The Podcast
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.
The Nazi Era
A 12-part series about the experiences of LGBTQ people during the rise of the Nazi regime, World War II, and the Holocaust.
Prologue
Overview Part I
Overview Part II
Stefan Kosinski
Pierre Seel
Frieda Belinfante
Gad Beck
Lucy Salani
Margot Heuman
Kenneth Roman
Fredy Hirsch
Epilogue
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.
Voices from the MGH Archive
Craig Rodwell
Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie
Faygele Ben-Miriam
Urvashi Vaid
Robert Bauman
Kathleen Boatwright
Voices from the MGH Archive — the AIDS Crisis
Randy Shilts
Dr. Ronald Grossman
Sara Boesser
Randy Boyd
Ann Northrop
Michelle Lopez
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
Voices from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive
Christopher Isherwood
Lorraine Hansberry
“Les-Lee”
Quentin Crisp
Mattachine Midwest
Jill Johnston
Leonard Matlovich
Meg Christian
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.
Voices from the MGH Archive — the 1970s
Ruth Simpson
Vernon E. “Copy” Berg III
Barbara Smith
Nancy Walker
Damien Martin
Bonus 1970 recording of Sylvia Rivera & Marsha P. Johnson
Stonewall 50
A commemorative documentary season on the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising.
Start with the first episode.
Voices from the MGH Archive — Beginnings
Introduction
Magnus Hirschfeld
Harry Hay
Billye Talmadge
Dorr Legg, Martin Block & Jim Kepner
Stella Rush
Reed Erickson
Bayard Rustin
Ernestine Eckstein
Dick Leitsch
Martha Shelley
