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

Greg Brock never liked the limelight, but the self-described sissy boy from Mississippi

didn't get a choice.

From the moment he was born in 1953 it was clear he was different and the way

he was different brought him the kind of attention no one wants from bullies, gay

bachelors and a disappointed father.

But that didn't keep Greg from excelling in a profession

where just being himself made him a role model

and trailblazer at some of the most important newspapers

of the time.

The Charlotte Observer, the Washington Post,

and by 1987 at the San Francisco Examiner,

where he was the assistant managing editor in charge of page one.

In the world of journalism back then, an out-gay person at that

level of the business was a really big deal. Greg was also a driving force behind a 16-day

series in the San Francisco examiner called Gay in America.

It was published for the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.

No one had done anything like it at any news outlet before.

When I met Greg in 1989, it was rare to find anyone working in mainstream journalism who was

gay and out.

The reason was simple.

For most people in most places, it was a career killer.

...