Finally tonight, as Pride Month wraps up, a look at a pioneering LGBTQ comedian and activist.

In 1979, Robin Tyler became the first out lesbian comic to appear on national television.

She used both her humor and her platform to become an important voice in the push for

LGBTQ rights and equality. This is part of our series, Hidden Histories.

Robin, thanks for joining us.

You were born on the prairie of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

How did you get into show business from there?

I moved to New York when I was 19 or 20.

I emigrated here, and you had to sign something saying you weren't a communist,

you weren't a drug addict, or you weren't a homosexual.

So I signed it because I wasn't a homosexual. I was a lesbian.

And I moved to New York to break into show business.

And I went to a dragball, and I got arrested.

They raided it.

And I got arrested for female impersonation.

So they took me to jail and all the queens, oh, she's a girl!

And the cops, that's what you all call each other.

So they finally let me go because a newspaper person came to look at me.

And I ended up going to the 82 Club and becoming a female impersonator.

And I did Judy Garland.

Only in those days, you had to do the real voice.

You couldn't lip-sinks.

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