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.

Dwayne Ratleff grew up poor, Black and gay in 1960s Baltimore. As a youngster, his loving grandma taught him: “Don’t explain yourself, be yourself.”

As we await the reopening of the Pacifica Pier — now closed due to recent storm damage — we bring you poet Toni Mirosevich's stories of connection on this historic pier.

Just in time for holiday gatherings, tips for getting along joyfully with differences. Our guest says "nosy" questions can grease the turkey!

In December 1998, soon after its namesake's savage murder, his parents launched the Matthew Shepard Foundation to erase hate-based violence. We’ve seen big advances since then — and big setbacks. LGBTQ+ leaders discuss where we are now.

25 years ago, a gay college student was savagely beaten, tied to a fence post, and left out to die on a cold Wyoming night. His grief-stricken mother worked to expand hate crime laws. Hear her story.

Pamela Sneed’s prose and poetry can reach out and grab you. They did me.

Why do tens of thousands of people trek to a temporary tent city in an alkaline Nevada desert every August? Is Burning Man worth the heat and dust? What’s queer about it?

Should drag story hours be banned? With so much fuss, we thought you'd like to judge for yourselves. So we bring some to you! Here’s #3 in our series.

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! (Episode 2 of 3)

Why ban drag performers? Why all the fuss over drag story hours? Hear some for yourself ... then you decide!

Pump up the volume! In part as a “joyful antidote” to the escalation of anti-LGBTQ laws across the USA, San Francisco’s all-transwomen rock band is back together after 12-plus years.

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.” The long-time San Franciscan has written an impressive, insightful, award-winning novel about his childhood.

Quick, what’s your sexuality? Most of us know roughly where we fall on the Kinsey scale that goes from zero (totally straight) to six (flaming fag or butchest of dykes). But have you considered another continuum, the asexual – allosexual one?

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.

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.

While a young housewife and mom in the 1950s and ’60s, Ann Bannon wrote lusty lesbian love stories. Scorned by the literary elite then, her and other authors’ “pulp fiction” paperbacks helped advance queer rights and now offer a glimpse of gay and lesbian life in those times.

On our last Out in the Bay of 2022, hear about the amazing life and accomplishments of a Black queer civil rights pioneer left out of history books: Pauli Murray.

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

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