Out in the Bay KALW

Photojournalist Kristin Lyseggen profiles nine current and former inmates in her new book "The Women of San Quentin: Soul Murder of Transgender Women in Male Prisons ." Surrounded by convicted murderers and rapists, she writes, they are often forced to fight for their lives on their way to womanhood inside some of the world’s most dangerous prisons for men. She and Daniella Tavake, one of those profiled in the book, share intimate parts of their stories with host Eric Jansen on this week's Out

With recent gay rights gains, why is it still difficult for young people to be lesbian, gay, bi, transgender or “queer,” even in the San Francisco Bay Area? The Pacific Center for Human Growth, an LGBT counseling and community center in Berkeley, reports that many queer youth feel unsafe at school every day .

Blackmail, My Love, is a noir murder-mystery novel set in San Francisco, 1951 - "The Dark Ages of Queerdom," as author and illustrator Katie Gilmartin puts it - when cops raided gay and lesbian bars, beat up their patrons, and demanded "protection" money, and when lesbians and gay men were so afraid of exposure they were easy blackmail targets.

Lesbians and their friends take over the stage at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley Friday, Nov. 13, in a concert benefiting Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has defended the rights of LGBT people in many recent legal cases and political battles.

Halloween not enough? The gory, century-old Grand Guignol theatre style is recreated in Thrillpeddlers' Shocktoberfest 16: Curse of the Cobra , playing through Nov. 21 at the Hypnodrome in San Francisco. And Theatre Rhinoceros, the nation's longest-running LGBT theater company, presents Shakespeare Goes to War at The Thick House.

Dedicated to capturing the oral history of queer San Francisco, Out In The Bay host Marilyn Pittman interviews one of the legendary figures of the 60's, 70's, and 80's: former Cockettes member, Dolores Deluce. Her memoir, "My Life, A Four-Letter Word: Confessions of a Counter-Culture Diva," made Amazon's Top 20 and is an intimate, honest look back at life in the city during its radical heyday. Friends with Divine, Sylvester; lover to many gay men, witness to the devastation of AIDS, Dolores is a