This special episode of Revisiting The Gay Life features a conversation from 1973 between a young lesbian and her mother, who came out of the closet later in life.
CHANA WILSON was in her early twenties in 1973 when she began producing Radio Free Lesbian for KPFA. In one of the show's first episodes, Chana interviewed her mother, who recently came out as a lesbian...in her fifties.
Her mother fills her in about parts of her life that Chana never knew about, including about her two-year relationship with a woman when Chana was a toddler, and about the horrors of conversion therapy.
Chana produced and hosted Radio Free Lesbian from 1973 to 1976. She went on to become a radio engineer at KPFA, helping to produce many of the other shows at the station. She recently took part in OUT ON THE AIR, a KALW panel discussion about the history of LGBTQ radio.
Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan
Revisiting The Gay Life is a limited 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.
