What was the gay bar and how did it shape gay identity?

The gay bar has long since been a locale of sexual expression, community, and most importantly, identity. If the gay bar was what Atherton Lin describes as, “a place where we hoped we could find ourselves,” what does it mean for queer identity when the spaces that once shaped and defined it are steadily vanishing in urban centers world-wide?  In his wistful personal and cultural memoir, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out (named one of the best books of 2021 by the New York Times, NPR, and Vogue),  essayist Jeremy Atherton Lin speaks to the impact of the gay bar on his own identity development and how the gathering space created a generation of chance encounters that shaped his life. On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Jenny Fan interviews Atherton Lin taking  a closer look at what recent shutdowns of such spaces have meant for those who came of age in them and the new generations now seeking to define their queer identity. BOOK: Gay Bar: Why We Went Out GUEST: Jeremy Atherton Lin PRODUCER: Jenny Fan MUSIC: Silas Bohen and Coleman Hamilton PRODUCTION: Pod People - Hannah Pedersen, Danielle Roth, Shaneez Tyndall, and Michael Aquino. SHOW NOTES: Jeremy Atherton Lin’s playlists and sound essays can be heard on NTS Radio and Mixcloud, or by visiting his website.

Om Podcasten

UnTextbooked is brought to you by teen change-makers who are looking for answers to big questions. Have you ever wondered if protests really can save lives, why assimilation required Native American kids to attend boarding schools, how Black-led organizations for mutual aid began, how the fear of communism led the United States to plan the overthrows of many leaders in Latin America, or why Brazilian cars run on sugar? Or maybe you've questioned when Asian Americans will stop being seen as "perpetual foreigners," how African heritage influences Black activism, or what resilience looks like for Iranian women?  Your textbooks probably didn't teach you how American Jews were an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, if history’s greatest leaders were generalists or specialists, how a Black teenager and his young lawyer changed America’s criminal justice system, or if either the US or the USSR won the Cold War. Did you know some of the forgotten BIPOC women of history were spying in aid of the French Resistance, that there's more to being a leader than going down with your battleship, or that there is a long history of gender expression in Native American cultures that goes beyond the male/female binary? Listen in as we interview famous authors and historians who have the answers.  Context is the key to understanding topics like British imperialism, segregation, racism, criminal justice, identifying as non-binary and so much more. These intergenerational conversations bring the full power of history to you with the depth and vividness that most textbooks lack. Real history, to help you find answers to your big questions. UnTextbooked makes history unboring forever.