34. Queers in the Civil Rights Movement
History is Gay
Leigh Pfeffer
4.6 • 536 Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2021
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For today's episode, Leigh is joined by return guest host, Aubree Calvin, to commemorate Black History Month by telling the stories of some folks who made contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s whose queerness has been overlooked or erased, and the ways in which the tremendous work done by Black activists was absolutely essential to the evolution of LGBTQ rights actions. Listen to hear about Freedom Rides organizer Rodney Powell's epic takedown of Rev. Rick Warren, Ernestine Eckstein's directions for the homophile movement, and Lorraine Hansberry's thoughts on Eartha Kitt's legs.
Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin, can be found at www.aubreecalvin.com or on her podcast Southern Queeries. You can also hear Aubree in our episode on Sister Rosetta Tharpe!
Outline
0:00 – Introduction
5:12 – Main Topic: Queers in the Civil Rights Movement
5:27 – Socio-Historical Context
13:47 – 14:18 — Content warning: police brutality/violence mention
20:02 – Who were they? Bio Time.
31:13 – 34:21 – Content warning: violence mention
40:57 – Why do we think they're gay?
1:01:46 – Fun Segment: Word of the Week
1:24:56 – Content warning: suicide mention
1:28:01 – Fun Segment: Pop Culture Tie-In
1:22:25 – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions
1:29:30 – How Gay were They?
1:35:59 – Closing and Where to Find us Online
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to History is Gay, a podcast that examines the underappreciated and overlooked queer ladies, gents, and gentle enbies that have always been there in the unex an episode in a while, but I don't know |
| 0:40.3 | if you know this. There's some pandemic going on, and yours truly just got diagnosed with ADHD. |
| 0:46.9 | So that makes a lot of sense, and things are fun and hard. But also really wonderful, because |
| 0:52.9 | we get to make new friends from the internet constantly. |
| 0:56.9 | So if you haven't guessed, I'm Lee. Hello, your intrepid host, who has been soloing it for a little while, |
| 1:03.9 | and today I have a wonderful guest, who you last heard on the show for our gospel-filled episode about Sister Rosetta Tharp, |
| 1:13.9 | I have brought back Aubrey Calvin to talk today. |
| 1:17.7 | Hi, Aubrey. |
| 1:18.5 | Hi, Lee. How are you? |
| 1:19.8 | I'm doing well. |
| 1:21.2 | How about you? How are you doing? |
| 1:22.7 | Well, I am doing okay from one ADHD person to another. |
| 1:29.2 | I am making it work. |
| 1:31.1 | There you go. |
| 1:31.6 | That's, I mean, that's really all we can ask for in this world, right? |
| 1:34.7 | Just making it work. |
| 1:36.5 | How have you been doing since we last talked? |
| 1:39.7 | You have officially launched your podcast with your co-host India. |
| 1:44.6 | That is Southern Queries. |
| 1:46.1 | How's that going? |
| 1:47.0 | It is going well. |
| 1:48.7 | So, yeah, our show is all about everyday life in the South, if you're LGBTQ, kind of taking |
... |
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