Bad Gays

The Anglo-Irish aristocrat, politician and statesman Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry: better known, like Bjork or Madonna, by his mononym - Castlereagh. A Whig politician, he was hated by the populations of both England and Ireland for his support of vicious repression against liberal, reformist, and radical politics and activism. Lord Byron put it best: "Posterity will ne'er survey / A nobler grave than this: / Here lie the bones of Castlereagh: / Stop, traveller, and piss." Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/ ----more---- SOURCES: Ackroyd, Peter. Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day. London, UK; New York, NY: Random House, 2017.   Bew, John. Castlereagh: A Life. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012.   Hyde, Harford Montgomery. The Strange Death of Lord Castlereagh. London, UK: Heinemann, 1959.   Kiernan, Victor. The Duel in European History: Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy. London, UK: Zed Books Ltd., 201

The United States of America's first gay – and worst – President. This bumbling slaveholder collaborated with the Confederacy, promoted the racist Dred Scott decision at the Supreme Court, and cohabited in Washington with a dashing Alabama Senator who, in the words of President Andrew Jackson was the "Aunt Nancy" to his "Aunt Fancy."  ----more---- Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/ Sources: Baker, Jean H. James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857-1861. Macmillan, 2004.   Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. Oxford University Press, 2019.   Buchanan, James. Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-4-1857-inaugural-address   Katz, Jonathan. Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality. University of Chicago Press, 2001.   Watson, Robert P. Affairs of State: The Untold History of Presidential Lo

A man variously known as the “Iron Hedgehog” and a “malignant Dwarf”, but also as charming, courteous, and, most importantly “a good party man,” a man who held the position of the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - the head of the NKVD during Stalin’s Great Purge - Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov. ----more---- Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/ Deutscher, Isaac. The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929-1940. London: Verso, 2003.   "Gay in the Gulag." Libcom. https://libcom.org/history/gay-gulag   Getty, J. Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov. The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.   Getty, John Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov. Yezhov: The Rise of Stalin’s “Iron Fist.” New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.   Lewin, Moshe. The Soviet Century. London: Verso, 2005.   Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. London: Hachette UK, 2010.    Weston, Fred. "From Emancipat

With special guests Mac Folkes and Edna Bonhomme (@jacobinoire), Ben explores the life story, politics, and cultural phenomenon of Pete Buttigieg. From his resume-polishing early life to his racist record as Mayor to his recycling of stale right-wing attacks on progressive policy, we look at how longer-term trends in gay life and culture, including the split of the "mainstream" wealthy and white gay rights movement from multiracial struggle, have influenced both his politics and the broad audience they have found.  ----more---- SOURCES:  Mayor Pete editing his own wikipedia: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/pete-buttigieg-wikipedia-page-editor.html On his early life and childhood: https://apnews.com/47fc3e167cd64488b16890c8973bb208 On his time at Harvard, including quotes from his memoir, Shortest Way Home: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/03/all-about-pete Andrew Sullivan on Rhodes Scholars: https://books.google.de/books?id=cIdMpKduSmkC&pg=PA108&dq=andrew+sullivan+rhodes+scholars&hl

For a special episode, Huw is joined the writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques to discuss Colonel Victor Barker.    As a military nurse, ambulance driver, kennelman, horse trainer, fascist, car salesman, thief, and actor, Colonel Victor Barker was the embodiment of early 20th century upper-class British masculinity. But he became famous after his trial and imprisonment for committing perjury on his marriage certificate to his wife —because Victor Barker was assigned female at birth. Juliet and Huw explore his life, and the questions it raises around gender identity a century ago.   SOURCES:   Collis, Rose. Colonel Barker's Monstrous Regiment: A Tale of Female Husbandry, Boston: Little, Brown Book Group, 2001    Zagria. A Gender Variance Who's Who https://zagria.blogspot.com/   Oram, Alison: Her Husband was a Woman! Women's Gender-Crossing in Modern British Popular Culture, London: Routledge, 2008   Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed und

The other polestar of human evil. "Justice is incidental to law and order." Johnny and Clyde.  ----more---- SOURCES:   Johnson, David K. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. Medsger, Betty. The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI. New York: Knopf, 2014. Simkin, John. "Clyde Tolson." Spartacus Educational: https://spartacus-educational.com/USAtolson.htm Summers, Anthony. Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1993.  Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

The namesake of the secret dining society at Oxford where David Cameron may or may not have committed unspeakable acts with a pig. Perhaps you’ll have a clue to the themes of today’s episode when we tell you that the motto of the Piers Gaveston Society is "(Sane) non memini ne audisse unum alterum ita dilixisse" or, for those of us without a private school Latin education, "Truly, none remember hearing of a man enjoying another so much". ----more---- SOURCES: Hamilton, J. S. Piers Gaveston: Politics and Patronage in the Reign of Edward II. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1988. Phillips, Seymour. Edward II. Yale English Monarchs. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010. Stewart, Alan. “Edward II and Same-Sex Desire” in: Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion, ed. Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr., Patrick Cheney and Andrew Hadfield. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 82-95.

What happens when a political analysis that comes out of the politics of alliance ends up departing from alliance: in other words, when people think that making something “gay” is enough. The kinds of people that get forgotten and spoken over when a certain kind of essentialist gay politics are deployed. And even though this crackpot plan never came to pass, today's show, about the failed attempt to establish a gay nation in rural California, reveals some of the flaws at the heart of ‘70s radical gay politics.  ----more---- SOURCES: Bérubé, Allan. My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History. Edited by John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.   Carter, Jacob D. “Gay Outlaws: The Alpine County Project Reconsidered.” Masters’ Thesis, University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2015. https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/307/.   Hobson, Emily K. Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left. Berkeley, C

A young white London lad driven by a passion for extreme violence and racial hatred, who climbed pretty easily through the ranks of a small fascist party, and went on to become something of a big fish in the far-right's murky, polluted, poisonous pond. But in 1992, the Sun ran the following story, under a photo of Nicky Crane in his White Power vest: "Nazi Nick is a Pansy."  ----more---- SOURCES: Eden, Jon. Uncarved. http://www.uncarved.org/ Forbes, Robert, and Eddie Stampton. The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement: UK and USA, 1979-1993. London: Feral House Press, 2015. Kelly, Jon. "Nicky Crane: The Secret Double Life of a Gay Neo-Nazi." BBC News Magazine, December 6, 2013. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25142557 "Today in London Anti-Fascist History: 1978 Blockade Against National Front March on Brick Lane." Past Tense: Radical Histories and Possibilities, September 24, 2018. https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/24/today-in-london-anti-fascist-history-1978-blockade-against-national-front-march-on

The fairy godmother of the new European far-right. A vile racist named "The Greatest Dutchman of All Time" in a 2004 TV poll. A lens into how a particular version of homosexuality is compatibile with a particular kind of far-right politics – how a certain kind of “live and let live” attitude at the heart of white liberal gay politics can immediately turn into a wave of immigrant-bashing hatred that turns, inevitably, on queer people themselves. “I don’t hate Arab men," he said. "I even sleep with them.”  ----more---- Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Beyond Tolerance: What did the Dutch see in Pim Fortuyn?" The New Yorker. September 9, 2002. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/09/09/beyond-tolerance Margry, Peter Jan. "The Murder of Pim Fortuyn and Collective Emotions. Hype, Hysteria and Holiness in The Netherlands." Etnofoor: antropologisch tijdschrift 16 (2003): 106-131.  Osborn, Andrew. "Dutch Fall for Gay Mr. Right." The Observer. April 14, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/14/andrewosborn.theobserv

A colonialist and conqueror, upholder of ideals of English masculinity, and religious fanatic; possessed of a powerful death wish. “Yes, that is flesh, that is what I hate, and what makes me wish to die.” ----more---- Ellis, Heather, and Jessica Meyer, eds. Masculinity and the Historical Other. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. Faught, C. Brad. Gordon: Victorian Hero. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. Pollock, John. Gordon: The Man Behind The Legend. London: Constable Books, 1993. Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

Enlightenment monarch! Composer of hundreds of flute concertos. Emerged from the “sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire" to conquer vast swaths of Europe! Built a giant pink palace his wife wasn't allowed to visit. Worst dad in Bad Gays history? "Everything that speaks to eyes and touches hearts, Was found in the fond object that enflamed his parts."  ----more---- SOURCES: Blanning, Tim. Frederick the Great: King of Prussia. New York: Random House, 2016. Gaines, James. Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment. New York: Harper Collins, 2010. Hadley, Kathryn (with Vanessa de Senarclens). "Frederick the Great's Erotic Poem." HistoryToday, 21 September, 2011. https://www.historytoday.com/frederick-greats-erotic-poem The brief excerpt of Frederick the Great's Flute Concerto in C Major, No. 3, is performed by Emmanuel Pahud and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, led by Trevor Pinnock at the Harpsichord; we claim "fair use" for quotation and illustration purposes and encourag

A vituperative satirist who made kings tremble. Also, he wrote this: My fingers are but stragglers at the rear, Who go a-foraging for what they find; And they are not ashamed to lag behind, Since there’s no foe in front they need to fear. They’ve wandered through a tufted valley near. And you yourself have said they were most kind, And so, I know, my lady will not mind If they see other booty, nor think it queer.  And yet, it may be, you prefer the Lance; Then, let your stragglers reconnoiter, sweet, And guide him like a blind man to safe cover. He is no coward, since he takes a chance. Though he, my dear, has neither eyes nor feet; For a soldier always makes a perfect lover! ----more---- SOURCES: Aretino, Pietro. The school of whoredom. London: Hesperus, 2003.   ———. The secret life of nuns. London: Hesperus, 2004.   Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Penguin Classics. London, England ; New York, N.Y., USA: Penguin Books, 1990.   Marrapodi, Michele, ed. Shakespeare

"The man who shot Versace." Vague intimations of homosexuality as a form of bloody death. A pure expression of the poisonous narcissism of American celebrity culture. The dark heart of evil twink energy. A black hole of gay narcissism. Black holes are attractors. We risk being sucked in.  ----more---- SOURCES: Goldberg, Michelle. "The Gay Golem." Metroactive, May 13-19, 1999. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.13.99/cunanan-9919.html Indiana, Gary. Three Month Fever. (Reprint.) Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2017. Orth, Maureen. Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U. S. History. New York: Doubleday, 1999.  Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.    

Season 2! The Greek Vice. Our first evil twink! Plutarch! Prophecies of world domination! Conquests of Persia! Pan-hellenism! Whitney Houston? ----more---- SOURCES: Badian, Ernst. Collected Papers on Alexander the Great. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2012. Fox, Robin Lane. Alexander the Great. New York: Penguin, 1973. Plutarch. The Life of Alexander. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Alexander*/3.html Donate on Patreon. Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

For the first of our very special interview episodes, we welcome the artist and writer Sholem Krishtalka to talk about Andy Warhol. How did a shy, fey outsider become the ultimate art world insider? And what price did his superstars pay for the fame he exposed them to? ----more---- SOURCES: Andy Warhol  (New York: Viking, 2001). A Low Life in High Heels: The Holly Woodlawn Story. (New York: Perennial, 1992). Warhol, Andy. The Andy Warhol Diaries. (New York: Warner Books, 1989).

Thanks to your support, Season 2 is incoming. And stay tuned for special guests in the weeks to come...

The Polestar Of Human Evil.  Stay tuned to this feed for Season 2 coming late summer/early fall; and special episodes featuring interviews and other content all summer. Thank you so much for your overwhelming support over the course of this first season. We're chuffed. We wish you productive, healthy, happy summers; free of evil twinks.  ----more---- SOURCES: Von Hoffman, Nicholas. Citizen Cohn: The Life and Times of Roy Cohn. New York: Doubleday, 1988. Johnson, David K. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Tyrnauer, Matt. Where's My Roy Cohn? http://www.altimeterfilms.com/wheres-my-roy-cohn. See review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/27/wheres-my-roy-cohn-review-damning-documentary-on-villainous-lawyer

They were young, rich, and in love in the Jazz Age – until they killed their neighbor just to prove they could get away with it. Hitchcock's Rope is based on their story; now learn the truth behind the fascinating lives of Leopold and Loeb.  ----more---- SOURCES: Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago. New York: Harper Collins, 2008. Excerpts: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-criminal-minds-996498/ Barrett, Nina. The Leopold and Loeb Files. Chicago: Agate Midway, 2018. Reviewed: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/26/reopening-the-case-files-of-leopold-and-loeb/ Darrow, Clarence. "Plea for Leopold and Loeb." https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/clarence-darrow-plea-for-leopold-and-loeb-22-23-and-25-august-1924-speech-text/ Schildcrout, Jordan. Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in American Theatre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014. Leopold and Loeb's Letters: http://www.crimearchives.net/1924_leopold_loeb/html/l

He was a a thug, a bully, and a murderer who made himself a British popular hero. He was a friend of Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, and he once said, “I’m homosexual but I’m not a poof”. We use the deplorable story of Ronnie Kray to explore class, crime and postwar British attitudes towards homosexuality. A content note: this episode contains frank discussions of childhood sexual abuse; as such, listener discretion is advised.  ----more---- SOURCES: Campbell, Duncan. "The Selling of the Krays: How Two Mediocre Criminals Created Their Own Legend." The Guardian, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/03/the-selling-of-the-krays-how-two-mediocre-criminals-created-their-own-legendlegends Kray, Ronnie. My Story. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1993. Pearson, John. Notorious: The Immortal Legend of the Kray Twins. London: Arrow Books, 2011. Pearson, John. The Profession of Violence. New York: Harper Collins, 1995.   Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Ar