community⁠. ——— To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eric Marcus brings voices out of the past and into the present with Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive. This isn't a dry historical lecture; it's a collection of intimate conversations, built from rare archival recordings that many thought were lost. Each episode feels like sitting down with someone who was there, offering a personal window into the pivotal moments and everyday struggles that have shaped the LGBTQ community. You'll hear from towering figures of the movement alongside people whose names you might not know-ordinary individuals who displayed extraordinary courage. These are the witnesses, the champions, and the quiet heroes whose stories form the bedrock of this history. Listening, you get the raw, unvarnished emotion in their own words, from the fear and defiance of early activism to the hard-won joys of living authentically. The podcast moves across decades, connecting personal diaries, long-shelved interviews, and firsthand accounts into a powerful, human tapestry. It’s about more than just events; it’s about the lived experience, the culture, and the personal health-both mental and physical-of a community fighting for its place. Through these oral histories, the archive becomes a living, breathing conversation, ensuring that this vital history is remembered not as abstract facts, but as the deeply personal stories it truly is.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
Podcast Episodes
Bonus: Remembering Kay Lahusen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:06
In memoriam: Kay Lahusen, January 5, 1930 - May 26, 2021. Kay was a monumental figure in the LGBTQ civil rights movement. From the earliest homophile protests to gay liberation and beyond, she never stopped fighting for…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 8: Meg Christian [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:01
Olivia Records cofounder Meg Christian helped ignite the women’s music movement of the 1970s with lesbian classics like “Ode to a Gym Teacher.” Meet Meg, in song and conversation, in our final episode drawn from the Stud…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 7: Leonard Matlovich [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:42
When Leonard Matlovich was thrown out of the Air Force for being gay, he sued for reinstatement. It was 1975 and it was the first case of its kind. Hear the LGBTQ rights pioneer—and startlingly frank one-time racist—in c…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 6: Jill Johnston [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:01
Sparks flew when radical lesbian feminist Jill Johnston sat down for an interview with Studs Terkel in 1973. Jill had just published a controversial manifesto called “Lesbian Nation,” which advocated that women break wit…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 5: Mattachine Midwest [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:52
A half-century ago, Studs Terkel interviewed three members of the homophile group Mattachine Midwest: the organization’s president, a student activist, and lesbian pulp author Valerie Taylor. Join them for a wide-ranging…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 4: Quentin Crisp [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:32
From a young age, Quentin Crisp was determined to be himself—makeup, painted nails, dramatically dyed hair, and all—even if it consigned him to a life of poverty and isolation. Hear the author, raconteur, and provocateur…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 3: "Les-Lee" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:45
Canadian female impersonator John Falk Tomkinson appeared around the globe under the stage name Les-Lee for over three decades. In 1967 Studs Terkel interviewed the performer to talk about his art and upbringing, and his…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 2: Lorraine Hansberry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:09
In 1959 Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Soon after "A Raisin in the Sun" made history, the 28-year-old writer and activist talked to Studs Terkel about racial and gend…
MGH & Studs Terkel: Episode 1: Christopher Isherwood [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:03
Author Christopher Isherwood left England for Germany in 1929. His stories about his years there inspired the musical "Cabaret," which shaped the image of decadent interwar Berlin in the popular imagination. But as he to…
MGH & Studs Terkel Radio Archive: Preview [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:48
Making Gay History is back! Join us as we mine the Studs Terkel Radio Archive in Chicago for stories from our proud LGBTQ past to bring you eight intimate conversations conducted between 1959 and 1981 by the legendary or…