Randy would want me to plug my business here:

Patreon is a crowdfunding platform where fans of Queer Serial can support my new LGBTQ+ history projects!

Join for research dives, bonus episodes, & rewards!

Check it all out at Patreon.com/QueerSerial

“Live and Let Live:
6 Decades Later”
Interview w/ Randy Wicke‪r‬

Featuring Sylvia Rivera, Randy’s friend Michael, and stories about Marsha P. Johnson, the Mattachine, and radical activism.

Recorded in Hoboken, New Jersey, January 16, 2020.

Images from Interview w/ Randy Wicker

DECEMBER 31, 2020

“1992 GOOD RIDDANCE TO YOU!!”

From Randy Wicker’s personal collection, his zine about the difficult year, focusing mostly on the death of his friend, trans icon Marsha P. Johnson.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

The crew at Randy Wicker’s New York lamp shop, Uplift Lighting, including Marsha P. Johnson in the hat and Randy in some fab dots.

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Happy 83rd birthday to the living legend Randy Wicker ✌🏼

📸 Sasha Arutyunova, Time magazine, June 2019.
📸 Texas Ranger, May 1959.
📸 my photo of Randy’s personal photo of the Homosexual League of New York, c. 1962.
📸 The Mattachine Sip-in, April 21, 1966. Fred W. McDarrah. (Stay tuned for season 3!!)
📸 Randy and Marsha P. Johnson, from Wicker’s personal collection.
🎥 Randy and Sylvia Rivera on the pier, 1995.
📸 me and Randy, an amazing day, January 16, 2020.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

👋🏼 hi from the Randy Wicker archive!! Tomorrow on my Patreon I’m showing off some of the cool stuff we found from his days in the League for Sexual Freedom 😈 And check out those pants!!

SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

she's definitely too cool for Mattachine now ✌🏼

Legendary queer activist Randy Wicker and I are diving into his personal archives in his home. Join us!!
link in bio 🌳😚💨

NOVEMBER 14, 2021

Mattachine crusader Randy Wicker was a busy girl during the homophile era. Finally, we're diving into this enormous section of the Wicker archive today on my Patreon. It's a wild story. Join me!!

$1/month for alllllllll the fab queer history dives, including the Wicker archive project 💖

DECEMBER 24, 2021

Merry Christmas & Gay Love always from Marsha P. Johnson to Randy Wicker 💖🎄

🗂 Randy Wicker & Marsha P. Johnson Papers, which I'm currently organizing. 🤯

DECEMBER 25, 2021

“Marsha was there—still fresh from her shopping trips to NY’s most fashionable department stores. Last year, and this year too, she got the ‘Jackie Kennedy’ treatment. From the time she entered, dressed in drag and wearing tree lights or tinsel in her hair, the security guards stuck right by her side. Saint Marsha must look like a shoplifter to them. But she has only come to sample all the free cosmetics and perfumes.”

—Randy Wicker's annual holiday letter, 1984 ✨✨✨

Join the Mattachine on my patreon to see TONSSS more from Randy's legendary letters! We pieced together the original paste-ups, including fab polaroids of Marsha and Randy's big gay family 💖🎄🎁

patreon.com/queerserial ✨

DECEMBER 25, 2021

“Yes, Marsha—more than anyone—makes me laugh when I am sad. She fills my life with warmth and makes it glow. When she’s here, every day is Christmas…
‘Love’ is what life is all about. Only during the Holidays do we seem to realize that. And, ironically, it has been Marsha—someone I’ve never had anything to do with sexually—who has helped show me what love is all about. Happy New Year! See you next year… maybe.”

—Randy Wicker's annual holiday letter, 1984 🎁🎁🎁

Join the Mattachine on my patreon to support my work & see the full issue of Randy's legendary ’84 letter! We pieced together the original paste-ups, including stories about gay family vacations, sex work & brothels, and Randy’s love letter to Marsha. 💖🎄🎁

patreon.com/queerserial ✨

DECEMBER 27, 2021

“…since some but not all of you fans keep files of these incriminating, unique, pathetic, embarrassing, hysterical yearly notes, (Shame on those of you who don’t. Today’s Xmas letters could be tomorrow’s valuable collectibles.) - I'll recap last year’s annual soap opera in a few short sentences..."

—Randy Wicker's annual holiday letter, 1984 🎄🎄🎄

📸 Polaroid of his roommate Marsha P. Johnson, pasted into a xmas letter

DECEMBER 29, 2021

Me & Randy Wicker at the Drag March last summer. 💖 I'm relaunching my patreon on new years day with tons of new Marsha & Randy material as we prepare their papers for the archive, and would love your support on this massive project. Also I have a new bonus podcast interviewing more queer legends! can't wait to share with you 💘💘💘

JANUARY 4, 2022

Nice queer folks who support my many projects ($3/month) make it possible for me to archive real queer history, tell the stories in podcasts, and you get to join me for all of it!!

Please help a girl out and join my newly relaunched Patreon! 🎉

💖💖💖
patreon.com/queerserial
link in my bio

MARCH 15, 2022

My interview with "Transparent" creator Joey Soloway (and their mother Elaine!) is up now! 🎉 link in my bio 🎉

We had a fabulous chat about creating work that uplifts minority voices, navigating an industry built for dudes, & how we blend art & activism to tell stories. @Topple

Link in my bio, or:
https://vimeo.com/687268669

JANUARY 28, 2022

tons more gay stuff, & you can help me share more queer history!!

Thanks to all of you who support all my projects 💖

Join by February 1 to get a package full of alllll my rewards 🎁

patreon.com/queerserial
link in bio

JANUARY 7, 2022

Everything I’ve digitized so far from the upcoming Marsha P. Johnson papers (archiving along with her roommate’s Randy Wicker) is now available to peruse and download FREE.

See all of Randy’s petitions demanding justice for Marsha’s death for no charge at
patreon.com/queerserial (link in bio)

See the rest, including Marsha’s handwritten cards, polaroids, and Randy’s campaign for justice at queerserial.com/marsha 💐

📸 Randy, Marsha, & Suzanne Phillips in Randy’s Village lamp shop Uplift Lighting

JANUARY 4, 2022

working our way through Randy’s tapes. count how many queer history icons in one drawer

JANUARY 8, 2022

"BE HAPPY"

I scanned approx 1 billion Marsha P. Johnson polaroids in Randy's archive today. Do you mind if I post every single one of them?

JANUARY 11, 2022

this endearing and messy video I just found is Randy Wicker distilled into 51 seconds

JANUARY 19, 2022

The next set of petitions is packed with interesting comments & some letters. The first is from Chelsea Goodwin, co-founder of Transy House. 💐

Browse & download the petitions free at patreon.com/queerserial

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

The great Sylvia Rivera passed 20 years ago today. Shooting his documentary today, Randy told us stories about Sylvia’s years working in his lamp shop and living in his apartment. Once arch enemies, they reconnected at Marsha’s funeral and became best friends. Sylvia’s friendship inspired him to become an activist for trans rights, and he still says often how grateful he is for how much Sylvia taught him.

📸 Andrew Glowko, Randy Wicker, Sylvia Rivera, & Dottie Glowko at Uplift Lighting antique & lamp store, c. late 90s.
#transhistory #sylviarivera

JANUARY 15, 2022

“We accidentally encounter a great storyteller.”

Peak into the archives with me & Randy Wicker! And a lot of Village characters. 📻

patreon.com/queerserial
$3/month for this & tons more cool old gay stuff

JANUARY 20, 2022

🎙is this thing on? Randy Radio starts today! Over the next 8 weeks join me & Randy as we play the tapes and chat about all the sexual deviants he interviewed on air in the ‘60s 😈

Listen to the show and help me preserve & share lots of queer history at patreon.com/queerserial ✨ link in bio ✨

JANUARY 27, 2022

BONUS EPISODE TODAY! Join us on the Bowery in 1962! 🎤

Listen to the bonus pod and help me preserve & share lots of queer history at patreon.com/queerserial $3/month 💖

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

BONUS EPISODE DAY!! This is a weird one.💰

Listen to the bonus pod and help me preserve & share lots of queer history at patreon.com/queerserial $3/month 💖

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

Randy interviews novelist & Beat poet Lawrence Lipton about taboos & unspoken sexual truths 🔥

Listen to this & tons more bonus episodes on my patreon!! $3/month to support all my history projects. 💖 link in my bio ✨✨✨

• devlyncamp

  these pics are of Randy and his lover Peter doing poppers in a photo booth💥💥💥

JANUARY 29, 2022

BUY BUTTONS, NOT BOMBS!💥

Today we’re time-traveling back to Randy’s 1960s button shop on my Patreon. You’ll recognize TONS of his counterculture messages that spread across the country!

link in my bio ✨

JANUARY 31, 2022

Thanks for letting me push my Patreon so hard this month! You generous gals are keeping me afloat while these projects consume my whole life.

I extended my special offer, so if you join by Feb 5th I'll send you a package full of cute rewards & you'll get all the bonus stuff I've got 💖💖💖

patreon.com/queerserial 😘

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Happy 84th birthday to “Miss Mattachine” himself, Randy Wicker! Yesterday he raised the new rainbow flag in Christopher Park. 💖

MARCH 18, 2022

good vibes 🎉 @randolfewicker

MARCH 17, 2022

One of Marsha’s last protests was at the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade, where gay groups like the Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization were excluded from participating. Randy & Marsha went anyway, carrying a new camera to document how they were treated this year.

“This year was different,” Randy wrote, “This year, the rejected would sit in judgement of those who had rejected them… It was the queers turn to jeer.”

Manhattan’s parade finally dropped the ban against Irish LGBTQ groups in 2014.

Staten Island’s parade still bans queer folks, including LGBTQ firefighter and police groups. Even Miss Staten Island 2020 Madison L’Insalata was banned from marching after coming out as bisexual, and so was Republican City Councilman Joseph Borelli for wearing a rainbow pin.

📸 Marsha P. Johnson & Randy Wicker pictured in the Hoboken Reporter at the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, March 22, 1992.

APRIL 13, 2022

For the Radical Deviant subscribers on my patreon today, I’m sharing “Up Your Ass” 👆by radical feminist & lesbian Valerie Solanas! A script thought lost for years, but no one checked Miss Randy Wicker’s apartment.

Solanas shot Andy Warhol over this play, and it’s QUITE a wild story. Telling that gay tale on my patreon!

patreon.com/queerserial
link in my bio ✨

APRIL 15, 2022

"Sports fans, let me be the first to tell you," Randy Wicker opens his 1969 piece, "If you're ever going to understand fucking and be truly proficient at it, you've got to be fucked."

That Solanas play I posted the other day got me thinking about how only a year later this saucy little piece by Randy was published! It was used in court against the newspaper.

I’m telling that story on patreon for Radical Deviant subscribers too 😈

patreon.com/queerserial ✨
link in my bio

APRIL 17, 2022

"Father, forgive them!" ✝️

This flyer, from Randy Wicker's personal archive, announced the ongoing protest of St. Veronica's AIDS memorial in 1993. Accused of profiting off of sick gay people, St. Veronica's charged $25/plaque to commemorate people who succumbed to the virus, while simultaneously preaching hate and encouraging celibacy between homosexuals.

(The controversy with the Christopher Street Festival Committee mentioned here will be covered in juicy detail on my Patreon during Pride month this year)

See more from Randy's collection that I'm digitizing at patreon.com/queerserial 💖

APRIL 18, 2022

Tax Day gay history! Randy and his partner David filed their taxes as a married couple in 1973 and (surprisingly) nothing bad happened to them or (unsurprisingly) to the sanctity of heterosexual marriages.

DECEMBER 1, 2022

Randy mentioned World AIDS Day this morning, then said he didn’t want to attend any events. He says thinking about AIDS is like keeping a wound open. But he still often thinks about his late partner David Combs, who died of AIDS on February 17, 1990 in the apartment where Randy still lives today. They met through David’s friend (the iconic) Liz Eden while Randy was reporting on Eden’s very open gender confirmation process. David & Randy opened Uplift Lighting together in the Village in 1974. David expanded the shop over the years and built quite a palace, which employed (and housed) countless gay, trans, & even heterosexual people. Randy ran the shop until 2003. He describes their relationship as a “stormy marriage”—they were off and on all the time. David was probably carrying the virus before they ever knew it existed. They were stranded in the ER hallway for nearly a week while the hospital refused to give rooms to AIDS patients because they didnt have private rooms open. The epidemic brought Randy back to activism, even after David’s death. As his health declined, David & Randy grew closer than ever, tending a backyard “Garden of Hope.” Many of the antique lamps he hung are still glowing in their Hoboken apartment. 💡
#worldaidsday

JUNE 8, 2022

This week on "Give 'Em Hell, Harry!" we're discussing the AIDS epidemic.

Randy Wicker’s life, of course, was also changed by the virus. His partner David had a panel on the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Randy's mother helped make it, though she hid it anytime someone came knocking at her door. Still, helping Randy make this panel for David was a huge step forward for his mother.

Here are some pages from Randy's photo album that we assembled. Check out tons more from the Quilt—and from Randy's huge archive—on my patreon. Thanks for helping us preserve & share queer history!

patreon.com/queerserial ✨
Learn more at queerserial.com/harrybritt

JUNE 27, 2022

this girl danced the day away at her 53rd Pride 🏳️‍🌈 @randolfewicker 💖

JUNE 3, 2022

🏳️‍🌈 As a longtime gay activist & attendee of the first Christopher Street Liberation Day (Pride) in 1970, Randy Wicker has always held the Pride parade close to his heart. In 1992, Randy and members of ACT UP became suspicious of the Christopher Street Festival Committee, believing Stonewall bar owner Ed Murphy & his successors to be skimming Pride profits, rather than returning them to the gay community. A private investigator was hired, and Randy & Marsha's final campaign together took off. 🏳️‍🌈

Read the full story and look through Randy's archive on my Patreon! All your support helps me produce the podcasts, and work on all this research for our documentary about Randy!!

patreon.com/queerserial
link in my bio ✨

JULY 6, 2022

30 years ago today, Marsha P. Johnson’s body was found in the Hudson River near the gay pier. She was last seen on July 4 being taunted by a group of hateful young men. The police did nothing to solve her murder.

In 2022, at least 19 transgender people in the US have been killed. At least 50 people in 2021. Marsha was not the legend then that she is now—and yet she still deserved to live and she still deserved justice for her death. Marsha would tell us to keep fighting today against the oppressive laws put forth by a loud minority of bigots. We can overcome transphobia and show the world that, as Venus Xtravaganza said, “we are the most gorgeous, special things on Earth.” 💐

See more photos of Marsha, her personal papers, and petitions created by her roommate Randy Wicker at queerserial.com/marsha

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

Check out my Patreon to see more history I’m preserving at the @lgbtcenternyc archives, and what @viridiancoaststudios & I are doing with it all for the Wicker family documentary!

patreon.com/queerserial 🎵🗂🎥

OCTOBER 10, 2022

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

Randy on “The Richard Bey Show,” December 3, 1993.

More bts of the Wicker documentary coming to my Patreon this week 💕

DECEMBER 19, 2022

“Never in history was $30,000 per year so misspent as in protecting us(‘society?) from CoCo… We live in an ugly, racist, unfair, unjust society… Merry Christmas America. Make sure you have that patriotic pig hanging on your sacred, holy, loving Christmas tree.
and to all, a good night!” 🐽🎄

Randy Wicker’s annual Xmas letter, 1996. See CoCo pictured (center) outside Uplift Lighting on her birthday, June 29, 1995, which was also Gay Pride Day. She moved in with Randy after incarceration. She now lives with her husband in New York City.

JANUARY 7, 2023

Having THE time of my life archiving Randy Wicker’s massive collection of papers (and basically all types of media) for the NYC LGBT National History Archives 🥵 and for our documentary!!

JANUARY 29, 2023

A certain legend turns 85 on Friday!!! 🎉 @randolfewicker

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

Wishing a happy 85th birthday to my wonderful friend, Randy Wicker. I can’t express my gratitude for everything he has done for the queer movement, and for me specifically. It’s an honor to be a part of his family. 🎂 @randolfewicker

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Congrats to @juliusbarnyc @nyclgbtsites @gvshp_nyc on preserving one of the best landmarks in queer history! Today was a lovely celebration! 🍾🍻💚 she’s wearing her “85 & Fabulous” birthday sash from a few weeks ago 😂

AUGUST 8, 2022

A year of archiving with Randy, and we’ve been making a documentary to show you the whole thing! Lots of fun work ahead. Here’s my most recent Patreon update ♥️💋🎉 @randolfewicker @viridiancoaststudios

JANUARY 1, 2022

this is my new years baby, veronica.

this past year i have been spinning so many plates with all these queer history projects. my apartment is full of Marsha P. Johnson’s papers. that apt is also currently buried inside a mountain of Randy’s photos and 30 years of christmas letters. i also swore I’d stop making queer serial before the story reached Harvey Milk and yet i spent today editing parts of his audio will that almost no one has ever heard. i cannot BELIEVE THIS WTF what an honor.

many of my dearest judys have told me i need to be reaching out for more $ support and show off this cool shit more because, somehow, there are lots more fab requests coming in for archiving and podcasting queer history and I’d love to keep doing this full time (i really miss those stimulus checks). I’m also told i should post more selfies, so here’s me and Veronica.

so if that’s your thing, i just relaunched my patreon with lots of fun new stuff. please help me preserve and share our history!! 💜
patreon.com/queerserial