James and Daniel fire up the gay time machine and bring along friend of the pod Phillip Zonkel of Q Voice News. They set the dial for the late 1960s, the coordinates for Wilmington, CA where a little bar called The Patch, run by Long Beach resident Lee Glaze, became the site of one of the earliest known gay liberation protests, pre-dating the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Buckle up for discussions on police homophobia, male-on-male dancing, and why queer bars have always been so central to LGBTQ safety, community, and activism.

Links

• Long live queer media! Read and subscribe to Q Voice News for lots more news and perspectives from the queer community in Southern California.
• If you’re a lefty queer looking to get involved in more lefty queer organizing in Long Beach, send a DM to Queers Obliterating White Supremacy on IG.

Sources

• Q Voice News: Lee Glaze led early gay rights protest at The Patch 55 years ago
• Los Angeles Times: Fight for Gay Rights Started Early in L.A.
• Q Voice News: 51 years ago Lee Glaze fought police harassment & made gay history
• From Sanctuary to Safe Space: Gay and Lesbian Police-Reform Activism in Los Angeles
• Q Voice News: Lee Glaze: LGBTQ pioneer blazed trails with justice, humor
• KCET: God Save the Queen of Angels: The Legend of the Patch
• One Archives: The Patch Bar Flower Power Protest
• Queer Maps: The Patch

In 2017, parents and advocates filed a complaint alleging that the Long Beach Unified School District had misspent a vast amount of funds meant for low-income, homeless, and foster students. The math was simply not mathing. The complaint was a longshot but after a year of fighting the school district’s PR machine and high-priced lawyers, it ultimately led to a historic settlement. Follow Long Beach Chisme on IG and TikTok @lbchisme and on the website formerly known as Twitter at @LongBeachChisme. Show notes and sources here.

What if we told you that for four years Long Beach police officers used a secret messaging app that permanently wiped their communications? The LBPD was the only law enforcement agency in the country that widely adopted the use of this app called TigerText. In this true burn-after-reading story, James and Daniel are joined by Audrena Redmond of Black Lives Matter Long Beach to talk about how this destruction of records shows how the city will do anything to protect itself from negative press and uphold the status quo of the police department instead of addressing our over-reliance on policing and surveillance. Show notes and sources.