Gay Peoples Union

Wisconsin Pride – Gay Peoples Union

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Radio Host: Welcome once again to Gay Perspective, the radio voice of Gay People’s Union. We’re going to be interviewing a young lady who happens to be a homosexual. But first, let’s have a little music.

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[cue ball strikes]

Narrator: The nation’s first LGBTQ+ radio program, Gay Perspective, hit the airwaves in 1971.

Host: This program will discuss a gay perspective.

Narrator: Produced in Milwaukee by the activist organization Gay People’s Union to serve a community finding its voice.

Host: Today, throughout the country, homosexuals are clamoring for their rights.

Michail Takach: Within 10 years of the Black Nite Brawl, Milwaukee had really come together as a community of LGBT people looking to not just find each other socially but to socially activate and organize. One of the organizations that came out of this era was Gay People’s Union.

Narrator: Gay People’s Union was founded in 1971 by two openly gay men, Eldon Murray and Alyn Hess.

Brice Smith: Being able to be openly gay, they were able to do so much work for the community and for the Gay Liberation Movement.

Michail Takach: This was a time where people could be fired from their job just for being gay.

Narrator: Eldon Murray, who served in Korea, then worked as a stockbroker, was quoted, “My clients didn’t care “as long as I made money for them. “I could stand up and be openly gay when few people could.”

Standing alongside him was gay rights crusader Alyn Hess, a landscape architect turned social activist.

Michail Takach: They established the first gay crisis hotline in Milwaukee. They opened the first gay community center. And they also fought with local newspapers about printing the names of people arrested for disorderly conduct and got them to end that policy, which was a lifesaver for many, many gay people.

Dick Wagner: They were remarkable pioneers in the fight for gay rights.

Michail Takach: They really changed Milwaukee for the better.