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Reviewed by:
  • Making Gay History: The Podcast
  • Anne Wheeler
Making Gay History: The Podcast. Eric Marcus, creator/host; Sara Burningham, producer; Pineapple Street Media, coproducer. http://makinggayhistory.com/

In the late 1980s Eric Marcus conducted roughly one hundred oral history interviews for his book, Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights (New York: Perennial, 2002). Years after publication, Eric returns us to these stories told at dining room tables and in living rooms with the goal to bring the stories back to life and “to create intimate, personal portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history.” The podcast series currently has three seasons available online; each episode ranges from fifteen to twenty-five minutes, and each focuses on individuals who contributed to the LGBTQ civil rights movement throughout life. The format of each episode begins with Marcus’s contextualization of the original interview, the physical appearance of the person, and a few of his own thoughts on the interview, and is followed by interview excerpts. The individuals include immigrants, activists, journalists, authors, attorneys, and military veterans. Some are well-known mainstream figures, such as actress, comedian, and a talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and “Dear Abby” columnist Esther Friedman Phillips.

Making Gay History would be a powerful stand-alone educational tool if the listener investigated only one or two podcasts. Taken as a whole, the series contributes substantial insight into the overall body of knowledge about the LGBTQ civil rights movement. Season 1 introduces listeners into the world of activist icons like Edythe Eyde, who predicted a gay utopia in her privately published magazine, Vice Versa; Chuck Roland, a cofounder of one of the first gay rights organizations; Wendell Sayers, an African-American attorney once threatened with incarceration after being “diagnosed” at the Mayo Clinic as a homosexual; and trans icon and Stonewall uprising veteran, Sylvia Rivera. Season 2 shares the stories of Hall Call, a man who lost his job at the Kansas City Star because of his sexual orientation, and Jean O’Leary, a former nun whose activism got her invited to the White House. Season 3 showcases stories from people like Larry Kramer, whose screen-play, Women in Love, was nominated for an Academy Award, and Sergeant Perry Watkins, a Vietnam veteran who fought for gay rights in the military.

Making Gay History utilizes oral histories in a thought-provoking and compelling format, and the main website’s navigability is fairly straightforward. The length of the episodes makes it easy to listen to them without losing interest and also allows the listener to focus on the individual whose story is being told. The sharp, crisp, clear website is easy to navigate and visually appealing. Each season contains a three-minute preview and about ten episodes, each of which is represented by an image that rotates to a summary when the user’s mouse hovers over it. Clicking on the Read More link brings up a transcription of the episode, and clicking on the + icon brings the viewer to a full episode description, along with links to additional episodes included in that season. These delightful hidden layers are not [End Page 147] necessarily evident to the less Internet-savvy; however, clicking away at buttons will undoubtedly reveal deeper contextualizing information. Episodes are also available on iTunes, where the podcast has earned a five-star average rating by over one hundred listeners. To access information about the original oral history interviews, which are housed at the New York Public Library, one must dig through menu tabs nested within the “About” and “Team” sections, and there is no clear information about how a researcher can get access to the full interviews or transcripts. To improve this amazing site, information regarding the source material might be made more easily discoverable—for example, as a main tab in the menu. The high level of professionalism in the production of this podcast series should be noted here, in any case. In particular, the award-winning executive producer, Sara Burningham, and the coproducer, Pineapple Street Media, lend a professional polish to the series and raise the bar for oral historians when it comes...

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