Power, Policing, and Perverts on Parade: Moral Panic in 1976 Los Angeles

Join Heidi Schumacher, Kate Ridgewell, and Loreal Wimberly as they dive deep into the arrest of 40 people attending a 1976 fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center in an undercover LAPD operation. 

Special note: This episode contains excerpts from a police report that are graphic descriptions of nudity, bodies, and sex acts. 

See the sources discussed in this episode at https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/circa-schumacher.  

Read a transcript of this episode. 

Special thanks to our interviewees Miss Mara, Dr. Nic Ramos from Drexel University, and Dr. Robert O. Self from Brown University; and our voice actors, Julia Amstutz, Malakai Jones, Corrin Popick, Kohlton Rippee, and Frank Wimberly. 

Thanks also to research and production assistants Kate Ridgewell and Loreal Wimberly, and to SmallPox for our theme music!  

Edited by Loreal Wimberly and Ellen Jarosz. 

Learn more: 

• Circa Queer Histories Festival 
• Remnants of Resistance Live Event 
• CSUN Queer Studies Program 
• CSUN University Library 
• Vern and Bonnie Bullough Collection on Sex and Gender