Like Whatever Gen-X
Remember the 1980s and 1990s and all things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. From music to movies and television, to the generational trauma we all experienced we talk about it all. Take a break from today and travel back to the long hot summer days of nostalgia. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever Gen-X
Sounds Gay, We're In
The long, hard-fought road to LGBTQ+ equality stretches back centuries, but few generations have witnessed the seismic shifts that Gen X has. From criminalizing same-sex relationships to nationwide marriage equality, our generation watched society's attitudes transform dramatically during our lifetime.
Many argue that gayness is some new "trend," but the facts tell a different story. With over 1,500 animal species exhibiting same-sex behavior in nature, from penguin pair-bonding to elephant male-to-male relationships, the evidence is overwhelming - this is natural and has always existed. Ancient human civilizations openly celebrated same-sex relationships, with early forms of same-sex marriage ceremonies documented as far back as the 3rd century.
We walk through the painful timeline of LGBTQ+ persecution in America - from the "Lavender Scare" that purged thousands from government positions to the designation of homosexuality as a mental illness. The courage of early activists who formed organizations when being openly gay meant risking everything paved the way for watershed moments like Stonewall in 1969 and the first Pride parades that followed.
For Gen X, the AIDS crisis became a defining moment. Watching a deadly disease ravage a community while society either ignored or stigmatized the victims changed many of us forever. When beloved public figures like Rock Hudson and Magic Johnson faced their diagnoses, AIDS couldn't be ignored anymore. Through grassroots activism and sheer determination, the LGBTQ+ community demanded recognition, respect, and rights.
The victories have been hard-won and surprisingly recent. It wasn't until 2003 that sodomy laws were struck down, and only in 2015 did the Supreme Court make marriage equality the law of the land - by a narrow 5-4 margin. These rights that many now take for granted hang by threads that some are actively trying to cut.
As longtime allies who saw our LGBTQ+ friends struggle and triumph, we ask the fundamental question: How does someone else's identity affect your life? The simplest truth is that it doesn't. So why do we care who others love?
Join us for a heartfelt, sometimes funny, sometimes angry reflection on how far we've come and the work still ahead. Check us out on social media @likewhateverpod and share your thoughts with us at likewhateverpod@gmail.com.
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Two best friends.
Speaker 2:We're talking the past, from mistakes to arcades. We're having a blast Teenage dreams, neon screens, it was all rad and no one knew me. Like you know, it's like whatever. Together forever, we're never the best ever Laughing and sharing our stories. Clever, we'll take you back. It's like whatever.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by and about Gen X. I'm Nicole and this is my BFF, Heather. Hey, so how was your week? It was good. Yeah, it's hot.
Speaker 2:Mine wasn't bad, it is it's hot.
Speaker 1:mine wasn't bad, it is it's hot yeah, but my pool is clear, yeah, and I can't wait. Oh, I forgot to look, yeah it's probably cold, though I don't think so I think it probably is. Maybe I'm getting in it tomorrow night, my daughter and son-in-law are coming over and it's going to get christened tomorrow night.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice, Nice, nice nice.
Speaker 1:But it was hot today and it's going to be like 90 tomorrow. That's true, so it should be warmed up by then. That's true, yeah.
Speaker 2:This is a big week in Gen X-ness. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Jaws Ah.
Speaker 2:It's the anniversary of Jaws.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm 50 years, 50 years. I heard on NPR this week that they are doing a big long weekend celebration up in Amity for it and it sounded so cool. But they're going to have it's at Martha's Vineyard where they filmed it, and they're going to have uh, it's at martha's vineyard where they um filmed it, and they're going to have special events and guest speakers and just activities for everybody, which you know, they've got to be doing a showing of it in the water I have no doubt they do one in dewey and I want to go.
Speaker 2:So fucking bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come on and that's in the ocean. Yeah, like I thought about doing it out here in my pool and that would be scary enough in the ocean oh my god, seaweed would hit my leg and I would just die I do that anyway I know I haven't been in the ocean in a very long time, since I was a kid probably since my kids were kids, would have been for me. But yeah I, I just go out there to cool off now. Yeah, I step to get to like my knees and splash off sandy.
Speaker 2:There's sand everywhere and you get sand and it's salty and you get salt all over you and you get too tan at work. I know, do you notice how tan I am already? It still freaks me out. I'm never gonna get used to it, I know I hate it.
Speaker 1:Your porcelain skin is rude. I know you should see the post. I should see the post I.
Speaker 2:I went so long with my lovely porcelain skin oh, you know what else I? Got this week I got new um lotion to put on my tattoos. It's supposed to revitalize them, them. I just started using it yesterday, so you won't notice the difference.
Speaker 1:Well, and you've been wearing long sleeves up until now too, so I haven't really seen them, that's true.
Speaker 2:You know, when I put this shirt on, I'm sporting a new situation here Mesh and crop top. There's crop top underneath In your skulls. Yes, um, anyway, I forgot that. I totally have the horrible 90s cliche tattoo the tribal, the tribal son I have, well, I have, the the um celtic uh tree of life yes, do, and it's in the same spot when you watch all those like well, I watch TikToks you know but all that stuff and they're like, oh, what's the most 90s thing?
Speaker 2:And they're like tribal and I'm like, yeah, I have. But you know how everybody always says oh, you'll regret all your tattoos, blah, blah, blah. First of all, I don't even notice them anymore me neither I forget, I have I know all the time.
Speaker 2:So I don't know who ever came up with that idea. It's obviously somebody without tattoos, yeah, um, but also everybody's like I don't know how you could just go get a tattoo without it meaning anything. Okay, well, that that means I was alive in the 90s and I'm sure I went with. You know this whole sleeve here, this part is all like very good, I used to hang out in that tattoo shop. That's why I have so many because, they were like hey, let me.
Speaker 1:You lured me in there. Yeah, I got a couple done there. Yeah, I love that place.
Speaker 2:She comes up up. She just did. Oh, my delaware tattoo was I think the last one she gave me when she was up here okay, like maybe two years ago, yeah, yeah, she comes back every now and then tattoo shops have come a long way yeah the first one I went to was a little shack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was run by a neo-nazi nice I mean he literally the walls. It was a tiny, tiny place and the walls and ceiling and floor and everything was decorated in nazi swastikas, like, but I was like 19 you know, I'm like, but and it was the only place around here to get tattoos.
Speaker 2:There wasn't anywhere else to go um I went to a place called dirty larry's yeah, I remember dirty larry.
Speaker 1:I think dirty larry worked at um, this place that I went to um, but he uh, I gary little gary, that was who did mine and um, I don't, I can't remember if he did one of mine or if it was george or um, you had a crush on george. I had a crush on the other one with the long hair. What was his name? I don't remember. I don't either, but he when he tattooed the top of my foot, as painful as it was, I'm just looking, I'm like you're so cute george is in ohio now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he, and I think he works for. I think peggy told me he works for um, uh, I don't, I don't know that he tattoos anymore, but he works for like they sell ink maybe oh, okay, yeah I think he works for a company that makes tattoo equipment oh I think that's what she said.
Speaker 1:I could be totally wrong. I'd imagine tattooing would be hard on your hands and your back and all that yeah.
Speaker 2:She was on a podcast recently. Yeah, I'll have to look it up. Yeah, I'll get back to you because it was good. I listened to it. It's about female tattooers. She's one of the first. Yeah, it's about female tattooers.
Speaker 1:She's one of the first. Yeah, so if we ever figure out how to do guests, maybe we can.
Speaker 2:And she can help us reminisce about that. I don't even know if I want her to reminisce about me in the 90s. I was there a lot I spent a lot of time in that tattoo shop, but I got a lot of nice tattoos for it Very cheap. Also, today is a sad day. Brian Wilson. Just like Brian Wilson did, I was a big Beach Boys fan.
Speaker 1:I was too. I had their albums and I could still sing every word to every song. I loved them and I could still sing every word to every song. I loved them. It's funny because they this is part of the weirdness about growing old You're like Brian Wilson is still alive, not that I didn't know that he hadn't died, but it just he was an adult and we were kids. And so now you're like, oh well, we're not that much younger than him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw them. I saw the Beach Boys a couple of times in Ocean City. They used to play 4th of July every year.
Speaker 1:So that is so cool. Yeah, I wonder what drew them to Ocean City on the 4th of July, like of all the beaches, I don't know, because you'd think it'd be like the Keys, yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's be like the keys? Yeah, um, I don't know. Yeah, there's a place called kokomo. Um, why they don't go there. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what it was, but the lady who used to cut my hair used to cut. When they the first time they came into ocean city, she cut their hair. I guess it was like an emergency situation.
Speaker 2:I'm not really sure but she cut their hair. So then every time they came back to ocean city they called her wow, yeah, because she was awesome, she was the best at doing hair.
Speaker 1:She was really expensive so I couldn't really afford her, but yeah, she was amazing and she loved me because you would say do whatever do whatever, I don't give a shit and I remember that because she'd be like are you sure I went, you're like whatever, whatever, I don't care, shave it off for all.
Speaker 2:I give a shit exactly. Uh, I don't think that was. I think that was it, though I mean there's a lot of other shit going on that we're just gonna pretend like is not going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's just yeah, yeah, just as far. I do want to say, though, my my heart's with LA.
Speaker 2:I mean that's just a horrible situation all the way around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and completely illegal. Yeah, we are allowed to protest in this country still. As of right this minute, as of right this minute, yes, we are, although, do you want to know what else I heard on NPR today that they want to take away, so I work our right to vote.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah, that's coming um. So I work um with school-age kids and there's this thing, if you haven't heard of it, called um um makiti vento, and that's if a kid is um homeless they are. There is certain funding to help them, to make sure that they have what they need Um and at the schools, take it very seriously because you know kids kids are hard and they don't won't always tell you things and um, sometimes I'll get a good rapport with kids and they'll let it slip that they've been in a shelter for two months with their mom or they've been living in a hotel for a year, things like that, and I would always report it to staff to make sure that they were aware. And if they weren't aware, they would always jump right on it to make sure these kids were getting the services that they need and all that they want. To cut it? Of course they do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's devastating because it's forced birthing and not pro-life right. So no one gives a fuck about a baby once it's actually here, they just want to worry about what you're fucking doing with your uterus. So yeah, let's not mix words. This whole episode I'm gonna we should probably give you the the warning right out the gate um, first of all, if you're an ignorant asshole, I don't even know what you're doing here to begin with, right?
Speaker 2:I mean, we made it pretty clear that, but so, anyway, this whole episode is probably going to hurt your feelings a little bit. Um, I already came up with the title. If you didn't read the title and you couldn't figure it out. That's on you.
Speaker 1:And this is a topic we are both very passionate about. Very, and we don't take these things lightly. No, although Heather did say I don't know how we're going to make jokes about this, and we can pretty much make a joke out of anything.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did say, I don't know how we're going to make jokes about this, and we can pretty much make a joke out of anything. So, yeah, yeah, but we won't, we won't offend. But before we jump into anything, real quick oh yeah, find us. Wherever you listen to podcast at, like whatever pod. Um, we are on all the socials. Please follow us. Um, I've been working on the socials trying to post some gen x type articles.
Speaker 1:I posted a good one today about um, why we really are awesome yeah and uh how much we've contributed to society, even though we are considered forgotten um.
Speaker 1:I mean the internet I mean yeah for one of many um, but yeah, so yeah, check us out. And if you would like to send us an email and tell us how offended you are by this episode, so that Damn it. You took my line. We will put your name on blast on social media and let everybody know. So yeah, another, another warning to log out now if, if you're not cool with this but anyway, it's going to be a great episode check us out like rate review, please, please, please that's it.
Speaker 2:I did want to say one more thing too. Did you read the article about how, um, apparently gen x is the worst grandparents?
Speaker 1:I saw that article, but I didn't read it yeah why is that?
Speaker 2:because because they don't babysit their grandchildren as much as, and the reason stated was because we have to take care of our aging parents.
Speaker 1:I have been seeing things about that that we are the sandwich generation. We call it.
Speaker 2:And so, and I think a lot of the I don't have kids, obviously, so I don't know how to speak to it. I think that part of the problem is and it's not, you're different, because I know how you raised your kids but I think a lot of the helicoptering that happened as a result of our, the way we were raised yes, and I have been reading about that as well, that we were very overprotective as a generation because nobody was paying any attention to us yeah, so then I think what happened was is when those kids grew up and had been helicoptered and now have to go out and have their own children in their own lives, and gen x was like well, we had to do it on our own, fuck you.
Speaker 2:But they didn't actually prepare them for this no, because they helicoptered them. Yes so I think you know whether or not you're a horrible grandparent. I don't know, because I had horrible grandparents.
Speaker 1:So I want to give a quick shout out to to my daughter and my son-in-law. They are on an ivF journey and they got good news yesterday.
Speaker 2:Um, still not pregnant, but things are moving along and you are like my mom, who just had children to have grandchildren.
Speaker 1:Yes, so yes yeah, yes, she married young and I was like do it. A year before she was getting married, she was like we're gonna go off birth control and try to get pregnant. I don't care if I'm pregnant when I get married.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm down with that.
Speaker 1:And I don't have to worry about her expecting me to raise her kids. She is going to be like I don't want to give it up. She's worked very hard for this, but, yeah, I'm very excited for them.
Speaker 2:So everybody cross your fingers. Yeah, cross your fingers.
Speaker 1:Send all your positive vibes, thoughts and prayers, if you are into that. No, I'd rather not have the thoughts and prayers, all right, well then, I won't think about it. I do accept prayers from people, but very specific people. Right, they have to be people that mean it, right, yeah, yeah, but yeah, okay, okay, I I don't know why I felt like I need to say that, but here we go. This episode. They're all like what is this episode about? They have done this big buildup.
Speaker 2:I mean, you read the title, you can't figure it out. I don't know what to tell you. So we're going to fuck around and find out about the gay rights. Yay, the gay rights.
Speaker 2:So I got my stuff from pbsorgorg, lgbtqhistoryorg there was like a million different um websites that I did from so mostly I'm just gonna do like a timeline of what happened when and blah, blah, blah, and then we can just talk about that. But talk about all the gays we love. Yes, uh, straight out the top. I want to say that a I feel like mostly my life was probably saved in the 90s by the gay community I would agree with that because they took me in. I mean not like I was, I shouldn't. I had a very good parent.
Speaker 2:They picked her up off of the off of the side of the road, my sad ass off the side of the road, my sad ass off the side of the road, and they said come with us. I never felt like I fit in anywhere until I've said it before.
Speaker 1:So yeah.
Speaker 2:But let's just say that and I want to start it with. You know a lot of people say oh, this whole transgender gay business is just a part of it is new. Many animals sometimes engage in same-sex sexual behaviors. These behaviors can include same-sex courtships, copulary behavior and long-term pair bonding between same-sex partners. Over 1500 species of animals have shown some degree of same-sex sexual behavior, ranging from insects and spiders to frogs, fish and birds, with over 50 species of non-human primates commonly showing these behaviors. Some examples of animals that practice same-sex couplings include bears, gorillas, flamingos, owls, salmon pigeons, lions and many others salmon pigeons, lions and many others. Uh, so just in case any of you didn't realize that this is not a uniquely human thing.
Speaker 1:This is not made up, it's not new, and this reminds me that I just said today humans are horrible species, yes, but being gay and all the rest of them are not.
Speaker 2:It's not bad because all the animals do it. It is not an unnatural thing.
Speaker 1:Other animals don't murder for no reason. I don't think so.
Speaker 2:They rape Dolphins.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and what is?
Speaker 2:it.
Speaker 1:Male hippopotamuses will kill baby hippopotamuses too.
Speaker 2:I think most animals will kill the babies of another, of the rival, but, like dolphins, will just fucking fuck you up for no reason yeah, and they're close to him to to people yeah, so that would make sense um, as far as I would lost my place. Oh so spotted hyenas are born with female-like genitalia and raised as females until they reach sexual maturity. Then they go either way. Black-headed gulls have same-sex pair bonding and parenting. Japanese macaques have gender role reversals.
Speaker 2:Chickens have a male-to-female sex reversal due to genetic mutations. Sometimes they grow up as boys, sometimes they don't. Deer have hermaphroditic individuals with both male and female reproductive organs. Lizards, especially the whiptail lizards, have the ability to change sex from male to female or vice versa. Bonobos have same-sex behavior and non-binary gender expression. Penguins have same-sex pair bonding and parenting.
Speaker 1:Penguins are big-time gays.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of gayness in the penguin community. I mean look how fancy they are, they are, they are. How can you walk around?
Speaker 2:like that. I don't know why anybody was fabulous.
Speaker 1:Especially the emperor ones are fucking fabulous.
Speaker 2:Elephants have same sex, sexual behavior and male-to-male bonding. I don't think I knew that about elephants. I learned a lot about elephants. I went down a, I guess, a rabbit elephant sex sounds really intense.
Speaker 1:Well, elephant sex of any kind sounds intense. It does. Yeah, I try not to think about elephants. There's a lot of body there. There is A lot.
Speaker 2:Baboons have male to female sex reversal due to adrenal glands. Rats have same sex sexual behavior and male to male bonding. Sheep have male to female sex reversal due to genetic mutations. Dolphins have same sex sexual behavior and male to male bonding. I didn't know that about dolphins yeah, they're they're hella gay too. Yeah, bearded dragons go male to female sex reversal due to environmental factors. They just. If it's too hot, they just switch yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:So what's the difference between surgery or?
Speaker 2:your body just automatically doing it and and yeah.
Speaker 1:Or like being born one sex and thinking you're feeling like you're another, like I don't know okay, I know I'm getting ahead of myself. This, this episode, is going to make me very angry.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is I know cuttlefish have the ability to change gender and coloration for courtship displays. Blackfin gobies have the ability to change gender in response to population dynamics. Frogs have the ability to change sex in response to environmental factors. That's what happened in jurassic park. If you all remember that they gave them only female dna, but it was frog dna, and then they changed sex and then they they had babies.
Speaker 2:Life finds a way. Marsh Harrier. Male to female sex reversal. Due to hormone imbalances, sea snails can switch from male to female. Sea bass can switch gender, so obviously it's not.
Speaker 1:I think earthworms are also Hermaphroditic. Yes, but yeah, like can't they like impregnate themselves, or something crazy. And seahorses. The men get pregnant.
Speaker 2:The men carry the babies. Yeah, yeah. I don't know why.
Speaker 1:It's so crazy of an idea.
Speaker 2:I know, or it's made up Suddenly.
Speaker 1:now everybody shut the sit the fuck down, yeah. Suddenly, now everybody Shut the fuck. Sit the fuck down, yeah.
Speaker 2:Suddenly now We'll get to that, yeah, suddenly. So, Hold on, hold on. I want to stop for a second.
Speaker 1:Okay, there we go, we're done.
Speaker 2:That was that. So that's all the animals? Well, it's not all the animals, but I mean, i're just going to show you that it is not an unnatural yeah, and that was a long list yes, and I'm sure, of all the species in the world.
Speaker 1:There are a lot more, yeah um. So next, I think swans are super gay too maybe they're very fancy too.
Speaker 2:They are. So, yeah, it probably makes sense. Yeah, um, it's, we're going to go through some terms. Sense, yeah, um, it's, we're going to go through some terms. It's important to note that there existed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals or we're moving back to people now individuals, communities and relationships. Long before these terms became commonplace, gay and lesbian relationships existed in ancient rome and greece community, greek communities and are shown in a variety of art from that time.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I wasn't even thinking about that because I was like people think it's new, because people finally feel somewhat safe to be themselves as where before you'd be stoned and, yes, you know, murdered if you were gay, but it really did. I mean it was, yes, they weren't hiding it back then they had bath houses and I mean they didn't, they didn't care no, yeah, god, people are so dumb.
Speaker 2:I know so the term lesbian was first used by william king in his books in 1732. His book the Toast, published in England, which meant women who loved women. Homosexual was first used in 1869 by Hungarian journalist Karl Maria Kurthany. Bisexual was.
Speaker 1:Hold on, I can't believe homosexual has only been around since 1869.
Speaker 2:yeah, like there's heterosexual so did that not come about until homosexual yeah I don't know.
Speaker 1:they just assumed everybody was straight back then, I guess, and they didn't need a word for it. No, you, you're just a person, you're just straight.
Speaker 2:Bisexual 1894. In the pamphlet Psychopathia Sexualis was translated from German One of the first times the term bisexual is used. In 1967, sexual Freedom League formed in San Francisco in support of bisexual people.
Speaker 1:And I remember like learning about bisexuality in like high school. I want to say I knew about that before I really understood being gay and I was so confused by it because I'm straight, I mean I've always been straight and I just didn't know. And it always confused me, like how can you like girls and boys? Like it just didn't make sense to me. But I feel like that was my first real exposure. I think I knew of people that were bisexual probably girls, because I think they were a little more comfortable to discuss that before I really knew like I had a boyfriend in high school.
Speaker 1:That is gay as gay can be now and I'm so happy for him, but yeah, we used to make out and stuff, and now I feel bad for him. I'm like, oh, I was the one that he was trying to be straight, trying to prove to the world. I am not the one.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I could be there for him, though, and I can tell you like if being gay was a choice, I think that majority of women would choose to be gay just to not have to deal with men although I keep hearing more and more and maybe one day we'll get there women marry each other all the time, now, platonically yes that's our plan yes.
Speaker 1:so when the post office shuts down, yeah, we'll have to get divorced from our husband so I can marry you and you can have benefits. Yep, I love it.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, and that's the thing, like everybody's always like, oh, especially people who are assholes that they've long turned this off now. So we can talk about them all we want. They're always like oh, without men, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:I don't know if y'all have this news flash of cloning but you are absolutely not needed anymore.
Speaker 2:We keep you around because we want you around, but you are not needed anymore. I mean, I don't know why, but I don't either, but I mean honestly.
Speaker 1:I know it's funny. This reminds me of a conversation I had with my husband the other night because he was listening to some podcast and he's on a new podcast journey, so I've had to hear a lot. But he was like I heard this thing today and it makes a lot of sense. They say by like 2060, there won't be any need to like, everybody will get artificially inseminated, basically because then you can know if it's healthy, what gender it is, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:And I was like that makes sense. But having babies the natural way ain't going nowhere, because people are still going to have kids, they're still going to have sex, they're still going to get pregnant and that will still probably be something for people who can afford it. Maybe it'll be easier.
Speaker 2:Designer babies.
Speaker 1:More easily accessible. And he was like, yeah, I would love to do that, that's what I would have done if I would have had kids. And I was like I don't think I would have wanted to do that. And he's like, really. And I'm like, no, I don't know, like I don't know. Obviously it's hypothetical, but for him his point was and this makes a lot of sense his mom had huntington's disease, um, which is genetic, and you have a 50 chance of getting it, um, if your parent has it. So definitely like, in that case, if you could ensure that you're not going to pass it on right, because that's why my husband never had kids, um, well, that many other reasons.
Speaker 2:but he long ago stopped listening also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he doesn't listen ever, but yeah, but he made the conscious decision to not have a family because he didn't want to be tested, which I was on board with. I wouldn't want to. There are pluses and minuses to it, but I feel like finding out that you have something like that is the worst scenario as to where, hoping you don't have it Right. I mean, obviously, if you get that you don't have it, that's great, but you have a 50-50 shot, so I was always in support of that and because of that, he chose not to reproduce.
Speaker 2:There you have it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm just saying, if men, men didn't exist, you could just clone, I almost feel like the female body would figure out how to make babies without men anyway I mean because they can't carry babies.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, whatever, let's just use women as an incubator, in whatever state that is but don't take care of the baby when it comes. No, Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:As long as we're straight Fuck them kids.
Speaker 2:The term gay in 1955, the term gay was used throughout Europe earlier, but this is the year most agree that gay came to mean same sex relationships between men.
Speaker 1:That's crazy that that word's only that new too. I mean I know it used to mean happy. Well, it still does mean happy. It was an easy transition.
Speaker 2:Speaking of transitions, transgender. In 1965, john Oliven, in his book Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, used the term transgender to mean a person who identifies with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.
Speaker 1:And I'm surprised that people were open about that back in 65.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they weren't. They didn't make a term for it.
Speaker 1:But how did they know there were people who felt like that?
Speaker 2:Well, I think in 65,. Yeah, they probably knew that at that point.
Speaker 1:That's true, we were coming up on sex, drugs and rock and roll yeah. They were a little more open-minded back then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so brief well, it's not even that brief. So, uh, let's just go through the timeline. We're gonna. We're gonna go back way, old school, we're gonna take it back. Yeah, I know what you're all wondering. It's like why do we need? But this is not gen x but it is. I feel like Gen X is probably one of the more openly accepting.
Speaker 1:If you feel like we broke the mold on that one, I feel like that too, and I kind of feel like we continue to be I don't know, I just don't, I don't know, I don't know what else to say about that. But I don't know if we were just the trailblazers on that, or or maybe that does make us even more open minded, because we've been feeling some kind of way for a long time, um december, 1924, the society for human rights is founded by henry gerber in chicago.
Speaker 2:The society is the first gay rights organization, as well as the oldest documented in america. After receiving a charter from the state of illinois, the society published the first american publication for homosexuals friendship and freedom. Soon after its founding, the society disbands due to political pressure. 1933 to 1945, nearly 100 000 german homosexual men were rounded up and placed in concentration camps along with jewish people. They were designated by a pink triangle on their clothing.
Speaker 1:How original you know the scarlet letter, the pink triangle, uh the germans 1945.
Speaker 2:German homosexual men designated by the pink triangle on their clothing were the last group to be released from the nazi concentration camps after liberation by the allied forces. Because paragraph 175 of the german criminal code stated that homosexual relations between males were was illegal. In 1948, biologist and sex researcher alfred kinsley kinsey published sexual behavior in the human male. From his research, kinsley includes concludes that homosexual behavior is not restricted to people who identify themselves as homosexual and that 37 percent of men have enjoyed homosexual activities at least once, while psychologists and psychiatrists in the 40s considered homosexuality a form of illness. The findings surprise many conservative notions about sexuality when was freud?
Speaker 1:he was pretty into the gay.
Speaker 2:I think I don't know much about 50s maybe 40s, 40s, 50s somewhere in there.
Speaker 1:I don't know much about freud because I wonder if he opened some of this up because he was well, you know, he was all about sex, yes, and I think homosexuality was a big part. I don't know know, I might be talking on my ass.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know I don't know much about Freud. November 1950, in Los Angeles, gay rights activist Harry Hay found America's first sustained national gay rights organization of homosexuality. The Mattachine Society aims to eliminate discrimination, derision, prejudice and bigotry, to assimilate homosexuals into Main Street society and to cultivate the notion of an ethical homosexual culture. In December of 1950, a Senate report titled Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government is distributed to members of Congress.
Speaker 1:I wish you could have seen the look on her face when she said that Her eye twitched and everything.
Speaker 2:It's distributed to members of Congress after the federal government had covertly investigated employees' sexual orientation at the beginning of the Cold War. The report states since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals constitute security risks to the nation because those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons. So just to go back over that it's homosexuals that constitute security risks to the nation because they engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of a normal person, as opposed to getting on a plane and going to epstein island.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say as opposed to pedophiles, and walking through your own personal beauty pageant filled with teenage girls getting half-dressed because you can. And then you get to become president of the United States. Crazy. Over the previous years, more than 4,300 gay men and women have been discharged from the military.
Speaker 1:This is the 50s still.
Speaker 2:And around 500 fired from their jobs within the government. The purging will become known as the Lavender Scare. In 1952, Christine Jorgensen becomes one of the most famous transgender people when she underwent a sex change operation and went on to a successful career in show business.
Speaker 1:In the 50s she had a sex change operation. Wow, I didn't know that was a thing back then.
Speaker 2:In April of 1952, the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance.
Speaker 1:I love that nobody wants to address mental health until it's the gays, and then it's something we need to deal with. Yeah, yep, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a sociopathic personality disturbance. In its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, immediately following the manual's release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social science criticized the categorization due to the lack of empirical and scientific data. Shocker, I know it's crazy. In 1953, president Dwight Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, banning homosexuals from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors. Now I hate Eisenhower. The order lists homosexuals as a security risk, along with alcoholics and neurotics. Yeah, okay, I'm just going to let that lay there for a minute.
Speaker 2:In 1955, in San Francisco, the Daughters of Billetis becomes the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. The organization hosts social functions providing alternatives to lesbian bars and clubs, which are frequent, frequently raided by police I will say lesbian bar is my first gay experience, because emery hobart, the lesbian bars, well it's gone now yeah, but I think the gay bars were too like the male.
Speaker 1:Gay bars were too intimidating for me.
Speaker 2:But they were pretty intense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they were also like bars. So when I was like 16, 17, lesbian places were more like restaurants. Yes, I felt like so I could be more comfortable, not more comfortable. I could actually be there because I wasn't 21.
Speaker 2:In 1956, american psychologist Evelyn Hooker shares her paper the Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual at the American Psychological Association Convention in Chicago. After administering psychological tests, such as the Rorschach, to groups of homosexual and heterosexual males, hooker's research concludes homosexuality is not a clinical entity and that heterosexuals and homosexuals do not differ significantly. Hooker's experiment becomes very influential, changing clinical perceptions of homosexuality. In january of 1958, the landmark case one inc. Versus olison. The united states supreme court rules in favor of the first amendment right of January of 1958,. The landmark case 1 Inc v Oleson. The United States Supreme Court rules in favor of the First Amendment right of the Lesbians, gay, bisexual and Transgender. Lgbt magazine 1, the homosexual magazine. The suit was filed after the US Postal Service and FBI declared the magazine obscene material and it marks the first time the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of homosexuals, the gays.
Speaker 1:Goddamn post office.
Speaker 2:January of 1962, illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first US state to decriminalize homosexuality Go on with yourself. Illinois, 1965, july 4th of 1965, an Independence Hall in Philadelphia homosexuality Go on with yourself. Illinois, 1965 and July 4th 1965. At Independence Hall in Philadelphia, picateers began staging the first Reminder Day to call public attention to the lack of civil rights for LGBT people. The gathering will continue annually for five years. In April of 1966, members of the Mattachine Society staged a sip-in at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village, where the New York Liquor Authority prohibits serving gay patrons in bars on the basis that homosexuals are disorderly.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean that can be true, but I'm surprised New York was so far behind. Yeah, Like I would think they would have been more open, I guess that was for california yeah all those hippies out in california. Yeah, gay hippies society.
Speaker 2:President dick litch and other members announced her homosexuality and immediately refused service. Following the sip in the madishin, the Mattachine Society will sue the New York Liquor Authority. Although no laws are overturned, the New York City Commission on Human Rights declares that homosexuals have the right to be served.
Speaker 1:Fuck me right. I just love that. They had a sip-in. Yeah, me too, that sounds adorable. I want to go. They had a sip in yeah, me too, that sounds adorable.
Speaker 2:I want to go to a sip in Me too. I don't even drink. Oh, I just spilled water on myself.
Speaker 1:That's why you don't drink.
Speaker 2:August 1966, after transgender customers become raucous at a 24-hour San Francisco cafeteria, management calls police. While a police officer manhandles one of the patrons, she throws coffee in his face and a riot ensues, eventually spilling out into the street, destroying police and public property. Following the riot, activists established the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world.
Speaker 1:Really. Yes, that's what that said For trans or for anyone.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Okay, that's super impressive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love peer and advocacy. I think those are the strongest tools. Yes, agreed and advocacy.
Speaker 2:I think those are the strongest tools. Yes Agreed. Frequently raided by police officers trying to clean up the neighborhood of sexual deviance, angry gay youth clash with aggressive police officers in the streets, leading to a three-day riot during which thousands of protesters receive only minimal local coverage local news coverage. Nonetheless, the event will be credited with the reigniting the fire behind America's modern LGBT rights movement. Also in 1969, the Gay Liberation Front organization formed in New York following the Stonewall riots to advocate for sexual liberation for all people. Also, the Gay Activist Alliance formed in New York by a group who are not satisfied with the direction of the gay liberation front. Their purpose was more political and they wanted to secure basic human rights, dignity and freedom for all gay people.
Speaker 2:June 28, 1970, christopher Street Liberation Day commemorates the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Following the event, thousands of members of the LGBT community march all through New York into Central Park in what will be considered America's first gay pride parade. In the coming decades, the annual gay pride parade will spread to dozens of countries around the world. In 1971, the Body Politic magazine began publishing in Toronto, canada, becoming one of the most widely read publications regarding LGBT rights. In 1972, the play Coming Out, written by Jonathan Ned Katz, is performed for the first time in New York and provides a historical perspective of gay life from the colonial period to the present.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:In December 1973, the Board of American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illness. That's crazy. It took that long. Yes, january of 74, kathy Kazachenko becomes the first openly gay American elected to public office when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor Michigan City Council, yay 1974 seat on the.
Speaker 2:Ann Arbor, michigan City Council, yay 1974,. Also, elaine Noble becomes the first openly gay person to be elected as a state legislator. She served in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives for two terms. 1975, the Bisexual Forum founded in New York City and the Gay American Indians Organization founded in San Francisco. June 1977, singer and conservative Southern Baptist Anita Bryant leads a successful campaign with the Save Our Children Crusade to repeal a gay rights ordinance in Dade County, florida. Bryant faced severe backlash from gay rights supporters across the US. The gay rights ordinance will not be reinstated in Dade County until December of 1998, more than 20 years later. Yeah, that's Florida right, which is so fucking weird. I don't know if they know this, but Florida has a lot of gay people.
Speaker 1:A lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, november 8, 1977.vey milk wins a seat on the san francisco board of supervisors and is responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs. Milk also leads a successful campaign across proposition against proposition six, an initiative forbidding homosexual teachers. A year later, november 27th 1978, former city supervisor dan white assassinates milk, while white's actions are motivated by jealousy and depression rather than homophobia. Let me just say one more thing about that. I think that right now, the fact that they are removing Harvey Milk's name off of that Navy vessel is just despicable.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I agree, I don't know yeah. I hate everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fuck y'all, fuck y'all. 1978 the briggs initiative, a statewide proposition in california, was defeated by 58 of the voters. The initiative would have banned gays and lesbians from working in california's public schools. Also in 1978, in san francisco, the rainbow flag is first flown during the Gay Freedom Parade. The flag becomes a symbol of gay and lesbian pride. May 21st 1979, dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and is sentenced to seven years in prison. Outraged by what they believe to be a lenient sentence, more than 5,000 protesters ransacked San Francisco City Hall, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage in the surrounding area. The following night, approximately 10 000 people gather on san francisco's castro market streets for a peaceful demonstration to commemorate what would have been milk's 49th birthday wow I mean seven fucking years.
Speaker 2:Come on. I mean October 1979, an estimated 75,000 people participate in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Lgbt people and straight allies demand equal civil rights and urge for the passage of protective civil rights legislation. In 1979, chapters of the National Organization of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG, are founded across the United States. July of 1980, the Democratic Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals at their national convention. On august 11th through the 14th, the democrats become the first major political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform damn snowflakes.
Speaker 2:July 3rd 1981 the new york times prints the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in new york and california. The cdc initially refers to the disease as grid gay related immune deficiency disorder. When the symptoms are found outside the gay community, bruce vollar, biologist and founder of the national gay task force, successfully lobbies to change the name to the disease AIDS. March 2nd 1982, wisconsin becomes the first US state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In 1985, rock Hudson dies. He was leading actor in many movies in the 50s and 60s. He died of complications related to AIDS. After his death Spoiler alert. He was leading actor in many movies in the 50s and 60s. He died of complications related to AIDS. After his death Spoiler alert, he was gay After his death it was revealed that he was gay and had several male relationships.
Speaker 2:In 1985, the AIDS quilt concept was conceived and implemented by Cleve Jones, an LGBT activist in San Francisco. An LGBT activist in San Francisco, I feel like I mean AIDS is way too complicated of a thing for us to do, so maybe sometime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would definitely be its own episode, a million episodes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because March 10th 1987, aids advocacy group ACT UP the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is formed in response to the devastating effects the disease has had on the gay and lesbian communities in New York. The group holds demonstrations against pharmaceutical companies profiteering from AIDS-related drugs, as well as the lack of AIDS policies protecting patients from outrageous prescription prices. Get out of here.
Speaker 1:And if you want to, I mean have you watched Pose?
Speaker 2:No, not yet.
Speaker 1:It's so, so good. It's on my list. Yeah, it covers a lot of what it was like in real life having AIDS, losing friends to AIDS, losing lovers to AIDS. I can't even imagine it's such a good show. I'm thinking about going back and watching it. It's been a good show. I'm thinking about going back and watching it.
Speaker 2:It's been a couple years.
Speaker 1:I know that a lot of us were coming of age in the 80s, yes, when this was a, and I and didn't AIDS come from monkeys or something back then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'd have to Google A gay man got bit by a monkey somewhere and spread it to all the gays. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I'd have to google. A gay man got bit by a monkey somewhere and spread it to all the gays?
Speaker 2:I don't know that's hard to say. Maybe he ate a bat, I don't know oh, is it gay bats?
Speaker 1:I thought it was gay monkeys. I feel like all bats are probably gay.
Speaker 2:Probably bats are very gay like this. Yeah, you know, vampires I mean vampires are very gay. Like you know, vampires I mean vampires are pretty gay.
Speaker 1:Bats are fancy. Yeah, I mean who sleeps upside down? Come on, vampires and gay bats, gay bats.
Speaker 2:October 11, 1987, hundreds of thousands of activists take part in the National Marsh on Washington to demand that President Ronald Reagan address the AIDS crisis. Although AIDS has been reported first in 1981, it is not until the end of his presidency that Reagan speaks publicly about the epidemic. May to June 1988, the CDC mails a brochure understanding AIDS to every household in the US. Approximately 107 million brochures are mailed. Approximately 107 million brochures are mailed. December 1988 the world health organization organizes the first world aids day to raise awareness of the spreading pandemic. So here is also like so that's 1988 and now we're moving into the 90s, which we all were at that point of age, coming of age, etc. And I do remember it was scary, yeah, and we're not gay right exactly.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I, I think it's just like one of those things where like people these days, like aids is like not even a big thing anymore. Nobody even gives a shit about aids. I mean you think, yeah, if you catch HIV, you live.
Speaker 1:I think it's until you get like full-blown AIDS. So if you ignore the symptoms you can end up sick but yeah, I remember being terrified of it, even though I wasn't gay. Because back then, like they would make it sound like if you shook hands with somebody you could get AIDS. Yeah, but it was a minority that was having this issue, so nobody really gave a fuck Until they had to Right, until it started spreading to the well, I would say to the street people. But it was probably brought on by all the closeted men.
Speaker 1:I feel that were out having gay sex and then bringing it home to their families.
Speaker 2:I think that was part, and then I think Magic Johnson yeah, I mean, for me I feel like that was probably the turning point that blew my mind In the American eyes, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then it was like oh fuck, he was an idol.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and he wasn't gay, right? Yeah, august 18th 1990, president george bush senior finds signs the ryan white care act as a federally funded program for people living with aids. Ryan white, an indiana teenager, contracted aids in 1984 through a tainted hemophilia treatment. After being barred from attending school because of his HIV positive status, ryan White becomes a well-known activist for AIDS research and anti-discrimination, I was going to say, and Ryan White also. And then Princess Diana I mean she, that was one of her things and her going on TV and she used to make me nervous because she was in the heart of it.
Speaker 2:She was going into third world countries and hospitals, and yeah, and I was like no princess diana, because at that point I, my young mind, still thinks you can get it anyway yeah, yeah, in 1991, created by the new york-based visual aids, the red ribbon is adopted as a symbol of awareness and compassion for those living with HIV AIDS. December 21st 1993, the Department of Defense issues a directive prohibiting the US military from barring applicants from service based on their sexual orientation. Applicants shall not be asked or required to reveal whether they are homosexual.
Speaker 1:What is it? Don't ask, don't tell.
Speaker 2:States. The new policy which forbids that was under Bush Jr right, yes, I think no, senior, this is still senior. Okay, 93. Oh yeah, no no, no, no, it's Clinton, it's Clinton.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Clinton States a new policy which still forbids applicants from engaging in homosexual acts or making a statement that he or she is homosexual. The policy is known as don't ask, don't tell, and I do think that it gets a lot of shit, and I know that both Hillary and Bill got a lot of shit because it wasn't. But you have to start somewhere.
Speaker 1:I think that's. You can't just be like like, no, let all the gays in. I mean they would all got murdered I agree, I think it was a.
Speaker 2:I think it was they were. It was a, they were trying. Yeah, I think that's part of the problem. Like a lot of, I agree. It's stupid that gay people don't have rights Like this fucking, this dumbest fucking thing.
Speaker 1:I've ever heard in my entire life, absolutely. Um however although women didn't have rights either. And again, that's the stupidest fucking thing, but again it has to.
Speaker 2:I'm getting, here comes my soapbox.
Speaker 1:Woohoo, I knew it was coming.
Speaker 2:I did too. The whole time I was writing this I the whole time I was writing this, I was like fuck, I'm gonna get on a soapbox. I just know it, I'm surprised it took you this long. It took me 55 minutes in.
Speaker 2:So here's the thing about it all this last election we're going there, yep, oh, my god uh, I think it is incredibly fucking stupid that people don't think a woman can run the country. It's dumb. Obviously men can't do it because it's really not been working out for the last 200 and some years 300 years, and how many female leaders are there around the world? Yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's ridiculous we're such an advanced country. We are so far behind in so many ways.
Speaker 2:However this country still holds this stupid thing. So you have to take it one step at a time, otherwise if you jump in with I don't know a black female going against a fucking idiot who likes to, laugh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and apparently that was very unappealing this is what happens.
Speaker 2:Um, it was too much, it was too too diverse, and this obviously isn't.
Speaker 1:We're obviously too fucking stupid to be able to put things aside can you imagine what the world would be like right now if she would have won?
Speaker 1:I think it was shown when people chose to vote for a black man over a white woman yes granted, it was hillary, and nobody likes hillary, right, but I think that told you everything you needed to know well, and looking at trump's presidency, he ran against a man he lost, while he ran against a woman he won. He ran against a man, he lost, he ran against a woman this just shows you that fucking people are fucking stupid.
Speaker 2:Um, so I I honestly didn't. I I did vote for kamala. I did think that she was the better of the two candidates. I do think that they should not have run her. I think it was. I agree, but I do think she would have done.
Speaker 1:it was too much at stake, it was poor planning, but I don't think they necessarily had a strong enough male candidate to do it. I think they should have run Buttigieg, but again, he's gay.
Speaker 2:So what do you have? One diversity that you wanted. He was also a veteran.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but anyway, people are going to gravitate towards the thing they hate, so but I think she would have done a great job. I really do. I agree with you 100%.
Speaker 2:I just think that this country is too fucking stupid and too racist, yes exactly. And that's what I was trying to say. They voted for this fucking backwards, racist, fucking stupid ass country, voted for a black man over a white woman, and that just goes to show you how they're just not ready for a woman, whatever, it's fucking stupid, stupid.
Speaker 1:I should be in charge you always wanted to be I know, always wanted to be presidentress of the world, of the world. Yes, she has been saying that as long as I would make the greatest presidentress of the world there is.
Speaker 2:She really would. Let me just one platform and then we'll move back on. Okay, but I think if you beat your wife, girlfriend, whatever, if you beat your significant, your your wife and she didn't deserve it. Sometimes I want to beat my wife but I don't. And if you, I think that on Friday nights it should be televised that you have to go in the ring with a female boxer on TV and have the shit kicked out of you by Layla.
Speaker 1:Ali. I also feel that if you play professional sports, making millions of dollars a year, and you can't keep your hands off of your wife or girlfriend, that you should not have that privilege. It is a very small percentage of people that make it there and there is a guy who will gladly take your place. I don't think that you should be allowed to play professional sports if you're abusive, and I feel for some of these kids. I know they've come up in rough areas but that does not give you the right to put your hands on anyone else.
Speaker 2:Yes, nope.
Speaker 1:Keep your hands on anybody else, yes, no, keep your hands to yourself people. Yeah, for real, I used to. I had a boyfriend in high school that would punch himself in the head when he got upset. So, yeah, do that, do that.
Speaker 2:I mean nothing, we broke up obviously, anyway, moving on, that's so popular so we gotta keep moving here 1994, greg luganis, four-time olympic gold medalist and considered one of the greatest divers in history, publicly came out as gay as part of the gay games in new york city. He subsequently wrote a book entitled breaking the surface that was published in 1996. In it he revealed his olympic experience coming out journey, and that was. He was diagnosed with aids in 1988 and, if you recall, he also hit his head on the diving board and bled in the pool yes, and that was like oh my god.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the olympians have aids. Yeah, may 20th 1996.
Speaker 2:in the case of romer versus evans, the united states supreme court decides that colorado's second amendment denying gays and lesbians protection against discrimination is unconstitutional, calling them special rights. September 21st 1996, president Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act into law. The law defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and that no state is required to recognize the same-sex marriage from out of state. Yes, president Clinton did not do a good job there. 1997, ellen DeGeneres, a comedian, tv actor and television host, was one of the first popular entertainers who publicly came out as lesbian during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey show and then became the first openly gay character on the TV show Ellen. She was then highlighted on the cover of Time Magazine and other news organizations, and she's not a good person.
Speaker 1:She's not.
Speaker 2:It's sad yeah 1998, matthew Shepard, a 20. This is sad too. Speaking of sad, 1998, matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming this poor kid's face is burned in my brain for the rest of my life Was brutally attacked and tied to a fence in a field outside of Laramie, wyoming, and left to die because he was gay. He died from his wounds several days later. This was one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in America and resulted in a federal law passed 10 years later, in 2009, called the hate crimes prevention act, a federal law against biased crimes directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. So if you're younger which I don't know how many younger people we have listening- but.
Speaker 2:And you're like why is it like everybody? Why is this parade? It's so stupid because people got killed yeah because they were gay that's why yeah april 1st 1998, corretta scott king, widow of civil rights leader martin luther king jr, calls on the civil rights community to join the struggle against homophobia. She receives criticism from members of the black civil rights movement for comparing civil rights to gay rights. I mean, I feel, I feel like Coretta Scott.
Speaker 1:King, it's all human rights. Yeah, it's not you or me or whatever it's everybody has the right to be who they are.
Speaker 2:If Coretta Scott King comes out and says it, then you should just. April 26, 2000,. Vermont becomes the first state in the US to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples. Us to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples. June 26, 2003, the Lawrence v Texas US Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws in the US are unconstitutional. May 18, 2004,. Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize gay marriage. The court finds the prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional because it denies dignity and equality of all individuals.
Speaker 1:In the following six years, new hampshire, vermont, connecticut and iowa and washington dc will follow suit I've always thought, though, about all those poor gay people that didn't want to get married, and they always had that excuse like, well, we can't get married. And then they legalize it, and there are significant others like god.
Speaker 2:They're like no, some some of us don't want to get married. Yeah, some of us did, whatever. August 9th 2007, sponsored by the human rights campaign, the logo cable channel hosts the first american presidential forum focusing specifically on LGBT issues, inviting each presidential candidate. Six Democrats participate in the forum, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while all Republican candidates declined Shocker. I fucking love the Logo Channel. I loved it.
Speaker 2:That's where RuPaul's drag race first started. That is where, um, oh fuck, what was the name of that show? No, that was hbo, I think. Um, no, queer spoke, I think was on like uh, hbo or showtime, and then the l word was on showtime. I think I've watched all of them. I loved all of them, um, but like just one, just real quick, I have to say that, rupaul, I don't think I could love any more a person any more than I love RuPaul, and I consistently say her phrases over and over and over again you can't, how you can't love, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else? How you can't love, how in the hell you're gonna love somebody else if you don't?
Speaker 1:love yourself.
Speaker 2:Yes um, other people's opinions of you are none of your business. That one I live by because other people's opinions of you are not your business. Just don't worry about it. Um, unless they pay your bills, welcome, yeah, um, so that was a little good job. November 4th 2008 california voters approve proposition 8 making same-sex marriage in california illegal. I remember that passing of the ballot garners national attention from gay rights supporters across the us. Prop 8 inspires the no hate campaign, a photo project that uses celebrities to promote marriage equality. I remember that campaign very well. June 17th 2009, president Obama signs a presidential memorandum allowing same-sex partners of federal employees to receive certain benefits. The memorandum does not cover full health coverage health coverage. I do remember I'm pretty sure Disney was one of the first companies to cover same-sex couples.
Speaker 1:Good for them.
Speaker 2:I mean that's their whole fucking gas.
Speaker 1:They had to, nobody would have benefits at Disney.
Speaker 2:October 28, 2009,. The Matthew Shew shepherd act is passed by congress and signed into law by president obama. The measure expands the 1969 us federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Matthew shepherd oh, we already went through that. August 4th 2010, a federal judge in San Francisco decides that gays and lesbians have the constitutional right to marry and that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. December 18th 2010, the US Senate votes 65 to 31 to repeal Don't Ask, don't Tell policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the us military. February 23rd 2011 president obama states his administration will no longer defend the defense of marriage act, which bans the recognition of same-sex marriage. June 24th 2011 new york state passes thequality Act, becoming the largest state thus far to legalize gay marriage. June 26, 2015, with a 5-4 decision in Obersfeld v Hodges, the US Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
Speaker 1:Just only 10 years ago and by a vote of 5-4, barely passed. It could still years ago. Yes, and by a vote of five to four yes. Barely passed. It could still be illegal right now. Yes.
Speaker 2:So that was where my timeline stopped. I decided, you know, let's just end with the declaring same-sex marriage legal in all 56.
Speaker 1:On a high note, yes, but I want to say like there I mean, besides, we talked about the Romans and the Greeks and all that being openly gay, but there is very good evidence that Abraham Lincoln was gay. He had a wife, but she said he didn't even stay at home with her. He stayed at his boyfriend's house all the time.
Speaker 2:Yes, he had it yes.
Speaker 1:And Ben Franklin would fuck anything that moved, and these are our founding fathers and presidents, and like it's always been there, like I just I just I just, I just can't, I don't even know what to say about it. Like I just don't understand and and and the, the thing I that always comes back to me and it's so basic. But how does this affect your life?
Speaker 2:I, that is my number one thing. Why do you fucking care?
Speaker 1:if you don't like gay marriage.
Speaker 2:Don't go getting gay married.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's one of my favorite memes if you're against gay marriage say no if a gay man or a gay person asks you to marry them.
Speaker 2:don't't get gay married. Yeah, it's just that I don't understand how it affects you even slightly. It doesn't.
Speaker 1:And you all know that the more homophobic you act, the more we all know that you have some tendencies that you are trying to cover up.
Speaker 2:That's just the most fucking ridiculous thing ever.
Speaker 1:Like, if you don't like gays, you're probably not going to be around gays. You're probably gonna have not have them in your family, like openly with you if they know how you feel. You're probably in a job where you're with tough guys. You know, you know people like that. Your circle of friends certainly probably doesn't have a gay person in it. Um, so what do you care?
Speaker 2:like it literally has no effect on your life whatsoever, even slightly, and all these bible thumpers that are like, oh, they're going to hell, why do you care who goes to hell? And jesus never said you couldn't be gay and and you want to don't go to hell, then if they. If you're so worried about hell, then keep yourself from going to hell.
Speaker 1:Don't worry about where I'm going yeah, and I mean, hopefully you are going to heaven, because I want to be in hell with all the fun people, exactly if that's where all the gays and the all the fun stuff happens in hell yeah it's just heaven sounds like a horrible place.
Speaker 2:If you can't be gay, and you can't gamble, and you can't drink and you can't smoke and you can't, it just sounds like a horrible place so you sit on a cloud with big wings that you have to carry around all the time.
Speaker 1:No thanks, I hate heart music and it's got to be so fucking crowded up there. Do you know how many people have died, I know, in the past 2 000 years? I know because I don't know if there was a heaven before 2 000 years ago and I just I don't get it.
Speaker 2:um, I did want to mention two. There's a million different organizations, but the Trevor Project and the it Gets Better Project you should check those both out. They both are for young gay people.
Speaker 1:The funny thing is today or yesterday I was thinking about today's episode and I really liked that you did the mental health. Um, yes, uh, resources in that one show. And I didn't even know what today's topic was, because she doesn't bother to tell me, because I don't pay any attention, no, and I like being surprised too. But, um, I was thinking you should put up some resources for this show, but then you told me the topic and I was like, oh, I'm sure she, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna guess there's no fun facts about gay.
Speaker 2:That's where you're wrong I don't know how fun they are, but I do have some facts. Okay, the singular they, them used to be the most popular pronoun in the English language, happily used by Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, up until the 19th century. It was around then that the pronouns splintered into the he, him, she, her, division. We know today, as people wanted English to be more neatly symmetrical, like Latin, did not know that, but this made English into a bit of an outlier. 254 of the 378 languages tracked by the World Atlas of Language Structures online don't specify gender at all with their pronouns.
Speaker 2:So forms of same-sex marriage have existed as far back as the 3rd and 10th centuries, according to ancient church liturgical documents that describe the office of same-sex unions and even an order for uniting two men. One variation of this union was called I'm not even going to try Described the office of same-sex unions and even an order for uniting two men. One variation of this union was called I'm not even going to try, okay, the Saul, st Sergius, a Roman army commander, unite with St Bacchus, his deputy. The Catholic Church later stripped them of sainthood in 1969 and no longer practiced the rite and no longer practice the rite. This ceremony often includes all things typical of weddings gathering in a church, a couple blessed at the altar and even a banquet after Then there is the and I'm going to really just fuck this up, but the Kanjasjemi pedaglyphics are ancient rock carvings thought to have been created between 3 000 and 4 000 years ago.
Speaker 2:They're the earliest known example of porn. Researchers have found between the shapely female carvings and the large penis wielding male carvings are what researchers found as a third group wearing feminine headdresses and had erect phalluses, leading researchers to consider the carvings were graphic, to say the least. In some illustrations, men embrace other men and others dance around gender nonconforming figures. In another, a male is seen embracing another male, while a third masturbates alone. Other men with erections appear to be dancing with a gender nonconforming figure.
Speaker 1:I would imagine that 3,000, 4,000 years ago they weren't hiding it. Nope, and probably nobody cared.
Speaker 2:I mean they wrote porn about it. Yeah, the word the word drag actually originated centuries ago from the old british dialect phrase dressed resembling a gallant, referring to men dressed flamboyantly. A very glamorous history up until the late 1400s, the word girl only had meaning for a child of either sex. Male children were referred to as knave girls, whereas females were known as gay girls that's when they were happy and in 1962, american rock guitarist, singer and songwriter, jimmy hendrix, pretended to be gay in order to get out of the army.
Speaker 1:Smart Yep, I like it.
Speaker 2:So that's gay, that's gay.
Speaker 1:That's gay, that's all the gay, that's all the gay I have for today, today's gay. That was fascinating, yeah, and I think it's something that needed to be told. I think it's important to remember the history of how we've gotten where we are, and while it feels like we've well, sometimes it feels like we're still so far to go, and we are.
Speaker 1:But, when you listen to what you went through, what you talked through. We have made strides, yes, and we're never going to end bigotry, no, racism, no Hate, no. So unfortunately they're not always. They're not. I don't want to be so negative, but I mean black people will probably be like, oh duh, they're never going to be fully accepted. Indigenous people, yeah, yeah, pretty much Anybody that's not white, exactly.
Speaker 2:And that's fucked up, because it makes the world a better place if we're not all the same.
Speaker 1:It's so fun. Can you imagine if every single person thought the same thing, did the same thing?
Speaker 2:I cannot imagine a life without gay people, right? Because where we live for those of you that are not from here or don't know about here we have a very large gay population.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:In Delaware I know sounds weird, but it's true the town of Rehoboth and Lewis has a very, very, very large gay population.
Speaker 1:And have for a long time. When we were going there in the 80s this is what I was talking about back then, when we were like 15, 16, 17 years old there were huge gay bars down there. I mean, from the highway you could see the fluorescent lights and hear the music.
Speaker 2:We went the under 21 club that we went to was over top of a drag bar. That's how we saw drag shows all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was going to say we went there on the drag nights. But it was so cool too that they were so accepting of us yeah they sacrificed a night so that we could, we kids would have somewhere to go.
Speaker 2:Little goth kids had somewhere. That's what I'm trying to say about. Like they, just that. And you know there was this huge leather bar out by the highway. That building's gone and everything and was that the renegade? Yeah, okay and they used to have the miss america pageants.
Speaker 1:That's the one I was talking about with the lights and the like yeah you knew, you saw that place yeah, that was um, you know and then there's the blue moon, who is still there which is yeah, which is my favorite the uh, the fraud pond is gone though yeah, that was my first gay bar that I hung out in yeah.
Speaker 2:I just I don't know. I think I'm a big fan of drag. Always have been, always will be. Again, like I said, rupaul's one of my favorite people. Like, I don't even know what she's like in life outside, I don't know she could be the worst person on the planet, I don't even give a shit because I just love her, her and michelle visage. I just I know I have always wanted one of the best times I ever had.
Speaker 1:My brother-in-law is gay and um, well, you were with me. Yes, see, that's how drunk I was. I didn't even remember this much later that she was there. Um, yeah, so uh, we I. I had just met my husband, we weren't married yet and, um, I finally had a spouse or a significant other that approved of me doing things. Um, that's a whole nother show. Oh yeah, I so yeah. So Heather and I got to take our first real trip together, and I say got to because it's a whole nother story.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, anyway, we go out there. And he's like, well, we had the plane to go to Sedona already, and then his brother lives in Phoenix, so we spent a couple of days in Sedona, which was his brother lives in Phoenix. Um, so we spent a couple days in Sedona, which was lovely, yes, uh. And then we went to Phoenix and, um, my brother-in-law tried to kill me. Um, yes, he did, yeah and uh, but, uh, we went out for some really yummy Mexican, which, if you want some real good Mexican, go to Phoenix, arizona. Because, wow, heather didn't like it so much.
Speaker 2:But she likes very American. I like my Taco Bell.
Speaker 1:Mexican, yes, and her nachos. I had nachos last night, as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2:Yummy.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, we go for Mexican and then he takes us to a drag bar. And it's funny because my niece posted or sent a picture in the group chat the other day. She and her friends were out at the drag bar and it's the place that he took us to. Yeah, and he was like oh my god, I went there every Friday for 20 years, so we get there and I used to not turn down a shot and the drag queens picked up on that yes, they did brought me up on stage.
Speaker 2:Yes, they did served me a lot of shots, yeah, but then I had to pick her up off of a pool table well, that was at the country bar that we went to, next the cowboy bar.
Speaker 1:The funniest thing, the thing I will never forget about that is he passed out on the dance floor and my brother-in-law waking me up with a fresh margarita in his hand, trying to hand it to me and you coming up and saying what the fuck are you doing? And he was like what I mean? You think I'm a troublemaker? He is a troublemaker. I can be very persuasive and annoying, but he is bad, yeah. And so then I passed out on a pool table. Pretty sure people were playing a game of pool at the time, uh that's when we got kicked out we got kicked out.
Speaker 1:The guy he was with that night flung me over his shoulder I was skinny then threw me in his truck. They dumped us at home. We woke up the next morning like where are we good times? Oh my god, it was so fun. Probably not for you, but we did have to fly out the next day. And do you remember, before we went out that night I was like I'm not gonna drink much I don't want to fly hungover and she was fucking hung and I probably drank more than I've ever drank in my life.
Speaker 1:I think that was great.
Speaker 2:That was yeah, yeah, Good times yeah it was. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we love, we are big fans of the gay community and it's Pride Month and we are big allies and all that. So thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Like share, thank you.
Speaker 2:Like share rate review. Find us where you listen to podcasts. Follow us on all the socials. She stole my last line, so I got to think of something else. Hold on. You can send us an email about what your drag name would be to likewhateverpod at gmailcom or don't like whatever. Whatever?
Speaker 1:Bye, bye.
