(TIME-WARP) The Chickens and the Bulls; The rise and incredible fall of a vicious GAY extortion ring!

A John lights a cigarette for a young male prostitute in August, 1965 iin Times Square.

by William McGowan

On a sleepy Sunday morning in late July 1965, Detective 3^rd Grade James McDonnell received a call in the upstairs squad room of midtown Manhattan’s 17^th Precinct. There was a man at the Western Union office in Grand Central Station who might be impersonating a police detective, he was told. The man was in the company of a 14-year-old runaway and had contacted the boy’s father in Texas to wire plane fare so the son could fly home. The father had grown suspicious when the man had asked for $150—twice the needed amount. McDonnell quickly drove the 10 blocks to Grand Central, parking his unmarked black sedan on Lexington Avenue and hurrying down to the terminal’s lower level. Criminal impersonation of a police officer was an E felony—a “good collar,” as cops like to say, and if the perp had a gun, even better. There’d also been chatter on the detective grapevine about a number of recent cases of phony policemen, so McDonnell was eager to see what was up.

(TIME-WARP) Happy 45th Anniversary Loving v. Virginia!

Long before the fight for Gay marriage was the fight for  interracial Marriage. The similarities are astonishing.

In June of 1958, Richard Loving married Mildred Jeter in Washington D.C. This was no ordinary marriage because he was white and she was black. In that time, laws in their home state of Virginia forbade interracial marriage, thus the couple was forced to travel to another state to wed.

(TIME Warp) 45 Years after Mike Wallace's 'The Homosexuals' Broke Ground!

Mike Wallace, late of CBS's 60 Minutes, died last night at age 93. He perished in an assisted care facility near New Canaan, CT. 

Over 45 Years ago, Wallace Hosted Television's First glimpse of Homosexuality,  Given the era in which it was produced, it's admirably open-minded: gay folk, at least male ones, are allowed to speak their pieces freely and at length. (I was especially interested in the weird hand-wringing about the possibility of a "gay mafia" ruling pop art and fashion, which seems rather incidental to the segment's central question: Is it desirable to legislate against private sexual behavior? On this question, at least, it seems Wallace wished to alight gently on the side of history.)Within 2 Years, Gay Liberation Happened.

(TIME Warp) San Francisco AIDS Foundation Marks 30 Years!

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is posting a 30-day series of historic images in honor of our 30th year which they're commemorating throughout April. Also on Facebook.

The first image, above: "MYSTERIOUS OUTBREAK, 1982. In the Castro, men gather around one of the many public flier posted around the community raising awareness about the mysterious disease outbreak plaguing gay men in San Francisco. Today we continue to confront HIV in populations most impacted by the disease through education, advocacy, and free direct local services."

(TIME Warp) All about Whitney!

In Honor of Whitney, we honor her memory with the clips from the early scenes of her career, includes her acting debut on 'Silver Spoons' in 1985.

(TIMEwarp): What happened to Gays after WWII?

With all the time focused on Japan and the End of World War II this past week, in this edition of Time warp, we examine the brief LGBT History from end of the War to the most horrific moment in Gay History, the death of Harvey Milk.