Oral History with Nancy Tucker

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Nancy Tucker moved with her family to the DC metro area in the late 1950s when her father was hired at the Pentagon. In 1966, while a student at Mary Washington University, Tucker learned of The Mattachine Society of Washington from gay newspapers coming out from San Francisco.

Upon turning twenty-one, Tucker applied for membership. At the time, the Mattachine Society preached concepts of civil libertarianism, in which homosexuals would receive their civil rights upon proving they were assimilated, upstanding citizens. However, the 1969 Stonewall riots (and the birth of the gay liberation movement) quickly began changing the face of gay
activism in DC. During this time, The Mattachine Society of Washington asked Tucker if she would be the co-editor of a community newspaper for the DC gay community. Tucker agreed,
and thus the famous Washington Blade was born. Tucker ran the Blade for several years–often as an entirely self-funded endeavor–and provided an invaluable resource to the DC gay
community in the early 1970s.

Although Tucker was involved in various activist groups during this time (often through her role as editor of the Blade), she found it difficult to find her place in these burgeoning movements, as she was uncomfortable with both the radical separatism of the women’s liberation movement as well as the misogyny of majority-male groups such as the Gay Liberation Front. By the mid-70s, Tucker handed off the Blade to others in the community, and left the world of gay activism. Tucker became re-involved in the DC gay community in the late 1980s via the Gay Women’s Alternative (where she eventually became president), and helped organize their programming around the wildly popular topics of “sex and shrinks.” In her later years, Tucker moved to San Francisco with her partner, and ultimately retired in Albuquerque.

Mark Meinke

yes

46:18/33:15