Out in the Bay

The leather activist, author, sex educator, and kink afficianado is Christopher Beale’s guest this week Out In The Bay.

How do we find human connection? Being “in with the out crowd?" Author and poet Toni Mirosevich finds peers on the pier.

Ruth Brinker, a grandmother and retired food service worker at the time, started cooking and delivering nutritious meals to San Francisco gay men debilitated by HIV/AIDS in 1985. Soon after, Project Open Hand, the nonprofit she founded, became a model worldwide.

Despite clear evidence that conversion therapy doesn’t work and harms LGBTQ people — with high rates of suicide and other mental health impacts — the practice of trying to conform one’s sexual orientation or gender identity to societal norms continues.

This week, we are tackling two oft-misunderstood subjects on Out In The Bay. Open relationships, and professional wrestling.

Dwayne Ratleff grew up Black, poor and gay in 1960s Baltimore. As a youngster, an older Southern neighbor and his loving grandma both told him: “Don’t explain yourself, be yourself.”

Airs 5 p.m. Friday: Monkeypox has primarily affected men who sleep with men, but it has been diagnosed in children and women, and health experts says it’s likely to move more widely into the general population. What are we to do?

Escape with Out in the Bay to a simpler place and time. Before monkeypox, before COVID, before traveling got so fraught. To a town its promoters claimed then was gayer than San Francisco (and where September is superb). Sit back, relax and hit “play.”

“I grew up in a very blue collar, working class, homophobic, and racist environment,” he recalled. Through literature, performance, and eventually writing and performing his own intentionally queer works, Rolston found his sexuality and his voice.

This week 7/28/22 - On the Arts, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, guest host Sarah Cahill talks with American Bach Soloist Artistic Director and Conductor Jeffrey Thomas | BAMPFA Artist Whitney Bradshaw OUTCRY photography series | Bowerbird Collective co-founder & producer Anthony Albrecht | West Edge Opera General Director Mark Streshinsky | Join us Thursdays at 1:00PM PST