When Amy Ray first started playing music with her Indigo Girls bandmate, Emily Saliers, her "head felt like it was going to explode". She remembers thinking, "This is amazing. Not, we sound amazing. But this feels amazing. It was always about, This feels amazing."

They've been playing together for over 35 years now and it's their music that the queer community (and Greta Gerwig in the new Barbie movie) continues to return to again and again. Amy joins us to talk about the band's legacy, coming out publicly in the '90s, and the lasting power of "Closer to Fine".

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

Want to recommend a guest for our new season? I'm currently interviewing LGBTQ+ elders for our upcoming season and would love to know if there's anyone you've been wanting to hear from. You can send me a message here: www.lgbtqpodcast.com

Darcelle XV (Walter Cole), the world's oldest drag queen, died on March 23, 2023. She was 92.

Since 1967, Darcelle has been performing and running the Portland drag venue, Darcelle XV Showplace, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. I had the opportunity to speak with Darcelle and her friend and collaborator, Poison Waters (Kevin Cook) a few weeks before her death.

This is part of our special series, the LGBTQ+ Elders Project. You can listen to previous interviews with LGBTQ+ elders like Angela Davis, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, André De Shields, and Dr. Charles Silverstein.

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

Dr. Charles Silverstein died this week at the age of 87. Best known for making the 1973 presentation before the American Psychiatric Association that led to the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’s list of mental illnesses, he was also a co-author of the landmark book The Joy of Gay Sex.

More than simply a sex manual with graphic drawings (though there was plenty of that), The Joy of Gay Sex, first published in 1977, was a first-of-its-kind guidebook for every aspect of the gay experience.

This interview was originally recorded in August 2021 and was one of Silverstein's last.

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

Shatzi Weisberger died this week at the age of 92. A lifelong activist, Shatzi was a fixture at marches and protests here in NYC and was affectionately known as The People’s Bubbie. "I was a political lesbian for many years. I just loved being around lesbians...one of my earlier demonstrations was here in New York City and we did a die-in along with other people lying on the ground. And I started to cry because I felt that I was in the right place, doing the right things with the right people. I felt very together about it. I have been an activist ever since."

In the later part of her life, Shatzi became a death educator and helped people to dismantle their fears and worries around dying.

This interview was originally recorded in April 2022 and was one of her last. We wanted to reshare it today to help honor her and remember her remarkable life.

Click here to listen to the full interview with André De Shields that is excerpted at the end of the episode.

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

"I totally support the politics of coming out, but at the same time, I'm critical of the assumption that one's identity has to be the major driving force that determines one's politics." 

For the final episode of our season, Angela Davis joins us to talk about how to keep pushing movements forward, why her incarceration was crucial in shaping her political journey, and why we must challenge the notion that there is only one important revolutionary struggle.

Angela's newest book, Abolition. Feminism. Now., is out now. 

Click here to listen to our recent interview where the historian Hugh Ryan breaks down the queer history of The Women's House of Detention. 

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod 

And for more, check out: lgbtqpodcast.com 

"Prior to Hadestown, I played The Magical Negro. I have no regrets about that. But all the while...and this is going to sound corny, but it's true. All the while I was saying, 'Why doesn't someone cast me for my mind? For my intellect? Am I really just another pretty face?' And it came together in Hadestown."

André De Shields talks about the five decades he's spent working on Broadway, being a long-term survivor of HIV, and arriving in New York City during the sexual revolution of the 1970s.

André can be seen on Broadway this fall in the newest revival of Death of a Salesman. LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

Please welcome to the stage, Miss Memory Lane! Colton Haynes talks about the barriers that queer actors still face in Hollywood, why he went back into the closet while acting on hit shows like Teen Wolf and Arrow, and his new memoir, Miss Memory Lane.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

Gloria Allen is a legendary figure in Chicago's trans community. The 76-year-old joins us to talk about coming out as trans in the 1960s, why her family's support was so transformational, and the extraordinary impact that her charm school had on LGBTQ+ youth in Chicago. Mama Gloria, a new documentary by Luchina Fisher, is now streaming on PBS.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

The history-making politician shares every inspiring, heartbreaking, and drunken moment that led her to become the first openly trans person to serve in a state legislature in the United States. Danica Roem's new memoir, Burn The Page, is out now. 

Kate Kelly (who you also hear from in the episode) and Danica co-authored this recent piece in Teen Vogue about why the Equal Rights Amendment is a gender-inclusive document, one that won't be defeated by anti-trans scare tactics. Kate Kelly is the author of the new book, Ordinary Equality.

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod

Janelle Monáe (!!!) joins us to talk about her journey to becoming a queer icon, new music, and her debut book, The Memory Librarian.

“One of the main points that’s super important is about the threat of censorship, memory censorship. Because as we know, memories are essentially our stories that we tell ourselves to survive.”

LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. An edited transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod