In this final episode, we reflect on why there are so few testimonies from LGBTQ people who survived the Nazi... more

Charismatic German Jewish athlete Fredy Hirsch dedicated himself to inspiring and protecting children imprisoned by the Nazis. In this episode,... more

Kenneth Roman was 15 when the Nazis rolled into his Polish hometown. After they liquidated the Jewish ghetto to which... more

German Jewish survivor Margot Heuman attributed her survival of the Nazi concentration camps to her friendship with another teenage girl.... more

Lucy Salani was assigned male at birth, so when she came of age she was conscripted into the Italian army.... more

After the 1942 deportation of his boyfriend, 19-year-old Jewish Berliner Gad Beck vowed to help others escape the same fate.... more

When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, 36-year-old conductor Frieda Belinfante disbanded her orchestra and dedicated herself to helping... more

In 1939, French teenager Pierre Seel had his watch stolen at a cruising spot in his hometown. When he reported... more

Polish teenager Stefan Kosinski was beaten, tortured, and sent to prison. His crime? He fell in love with a Viennese... more

In our second introductory episode, we focus on life in the Nazi concentration camps and offer a glimpse into the... more

In this first of two introductory episodes, hear how the walls closed in on LGBTQ people after Hitler came to... more

Host Eric Marcus welcomes listeners to MGH’s “Nazi Era” series by going back in time to 1980 and a darkened... more

Frank Kameny lived by three rules: have absolute confidence in your beliefs; fight for what’s right; never, ever give up.... more

In 1983 Evan Wolfson wrote a law school thesis that asserted that gay people had a constitutional right to marry.... more

Like so many other acts of LGBTQ resistance, the 1969 Stonewall riots could have become a footnote in history. But... more

The Stonewall uprising began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Revisit that moment, and the hours and... more

Conflict has context. In this first episode of Making Gay History’s Stonewall season, we hear stories from the pre-Stonewall struggle... more

Can historical and emotional truth coexist? For the 55th anniversary of the uprising, Eric and fellow LGBTQ history expert Ken... more

As a bookish lesbian growing up in working-class England, June Thomas developed an early love of bookstores. After moving to... more

Valerie Reyes-Jimenez called it “The Monster.” That’s how some people described HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. Valerie thinks as... more

Eric is joined in conversation by Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth and Dr. Ilan H. Meyer to delve into the past and... more

A half-century ago, millions of homosexuals were cured with the stroke of a pen when the American Psychiatric Association decided... more

In the 1950s, psychiatrists diagnosed all homosexuals with a mental illness, and the sickness label created new forms of oppression... more

In 1978 Harvey Milk calls on gay people to gather in D.C. the next year to protest the anti-gay campaigns... more

Eric gets an A on his freshman sociology paper, “Marginal Man: The Alcoholic and the Homosexual.” But his sunny predictions... more

Gay rights activists in NYC are first out of the gate to propose anti-discrimination legislation, confident it will sail through... more

When Jeanne Manford’s gay son is badly beaten at a 1972 GAA protest, the shy elementary school teacher takes a... more

While activists are demonstrating, filing lawsuits, and pushing for anti-discrimination laws, 16-year-old Eric is on a ferry to Fire Island,... more

The decade between Stonewall and the 1979 March on Washington lives in the shadow of the AIDS crisis and all... more