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:
Gays v Briggs / Part 04: In the early days of the anti-Briggs campaign, a Richard Pryor comedy set turned into a public fiasco and laid bare longstanding divisions in the gay community. With the movement low on cash and running out of time, thousands of gay Californians decided their only option was to tell the world who they really were.
(If you—or anyone you know—are in crisis, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, anytime: Dial 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.)
- Plus, the latest from Christopher Beale and Stereotypes.
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.
