Hello everyone!
So by now I’m hoping that you’ve had a chance to listen to the episode of Door Key about the Stonewall Uprising. It’s the first episode of the podcast edited by Stephanie Fuccio of Coffeelike Media! I think it sounds really amazing, and I would love to hear what you all think!
Introducing Harrison!
It occurred to me that I haven’t introduced you all to our cat, Harrison yet! He’s named after George Harrison of The Beatles. The night we adopted him, I was up with him, watching the movie Yesterday (which is about The Beatles). This teeny-tiny little kitten laid on my lap and very intently watched the movie with me, and it was the cutest, sweetest thing I’ve ever seen! We hadn’t picked a name for him yet. George Harrison was known as the ‘quiet’ Beatle, the ‘soulful’ or ‘spiritual’ Beatle, and that name just really fit him.
Harrison’s made a few cameos on the podcast, and he’s bound to be making some on the Substack every now and then, so I wanted to make sure he was properly introduced!
Some excitement
Door Key got a mention in the Podnews newsletter *and* the Podnews podcast! This is so exciting, and I want to thank Podnews and James Cridland for the shout-out!
The Bridgerton conversation continues
The second half of Season 3 of Bridgerton comes out today! We’re continuing the conversation about it in the comments of the post Let’s Talk About Bridgerton, which is here - I hope you'll come and join the chat!
xoxo, April
The current episode of Door Key is about The Stonewall Uprising!
June is Pride Month, and Door Key is celebrating that by talking about the Stonewall Uprising!
These were protests by members of the LGBTQ+ community in response to a police raid at The Stonewall Inn in New York City. The protests began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969.
A year after the uprising, the first gay pride marches took place, and within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the US and the world! Today, LGBT Pride events are held annually worldwide in June, and it all started with The Stonewall Uprising.
Here’s a link to the episode: The Stonewall Uprising
An extra tidbit about The Stonewall Uprising
This is a picture of Marsha P. Johnson. Marsha did take part in the Stonewall Uprising, but the exact extent of her involvement is unclear. Reports vary:
Marsha says she arrived at the Stonewall ‘around 2:00 am’, and that by that point the protests were well underway, with the building in flames. As the protests went on into the early hours of the morning, Marsha was noted as ‘having been in the vanguard’ of the pushback against the police.
There are reports that Marsha was seen climbing a lamppost and dropping a heavy bag onto the hood of a police car, shattering the windshield.
Marsha would later say that it was the police that started the fire in the bar.
I’ve even heard reports that Marsha P. Johnson was the first person to throw a brick during The Uprising.
It’s unknown which, if any of those stories is true. And frankly, that doesn’t matter to me. To me, Marsha is a representation of everyone that protested at Stonewall: fed up, and taking a stand against decades of oppression.
But my favorite thing about Marsha P. Johnson is that whenever she was asked what the P in her name stood for, her answer was always: ‘Pay it no mind’ - I love that so much!
You can find Door Key podcast here
The Stonewall Uprising episode of Door Key was edited by Stephanie Fuccio of Coffeelike Media. She can be reached here.
If you’d like more gay history content, Door Key has an episode about Baron von Steuben and Oscar Wilde.
Also, Arielle Nissenblatt from Earbuds Podcast Collective has sent out a great newsletter that has a collection of podcast recommendations. The theme of this month is: Queer Histories Through Time. You can find that list of recommendations here.