I history

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

and click on the link in our home page banner and thank you so much. I'm Eric Marcus and this is another dispatch from Making Ayehic Markus and this is another

dispatch from Making Gay History's quarantine closet studio. I'm recording this introduction six weeks

since my partner Barney and I began sheltering in place at our home in New York City.

Six weeks into staying home except for the essentials,

and we're six weeks into trying to stay sane in isolation.

One thing that definitely helps is talking with dear friends, even talking with dear friends about sad news. A few days ago I called my friend Kay Lahousin to let her know she'd be hearing from a reporter at the Financial Times who was working on an obituary for Phyllis Lyon, who had just died at 95, from natural causes other than COVID-19.

Phyllis co-founded the Daughters of Belitis,

the first organization for lesbians in 1955.

And K is one of the very few people still alive who remembers Phyllis from the early days of the movement.

If you've been listening to making gay history since our early days, Kay and her late partner, Barbara Giddingsings may feel like dear friends to you.

Both Kay and Barbara are icons of the LGBTQ Civil Rights Movement, happy warriors during

the 1960s and post Stonewall 70s, who showed how you could change the world and have a good time doing it.

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