PART TWO: Perry Brass and Don Kilhefner were active in the movement when gay liberation was just beginning and had not yet been recognized as such. Shortly after the Stonewall Riots in 1969, Don became a member of the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front and a founder of what would become the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Perry Brass became active in New York's Gay Liberation Front and worked on Come Out!, one of the first newspapers published during the gay liberation movement. He later co-founded the East Coast healthcare network, Callen-Lorde.

For the past 50 years, both men have remained strong advocates for the gay movement and its history through their work as writers, organizers, activists, and witnesses to the struggles and achievements that transformed American society. The two men discuss the origins of gay liberation, the individuals who created it, the events that defined it, and the lessons today's youth need to learn from it.

Perry Brass and Don Kilhefner were active in the movement when gay liberation was just beginning and had not yet been recognized as such. Shortly after the Stonewall Riots in 1969, Don became a member of the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front and a founder of what would become the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Perry Brass became active in New York's Gay Liberation Front and worked on Come Out!, one of the first newspapers published during the gay liberation movement. He later co-founded the East Coast healthcare network, Callen-Lorde.

For the past 50 years, both men have remained strong advocates for the gay movement and its history through their work as writers, organizers, activists, and witnesses to the struggles and achievements that transformed American society. The two men discuss the origins of gay liberation, the individuals who created it, the events that defined it, and the lessons today's youth need to learn from it.

We’re revisiting a 2020 throwback episode about the legendary Theatre of the Ridiculous — the outrageous, glitter-soaked underground movement that transformed queer performance and Downtown New York culture. Featuring conversations with Ruby Lynn Reyner, Agosto Machado, and Tony Zanetta, this episode captures the chaos, creativity, and rebellion of a scene that shattered artistic boundaries. Revisiting these interviews now feels especially emotional, as Ruby and Agosto have both since passed away. Are you ready? Probably not!

This episode takes us through the life of Jon Platania, a key member of the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front. Jon helped create concrete ways for LGBTQ+ people to support one another through radical ideas. After joining the GLF in 1970, Jon became an active member of a movement focused not only on encouraging queer people to organize and fight back against their oppression, but also to care for one another on an unprecedented level. In 1971, Jon helped establish what we know today as the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the world’s largest LGBTQ center, with over 800 employees. He also helped co-found the Liberation Houses, which were homes created to provide shelter and community for LGBTQ+ people who were kicked out of their families or left without a place to call home. This episode recounts how Jon and other GLF activists set in motion many of today’s LGBTQ support systems and how their legacy continues to shape our experience today.

In this episode, three individuals describe life during and after the Stonewall Uprising, sharing their authentic accounts of the struggles they faced as they participated in the newly formed gay liberation movement. First-hand accounts are given by Perry Brass (NYC Gay Liberation Front), Don Kilhefner (LA Gay Liberation Front), and Rich Wandel (NYC Gay Activists Alliance)—providing a personal, visceral portrait of how people built a movement based on chaos, radicalism, humanity, and energy, even though it happened nearly 60 years ago.

In this episode you'll hear the unedited audio recording of a Zoom webinar called No Intermission, which took place on March 29, 2026, featuring the legendary underground artists, Cherry Vanilla and Tony Zanetta, and their reflections on the powerful convergence of queer liberation, the avant-garde theater scene, and rock and roll that occurred in New York and London during the latter half of the 1960s and into the early 1970s—including the Theatre of the Ridiculous, Andy Warhol's Factory, and the early development of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character. The result is a vibrant account of how queerness expressed itself through confrontation, community, and creativity, as well as through art, sexual expression, and the challenge of societal norms, with all of these acts often seen as one radical action.

Tony Zanetta, an influential figure in both the glam rock and Off Broadway scene, helped create a period in which theater, music, and identity came together in spectacular, gender-smashed fashion. He worked as an actor in innovative plays and joined MainMan when David Bowie was at his most popular, one of the major forces behind glam rock. Tony became a part of a performance, persona, and pop culture explosion that created an unforgettable scene.

Tony, who starred in Andy Warhol’s Pork in 1971, takes listeners backstage as he reveals the creative chaos, the risks, and the high-creativity environment he and others lived in during the gay liberation revolution. His stories offer insight into the dramatic intersection of art and excess and demonstrate how Off Broadway thrived.

Catch Cherry Vanilla, Tony Zanetta, and August Bernadicou in conversation on Zoom on March 29, 2026, at 3 PM ET / 12 PM PT. Register: lgbtqhp.org/intermission.

Cherry Vanilla is a fearless, iconic figure in glam rock, punk, and the experimental underground of New York City. She was also a publicist for David Bowie, contributing significantly to the development of the Ziggy Stardust mystique. In the 1970s, she started performing her poetry as songs and released two albums for RCA in 1978 and 1979, in the early days of punk.

Aside from music, Cherry Vanilla collaborated with some of the most provocative and culturally important artists of the time, including her work in Pork (a raucous, surrealistic off-Broadway play by artist Andy Warhol). Cherry has continued to be a defining influence on anyone interested in creating daring, performative art and music during this creative era of New York City in the 1970s.

Catch Cherry Vanilla, Tony Zanetta, and August Bernadicou in conversation on Zoom on March 29, 2026, at 3 PM ET / 12 PM PT. Register: lgbtqhp.org/intermission.