JOHN YANG: And finally tonight, as Pride Month wraps up, a look at a pioneering LGBTQ comedian and activist.

In 1979, Robin Tyler became the first out lesbian comic to appear on national television.

She used both her humor and her platform to become an important voice in the push for LGBTQ rights and equality.

This is part of our series Hidden Histories.

Robin, thanks for joining us.

You were born on the prairie of Manitoba, in Winnipeg.

ROBIN TYLER, Comedian Activist: Yes.

JOHN YANG: How did you get into show business from there?

ROBIN TYLER: I moved to New York when I was 19 or 20.

I emigrated here, and you had to sign something saying you weren't a communist, you weren't a drug addict, or you weren't a homosexual.

So I signed it because I wasn't a homosexual.

I was a lesbian.

And I moved to New York to break into show business.

And I went to a drag ball and I got arrested.

They raided it and I got arrested for female impersonation.

So they took me to jail, and all the queens, oh, she's a girl.

And the cops, that's what you all call each other.

So they finally let me go because a newspaper person came to look at me.

And I ended up going to the 82 Club of becoming a female impersonator.

And I did Judy Garland.

Only in those days, you had to do the real voice.

You couldn't lip sync so long.

So I ended up becoming one of the most famous female impersonators.

JOHN YANG: What was the comedy scene like for an out comedian back then?

ROBIN TYLER: Well, you know, I started working out at the Comedy Store, and it was very difficult.

It wasn't just a matter of being out, but the jokes in the 70s and 80s were all these sexist and misogynist jokes.

So I became a comic with my partner, Pat Harrison.

We became a comedy team.

And we took all of our jokes that men did on women, and we did them on men.

And guess what we found out?

Men didn't have a sense of humor.

So when men do jokes on Women, it's called funny.

But when women did jokes on men, it was called anti-male.

So that's kind of how we started out.

Comedy has always reflected the civil rights movement.

In the 60s, when the black civil rights movement was prevalent, went from Flip Wilson.

All of a sudden Richard Pryor started telling the truth, right, in the 70s, women's liberation.

So you had great comics like Elaine Boozer and Lotus Weinstock.

And then in the 80s, the Gay Liberation Movement came out.

The first march on Washington was 1979.

And so all of a sudden, gays always did humor.

But the humor that was done on us was making us the object rather than the subject of humor.

And all of a sudden we came up and we could do humor.

And I did my first comedy album called Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom, which is about coming out to my mother.

And so, you know, when we started to do jokes that were about us rather than on us, we started getting laughs.

But it wasn't easy.

JOHN YANG: How did you make that move from being an entertainer to be an activist?

ROBIN TYLER: The women's liberation movement came along and Pat Harrison and I were a comedy team.

Women didn't have sports scholarships, so went onto the field during a Rams-Raider football game and we ran.

It was very hard to run on a football field.

And we called for more sports scholarships for women.

And we got on like the front pages all over.

Patti and I were able to use comedy as part of our activism.

Even now when I speak at the marches, I always do humor first and then I do a speech.

And the comedy disarms people.

Humor is the razor sharp edge of the truth.

It's pain and anger made funny.

So in order to make a joke, you have to believe in it.

JOHN YANG: How would you like to be remembered as a great comic or a great activist?

ROBIN TYLER: Well, I don't want to be remembered because I don't want to die.

But I guess if I were to describe myself, you know, both go hand.

I'm not one without the other.

So I guess what I really was the laughing warrior.

I don't come from anger.

I come from loving freedom, loving equality.

Because if you're just angry all the time, all you're going to do is burn yourself out and chase everybody away.

That's not how you change hearts and minds.

You know what?

I've always said I'm very lucky in my life because passion is better than Prozac.

JOHN YANG: Very good.

Robin Tyler, Happy pride.

Thank you very much.

ROBIN TYLER: Well, thank you.