Hi History Makers, Eric here. A few months ago we launched Making Gay History's Patreon

channel, a place where we're sharing new video interviews never before heard clips from

my archive that didn't make it into the episodes and more. If you're not a member of our Patreon

community yet, I hope you'll join today. Just $5 a month gets you access to these Making

Gay History extras, and you'll support us as we work to bring LGBTQ history to life

through the voices of the people who lived it. Find out more at patreon.com slash Making

Gay History, or go to Making Gay History.com and click on the link in our homepage banner.

And thank you so much.

I'm Eric Marcus and this is a special bonus episode of Making Gay History.

Back in the late 1980s, over the two years that I interviewed people for my book, I found

there were two emotions driving people to do what they did in the fight for equal rights.

One was anger, over discrimination and disrespect, and the other was love. The right to love and

be love for who we are. We're releasing this on Valentine's Day, but whenever you hear it, think of

this as a love letter. We've reached back into my stack of audio cassettes to bring you some

moments from a few very special love stories about cautious love, the loss of a love, love sickness,

and first love. Nancy Walker had been burned before. She'd fallen head over heels for a woman

who couldn't love her back, but then she met someone who melted her heart and she couldn't quite

believe it.

Interview with Nancy Walker Sunday, December 10, 1989 at the home of Nancy Walker in Jamaica,

plane's Massachusetts. And then this one, she was too tall, and she was gulky, she was still a kid,

and she had a dreadful haircut, and all her clothes were wrong. I was sure she had this man

who was interested in her. She used to write in these long letters by hand on yellow line paper.

...