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This Way Out; Program 840; Segment 3; Interview with Madeline Davis
This Way Out: The International Lesbian & Gay Radio Magazine
Segment #3- With varied list of accomplishments as long as a lesbian’s arm, activist, author, educator, musician, and archivist Madeline Davis was among the founders of the Buffalo, New York chapter of the queer delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Davis recalls some of her political and musical adventures (begins with and excerpt from Davis’ 1983 song and ends with her historic 1971 liberation anthem “Stonewall Nation) 10:20 Closing continuity / credits 1:20
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Interview with Ann Hubbard
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
Description:
Madeline Davis sits down with Ann Hubbard to discuss her role as a political activist in the gay community. Starting with her involvement in Shades, an organization which Ann says was born out of the desire to integrate the LGBT community, Ann reveals that lingering racism is likely to blame for failed community partnerships. Madeline and Ann also discuss the rocky history of gay bars in Buffalo, leading Ann to disclose how her friendly, confident persona enables her to hold her own in the face of discriminatory policies. Lastly, Ann discusses her faith and the black church and gets to the root of her defiant nature as she recalls the anger that she felt as child when she experienced segregation for the first time.
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Interview with Bill Gardner
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Camille Hopkins
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Carol Speser
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections.
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Interview with Dan Winter
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Don Behr And Sam Lolinger
Keith Gemerek
Sam Loliger and Don Behr were two of the participants in the 2004 Keith Gemerek and Madeline Davis Interviews with LGBTQ+ Elders of Buffalo project. The interview project was sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Foundation and CEPA Gallery. Sam and Don were together from 1976 to January 2014 when Sam passed due to illness and both were active members of and advocates for the LGBTQ+ community of Western New York.
Loliger met Behr in 1976 while sitting on his interview committee for a position within the United Church of Christ congregation. After the two moved in together in ‘77, they participated in several support groups, advocacy organizations, and community associations, both individually and as a couple. Sam, for instance, served as national co-coordinator for the UCC Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Concerns for 13 years from 1984 to 1997. He was also a professor of sociology for Niagara Community College from 1964 to 1999. During that period, he chaired an affirmative action committee that approved a non-discrimination policy regarding sexual orientation in advance of SUNY’s own adoption of a similar policy. Sam extended his regional activism by serving as a representative for the LGBTQ+ community of WNY on the New York State Human Rights advisory committee.
Don was a member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Buffalo, beginning at its inception in 2001. He spoke in the interview about the name of the chorus incorporating the identifier of ‘gay’ as representative of his experience being out-- that facet of his identity is not only out, but emphasized as a source of public pride. He considered the chorus and its music a form of outreach and a means by which to forge connections across communities. Sam and Don together attended meetings with the Mattachine Society, a gay parenting group, and Gay Naturists International, and also gave presentations at local colleges and sat on panels regarding LGBTQ+ identities in WNY.
Both Loliger and Behr were open and proud about their identities as gay men. Sam spoke in the Elders Interview about how he brought that facet of himself into every activity he did and joked that he would bring it up to people he met within the first 5 minutes of meeting them. The couple seemed optimistic regarding the future of LGBTQ+ liberation and considered it an honor to be members of such a vastly dynamic community. The couple married in 2012, 36 years after coming together and 8 years after the interview in 2004. Toward the end of the interview, they criticize the LGBTQ+ activist movement for championing equal marriage over other pressing issues, but ultimately recognize it as a political act.
The Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of WNY houses a 41-minute audio interview (including written transcript) with Sam Loliger and Don Behr, as well as a portion of Sam’s collection of political buttons and pins.
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Interview with Helen Christian and Gail King
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Javier Bustillos
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Jim Haynes and Don Licht
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with John Morgan
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with JR and Lawrence Brose
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Madeline Davis
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Madeline Davis with Jim Haynes and Don Licht
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Marvin Henchbarger and Laurie Dean Torrell at GLYS
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Mary Thomas
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Robert Frank and Mark Bozer
Keith Gemerek
A collection of 34 interviews conducted in 2004 by Keith Gemerek focusing on GLBT elders in the Buffalo, NY and surrounding community. These recordings are housed in the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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The Historical Development of the Gay Community in Buffalo, NY
Justin Azzarella
Topics include: the evolution of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier in the 70’s as a reaction to the closure of gay bars; the first large community event put together by Frank Russo and Madeline Davis; gay parishioners at Buffalo churches and synagogues; the establishment of the Buffalo Gay Community Center in 1973 as the only community/self-supported center in the country; their sense of the gay community; the split between gay men and women in the late 1970s; evolution of the community as strong, but fractured; development of the Gay and Lesbian Youth Services (GLYS) as the only community safe space for youth with government funding; the inappropriate association of gays with pedophilia; the formation of NYSCGO from the Mattachine Society; an active discussion on Judaism and homosexuality; historical locations of gay communities within the city of Buffalo and suburbs; Rainbow Spirit Rising and growth of the Gay Pride Parade; and discussions of Buffalo as a big town with a small town mentality and the difficulties of being out and gay.
This oral history audio was recorded as part of a Master’s Thesis written by Justin P. Azzarella and belongs to the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York housed at SUNY Buffalo State, Archives and Special Collections. More information about the original cassette, the complete collection, and copyright can be found at: https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/LGBTQ
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Interview with Tangarra; 10-26-1991
Tangarra
This interview was conducted on 10-26-1991 with Tangarra (John Minzer) as part of an lgbtq oral history project.
John Minzer, 95 who was known to generations of Western New York audiences as Tangarra, died on April 17, 2007. Tangarra was the last and possibly one of the best vestiges of the time when drag performers were a beloved part of any vaudeville or night club experience. In a 1998 Outcome interview, Tangarra described her first public performance in 1928 at the Erie County Fair as "Little Egypt". A booking agent arranged for a sixteen year old John Minzer to perform on the Ismailia Shrine Temple stage as "Little Egypt". "They made me up and then they put me in a black wig! I've never had black hair in my life! They gave me a veil that went from here to here (Tangarra indicated that it covered the face from just below the eyes to below her chin.) I wore a heavy gold belt around my waist with long flowing fabric hanging off of the belt." "I was pretty popular," Tangarra told Outcome that she was driven around the fairgrounds while in costume, greeting and meeting fairgoers and received many presents and applause.
Tangarra retired from performing in 1974 but did perform at the 1998 grand opening of what was then known as Secrets on Allen Street. (In the bar that is now known as Adonia's) Performing in a stunning 1940's era strapless chiffon gown, Tangarra regaled the audience with standards as well as a few risqué bawdy numbers that would have been considered double entendres in when they were first introduced. Songs about hot nuts and the size of a gentleman's diamonds thrilled the audience that was stunned to actually hear a drag performer sing the songs with their own voice to a live piano accompaniment. Tangarra described the era before cassettes and compact disc, "In my day, of course you had to sing. You had to dance and you had to be able to do jokes and patter with the comedians." Tangarra performed at a number of Buffalo night clubs, gay and straight including The Chanteuse on Genesee Street, Mulligan's Brick Bar, The Jamestown Grill and The Puritan. The Federal Gardens is where Tangarra last performed a regularly scheduled show from 1969 -1974. –excerpt from Outcome Buffalo, Legendary Drag Performer Tangarra Passes, 05-18-2007, http://www.outcomebuffalo.com/tangarra-5-18-075004.htm
Additional online collection item: Tangarra Photo Album (https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/mdalbums/1)
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