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How Kansas City blazed a path for gay liberation

David White, KCUR 89.3
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Images courtesy of Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America, Missouri Valley Special Collections

Years before the Stonewall uprising, Drew Shafer started Kansas City's first gay rights organization and published the first LGBTQ magazine in the Midwest. At one point, his Kansas City home was even the “information distribution center” for the entire gay rights movement.

This episode originally aired on the KCUR podcast A People’s History of Kansas City.

Read more about the Kansas City activist who helped unite the national gay rights movement from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin.

For more stories like this one, subscribe to A People's History of Kansas City on Apple PodcastsSpotify or Stitcher.

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