Jamison Green has spent his career fighting to make the healthcare world a safer, more accessible place for transgender people.

He talks about the seeming invisibility of trans men, gives the best explanation I've ever heard for why people feel threatened by gender nonconformity, and talks about coming into his bisexuality in his 50s. Jamison is the former president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association) and the author of the very excellent memoir, Becoming A Visible Man. He was born in 1948.

This interview is part of our new LGBTQ+ Elders Project. You can also listen to our recent interview with Harvey Fierstein.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website in the afternoon (or earlier, if I get enough coffee). Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

Ruthie Berman shares her epic, decades-long love story with her wife, Connie Kurtz. She talks about how they fell in love in the 1970s, successfully sued the New York City Board of Education for domestic partner benefits in 1988, and reflects on how much has and hasn't changed for LGBTQ+ people since she came out 50 years ago.

"I deserve better in my golden years than what I have now. The world sucks. America is in the worst place in my history that it's ever been and I'm concerned about my community."

This is part of our new LGBTQ+ Elders Project. You can also listen to our recent interview with Harvey Fierstein here.

Ruthie Berman was born in 1934.

The full video of Ruthie and Connie's appearance on The Phil Donahue Show can be seen on our Instagram page here: @jeffmasters1

Ruthie And Conne: Every Room In The House is a fantastic documentary (streaming for free on Vudu) that you can watch.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website in the afternoon. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

Our new LGBTQ+ elders project is here! Barbara Satin talks about her "ministry of presence", making sure that trans people are a loud and visible part of the LGBTQ+ community. After coming out in the late '90s, Barbara quickly learned that it was "important for them to have an understanding of who we are and to actually see somebody and interact with somebody and to know and respect a trans person as a positive role model."

Barbara Satin is 87 years old.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Cleve Jones that is excerpted in this episode.

A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website in the afternoon (or earlier if the coffee hits right). LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

This is a time machine!!!!!!! We're launching a new series on the podcast dedicated exclusively to the stories of LGBTQ+ elders. Over the last five years, it's the interviews with the oldest members of our community that have connected the most with our listeners. And that goes for me too. Speaking to people like Miss Major Griffin Gracy, Magora Kennedy, Cleve Jones, Charles Silverstein, and Tracey "Africa" Norman is where I've found the most inspiration.

This Tuesday (3/1), we're kicking things off with Barbara Satin, a faith leader and 87-year-old trans woman from Minneapolis. If you have any suggestions for LGBTQ+ elders who have amazing stories that you think we should know about, shoot me a message. I'd love to hear about them.

Here are links to the different voices heard in this episode: Mark Segal, Charles Silverstein, Ben Daniels (from The National Theatre in London's production of A Normal Heart), Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and Kate Bornstein.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

"It was a great privilege to be gay. Otherwise, I'd probably be very boring and unhappy and unexamined." John Cameron Mitchell (currently starring as Joe Exotic in Joe vs Carole) talks about the extraordinary legacy of Hedwig And The Angry Inch and how playing Hedwig changed his own experience of gender and sexuality.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod 

[This interview was originally recorded in June of 2019.]