WBAI-NYC Upcoming Program

WBAI-FM Upcoming Program

Out-FM

Tue, Sep 8, 2020 8:00 PM

GAY PUERTO RICAN EX-POLITICAL PRISONER: LIFE STORY

Out-FM's Bob Lederer interviews gay Puerto Rican former political prisoner Ricardo Jimenez. Ricardo was one of a dozen Puerto Rican independentista fighters convicted of seditious conspiracy for membership in the U.S.-based clandestine Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (FALN, or Armed Forces of National Liberation). Sentenced to 98 years, he served 19 years in U.S. prisons -- all in maximum security -- until granted clemency and released by President Clinton in 1999 along with 11 other political prisoners, following an international support campaign.

Ricardo came out as gay two years after his release at age 44 and now lives in Chicago, where he directs the HIV/AIDS support agency, Vida/SIDA, a project of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. This is the first part of the interview; Part 2 will be broadcast on Tuesday, Sept. 15. In this segment, Ricardo explains the longtime sexism and homophobia that has characterized Puerto Rican society in general and the independence movement in particular, as well as the huge progress made in recent years in eroding those entrenched patterns. He also discusses his life first in the above-ground independence movement in Chicago, then in the underground before his arrest.

Also Out-FM's Naomi Brussel brings us news headlines.

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