Guest well, i could have begun even earlier, of course, but the 1950s marked the time when gay people started to organize. Incidentally, we were all called gay at that time, not lgbtq, but gay was sort of the umbrella term, the underground term for all of us. So the first ongoing organization that formed started in 1950s, and that would be [inaudible] society and it was very difficult to get people to join that organization. So i talk about the persecutions in the 1950s and why an organization was necessary. You know, in the 50s all of the churches, gay people were sinners. And to psychiatrists, all gay people were mentally ill. And to the police, all gay people were criminals. And to the federal government, if you had a job that had anything to do with government and slowly facilitiered down even to teachers filtered down even to teachers and social workers, all gay people were subversives and morally corrupt and shouldnt be employed by the government. And so the 1950s was a very rife
Encourage you to join friends of the festival. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] host youre watching live coverage of the tucson festival of books, we are live from the university of arizona. As you can see, large audiences for each of these author panels. And outside of this theater the festival is going on on a Beautiful Day here this in tucson on the campus. Coming up, there are several more author panels that youll hear including slavery in america, big money and philanthropy and the history of women in the sciences. Now, in just a minute one of the panelists are this last panel, lillian faderman. Her book is called the gay revolution the story of the struggle. Shell be joining us to take your calls. Youve been listening to the panel for the last hour or so, and now ms. Faderman has agreed to come over and join us and to take some of your comments as well. 202 is the area code, 7488200 in the east and central time zones, 2027488201 if you live in the mountain and paci
Difficult to get people to join that organization. So i talk about the persecutions in the 1950s and why an organization was necessary. You know, in the 50s all of the churches, gay people were sinners. And to psychiatrists, all gay people were mentally ill. And to the police, all gay people were criminals. And to the federal government, if you had a job that had anything to do with government and slowly facilitiered down even to teachers filtered down even to teachers and social workers, all gay people were subversives and morally corrupt and shouldnt be employed by the government. And so the 1950s was a very rife period, and thats why i start there. Host but there were gay people before 1950s, right . [laughter] guest i think people called themselves gay as early as the late 19th century. But there were people that we would today tribe as homosexual describe as homosexual or transgender or bisexual who wouldnt have used that word for themselves in earlier eras. But, obviously, whats
Now id like to introduce our head fable, please hold your applause until all head table members have been introduced. From my left, michelle amber, reporter for the National Press clubs wire and retired labor reporter for bloomberg bma. Chris, a journalist and former writer at working america. Liz shuler, secretarytreasurer of the aflcio. Skipping over the podium, jamie horowitz, owner of pr work and head of the npc headliners booking team so hes the person that helped organize todays lunch. Thank you, jamie. Jeff plunges, lead automotive Investigative Reporter for consumer reports. Michael smith, a bakery worker at nabisco in chicago and a member of the bakers union. [ applause ] patty, senior strategist and principle at psg communications. And finally, robert column, Technology Journalist and contribute or the to i3 magazine. [ applause ] our guest today, richard trumka, has been president of the nations Largest Labor federation aflcio since 2009. Before that, he served as the secret
[inaudible conversations] in the mountain and pacific time zones. Lillian faderman, why does the struggle at least in your book begin in the 1950s . Guest well, i could have begun even earlier, of course, but the 1950s marked the time when gay people started to organize. Incidentally, we were all called gay at that time, not lgbtq, but gay was sort of the umbrella term, the underground term for all of us. So the first ongoing organization that formed started in 1950s, and that would be [inaudible] society and it was very difficult to get people to join that organization. So i talk about the persecutions in the 1950s and why an organization was necessary. You know, in the 50s all of the churches, gay people were sinners. And to psychiatrists, all gay people were mentally ill. And to the police, all gay people were criminals. And to the federal government, if you had a job that had anything to do with government and slowly facilitiered down even to teachers filtered down even to teachers