Slow Burn: A Hotbed of Homosexuality
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
While the What Next team observes the holiday, enjoy the first episode of Slow Burn's new season.
In the 1970s, San Francisco became a welcoming home for tens of thousands of new gay residents—and a modern-day Sodom for the American right. With a moral panic sweeping across the United States, a Florida orange juice spokeswoman inspired an ambitious California politician to launch his own campaign against lesbians and gays—one that would change the course of U.S. history.
(If you—or anyone you know—are in crisis, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, anytime: Dial 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.)
Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock the first five episodes of Slow Burn: Gays Against Briggs. Your subscription also gets you ad-free access to all your favorite Slate podcasts, plus other member exclusive content. Join now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Subscribe” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/slowburnplus to get access wherever you listen.
Season 9 of Slow Burn was written and produced by Christina Cauterucci. Slow Burn is produced by Kelly Jones, Joel Meyer, and Sophie Summergrad.
Josh Levin is the editorial director of Slow Burn.
Derek John is Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts.
Susan Matthews is Slate’s executive editor.
Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. We had engineering help from Patrick Fort and Madeline Ducharme.
Our theme music is composed by Alexis Cuadrado. Artwork by Ivylise Simones, based on an image of Silvana Nova and a poster designed by Larry Hermsen and the Too Much Graphics Collective.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Went Next listeners. I am so hyped for the special episode I'm about to shoot down your feed. |
| 0:06.8 | It's Memorial Day. Hopefully you are catching some sun. That makes it the perfect time to check out the latest season of Slow Burn. This time hosted by Slate's Christina Cotterucci. This season is called Gaze Against Briggs. It's all about a pivotal moment in the United States |
| 0:22.1 | gay rights movement. It's the 1970s, and a California state senator named John Briggs has |
| 0:28.5 | just put a bold proposition on the ballot. If passed, it would ban gays and lesbians from working |
| 0:34.1 | in public schools. I am about to hit play on episode one in which Christina |
| 0:39.1 | takes us to San Francisco to chart how the community started to fight back. Check it out. |
| 0:46.1 | Before we get started, a heads up. This episode contains strong language, descriptions of violence, |
| 0:51.9 | and a gay slur. It also mentions suicide. It may not |
| 0:55.9 | be appropriate for some listeners. In the late 1960s, Tom Amiano had a job he loved. He worked as a |
| 1:04.9 | special education teacher at a public elementary school in San Francisco. My teaching experience |
| 1:10.3 | was for kids who were marginalized and ridiculed and mislabeled. |
| 1:15.6 | Every day, Tom brought a nurturing spirit and a big personality to the classroom. |
| 1:21.1 | I was kind of cute, as very effeminate. |
| 1:23.5 | People said I was very funny. |
| 1:25.3 | I had a secret desire to be a stand-up comic. And the joke I made was this. They say, you can't be gay and be a teacher. But show me a room full of teachers. And I'll show you a gay bar. So there you are. |
| 1:40.6 | For Tom, it wasn't just a joke. That line captured the central conflict of his life. |
| 1:47.4 | There was the daytime teaching and the nighttime disco bunny. |
| 1:52.2 | The main thing was, you know, I decided it was best for me to really embrace my identity as a gay man. |
| 2:05.5 | In the 1960s, gay sex was illegal in California and almost everywhere else in the country. That meant Tom and millions of other Americans were presumed criminals. |
| 2:11.7 | The police were terrible. There was a lot of entrapment going on. Police officers would go undercover at gay bars, entice their targets, then arrest them. |
| 2:21.1 | It was a risk for all gay people, but Tom's job made him particularly vulnerable. |
| 2:26.2 | In California, teachers found guilty of sodomy, having oral or anal sex, were at risk of losing |
... |
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