Oral History Interview with Joseph Izzo, 1948-

Born July 30, 1948 in New York. Wanted to be a teacher and knew he was different at age 15 so joined seminary to not think about it. Ended up having some relationships there. Made connections with other LGBT people. He was always associated with liberal causes because his mom was. He kept getting into trouble by: involvement in Dignity USA, interfaith LGBT conference, pressing for LGBT acceptance in the church. Eventually ended up in gay social work (in grad school 1982-1984). Because of this he ended up at a clinic in prevention in the 80s (name?). He worked with the most high risk populations and has been working there for 30 years. During the day he gave talks at prisons, schools, churches, and homeless shelters. During the evening he coordinated volunteers to do outreach with transgender prostitutes, injection drug users, and other people on the street. He also was a counselor at (clinics). He and his workers would also hang out outside clubs (e.g. Glory Hole) and hand out condoms and lube.

The interview belongs to the Rainbow History Project.
The RHP release form was used and all rights belong to RHP.

Jeff Donahoe

Washington, D.C.

Partial transcript available

Yes, recording available, 01:12:18
(audio .m4a, 112 MB)