LIVE EVENT: July 15th, 2026
Join us for Out on the Air, a live conversation about the history of LGBTQ radio on July 15th at 7pm at KALW’s community event space at 220 Montgomery Street in downtown San Francisco.
In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we hear about an LGBTQ organization that has been around for more than 60 years and is still somewhat misunderstood: The Imperial Court is a social and charitable organization that adds a drag twist to the concept of royal courts. Since it began in San Francisco in 1965, The Imperial Court system has gone global and raised millions of dollars for LGBTQ+ communities.
The conversation from a 1981 episode of The Gay Life is ostensibly about the history of the Imperial Court system, but it actually focuses more on the mistreatment of queer people at the hands of law enforcement.
Featured in this episode:
- José Sarria, Empress I de San Francisco and the first out gay political candidate in the US
- Bob Ross, Emperor VII and Founder/Publisher of the Bay Area Reporter
Revisiting The Gay Life is a new 12-episode series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.
We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial rock and roll station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Revisiting The Gay Life is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.
