The Gayest Generation Ep. 1 - Pat Buerkel

Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:25am

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where hear LGBTQ elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where silence has lived for far too long. What if who we call The Greatest Generation, also happens to be the gayest?

In this episode, we speak with Pat Buerkel. She shares her experiences working on the line at GM in the 70’s, her lifelong friendship with a transgender trailblazer, and crossing “going to jail” off her bucket list. Viewer discretion, due to adult language and situations, is advised. This is The Gayest Generation.

This episode features the following music:

Legacies Project Oral History: Ben Helmke

Wed, 01/15/2020 - 9:42am

Ben Helmke grew up on a farm in Pratt County, Kansas in the 1930s. He served as an organist in the Army chaplain’s office at Camp Schimmelpfennig (now Camp Sendai) in Japan. Helmke graduated from Hastings College and McCormick Seminary and got his masters in social work from the University of Michigan. He and his wife Polly raised three children and he started his own mental health clinic. Late in life, he came out as gay to his wife and children. He lived happily with his partner Len Quenon for 25 years.

Ben Helmke was interviewed by students from Skyline High School in Ann Arbor in 2016 as part of the Legacies Project.