Out in the Bay

With recent gay rights gains, why is it still difficult for young people to be lesbian, gay, bi, transgender or “queer,” even in the San Francisco Bay Area? The Pacific Center for Human Growth, an LGBT counseling and community center in Berkeley, reports that many queer youth feel unsafe at school every day.

Blackmail, My Love, is a noir murder-mystery novel set in San Francisco, 1951 - "The Dark Ages of Queerdom," as author and illustrator Katie Gilmartin puts it - when cops raided gay and lesbian bars, beat up their patrons, and demanded "protection" money, and when lesbians and gay men were so afraid of exposure they were easy blackmail targets.

Blackmail, My Love, is a noir murder-mystery novel set in San Francisco, 1951 - "The Dark Ages of Queerdom," as author and illustrator Katie Gilmartin puts it - when cops raided gay and lesbian bars, beat up their patrons, and demanded "protection" money, and when lesbians and gay men were so afraid of exposure they were easy blackmail targets. Eric Jansen's guest on Out in the Bay (7pm PT Thursday) is historian, author, printmaker and Queer Ancestors Project founder Katie Gilmartin, who reads from her book and talks about San Francisco and queer life in days of yore. We also hear The Widow Norton herself (aka the late Jose Sarria, one of just two true-life characters in Blackmail, My Love) sing the 1950s anthem "God Save Us Nelly Queens." (Broadcast 12/4/14, 1/29/15 and 11/19/15) Listen here or at www.OutintheBay.org.

Lesbians and their friends take over the stage at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley Friday, Nov. 13, in a concert benefiting Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has defended the rights of LGBT people in many recent legal cases and political battles.

Lesbians and their friends take over the stage at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley Friday, Nov. 13, in a concert benefiting Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has defended the rights of LGBT people in many recent legal cases and political battles.

Halloween not enough? The gory, century-old Grand Guignol theatre style is recreated in Thrillpeddlers' Shocktoberfest 16: Curse of the Cobra , playing through Nov. 21 at the Hypnodrome in San Francisco. And Theatre Rhinoceros, the nation's longest-running LGBT theater company, presents Shakespeare Goes to War at The Thick House.

Dedicated to capturing the oral history of queer San Francisco, Out In The Bay host Marilyn Pittman interviews one of the legendary figures of the 60's, 70's, and 80's: former Cockettes member, Dolores Deluce. Her memoir, "My Life, A Four-Letter Word: Confessions of a Counter-Culture Diva," made Amazon's Top 20 and is an intimate, honest look back at life in the city during its radical heyday. Friends with Divine, Sylvester; lover to many gay men, witness to the devastation of AIDS, Dolores is a

Out in the Bay ventures into outer space 7pm Thursday with cast members of Star Trek Live , a comedic gender-bending homage to the hit '60s TV show, now on stage at Oasis Night Club in San Francisco.

Out in the Bay ventures into outer space 7pm Thursday with cast members of Star Trek Live, a comedic gender-bending homage to the hit '60s TV show, now on stage at Oasis Night Club in San Francisco.

Chana Wilson grew up in the 1950s with a suicidal mother. She learned in adulthood that her mother had been a closeted lesbian given psychiatric treatments - including electroshock - to “cure” her. Mother and daughter developed a deep bond when both came out as lesbians in the women’s and gay liberation movements of the late 1960s and ’70s. There's much more to this touching, fascinating story in "Riding Fury Home," Chana’s memoir. Marilyn Pittman hosts. Thursday, October 8, 2015.