Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

In 1945 Dr. Evelyn Hooker’s gay friend Sam From urged her to do a study challenging the commonly held belief that homosexuals were by nature mentally ill. It was work that would ultimately strip the “sickness” label from millions of gay men and women and change the course of history.

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In 1947, Hollywood secretary Edythe Eyde, aka 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. In the '50s, Edythe sang gay parodies of popular songs in LA gay clubs.

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You’ve never heard of Wendell Sayers, but once you hear his story, you’ll never forget him. Born in western Kansas in 1904, Wendell was the first Black lawyer to work for Colorado’s attorney general, and risked everything to join a gay discussion group.

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A never-before-heard conversation with trans icon and self-proclaimed Stonewall veteran Sylvia Rivera. Hear Sylvia discuss the first night of the June 1969 uprising and her struggle for recognition in the LGBTQ rights movement.

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The Making Gay History podcast mines Eric Marcus’s decades-old audio archive of rare interviews to create intimate, personal portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history. Here’s a taste of what’s to come in season one.

Music: "Divider" by Chris ZabriskieLicense: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

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