The Podcast | Making Gay History (original) (raw)
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Since 2016 the Making Gay History podcast has been mining Eric Marcus’s decades-old audio archive of rare interviews—conducted for his award-winning oral history of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement—to create intimate portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history. In addition, we’ve also produced documentary series that explore milestone events and developments in LGBTQ+ history sourcing content from other archives. Explore the stories and people we’ve featured below.
Dismantling a Diagnosis
Until December 15, 1973, homosexuals were, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (aka the DSM, the official diagnostic manual for mental health professionals), mentally ill by definition. To be gay was to be pathological—no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
On the 50th anniversary of the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM, Making Gay History released a three-part miniseries that tells the story of how early gay rights activists, allies, and closeted psychiatrists brought about this seismic shift in the ongoing battle for LGBTQ acceptance and redefined what it meant to be gay in America.
Start with the first episode.
Coming of Age During the 1970s
A six-part season exploring the heady years of post-Stonewall gay liberation and the backlash that followed against the backdrop of Eric Marcus’s coming of age as a gay teen.
Start with the first episode.
Coming of Age During the AIDS Crisis
A six-part audio memoir in which Eric Marcus explores his memories of the early years of the AIDS epidemic and reconnects with people whose lives intersected with his.
Start with the first episode
Revisiting the Archive
Drawing inspiration and comfort from previously featured LGBTQ+ trailblazers during the early months of the Covid pandemic.
Start with the first episode.
Stonewall 50
A commemorative documentary season on the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising.
Start with the first episode.
