Making Gay History

sara.burningham@gmail.com

Intimate, personal portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history brought to you from rare archival interviews.

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21 episodes
Avg 32 min
English

Episodes 21

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S16 · E2
Yesterday · 41 min
The Queens of Welfare Island: Episode 2: Let’s All Be Fairies
In 1925 Gene Mosely was sent to the men’s penitentiary Fag Ward on a “masquerade” charge. Despite the risks of cross-dressing, drag balls flourished and female impersonators took NYC’s nightlife by storm, while the mainstream visibility of “fairies”...
S16 · E1
October 19 · 35 min
The Queens of Welfare Island: Episode 1: Island of Misfits
It was called the Fag Ward: a separate wing of the men’s penitentiary on NYC’s Welfare Island where gay inmates were kept in the 1920s and ’30s. Eric digs into the history of the infamous prison on what is now Roosevelt Island and shares archival...
October 1 · 3 min
The Queens of Welfare Island: Preview
A century ago, at a notorious men’s penitentiary in New York City, gay inmates managed to find joy and community through their annual Christmas show, the “Fag Follies.” This season, join Eric Marcus as he delves into their lives and explores their...
S15 · E7
July 30 · 43 min
Season 15: Episode 7: Lou Sullivan
When Lou Sullivan sought gender-affirming care in the 1970s, he was turned down. The reason? Lou identified as a gay man at a time when all trans people were assumed to be straight—a conflation of gender identity and sexual orientation that Lou made...
S15 · E6
July 23 · 27 min
Season 15: Episode 6: Barney Frank
“Are you gay?” a reporter asked U.S. Representative Barney Frank in 1987. “Yes, so what?” With that, Frank became the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay. But the casualness of his reply hid decades of agonizing and a very real...
S15 · E5
July 16 · 28 min
Season 15: Episode 5: Nancy May
Nancy May’s allyship was as personal as it was political. After all, she was married to a gay man. In 1965, her involvement in San Francisco’s homophile movement placed her at the center of a headline-making face-off between the police and the city’s...
S15 · E4
July 9 · 31 min
Season 15: Episode 4: Jim Kepner
Raised in a religious home in 1920s and ’30s Texas, Jim Kepner pieced together a sense of his identity where he could—a homoerotic suggestion read between the lines here, a secretly acquired booklet there. His collection of gay-themed materials grew...
S15 · E3
July 2 · 27 min
Season 15: Episode 3: Pat Bond
Pat Bond joined the Women’s Army Corps in 1945, driven by patriotism and a desire to be among lesbians. The war required bodies, so the U.S. military turned a blind eye to service members’ sexual orientation. But as Pat witnessed firsthand, once WWII...
S15 · E2
June 25 · 23 min
Season 15: Episode 2: Mabel Hampton
Mabel Hampton was a performer and domestic worker who lived as an out lesbian in New York City from 1920 until her death in 1989. Her recorded oral histories offer a rare firsthand account of Black lesbian life during the Harlem Renaissance. Visit...
S15 · E1
June 18 · 29 min
Season 15: Episode 1: Christine Jorgensen
When news broke in 1952 that Christine Jorgensen, an ex-GI from the Bronx, had undergone gender-affirming surgery, she became a global sensation. In this 1957 interview, meet the thoughtful woman behind the frenzied headlines as she took on the burden...
June 18 · 6 min
Season 15: Preview
MGH is back for another dive into the archives! Drawing from Eric’s own collection of rare interviews and other repositories of LGBTQ history, we’ll bring you the voices of seven LGBTQ change-makers and allies whose stories will take you from 1920s...
May 20 · 1 hr 49 min
Stonewall National Monument on “Endangered” List
Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the Stonewall National Monument in NYC as one of America’s "11 Most Endangered Historic Places." As an antidote to the threat of erasure facing the country’s only national monument...
S14 · E12
Apr 10, 2025 · 28 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 12: Epilogue
In this final episode, we reflect on why there are so few testimonies from LGBTQ people who survived the Nazi era and on the responsibility we have to honor the testimonies we do have in the face of the unfolding dark times here at home. Visit our...
S14 · E11
Apr 3, 2025 · 31 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 11: Fredy Hirsch
Charismatic German Jewish athlete Fredy Hirsch dedicated himself to inspiring and protecting children imprisoned by the Nazis. In this episode, survivors of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz whose lives were made tolerable, sometimes even joyful, thanks to...
S14 · E10
Mar 27, 2025 · 37 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 10: Kenneth Roman
Kenneth Roman was 15 when the Nazis rolled into his Polish hometown. After they liquidated the Jewish ghetto to which he and his family had been confined, he was sent to a series of forced labor camps and finally a concentration camp, where a sadistic...
S14 · E9
Mar 20, 2025 · 30 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 9: Margot Heuman
German Jewish survivor Margot Heuman attributed her survival of the Nazi concentration camps to her friendship with another teenage girl. It wasn’t until the end of her life that she confided in lesbian historian Anna Hájková about the intimate nature...
S14 · E8
Mar 13, 2025 · 36 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 8: Lucy Salani
Lucy Salani was assigned male at birth, so when she came of age she was conscripted into the Italian army. She soon deserted—the first of several daring escapes that eventually landed her in Dachau. She’s one of the only trans people to testify about...
S14 · E7
Mar 6, 2025 · 28 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 7: Gad Beck
After the 1942 deportation of his boyfriend, 19-year-old Jewish Berliner Gad Beck vowed to help others escape the same fate. He became a prominent resistance member and used his resourcefulness, sexual barter, and chutzpah to save fellow Jews from the...
S14 · E6
Feb 27, 2025 · 31 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 6: Frieda Belinfante
When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, 36-year-old conductor Frieda Belinfante disbanded her orchestra and dedicated herself to helping others. She forged IDs to save Jews from deportation and joined a resistance group that carried out a...
S14 · E5
Feb 20, 2025 · 27 min
The Nazi Era: Episode 5: Pierre Seel
In 1939, French teenager Pierre Seel had his watch stolen at a cruising spot in his hometown. When he reported the crime to the police, he was placed on a list of suspected homosexuals. Two years later, with the city now under Nazi occupation, he was...

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