Stonewall | Eric Marcus Remembers the Voices of Stonewall | 5

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the events of Stonewall happened in 1969, Eric Marcus was just a boy away at a New Jersey summer camp. Nearly 20 years later, he would document the voices of revolutionary LGBTQ activists like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Frank Kameny for his book, “Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights.”

While his work started out as a printed oral history, Marcus knew that taping those interviews would “one day have value beyond my book.” And he was right. Many of those interviews can be heard on the Making Gay History podcast, which he founded and hosts.

Today, Marcus talks about his conversations with people who shaped the early LGBTQ movement. He’ll also share what people who were patrons of the Stonewall Inn told him about their time there.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon music, download the app today.
0:18.0	Imagine at Spring 1974 that it's still cold and dreary in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco.
0:25.0	Your local merchant has come to a very unorthodox neighborhood meeting.
0:29.0	You're in the back room of a pizza partner just around the corner from the Castro Theatre.
0:33.0	There's still busy doling out pepperoni pies up front and you're just finishing up a slice yourself as a man named Harvey Milk calls the meeting to order.
0:41.0	Alright, is everyone here? Let me see. It's 10, 11, 12. More than I expected. I am happy to see all of your smiling faces.
0:49.0	Harvey owns a camera shop just around the corner. He's got large ears and an infectious laugh.
0:54.0	Not the kind of guy you peg as a budding politician, especially because he's openly gay, just like you are, just like everyone in this room is.
1:02.0	Now, we're all here because as gay businessmen, we need to stick together, right?
1:07.0	The room nods it's a cent, and that's when Harvey nods at you.
1:11.0	Now, if I remember right, your antique store was recently threatened. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
1:17.0	You clear your throat.
1:20.0	My partner and I opened up an antique shop and apparently we were too close to the store where they sell Catholic school uniforms to children.
1:29.0	Yes, part of your nefarious plan to corrupt Castro youth.
1:34.0	Yeah, that's what the Urika Valley Association thought. They called the cops on us. They threatened to take our resale license away.
1:41.0	We're an antique store, for God's sake. Our customers are not, they're not exactly young.
1:46.0	Harvey grins at you and then addresses the rest of the room.
1:49.0	Just a few years ago, this neighborhood wasn't doing very well.
1:53.0	Storefronts were boarded up and then gay people like us moved in, gay-run businesses.
1:59.0	Yeah, but people are afraid of us. I know. We're making this community better and yet people are still afraid of us.
2:06.0	That's just my point. We don't need to be afraid either.
2:10.0	Business is booming and it's because of us. Now, what we need to do is stick together. Money is the root of change.
	...

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