Out In The Bay

We need a break from current events and figured you might too. And it’s Liberace’s birthday May 16! So sit back, relax, and let the music and story of one of the world's most fabulous... The post Liberace's Spectacular Crystal Closet – a birthday treat! first appeared on Out In The Bay.

A yearly "Day of Drag" and a Drag Mall? While many states are restricting drag, San Francisco Drag Laureate D'Arcy Drollinger is spreading the humor and "sparkle" of drag to make positive change in the world. The post World's first Drag Laureate shares art, joy, politics of drag first appeared on Out In The Bay.

As we await the reopening of the storm-damaged Pacifica Pier, we bring you a poet's stories of connection on this historic pier. The post Peers connect on Pacifica Pier in ‘Spell Heaven' first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Dec. 1, 1998, soon after its namesake's savage murder, the Matthew Shepard Foundation was launched to erase hate-based violence. We've seen big advances since, and big setbacks. Hear thoughts and action items from LGBTQ+ leaders. The post 25 years since Matt Shepard: Where are we now? first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Pamela Sneed's prose and poetry can reach out and grab you. They did me. She reads four poems from her memoir, Funeral Diva, on this week's Out in the Bay and shares some of her life story. Funeral... The post ‘Funeral Diva' Pamela Sneed: ‘We can heal' first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Where are we with LGBTQ+ civil rights and safety since Matthew Shepard's brutal 1998 murder? The post 25 years after Matthew Shepard: where are we now? first appeared on Out In The Bay.

25 years ago this month, a gay college student was savagely beaten, tied to a fence post, and left outside on a cold night near Laramie, Wyoming. Matthew Shepard died in a hospital five days... The post Matthew Shepard – in his mom's words first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Is Burning Man worth the heat and dust? What's queer about it? Is it true that many “straight” boys and girls put out there, as they explore their sexuality? The post Burning Man – art and queer exploration first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Is it true that most airline stewards are gay? Was it ever? How did their legal battles with airlines help advance gay rights and workplace gender equity?  In this “throwback” edition of Out in the... The post Airline stewards' sky-high impact first appeared on Out In The Bay.

So much fuss over drag story hours! Should they be banned? We bring some to you so you can decide! Here's #3 in our series. The post Drag Storytime – VERA! reads to Oakland preschoolers first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Should drag story hours be banned? With all the fuss, we thought you'd like to judge for yourselves. So we bring some to you! The post Drag Storytime – Panda Dulce, Lourdes Rivas read in kindergarten first appeared on Out In The Bay.

With all the fuss over drag story hours, we thought you'd like to judge for yourselves. So we're bringing some to you! The post What's up with Drag Storytime? Meet Rexy in episode 1 first appeared on Out In The Bay.

Pump up the volume! Lipstick Conspiracy, San Francisco’s all-transwomen rock band, is back together after almost 13 years, in part as a “joyful antidote” to the escalation of transphobia and anti-LGBTQ laws across the USA....

Thousands gathered in San Francisco this week to remember and celebrate the life of drag impresario Heklina, who died suddenly April 3 while in London for a show with Peaches Christ. Heklina graced many Out...

According to author and academic Kathryn Bond Stockton, “gender is queer for everyone.”  She doesn't mean “queer” only in the LGBTQIA+ sense — she means the dictionary definition: strange.  “Gender is strange,” she writes,” even...

When musician and educator Nick Lawrence shared his story with me, I understood “transgender” like never before. His album “I Am a Man” is about his personal journey. In original songs and in our intimate...

This edition of Out in the Bay is our shortest so far. It's our first “quicky”! It comes to us from Jim Van Buskirk, a regional coordinator of the Final Exit Network. Final Exit Network advocates...

As a young girl, future Supreme Court of California Associate Justice Kelli Evans was more excited about the bookmobile coming through her Denver neighborhood than the ice cream truck. “I was a voracious reader,” the...

While a young housewife with kids in the 1950s and early '60s, Ann Bannon wrote lusty lesbian love stories. Scorned by the literary elite then, her and other authors' “pulp fiction” paperbacks helped build the queer rights...

The first openly gay Supreme Court of California justice, Martin Jenkins, is not only the first openly LGBTQ justice on the high court, he's also only the third Black man ever to serve on it....

On this week's Out in the Bay, hear about the amazing life and accomplishments of a Black queer civil rights trailblazer absent from most history books: Pauli Murray. Activist, lawyer, poet and priest, Dr. Anna...

Just in time for potentially awkward holiday gatherings, we present a holiday fave: Author and civil rights lawyer Abby Dees tells our allies go ahead, ask LGBTQ relatives or friends your burning questions. If you're queer, she...

While they weren't around for long, the Cockettes left an outsized legacy that we explore this week with exclusive recordings and interviews.

What would you do if falsely accused of molesting a child? And you see your career crumble. Matthew Clark Davison's novel “Doubting Thomas,” about a gay school teacher, challenges assumptions about guilt, innocence and more....

For Veterans Day, writer Lauren Hough: She grew up in Christian "doomsday" cult The Family, which her father had joined to dodge the Vietnam War. Hough fled to the Air Force, where she got anti-lesbian death threats and her car was torched.

Reporter Corey Antonio Rose has that story, plus a chat with the Oakland LGBTQ Center on Out in the Bay.

The latest production of ItsQwere is inspired by '90s-era comedy TV like In Living Color, All That, and SNL.

In “Bad Hombres,” playing at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros through Oct. 30, sole actor Rudy Guerrero plays seven characters that comically skewer stereotypes of queer Latinos. On this week's Out in the Bay, Guerrero serves...

It's Gunawan's hope that through PRESS PLAY: Exhibition, he can reach people who are struggling and tell them, “you are good.”

Author Paul Barnes served on Pete Buttigieg's ground-breaking presidential campaign and wrote a book about it called, "Paul for Pete: Or How I Became A Septuagenarian Fan Boy."

The leather activist, author, sex educator, and kink afficianado is Christopher Beale's guest this week Out In The Bay.

How do we find human connection? Being “in with the out crowd?” An author and poet finds peers on the pier. Toni Mirosevich reads from her new book, Spell Heaven and other stories, and talks...

Ruth Brinker, a grandmother and retired food service worker at the time, started cooking and delivering nutritious meals to San Francisco gay men debilitated by HIV/AIDS in 1985. Over the following decades, Project Open Hand,...

Despite clear evidence that conversion therapy doesn't work and actually harms LGBTQ people — with high rates of serious mental health issues — the practice of attempting to conform one's sexual orientation or gender identity...

This week, we are tackling two oft-misunderstood subjects on Out In The Bay, open relationships and professional wrestling.

Dwayne Ratleff grew up Black, poor and gay in 1960s Baltimore. As a youngster, his loving grandma taught him: “Don't explain yourself, be yourself.” Long-time San Franciscan Ratleff has written an impressive, insightful, award-winning novel –...

Monkeypox has primarily affected men who sleep with men, but it has been diagnosed in children and women, and health experts says it's likely to move more widely into the general population. What are we...

Escape with us to a simpler place and time. Before monkeypox, before COVID, before traveling got so fraught. To a town its promoters claimed then was gayer than San Francisco – and where September is...

“I grew up in a very blue collar, working class, homophobic, and racist environment,” he recalled. Through literature, performance, and eventually writing and performing his own intentionally queer works, Rolston found his sexuality and his voice.

Here’s the longer version of our talk with fascinating transgender musician Nick Lawrence — more intense and with more music than we could fit into our half-hour radio show. Don’t miss “Dong Sewn On,” the...

Meet artist, designer, photographer and actor Fayette Hauser, a female co-founder of The Cockettes, the 1969-‘72 experimental San Francisco theatre troupe known for eye-popping costumes, glittery beards and sexy musicals some called anarchic. Her beautiful...

Here’s the longer version of our talk with fascinating transgender musician Nick Lawrence — more intense and with more music than we could cram into our half-hour radio show posted Thursday. Don’t miss “Dong Sewn...

Hear about the transgender experience from singer-songwriter Nick Lawrence, a family coach and former foster-parent educator on LGBTQ topics. His new album, I Am A Man, is about his own transition. In our conversation, Nick...

Singer-songwriter Marilyn Mitchell, who played in San Francisco’s popular 2003-2010 all-trans rock band Lipstick Conspiracy, shares new music and life stories this week – and hints that her former group may get back together. Her...

The true story behind the first gay punk rock band today on Out In The Bay!

How do we find human connection? Being “in with the out crowd”? An author and poet finds peers on the Pacifica Pier. On this week's Out in the Bay, Toni Mirosevich reads from her new...

This week Out In The Bay, we have the hosts of San Francisco Pride 2022 – Honey Mahogany and the legendary Sister Roma from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

This week on Out In The Bay, meet Rick Thoman, a track and field athlete who shares 40 years of memories with the San Francisco Track and Field Club. Plus, Alice Smith joins us to preview the 14th Annual Pride Meet, taking place June 18th at San Francisco State University.

Meet the team working to bring life, art, and community back to the historic site of Harvey Milk's Camera Shop in the Castro – Queer Arts Featured (Queer AF).

This week we feature our discussion with late gay ambassador James C. Hormel on Out In The Bay.

The chair of the San Francisco Democratic Committee, and RuPaul's Drag Race alum Honey Mahogany is our guest on Out In The Bay.