34. Queers in the Civil Rights Movement

For today’s episode, Leigh is joined by return guest host, Aubree
Calvin, to commemorate Black History Month by telling the stories
of some folks who made contributions to the Civil Rights Movement
in the 1960s whose queerness has been overlooked or erased, and
the ways in which the tremendous work done by Black activists was
absolutely essential to the evolution of LGBTQ rights actions.
Listen to hear about Freedom Rides organizer Rodney Powell’s epic
takedown of Rev. Rick Warren, Ernestine Eckstein’s directions for
the homophile movement, and Lorraine Hansberry’s thoughts on
Eartha Kitt’s legs.


Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin, can be
found at www.aubreecalvin.com or on her podcast Southern
Queeries. You can also hear Aubree in our episode on Sister
Rosetta Tharpe!


Outline
0:00 – Introduction
5:12 – Main Topic: Queers in the Civil Rights Movement
5:27 – Socio-Historical Context
13:47 – 14:18 — Content warning: police brutality/violence
mention
20:02 – Who were they? Bio Time.
31:13 – 34:21 – Content warning: violence mention
40:57 – Why do we think they're gay? 
1:01:46 – Fun Segment: Word of the Week
1:24:56 – Content warning: suicide mention
1:28:01 – Fun Segment: Pop Culture Tie-In
1:22:25  – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions
1:29:30 – How Gay were They?
1:35:59 – Closing and Where to Find us Online


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