Making Gay History

📸☝️ Eric Marcus with his mother, Cecilia Marcus, at the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Credit: Courtesy of Eric Marcus

"...13 years later, my mother went to her first @pflag.org meeting. She became such an activist that I had to remind her that *I* was the gay one, that this was *my* issue." #WomensHistoryMonth

Eric Marcus with his mother, Cecilia Marcus, at the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Credit: Courtesy of Eric Marcus.

"By the time I came out to my mom in 1977, I knew about @pflag.org..when my mom told me that she wanted me to see a psychiatrist I told her I’d go if she went to a PFLAG meeting. She said no. I said no. Big mistake." —Eric #WomensHistoryMonth
⁠⁠
🔊 bit.ly/mgh-manford

📸☝️ Sgt. Perry Watkins in an undated photo

Sgt. Perry Watkins in an undated photo

Perry Watkins checked the “homosexual box”—literally. As the Vietnam War entered its 13th year, in 1968, Perry was drafted into the U.S. Army despite having responded "yes" in response to the question on the intake form, "Are you a homosexual?" #BlackHistoryMonth

🔉 bit.ly/mgh-watkins

📸☝️ Bayard Rustin and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Credit: Photo by Monroe Frederick, courtesy of the Estate of Bayard Rustin 4/4

"I said to myself, If I go and sit quietly in the back of that bus now, that child who was so innocent...will have seen so many Blacks go in the back and sit down quietly that it’s going to end up saying, ‘They like it back there, I’ve never seen anybody protest against it.’" 3/4

"I walked into a bus in the South, all prepared to do what I had always done in the South: take a seat in the rear. As I was going by the second seat to go to the rear, a white child reached out for the red necktie I was wearing and pulled it. Whereupon its mother said, ‘Don’t touch a ni**er.’" 2/4

Bayard Rustin and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Credit: Photo by Monroe Frederick, courtesy of the Estate of Bayard Rustin

Openly gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin traced his commitment to speaking against injustice to an experience on a bus as he spoke to @washblade.bsky.social's Peg Byron in 1986. #BlackHistoryMonth 1/4

🔊 bit.ly/mgh-rustin

📸 Photo by Kay Lahusen, courtesy of the Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL

Photo by Kay Lahusen, courtesy of the Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL

Civil disobedience is nothing new to the Black and LGBTQ communities. As Ernestine Eckstein reflected in 1965 in conversation with Kay Lahusen and Barbara Gittings, it is fundamental to educating those around us about injustice.

🔊 bit.ly/mgh-eckstein

📸☝️ Revs. Adrain and Carolyn Mobley-Bowie at their commitment service of holy union at Resurrection MCC, Houston, Texas, August 8, 1998. Credit: Courtesy of Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie

In 1998, they affirmed their relationship with a service of holy union in front of 300 guests, including both their mothers. The couple legally married in 2015 and took each other’s last names. #BlackHistoryMonth

Revs. Adrain and Carolyn Mobley-Bowie at their commitment service of holy union at Resurrection MCC, Houston, Texas, August 8, 1998. Credit: Courtesy of Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie

“I used to tell my mother, ‘I’m gonna marry a girl when I grow up.’” It was in Houston, Texas, that Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie met her life partner, Rev. Adrain Bowie. #BlackHistoryMonth

🔊 bit.ly/mgh-mobley

The admin banned the trans-inclusive rainbow flag from Stonewall National Monument, and now Gilbert Baker's standard rainbow flag.

The Nazis also came for homosexuals, as documented in “The Nazi Era." If history doesn't repeat itself, it's echoing loudly.

makinggayhistory.org/season-fourt...

📸☝️ Bayard Rustin demonstrating in Washington, D.C., in the late 1940s to “Free Imprisoned War Objectors.” Credit: Photo courtesy of the Estate of Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin demonstrating in Washington, D.C., in the late 1940s to “Free Imprisoned War Objectors.” Credit: Photo courtesy of the Estate of Bayard Rustin

"None of us is free and none of us can practice democracy fully so long as any other segment of the community or any country is not democratic." —Bayard Rustin #MakingGayHistory⁠ #BlackHistoryMonth

🔊 bit.ly/mgh-rustin

The admin banned the trans-inclusive rainbow flag from Stonewall National Monument, and now Gilbert Baker's standard rainbow flag.

The Nazis also came for homosexuals, as documented in “The Nazi Era." If history doesn't repeat itself, it's echoing loudly.

makinggayhistory.org/season-fourt...

📸☝️ Damien Martin (right) and Emery Hetrick at the beach, mid-1970s. Credit: Carlos S. Martinez, courtesy of the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Damien Martin (right) and Emery Hetrick at the beach, mid-1970s. Credit: Carlos S. Martinez, courtesy of the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

“It was February of 1987 ... Three months before Emery died, I was diagnosed with AIDS. And, poor baby, I remember he was upset on a number of levels. But the major one was, ‘Who’s gonna take care of you, you know, like you’ve taken care of me?’" —Damien Martin (died #OTD 1987)

🔊 bit.ly/mgh-martin

To be recognized for this particular season is deeply meaningful and underscores what we've said since episode one: we owe it to the people who had the courage to share their stories to bear witness to their suffering, their fortitude, their survival, and their will to live on.

We're proud and humbled to share that "The Nazi Era," our season featuring the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals during the Holocaust, has been nominated for Best History Podcast by The Ambies.

bit.ly/4apriJB

Thank you to all who have encouraged their networks to listen, reflect, and learn.

📸☝️ 1️⃣ Students at a bonfire to destroy “un-German” books. Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-14597 / Georg Pahl / CC-BY-SA 3.0 2️⃣ Young men examine materials from the library of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science. Credit: USHMM, via National Archives and Records Administration

German students at a bonfire to destroy “un-German” books outside the Berlin Opera House, including thousands of books looted from the library of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Research, 1933. Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-14597 / Georg Pahl / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Young men, one in an SS (Schutzstaffel) uniform, likely students, examine materials from the library of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

“If the plague of homosexuality goes unchecked, it will spell the end of Germany.” That was the message Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler delivered to an audience of SS officers four years after Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. #HolocaustRemembranceDay

🔊 linktr.ee/makinggayhis...

📸 Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠6/6

Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠

Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠

Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠

With a score inspired by the Great American Songbook, this nontraditional musical creatively weaves six inmates’ stories into high-camp numbers from The Fag Follies — the prison’s annual Christmas pageant — to expose a secret, fabulous, underground world that was never supposed to have existed. 5/6

Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠

Inspired by true events, this new investigative theatrical work uncovers the long-buried story of the “Fag Ward” — a hidden wing of the Men’s Penitentiary on NYC’s Welfare Island, where inmates were imprisoned in the 1930s for homosexuality. ⁠4/6

Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠

During the residency, Making Gay History will produce and launch a new eight-episode season of its award-winning podcast exploring the research and stories behind Life Jacket’s new musical, THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS.⁠ 3/6

Austin Ruffer from a 2025 development workshop of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS at Baryshnikov Arts featuring Ken Barnett, Arnie Burton, John Cariani, J. Harrison Ghee, Allan K. Washington, and Noah Wolfe. ⁠

Life Jacket will have access to LGBTQ+ archival research experts, prof. recording studios, podcasting influencers, audio engineers, and mentorship under Eric Marcus (MGH Executive Director, Founder & Host) and @saraburningham.bsky.social (MGH’s Founding Editor).⁠ 2/6

📣 JUST ANNOUNCED: During 2026, Life Jacket will be the first-ever theatre company in residence w/ #MakingGayHistory, the nonprofit educational organization that brings LGBTQ+ history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. 🎭️🎤⁠ 1/6