The Sound of Pride: Stonewall at 50

The 20 years since Matthew Shepard's death have been transformative for his mother, Judy. Plus: we talk to Samira Wiley, who appeared in an anniversary production of The Laramie Project.

— Judy Shepard is president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

— Moisés Kaufman is founder and artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project; he co-wrote and directed the play The Laramie Project.

— Samira Wiley is an actor best known for her work on Orange is the New Black and The Handmaid’s Tale.

— You can stream the film version of The Laramie Project on HBO.

— Special thanks to Christina Russo and Maxim Ibadov.

Original music by Jeremy Bloom with additional music by Alexander Overington ("Inter C") and Broke For Free ("The Great").

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"Jewel's Catch One," a new documentary from C. Fitz, explores the legacy of America's oldest black-owned disco club, as well as the life of businesswoman and activist Jewel Thais-Williams. For four decades, Jewel provided safe spaces in Los Angeles for the black, L.G.B.T.Q., and AIDS-impacted communities. The club closed in 2015. The film was recently acquired by Ava DuVernay's grassroots distribution company, ARRAY.

Thais-Williams and Fitz join the program to discuss the film and what Jewel's nightclub meant for Los Angeles's marginalized communities at the height of the AIDS crisis.

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Edmund White has been a central figure in gay fiction since the nineteen-seventies. His trio of autobiographical novels captured decades of gay experience and the glory days of pre-AIDS gay culture. Now seventy-six, White says that “gay life has changed so much and as a novelist, the aesthetic has changed.” He talks to his former student, The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman, and reads from his new novel, “Our Young Man.”

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One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United States. But in the days that followed, Sipple’s split-second act of heroism turned into a rationale for making his personal life into political opportunity. What happens next makes us wonder what a moment, or a movement, or a whole society can demand of one person. And how much is too much?

Through newly unearthed archival tape, we hear Sipple himself grapple with some of the most vexing topics of his day and ours - privacy, identity, the freedom of the press - not to mention the bonds of family and friendship.

Reported by Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte. Produced by Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen, Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte.

Special thanks to Jerry Pritikin, Michael Yamashita, Stan Smith, Duffy Jennings; Ann Dolan, Megan Filly and Ginale Harris at the Superior Court of San Francisco; Leah Gracik, Karyn Hunt, Jesse Hamlin, The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive, Mike Amico, Jennifer Vanasco and Joey Plaster.

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Masha Gessen co-hosts this episode of New Yorker Radio Hour, guiding David Remnick through the fifty years of civil-rights gains for L.G.B.T.Q. people. From drag queens reading to children at the library to a popular gay Presidential candidate, we'll look at how the movement for L.G.B.T.Q. rights has changed our culture and our laws. The actress and comedian Lea DeLaria takes us through five decades of queer history in five minutes. Gessen talks with a Stonewall historian names Martin Duberman about whether the movement has become too conservative, and, later, she visits with a gay asylum seeker who recently fled Russia's state security agency.

If you like what you heard, subscribe to THE NEW YORKER RADIO HOUR for free.