Randy Burns and Jesus Barragan
If you've been with us for a while, you already know Randy Burns. Randy is definitely a friend of the show. He introduced us to his friend, Jesus Barragan, whom we had on the show earlier this season.
To close out our third season, we wanted to have these two longtime friends to talk about the POC gay rights movements they were each very much a part of back in the 1970s and '80s—Randy's Gay American Indians (GAI) and Jesus's Gay Latino Alliance (GALA).
It was the fall of 1975, and at that time, no such groups existed here. What would eventually become the Pride parade was in its infancy. But these two young queer activists and their allies organized, not only making their existence known, but fighting for basic rights some might take for granted today.
In Part 1 of this two-part podcast, Randy and Jesus each share the background stories of getting their groups started.
In Part 2, our very last podcast of Season 3, Jesus and Randy talk in more depth about the challenges that Gay American Indians (Randy's group) and Gay Latino Alliance (Jesus's) faced, despite the fact that San Francisco was already a more accepting place than most in the United States.
The two spend the remainder of the podcast reflecting on the evolution on the LGBTQIA community.
We want to thank Randy and Jesus for their time and for sharing their stories. We want to thank all the storytellers we've ridden with us over the course of our third season of this show. Last but certainly not least, we want to thank you for listening, reading, liking, commenting, signing up for our newsletter, coming to our shows (back when we could still have those safely), and sharing what we do with your friends and family.
We're taking a short break, but we aim to be back at it introducing you to more of your San Francisco neighbors in a few weeks. Until then—stay healthy, stay safe, wear a mask, Black lives matter, stay weird, and stay strong!
We recorded this podcast over Zoom in January 2021.
Photos of Jesus by Michelle Kilfeather
