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Queer Power Hour

GAYS AGAINST BRIGGS: Episode 06

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: On election night in 1978, gays and lesbians in California braced themselves for the statewide vote on Proposition 6. Less than a month after the results came in, a pair of killings shocked San Francisco and the nation.

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.

David Boyer is KALW's Director of Programming and former Managing Editor of KALW News. He is also the producer/host of the Murrow Award winning podcast THE INTERSECTION, which looks at our changing cities, one street corner at a time.