Queer Power Hour is proud — especially at this moment — to host the public radio premiere of Gays Against Briggs, a seven-part series from Slate’s Slow Burn podcast that explores one of the most consequential civil rights battles in US history: the first-ever statewide vote on gay rights.
The documentary follows the battle to defeat the 1978 proposition known as the Briggs Initiative, which would ban gays and lesbians from working in California public schools. It also chronicles the rising power of San Francisco’s gay community and includes interviews with Tom Tom Ammiano, Cleve Jones and Harvey Milk — and with folks whose names may be unfamiliar but who changed the course of queer history.
In this episode:
- Part 01: In the 1970s, San Francisco became a welcoming home for tens of thousands of new gay residents — and a modern-day Sodom for the American right. With a moral panic sweeping across the United States, a Florida orange juice spokeswoman inspired an ambitious California politician to launch his own campaign against lesbians and gays — one that would change the course of U.S. history.
- Plus, an interview with the host and producer of the series, Christina Cauterucci.
Can’t wait to next week for the next episode — and we totally understand the impulse to binge this? Listen to the entire series right now or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
