Cruising | Queer History and Culture

Cruising | Queer History and Culture

Conversations about lesbian bars, sapphic spaces, and beyond! Not sure where to start? You don’t have to listen in order! Pick your favorite city, space, or LGBTQ+ icon and dive in. Season 1 follows creators Sarah Gabrielli, Rachel Karp, and Jen McGinity on their 2021 cross-country road trip to every lesbian bar in the U.S., sharing the stories of the humans that run these spaces and the humans that call them a home. Season 2 features 14 more spaces, chronicling the current lesbian bar resurgence AND taking you back in time to lesbian bars of decades past. In Season 3, host Sarah Gabrielli sits down with history-making lesbians and LGBTQ+ folks to discuss all kinds of queer spaces - from bookstores, to farms, to peace encampments and more! New episodes air every other Tuesday.

Episodes

Heather Purser on passing same sex marriage in her tribe, and meeting the love of her life at 7 years old

June 24, 2025 • 47 mins
Our Guest this week, Heather Purser, made headlines back in 2011 when she single handedly passed same-sex marriage in the Suquamish tribe in Seattle, Washington. Today, Heather is a Suquamish lesbian activist and commercial diver! She shares her story of accepting her own identity, finding her childhood crush, and making space for herself within her community. Thank you for listening to Cruising Podcast! -Reviews help other li...
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Holly Near on Women's Music, Jane Fonda's Free The Army Tour, and music as activism

June 10, 2025 • 65 mins
Holly Near is a world-renowned singer and activist, known for producing music with powerful political messaging - she sings about war, racism, queer love and much more. She is one of the early pioneers of Women's Music (also known as radical lesbian feminist music) and the first lesbian to come out in People Magazine in 1975. Holly started her political career in the anti-war movement. Most notably, joining Jane Fonda's FTA (Free T...
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Angela Denise Davis on ZAMI NOBLA and moving through the world as a Black, blind, lesbian.

May 27, 2025 • 66 mins
This week, we sit down with Angela Denise Davis, the creative director and podcast host for ZAMI NOBLA - the National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging. She's also a scholar, organizer, minister, and Ukulele instructor. ZAMI NOBLA, founded in 2011 by Angela's partner Mary Anne Adams, is the leading advocacy organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbians over 40. Angela breaks down her experiences with aging and vision lo...
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I'm Baby and Denise Gaylord on Dyke Drag

May 13, 2025 • 52 mins
For the first time, we feature two interviews - two dykes, from two different generations - on the same concept: Dyke Drag. First, we'll hear from I'm Baby, a Brooklyn drag performer who started an event they call "Dyke Drag" which brings gender-diverse drag to sapphic spaces around the city. In Act 2, we meet Denise Gaylord, a local Ptown lesbian who ran an annual brunch also called "Dyke Drag" back in the 90s. Tune in to find out...
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Robin Tyler on the fight for marriage equality, and getting arrested for 'female impersonation'

April 29, 2025 • 43 mins
Robin Tyler is a history-making activist and stand-up comic, that's been on the scene since moving to New York City in the 1960's. Robin is a treasure trove of punchlines and queer history. She shares some of her most famous stories - like making a name for herself as a female impersonator, calling for 3 Marches on Washington, being the first out gay comic on national television, and successfully suing the state of California for t...
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Activist Sue Say on the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Encampment, organizing in prisons, and annoying the police as best you can

April 15, 2025 • 76 mins
The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Encampment was an anti-nuke encampment outside of a US military base in England, that women (and loads of lesbians) occupied from 1981 all the way through 2000. Fed up with male-on-male violence, and society's expectations on women, Sue Say joined the protest in its very beginnings as an 18-year-old. There, every day was exciting, for better or for worse. Greenham women were evicted from their camp...
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Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

April 1, 2025 • 59 mins
Valery Hughes is a retired nurse who spent her career working in HIV/AIDS care and research. She coauthored Nurses On The Inside: Stories Of The HIV/AIDS Epidemic In NYC with her colleague, Ellen Matzer, after working together in designated AIDS units for many years. Valery takes us behind the scenes of some of the city's busiest hospitals - from crossing paths with her first AIDS case in 1979, to all of the stigma around the disea...
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Comedian Kristen Becker on Summer of Sass, touring the Deep South, and getting stabbed in the chest

March 18, 2025 • 52 mins
Kristen Becker is a standup comedian and activist based out of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Becker also has a long history of touring, living, and organizing in the Deep South. In 2006, she founded the "Dykes of Hazard," an all-lesbian comedy group that toured the Deep South for a decade. In 2014, Becker testified before the Louisiana State Legislature in support of the Louisiana Non-Discrimination Act. From there, she set out on a...
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Journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist on queer media, childhood crushes, and what 'holding space' means to her

March 4, 2025 • 55 mins
You might know this week's guest, Tracy E. Gilchrist, as "the queen of queer media" or simply "the holding space lady." She reached internet fame last year when her interview with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande went viral during the Wicked press tour. But it goes without saying that Tracy is a whole person, who has lived a whole life, outside of that one video. Tracy has worked in queer media since the 90s - specifically covering ...
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Barbara Smith on The Combahee River Collective, lesbian identity, and Black feminism

February 18, 2025 • 78 mins
Barbara Smith is an award winning author, scholar, and activist. She is most well-known for co-authoring the Combahee River Collective Statement with two other queer Black women - her twin sister Beverly, and friend Demita Frazier. Barbara joins us to unpack the personal history that informed her groundbreaking Black Feminist politics. We discuss her multi-generational upbringing, growing up in Cleveland during the Civil Rights Mov...
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Activist Michelle Crone on a lesbian nation, the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment, and strategies for radical civil disobedience

February 4, 2025 • 71 mins
For our first episode of season 3, Sarah sits down with long-time activist and radical organizer, Michelle Crone. Now in her 70s, Michelle has spent the better part of her life organizing women and building community in the upstate New York/Albany area. At 18, she began doing service work with communities in the Appalachian Mountains, but soon had to flee the country for (undoubtedly radical) reasons she is not allowed to talk abou...
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Introducing Season 3: Beyond the Bars

January 28, 2025 • 1 min
Cruising: Beyond the Bars will premiere next Tuesday February 4th, but we're doing things a little differently this season! Each episode will be a candid conversation between our host, Sarah, and a history-making lesbian or queer person about all kinds of sapphic spaces - not just bars! We'll cover queer bookstores, farms, peace encampments, line dancing, women's music, dyke drag and so much more! Tune in every other Tuesday to l...
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Cruising the Archives: Lillian Faderman

June 25, 2024 • 64 mins
Lillian Faderman is a world renowned, award winning LGBTQ+ and lesbian historian, scholar, and author. Her books include Surpassing the Love of Men, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, Gay L.A., The Gay Revolution, Woman: The American History of an Idea, and many others. We've interviewed her once before, and we've quoted her in many of our other episodes. This extended interview was recorded in 2023 in Lillian's home, and includes some...
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Cruising the Archives: Ms. Mabel Hampton

June 18, 2024 • 59 mins
This week, we're sharing the story of Ms. Mabel Hampton, in partnership with The Lesbian Herstory Archives. Ms. Hampton (1902-1989) was an African-American lesbian, an activist, a dancer, a singer, and a domestic worker. She was also a dear friend and mentor of Joan Nestle, one of The Lesbian Herstory Archives' founders. Between 1976 and 1988, Joan Nestle sat down with Ms. Hampton numerous times to record a series of oral history i...
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Cruising the Archives: Pete Smith

June 11, 2024 • 44 mins
In 1963, white supremacist terrorists bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young black girls. Despite the FBI and local investigators identifying four key perpetrators, no one was charged. Until 1977, when Pete Smith, a trans man, worked with the FBI to testify against and convict his uncle, Robert Chambliss. In partnership with Invisible Histories, we are releasing this 1988 interview wit...
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Cruising the Archives: Patricia McCombs

June 4, 2024 • 49 mins
Happy Pride Month!! Starting this month, we will be releasing a series of episodes that we’re calling Cruising the Archives. We’re featuring extended interviews with LGBTQ+ icons from our own archives, as well as from the collections of queer and lesbian archives throughout the country.  First up: Patricia McCombs. In December of 1974, Pat noticed that she and her Black and latinx friends were being discriminated against at CK’s, ...
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Redz / Nancy Valverde | Los Angeles, CA

May 28, 2024 • 55 mins
Redz is a little known former lesbian bar in East LA, which opened in the 1950s and catered primarily to Chicana lesbians. This is the story of one woman in particular who called this space a home: Nancy Valverde. Nancy is most known for her long fought battle with the LAPD over masquerading laws, spending dozens of nights in jail throughout the 1950s for her refusal to wear typical women’s clothing. Nancy passed away in March of ...
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The Bush | Brooklyn, NY

May 7, 2024 • 43 mins
There's a new dyke bar in Bushwick, and it's called The Bush! These are the stories of humans that run it, and the humans that call it a home. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories with us for this episode! This episode features interviews with: Nikke Alleyne, Justine LaViolette, Macon Reed, Loretta Andro Chung, and Sarah Hallonquist. Check out Macon's work here. Order Dyke Beer here. Thank you for listening to Cruising...
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Bonus Content: Summer | Doc Marie's

April 30, 2024 • 47 mins
Our full interview with Summer, security at Doc Marie's. Thank you for listening to Cruising Podcast! -Support Cruising here! Cruising is an independent podcast. That means we're entirely funded by sponsors and listeners like you! -Reviews help other listeners find Cruising! If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave us a 5-star review! -For more Cruising adventures, follow us @cruisingpod on Instagram, TikTok, and F...
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Hershee Bar | Norfolk, VA

April 16, 2024 • 61 mins
In 2018, the Hershee Bar community showed up at a series of Norfolk City Council meetings to fight for their bar. This is the story of Hershee Bar, the humans that ran it, and the humans that called it a home. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories with us for this episode! This episode features interviews with: Annette Stone, Jennifer Alomari, Andria McClellan, and Mamie B Johnson, as well as excerpts from 2018 Norfolk Ci...
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