Jeffrey Masters is a GLAAD award-winning journalist and host of the podcast LGBTQ&A. LGBTQ&A was created in 2016 and focuses on documenting modern LGBTQ history. With more than 250 episodes, he captures the real stories of people such as Angela Davis, Laverne Cox, Janelle Monáe and more. Masters has used this podcast to change the landscape for queer storytelling. In the new season, he highlights the voices of queer elders, offering a heartfelt exploration of LGBTQ history and resilience.
“During the pandemic I fell in love with podcasts and thought it was the perfect venue to have in-depth, thoughtful, complicated conversations about what it means to be LGBTQ.”
Masters wanted the new season of LGBTQ&A to center the stories and perspectives of older LGBTQ people who have often been overlooked. From former members of the Daughters of Bilitis and Gay Liberation Front to influential trans activists and drag queens, each interview offers a fascinating chapter of queer history.
Among the notable guests this season is Martha Shelley, whose reflections on the importance of grassroots organizing during the Stonewall era serve as a reminder of the power of community mobilization. Shelley told Masters that “To me, the important thing about Stonewall is not that there was a riot. The important thing is that we organized.. We didn’t just have our protest march. We also started the Gay Liberation Front and that group reached out to the Black Panthers, to the Young Lords, to the women’s movement, to various socialist groups, and made alliances and changed the attitudes in those groups.”
Similarly, Sandy Stone’s trailblazing work in trans studies sheds light on the evolution of gender identity over the course of the last few decades. “I think Sandy’s an important reminder of how much the trans experience has changed over the last 50 years, let alone the last five to seven years,” Masters shares.
In 1987, after being targeted by a prominent anti-trans author, Stone wrote and published “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto.” The book is now credited as the founding document of contemporary trans studies. While trans and gender nonconforming people have always existed, what we now associate as the academic discipline of transgender studies has been reinvented.
Bob ‘Rose’ Levine, a 90-year-old drag queen, offers a glimpse into the Cherry Grove community. Masters said that Bob spoke about the beginning of his career in the 1950s and how he had to embrace doing things himself and getting crafty, “he bought yarn at Woolworths to use as a wig, borrowed drapery to use as a cape,” Masters recalls. Later when the HIV/AIDS crisis hit it completely changed the community in Fire Island.
“There’d be a line from the ferry right to the restaurants. You couldn’t get in. It was just so busy,” Levine said. “And then the minute The New York Times had that article in the paper about AIDS, things stopped…it was like the faucet turned off. And we felt it.” Despite the struggles to remain seen and understood, drag persisted. Drag gave Bob and others an outlet to express themselves, laugh and have fun, and embrace their queer identity.
After speaking with Masters it was evident that all the interviews had recurring themes of community, resilience, and activism. He hopes that through these interviews listeners will be encouraged to connect with older LGBTQ people in their own communities and recognize the significant contributions of all LGBTQ pioneers.
“The wisdom and perspective that they share is something I return to in my own life and I often hear from our listeners about how much the older interviews mean to them,” Masters said. In a time filled with political uncertainty and ongoing challenges for the queer community, hearing from people who’ve also lived through tumultuous times offer a glimmer of hope, and are a testament of the strength embodied by the LGBTQ community.
“Our community is full of people who have fought and are continuing to fight to make the world a safer, more accepting place,” Masters said.
“These interviews with different LGBTQ elders from across the U.S. and Canada are proof of that” and can be a “blueprint for a better queer future” where listeners are inspired to help define how the next chapter of history is written.
Listen to the full podcast interview with Martha Shelley on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Here is a short excerpt of the interview:
LGBTQ&A is a weekly LGBTQ+ interview podcast hosted by Jeffrey Masters. This seasons guests include Duane Michals, Joan Jett Blakk, Sandy Stone, Mia Yamamoto, and more…
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