'The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle' Book Talk, "Question and Answer: Part 3 of 16", Lillian Faderman, 2015/10/18
[caption: Lilian Faderman Historian & Author of, The Gay Revolution Q & A 3]
Audience member: Hi, I’m curious how this book got published, if you can tell us how you pitched the idea and how you sold the idea?
Faderman: I had been thinking that I really wanted to do a project that would cover many years. I came out in 1956 as a lesbian. I was 16 years old. I had a gay boyfriend at the time who got me a phony ID. He was only 19 himself and said he wanted to take me to some gay bars, and he took me to bars that were mostly gay male bars. And then he said “And there are girls’ bars too,” and I said, “Oh really?” And he took me to the Open Door, the place I mentioned on 8th & Vermont, and I walked in and I just knew I’d come home. That was simply it for me, but I also knew in 1956 as I said earlier that it was really dangerous to be a lesbian, to be a homosexual, as we were called. I could not have conceived in 1956 or 1966 or even 1976 that the day would come when we were almost first-class American citizens. We’re not quite there yet, but the improvements have been so incredible, so terrific. If I had thought in 1956 that we could be where we are today, I would have imagined that I’d been smoking too much pot, that it was a pot dream or something totally, totally inconceivable, okay?
[END OF VIDEO]
Interviewee: Lillian Faderman
Interviewer: Audience member
Transcriber: Chieko B.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date: October 18, 2015
Release Date: October 25, 2015
Location: City Council Chambers in West Hollywood, California
Interview Length: 00:01:46