Beth Zemsky and Kierra Johnson

Beth (B) started coming out in 1977 as an 18 year old in Ithica, NY. She saw many gay and lesbian couples holding hands not knowing it related to her. She became very involved in gender/sexuality studies at Cornell University. She moved to St. Lous, MO for graduate school and suddenly her ability to live openly as a lesbian was in question. The paper Gay Community News out of Boston kept her politically involved in LGBT issues (it also formed the basis of the new National Gay and Lesbian Task Force).

Kierra (K) attended the University of Colorado, Boulder. She was studying racial justice when her sister, Amber, became pregnant at 16. She witnessed her sister drop out of school and not receive support for her further education (Amber was sent to a "mommy school"). K realized that whatever women decide [about pregnancy/abortion] they are judged. This catapulted her into the feminist and choice/body liberation movements.

Having a gay twin brother got B more involved in the HIV/AIDS movement. Recently she found the first speech she delivered on the topic in St. Louis. "I knew somewhere in my body my brother would get HIV," she says. "Living his death with him is one of the most painful and transformative experiences I've had."

B and K discuss the queer movement, asking "how do we love our bodies?" They discuss the danger of desire that occurs because many LGBT people believe the myth that HIV/AIDS is over. The queer movement needs to teach how to live a life of love, passion, and desire out loud, not in silence or fear. At 26:40 they explain that not doing so and seeing yourself as diseased is where internalized homophobia comes from.

B is most proud of a memory from the 1987 March on Washington. Cops were patrolling the streets wearing latex gloves and beating their nightsticks in their hands. A very sick young man started singing "We Are a Gentle, Angry People," and the whole platform joined in. Everyone started signing "I love you" to each other and the cops who stopped tapping their clubs.

What is next? For K it is more intersectional advocacy, thinking about what comes next after marriage [equality].

"How do we construct a 'we'?" For B, LGBT is part of a broader, bigger social justice goal.