Revisiting The Gay Life

It's 1984. The mysterious illness stalking the gay community has a name and has claimed more than 2000 lives. Sadly, this is just the beginning of the horrors that the LGBTQ+ community will face in the coming decade as Reagan's government does little to combat the disease because of its association with homosexuals and drug users.

In the final installment of Revisiting The Gay Life, we listen back to a speech that BOBBI CAMPBELL, the so-called AIDS Poster Boy, made in the final month of his life. And we hear tributes to Bobbi from his family, friends, partner and fellow activists. 

Plus, we talk with RANDY ALFRED, a pioneering queer journalist, about covering AIDS in the midst of so much mourning and sorrow.

Revisiting The Gay Life is a limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial radio station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

Revisiting The Gay Life is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Societyand The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

Practically overnight, everything changed when a mysterious illness popped up in the gay ghettos of San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles in the summer of 1981. 

On this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we relive the early and uncertain days of what would later be named AIDS.

We'll listen back to a 1981 interview with two pioneering doctors researching and treating what was then called gay cancer: PAUL VOLBERDING and MARCUS CONANT

And we hear RANDY ALFRED's interview with their patient BOBBI CAMPBELL, who was one of the first people to come out publicly as having what was then called Gay Cancer. He became a fierce advocate for people living with AIDS and the "AIDS Poster Boy."

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial radio station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

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Revisiting The Gay Life is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Societyand The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we're looking at how queer people have been represented — and misrepresented — on the big screen up through the early 1980s.

We'll listen back to Randy Alfred's 1981 interview with Vito Russo, author of the seminal book, The Celluloid Closet, about how homosexuality was portrayed in movies. 

And we’ll hear a conversation from 1981 with gay filmmaker Artie Bressan. He directed Gay USA, one of the first documentaries by and about gays in America. He was also a pioneer in gay porn — adding story to the sex.

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial rock and roll station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

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Revisiting The Gay Life is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we're exploring the history of queer witches and witchcraft. 

As it turns out, The Gay Life did not one but two shows on witches.

In 1979, host Randy Alfred talked with noted gay witch ARTHUR EVANS, who was the author of Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture and BATYA PODOS, a lesbian witch who taught a class at SF State on Women and Ritual. 

Three years later, in 1982, Randy sat down with two more queer practicing witches — RAVEN and PANDORA — to hear about their sexual and spiritual awakenings.

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial rock and roll station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

Revisiting The Gay Life is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

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Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

This special episode of Revisiting The Gay Life features a conversation from 1973 between a young lesbian and her mother, who came out of the closet later in life.

CHANA WILSON was in her early twenties in 1973 when she began producing Radio Free Lesbian for KPFA. In one of the show's first episodes, Chana interviewed her mother, who recently came out as a lesbian...in her fifties. 

Her mother fills her in about parts of her life that Chana never knew about, including about her two-year relationship with a woman when Chana was a toddler, and about the horrors of conversion therapy.

Chana produced and hosted Radio Free Lesbian from 1973 to 1976. She went on to become a radio engineer at KPFA, helping to produce many of the other shows at the station. She recently took part in OUT ON THE AIR, a KALW panel discussion about the history of LGBTQ radio.

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a new limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we explore the past, present and future of LGBTQ radio with three of its pioneers who have been making radio since the early 1970s.

This discussion was recorded live on July 15, 2016 at KALW’s event space in downtown San Francisco. 

Featured in this episode:

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a new limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we're gonna focus on an inflection point in queer history: when the gay and lesbian rights movement was gaining strength, but also facing some backlash. 

As the '70s gave way to the '80s, the deeply religious and conservative moral majority was founded and it helped catapult former Governor Ronald Reagan into the White House. At the same time, in the aftermath of Harvey Milk's murder, gays and lesbians were making serious inroads both in terms of public acceptance and political clout.  

Featured in this episode:

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a new limited series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.

Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we're going to explore two very different versions of the 1970s queer experience through interviews with two gay fiction writers working on opposite coasts at the time. 

Featured in this episode:

Also featured: "Michael's Letter to Mama." In 1999, Seattle Men's Chorus commissioned David Maddux to compose a choral piece with lyrics from Armistead Maupin's original coming-out letter that appeared in Tales of the City. This rendition is from San Francisco Gay Men's Choir.
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Revisiting The Gay Life is a new 12-episode series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial rock and roll station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Joining us for the look back: pioneering gay journalist Randy Alfred, who hosted the show from 1979 - 1984.

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we're going to focus on bisexuality — as a distinct identity.

Bisexuality was nothing new and sexual exploration was a big part of the counterculture movement of the late 60s and early 70s. But it went mainstream in the mid 1970s, when rockers like David Bowie, Elton John and Lou Reed came out as bisexual and both Time and Newsweek ran trend stories about “The New Bisexuals “ and “Bisexual Chic.” 

Coastal communities in the United States were at the leading edge of societal change. And, in San Francisco, bisexuals began to create their own spaces and organizations.

Host Randy Alfred interviewed leaders of those organizations on The Gay Life. And we’ll be revisiting two conversations from 1981.

Featured in this episode:

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Revisiting The Gay Life is a new 12-episode series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial rock and roll station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we hear about an LGBTQ organization that has been around for more than 60 years and is still somewhat misunderstood: The Imperial Court is a social and charitable organization that adds a drag twist to the concept of royal courts. 

Since it began in San Francisco in 1965, The Imperial Court system has gone global and raised millions of dollars for LGBTQ+ communities. This conversation from a 1981 episode of The Gay Life is ostensibly about the history of the Imperial Court system, but it actually focuses more on the historic mistreatment of queer people at the hands of law enforcement. 

Featured in this episode: