Season 15: Preview

Season 15: Preview

Author: Eric Marcus June 18, 2026 Duration: 5:23
MGH is back for another dive into the archives! Drawing from Eric’s own collection of rare interviews and other repositories of LGBTQ history, we’ll bring you the voices of seven LGBTQ change-makers and allies whose stories will take you from 1920s Harlem to the halls of power in 1980s D.C.  ——— Audio sources: - Christine Jorgensen Reveals, an LP recording of a 1957 interview between Christine Jorgensen and Nipsey Russell (credited as R. Russell), released in 1958 by J Records, New York, NY. - Mabel Hampton Oral History Collection, used by permission of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. - Barney Frank interview via the Making Gay History archive. - "Lou Sullivan and Dr. Ira Pauly Interview, Part 1," January 1988, GLBT Historical Society Film & Video Collection, courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society. ———

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: 50

Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
Podcast Episodes
Season 11: Episode 6: Kathleen Boatwright [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:58
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 rel…
Season 11: Episode 5: Robert Bauman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:49
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 hi…
Season 11: Episode 4: Urvashi Vaid [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:22
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…
Season 11: Episode 3: Faygele Ben-Miriam [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:12
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 anothe…
Season 11: Episode 2: Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:39
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…
Season 11: Episode 1: Craig Rodwell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:31
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 ri…
Season 11: Preview [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:45
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. For exclusive Makin…
Guest Episode: Revisionist History: When Will Met Grace [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:05
This special guest episode is from Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about things misunderstood and overlooked. Gladwell does a deep dive into the ’90s sitcom Will and Grace, which was quietly revolutionary…
Rewind: Stonewall 50: Episode 4: Live from Stonewall [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:31
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…