CASDLA_000037_T1_B_PRSV

Interview with Bernie Michels, part 2, 1992

 

1992-06-21

 

Interviewer: Nobiletti, Frank

(Sound file begins at around 11 seconds.) The interview is described by The California Audiovisual Preservation Project as follows: "Bernie Michels is one of The Center's founders. With Jess Jessop, he called the very first meetings of the Planning Committee in 1972, and later became Executive Director of the committee. About 1967, Bernie slowly began exploring his sexual orientation, coming out fully when he started attending early meetings of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in Los Angeles. Participating in the GLF was both exhilarating and scary especially when demonstrating against the L.A. Police and marching in the first Pride parade in 1970. Bernie moved to San Diego in 1971 to attend San Diego State University, where he was the first openly LGBT student in the School of Social Work. He also presented the city's first LGBT studies course in 1974 at SDSU: "Myths and Realities Concerning Gay People."

Frank Nobiletti; Bernie Michels; Oral histories; Bernard Michels; Thom Carey; John Senter; Metropolitan Community Church; MCC; Patricia "Pat" Cluchey; Jess Jessop; Jeri Dilno; The San Diego LGBT Community Center; International Imperial Court System; Unicorn Theatre (San Diego)

 

 

Rights are owned by Lambda Archives of San Diego (LASD)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes

CASDLA_000037_T1_A_PRSV; CASDLA_000037_T2_A_PRSV; CASDLA_000037_T2_B_PRSV

This is a summary, not a transcript:
00:11 Audio picks up from part 1 where they were last talking about Jess Jessop.
01:05 Talks about Jeri Delno's and Jessop's working relationship.
01:48 Talks about the first meetings of the Gay Center in San Diego.
02:28 Talks about an organization named Monday Night Lesbians and how they got involved.
03:28 Frank asks about how Patricia Cluchey got involved.
04:05 Talks about lack of leadership.
05:50 Talks about arguing with Jessop and Dilno.
06:24 Talks about how everyone had different ideas of what the Gay Center should be.
07:25 Talks about working with Jessop.
08:05 Talks about what was difficult about working with Jessop.
12:02 Talks about how he had to take a step back from Jessop.
13:25 Talks about needing a formal structure for the carnival they were planning.
13:54 While Michels was absent, they decided that he was going to be the director.
15:36 Talks about the state denying them a liquor license and what it led to.
16:33 Talks about an attorney offering his services so that they could get a liquor license.
18:35 Talks about how he wanted to put off getting a new center building until fall and how Jessop was outraged about it.
19:22 Talks about resigning his position for the Gay Center board, and about his partner Thom Carey.
21:29 Talks about how people began planning programs for the center.
21:48 Talks about how more people got involved with the center after carnival.
22:25 Talks about not being able to find a building until the fall.
23:10 Talks about Bert Lewis [spelling?] and Jessop being co-directors.
25:07 Talks about there are a lot of different things that haven't been touched on in the interview.
26:36 Talks about bridging the gap between the Gay Center and the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC).
27:50 Talks about MCC being a threat to Jess.
29:01 Talks about how he joined MCC along with his partner at the time Tom.
30:15 Talks about the role the Imperial Court played during that time.
31:35 Talks about MCC and Gay Liberation and how they felt about the Court and the Gay Center.
32:44 Talks about an interesting interaction he had with a person in a bar.
34:08 Talks about the role MCC played at that time.
36:02 Talks about how the bars withdrew their ads from the MCC newspaper.
36:26 Audio stops.
36:27 Audio picks back up from the interview on another day.
39:48 Talks about the first meetings of the Gay Center and how they met at John Senter's house.
41:44 Talks about being promoted active chairperson of the Gay Center.
42:11 Talks about organizing a complete set of officers.
42:38 Talks about the Unicorn Theatre.
44:18 Talks about receiving support from the MCC.
46:25 Talks about people from the Los Angeles Gay Center coming down to spend time with them.
46:47 Audio ends abruptly.

 

Audio

WAV

1.57 GB