The homosexual in our society: a panel discussion

This recording from 1958 – the earliest known radio recording to overtly discuss homosexuality – features Elsa Knight Thompson, then the Public Affairs Director of KPFA, interviewing Hal Call, the editor of the Mattachine Society’s newsletter, the Mattachine Review; Dr. Blanche Baker, a psychologist noted for her then-rarely-shared belief that homosexuality was not an abnormality nor an illness; and Lee Gailey, the mother of a gay man. Galey recounts her shock at first learning her son is gay and her eventual embrace of her son’s sexuality. Call asserts that “every tenth person…is predominantly homosexual”. The conflict of the society versus the individual and whether the root of homosexuality is a product of biology or environment. Flamboyant individuals – elimination of effeminate gestures that distinguish homosexuals vs. educating public that these mannerisms are not significant.
Received California State Fair Press, Radio, and TV award, 1959.