I'm Eric Marcus and this is Making Gay History.

Today you're going to meet Shirley Willer.

Shirley was born in Chicago on September 26, 1922.

I'd read about Shirley in a gay history book,

about how she celebrated her 40th birthday by moving to New York and joining the

daughters of Belitis, an organization for lesbians founded in 1955, and how she became

president of the local chapter, then national president.

But that's not the story she's going to tell you today.

We're going farther back to her life in 1940s Chicago

and what drove her to become the passionate activist I'd read about.

So here's the scene.

I arrive on the doorstep of Shirley's one-story house in a working-class neighborhood

of Key West Florida. It's a warm, humid

fall day in the low 80s. A young woman in cut-off shorts and a tank top answers the

door and leads me through a dark hallway to a sunroom at the back of the house.

I get a glimpse of Shirley over

the young woman's shoulder. Shirley is big. She's sitting in a wheelchair a size too small.

Her hair is mostly gray and cut in a flat top style.

She looks out from behind thick coke bottle glasses and gives me the once over.

I notice that I'm also being inspected by the birds she keeps on her sun porch.

Shirley sets her cigarette in an ashtray that's piled high with butts

and reaches out to shake my hand.

...