Mark Segal moved to New York City in May of 1969 and a month later found himself at The Stonewall Inn as the now-infamous police raid began.

"The police came in, pretended that they were doing their duty, got their pay off," he says. "The difference here was they barged in, they threw people up against the wall, they extorted money from some of the older people, they harassed the drag queens. It was pretty violent."

Stonewall sparked Mark Segal's lifelong commitment to activism, which memorably included interrupting Walter Cronkite in the middle of CBS Evening News by yelling and waving a banner that read, "Gays Protest CBS Prejudice".

He joins us on the podcast to look back on the last 50 years of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement and shares the secret ingredient that underlies all of his activism: a sense of humor.

Click here to listen to our interview with Gay Liberation Front co-founder, Martha Shelley.

LGBTQ&A is an independent, listener-supported podcast. Please consider joining our ⁠Substack⁠ as a paid Subscriber to help support our work.

LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. ⁠@jeffmasters1

[The was originally recorded in November 2020]

Laverne Cox talks about being on the cover of Time magazine ten years ago, the pressure she's faced as one of the most visible members of the trans community, and how the Bostock v. Clayton County Supreme Court case with Aimee Stephens impacts all LGBTQ+ people.

LGBTQ&A is an independent, listener-supported podcast. Please consider joining our ⁠Substack⁠ as a paid Subscriber to help support our work.

LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. ⁠@jeffmasters1

[The was originally recorded in September 2019]

Rep. Barney Frank served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013. He talks about being one of the first members of Congress to come out, how the AIDS crisis forced Congress to act, and the current state of the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement. Plus, his "Trophy Husband", Jim Ready, drops by to say hello.

LGBTQ&A is an independent, listener-supported podcast. Please consider joining our ⁠Substack⁠ to help support our work. Click here to learn more.

The book mentioned in this episode is Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington by James Kirchick.

This is a part of our special series, The LGBTQ+ Elders Project. ⁠Click here⁠ to listen to our recent interview with Martha Shelly, activist and co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front.

LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. ⁠@jeffmasters1