Episodit
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"I live life in the margins of society. And the rules of normal society don't apply in the margins."
Welcome to the saucy, scandalous slag-paradise that is Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)!
Tamara was a Polish-born aristocrat, bisexual painter, and Art Deco diva who took Paris by storm in the 1920s after escaping the Russian Revolution.
She was known for her hunger, a deep yearning to become a great artist and gobble up anything and everyone who stood in her path. (Including her husband! Move out the way, b*tch.)
As a sapphic siren of the Jazz Age, she was also part of Paris' lesbian underground, which featured clubs and bars that catered to butch and femme tastes alike. That is, before the populist Fascists came in and ruined everything (sound familiar, America?).
A self-made woman who subjugated everything to her art, Tamara cared as much about poontang and diamonds as she did her reputation. She was a PR genius, but despite that, we barely talk about her today.
Join me and Stephen Brower – comedian, writer, and recent cast member of LEMPICKA on Broadway – to discuss the dazzling life of this Art Deco dynamo. (Diamonds sold separately.)
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Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Stephen Brower.
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Wait, why are mermaids so gay?
It turns out everyone’s favorite sea-gals have been floating around for millennia, from ancient Syrian mer-goddesses to medieval water witches, all the way up to Princess Ariel.
But how did these dangerous divas of the deep become the sympathetic heroines we love and cherish today?
What is it about mermaids that makes them such magnets for LGBTQ+ symbolism?
Join me and Sacha Coward, author of Queer As Folklore, as we unpack the myth, the magic, and the mer-MAN of it all in this 3,000 year history of queer people chasing tail.
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If you want more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult on our website.
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify.
Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Sacha Coward.
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Puuttuva jakso?
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How do you start a renaissance?
The one woman who knows - Beyoncé - was unavailable to answer my questions.
So instead, we've gone back to 1920s Harlem this week, to figure out the good gay truth.
It turns out the Harlem Renaissance was a lot more queer than we learned in school.
And half of its greatest luminaries, who represented a major step forward in Black queer history, have been largely forgotten today.
Three of them are the focus of this week's episode: Alain LeRoy Locke, Gladys Bentley, and Claude McKay.
They are just a fraction of the queer Black people who started, fueled, and memorialized the cultural flowering we now call the Harlem Renaissance.
Join me and my guest as we delve into their lives and figure out what each has to teach us about this fascinating period.
When you're done here, grab a copy of my guest's new book on the subject, which is beautifully illustrated and just came out: Flamboyants (2024).
If you want more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at our website.
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify.
Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Bash. Guest host: George M. Johnson.
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“I wake up cold, I who
Prospered through dreams of heat
Wake to their residue,
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.”
(The Man with Night Sweats, Thom Gunn, 1992)
Never heard of Thom Gunn? Me neither!
That's because straight people want to destroy us.
Thom was one of the great poets of the 20th century, up there with Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes.
But he's scarcely remembered in the 21st century, because he was:
gay. (end of list)Join us as we explore Thom's leather-harnessed and LSD-fueled life as a poet of sexual revolution, formal precision, and gay liberation.
In particular, Thom deserves to be remembered for the memorializing poetry he wrote about the AIDS epidemic and his many friends who lost their lives to the disease.
My guest this week is Michael Nott, who has recently published a magnificent biography, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life.
Grab yourself a copy after the episode, and make sure to let us know what you think about Thom's poetry!
If you want more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Michael Nott.
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"'Cosmus is a great big cinaedus. He keeps his legs apart and sucks d!ck.' ... I believe that's almost a direct paraphrase."
– Professor Tom Sapsford, quoting Ancient Roman graffiti about my biological ancestors
Kinaidos (or cinaedus in Latin) was the Ancient Greek word for a depraved, unmanly man who liked to get railed. (LIKE MEEEEE.)
Since then, the kinaidos has been used and abused by scholars of classical antiquity for centuries. (LIKE MEEEEE.)
Some say he never existed and is more akin to the Victorian idea of vampires than any modern-day frociaggine.
But my guest on the podcast this week says different, and he literally wrote the book on the subject, so...let's ask him, shall we?
Join me and Professor Tom Sapsford (Boston College) as we trace the history of the kinaidoi, from their first mention in Plato to the peak of their cultural and sexual powers in the 3rd century CE.
Kinaidoi were not "f*gs just like us," to be sure. But they were a well-known sexual and gendered Other in the classical world.
They highlight the pitfalls of telling normative tales whenever we try to understand ancient sexualities of any kind.
Check out Professor Sapsford's book here for more on this fascinating subject!
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If you want more Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify.
Do it.
Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Tom Sapsford.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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“Who knows how many holes actually started wars in Japan…I’m sure many.”
– Dylan Adler, Japanese-Jewish comedian to the stars!
Join us this week on a rip-roaring ride through Japan's hole-tighteningly gay history.
From Buddhist pederasts to sissy samurais and beyond, we explore the kimonos, the scroll paintings, and yes, the hemorrhoidal humor that sustained Japanese homosexuality for over 1,000 years.
My guest and I will also – because everyone keeps asking! – give you a full run-down on how to get laid in medieval Japan. From picking the right lube to just finding somewhere to bathe, it's like talking to two Cosmo Kyoto editors who should have perished centuries ago!
(Except we didn't! And we have the poreless, perky asses to prove it.)
If you want more Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify.
Do it.
Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Dylan Adler.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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I've been talking about gay men for FAR too many episodes recently, so please enjoy this summer repeat of one of my favorite episodes ever from Season 1, with my former co-host Donal Brophy.
Virginia Woolf is the more famous author today, but back in the 1920s and 30s, it was her lover and socialite-best-friend (God I need one of those), Vita Sackville-West, who was the celebrity.
Virginia and Vita fell in love quickly, and throughout their long friendship – THEY WERE ROOMMATES – they wrote intense, glowing letters to one another.
Virginia also kept a regular diary, recording for posterity her first, second, and many subsequent impressions of Vita and her glittering aristocratic life.
You'll be surprised to hear how bitchy, funny, and catty these letters and diaries can be – brilliant and incisive, too, but neither writer is ever afraid to knock the other down a peg.
Enjoy, and we'll be back next week with our scheduled programming!
If you want more Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Guest host: Donal Brophy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Is it toxic for a Roman emperor to steal a child from his home, give him all the riches of the world, groom him, and then maybe ask him to kill himself so that he can live?
That is what we seek to uncover.
The Emperor Hadrian (AD 76 - 138) was one of the not-too-f*cked-up emperors. He liked soldiering but not war, astrology, being gay, hunting, and doing architecture. Trust me, there were a lot worse before him.
But how are we to understand the notorious tale of his beloved Antinous, whom he whisked away from home at the age of 12 to become Premier Boytoy in his imperial retinue?
When Antinous died, Hadrian "wept like a woman." He also started a religion and founded a city in his honor, which means we have hundreds of Antinouses that survive today in marble and stone, from Spain to Syria and beyond.
Join me and my hilarious guest Neil D'Astolfo as we separate the fact from the fiction, and overlay a healthy veneer of frocciagine to the whole thing (not that it needed much seasoning!).
If you want more Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Neil D'Astolfo.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Get in b*tch, we're having an Ancient Greek kiki!
We're back, baby! Join us as we navigate the wine-dark and wine-soaked symposia of Ancient Greece, to discover what exactly was so gay about these all-male drinking parties. (Hint: a lot.)
We cover ancient party planning, gay glassware, reclining etiquette, drunken flirting, and all the subtle arts of homosexual entertaining you need to host a horny soirée 2,500 years ago.
My guest Cosima Carnegie is a champion of the Classics in life and on social media – follow her at @cosisodyssey for more hilarious Ancient Greek and mythological content.
Visuals mentioned in this episode:
Tomb of the Diver, PaestumIf you want more Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Like what you hear? Please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Cosima Carnegie.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Historical Homos is celebrating its one year anniversary!
Like any Mother worth her salt, I forgot my child was turning 1 last month.
It's been one year of Historical Homos, and there have been so many milestones, amazing episodes, dramas, traumas, small wins, and long mental health breaks that it feels like my baby child should be shipping off to college TOMORROW.
That said – I am thrilled to share we added lots of new subscribers last month and I am even more thrilled to welcome them – you – to the Historical Homos cult. No one will make it out alive.
To celebrate our 1-year achievement, this week we are re-releasing one of my favorite episodes of the show so far about a riotous rugmunching lesbian of 18th century Paris.
Thank you to everyone who's written me in the past month with encouragement and compliments – please keep 'em coming! I live on Diet Coke and attention.
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com.
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash and Lucy Hendra, and edited by Alex Toskas.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Andrew Lear.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"There are a particular gang of sodomitical wretches in this town..."
Did you ever wonder why British men are always just a little...you know...?
Well, in truth, it's because 300 years ago they invented being a "gentleman" (gay) who doesn't work (GAY) and just wants nicer things (GAY GAY GAY!).
But round about the same time the British invented being British – a.k.a. the early 18th century – London was also home to the aforementioned "gang" of gay men who challenged traditional notions of masculinity.
The "molly" represented a new type of gay man: he was typically working class, loved to impersonate women – wear their clothes, gossip, call each other names like "The Duchess of Chamomile" and "Old Fish Hannah" – and he had a playground of taverns, inns, and gin shop back rooms to frequent to meet his fellow "sodomitical wretches".
These were the molly houses, and they represented the heartland of a working-class, gay subculture that flourished in London in the early 1700s.
Sadly, we know so much about the mollies of 18th century London because they were brutally persecuted by The Society for the Reformation of Manners, who were about as fun at parties as they sound.
Mollies faced violence, imprisonment, and even death for living out and proud. But they still lived brave lives of queer joy, gathering weekly at the molly houses for decades so that they could boink each other, fall in love, and, yes, give birth to wooden babies.
Boys will be boys!
Join me and my guest on this odyssey through early modern queer culture in one of the most fascinating periods of human history. My guest, AJ West, is the author of a forthcoming novel set amongst the mollies of the 1720s, The Betrayal of Thomas True, which is going to be an absolutely genius historical fiction mystery.
Pre-order a copy here and listen to our episode to learn the backstory of one of history's most well-documented queer subcultures, which by the way is literally older than the nation of the United States.
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: AJ West.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"All male, all-whale orgies"...need I say more?
We're back with another extra special episode for Pride Month 2024! And this one is a DOOZY, my little Hormones.
First of all, let me just say..."You know you're gay right?"
That's my impression of me talking to every living animal on this good, green Earth.
Because it turns out animals have been gay for millennia (stop copying me, guys!), and human animals have known about it forever.
Not least my new best friends, Laine and Owen, who are the hosts of the about-to-be-mega-hit podcast, A Field Guide to Gay Animals.
Like many scholars who have come before them, Laine and Owen are fascinated by the queer natural world. Tune in to the episode to hear us discuss who the gayest animals are, where they come from, and which intrepid souls first outed them.
We talk cock-chafing beetles, big gay sheep with really big...horns, and of course THE Havelock Ellis (you know the one).
When you're done, go listen to Laine & Owen's premiere episode, which contains so many more incredible stories on this fascinating subject.
I kid you not, it made me rethink my homosexuality...top to bottom. (No seriously I'm thinking of topping...halp.)
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas. Guest hosts: Laine Kaplan-Levenson and Owen Ever.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"Gay didn't always exist, but 'bottom' kind of did!"
How did people douche back in the day? Did they have lube? And how'd they find other gays to get off with?
In a turn of events that will shock absolutely no one, history is FULL of queer men doing the deed.
We boinked, we douched, we lubed, we bathed, and we cruised – long before today's modern luxuries, like running water...or Gun Oil.
Join me and my fabulous guest, Alex Hall, creator of The Bottom's Digest, on this magical tour of history's bottoms, bottoming procedures, and bottom cultures.
Tune in for Mesopotamian shame, ancient Roman twerking, medieval Japanese lubes (there were many to choose from!), and of course, Renaissance cruising bars in 1400s Florence.
The history of bottoming is anything but straight.forward. Every land and every era has dealt with its bottoms in its own unique ways. And Bottom History © has so much to teach us about our own bottom culture today.
You can follow The Bottom's Digest on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for more of Alex's hilarious, amazing work.
And check out all the bottom-y treasures we mentioned in this episode:
Greek vase of man wiping with pessos (MFA Boston)Ancient Roman tersorium aka sponge stick (Wikipedia)Chugi aka Japanese "shit sticks" (Wikipedia)Ancient enema syringe with bone nozzle (Science Museum)Chigo no soshi aka "Book of Acolytes" (British Museum)For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"And what we have to get into our heads, although it is difficult, is that [the] glamour of love, odd as it may sound, is just as much present between two homosexuals as it is between a man and a woman."
- Lord Brabazon of Tara, House of Lords, December 1957What was it like to be a (practicing) gay man in London after the Second World War? I thought you'd never ask...
The short answer: not great! But like everything in life, it wasn't all doom and gloom OR butterflies and rainbows. It was a dangerous time to be queer, but there was also a thriving subculture of artists, MPs, writers, drunks, criminals, Guardsmen, and working class queers – in short, a bit of everyone – who managed to live their gay lives in one way or another.
Our guest this week, Peter Parker, has collected their diaries, court cases, bitchy theatre reviews, puff pieces (or is it poof pieces?), and more in what is only the first volume of his incredible time capsule detailing queer life in London before the decriminalization of homosexuality (partial and tentative thought it was) in 1967.
When I read Peter's book, I laughed, sobbed, screamed, and gasped. I could not put it down for hours. It's a reminder that real history is not a story of politicians and battles. It's the stories of real people. People who loved, suffered, lived, and died in a world that, only 80 years ago, was vastly different than ours.
I hope you enjoy this chat with Peter as we uncover the dirty deets of life for gay men in London between 1945-1959: which parks to cruise in, who the best rent boys were, which gay soirées to meet John Gielgud and Michael Redgrave at, and of course, the real reason Noel Coward never revealed his BLATANT homosexuality to his adoring public.
Make sure you pick up a copy of the book, which is out today! It is a vivid and singular experience – we all owe Peter Parker our gay gratitude for this feat of loving research and magisterial curation.
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at www.historicalhomos.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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PERIOD PIECE is back!
Lucy returns, with her flow in tow, for another historical film that I mansplain to her because education 👏 never 👏 stops.
This month, we're digging into MAESTRO, Bradley Cooper's biopic about the glorious, complicated, and very gay star conductor of the 20th century: Leonard Bernstein.
Lenny was so much more than Gigi Hadid's boyfriend shows us. His life was full of fame and cocaine and fabulous people, yes, but he also struggled with his identity and image as a father, political activist, homosexual, husband, and atheist-leaning Jew.
Tune in to discover the truth about LB's scandalously gay affairs, equally scandalous political activism, and of course the toiletries kit where he kept his personal stash (uppers on the left, downers on the right).
At the grand finale, Lucy and I will share our Standing Ovulations in all standard categories: Horny, Tears, Violent, Do I Look Hot?, and Quippery & Bitchery.
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.com
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
If you like what you hear, please give us an extremely high rating on Apple or Spotify (FIVE STAR ONLY).
This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash & Lucy Hendra, and edited by Alex Toskas.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"Saint Sebastian is really just a Bored Office Twink." – R. Eric Thomas (April 2024)
Welcome to the wildly erotic, superheroic world of Saint Sebastian, who was initially martyred as a rugged Roman soldier before he blossomed into the lithe, Lana-Del-Rey-loving twink we cherish today.
Scientists now know it was the extremely gay Italian Renaissance that decided Saint Sebastian should ALWAYS be painted with skimpy loincloths and penetrative arrows, leaving 80% of any canvas to be devoted entirely to his exposèd flesh.
Along the way, Saint Seb – and the name Sebastian itself – has become a byword for "definitely gay maybe also kinky vibes" (a clunky phrase that needed a byword – thanks for that, Seb!). But how did this association with homosexuality develop?
Join our hysterically homosexual guest, R. Eric Thomas, as we uncover the truth about the OG Sebastian; his Middle Age superpowers that totally didn't stop the plague; making the career jump from Patron- to Pin-Up Saint; and finally, his reception amongst modern gays today.
Click on the paintings we discuss to follow along:
7th century Saint SebastianGiovanni del Biondo - Sebastian (1350s)Saint Sebastian praying to Jesus (1490s)Andrea Mantegna - Saint Sebastians (1450s)Sandro Botticelli - Saint Sebastian (1474)Il Sodoma - Saint Sebastian (1525)Guido Reni - Saint Sebastian (1615)Gianlorenzo Bernini - Saint Sebastian (1618)Nicolas Regnier - Saint Sebastian (1620)Keith Haring - Saint Sebastian (1984)For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.com
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
If you like what you hear, please give us an extremely high rating on Apple or Spotify (FIVE STAR ONLY).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"And it is well-known that the King of England f*cks the Duke of Buckingham." – Theophile de Viau (1628)
If you've been watching Mary & George on STARZ, then you must be desperate to know how much of it is true. And the answer, my curious queers, is: a lot!
George Villiers, the scheming twink who dominated King James I's court, was hot and 100% DTF. He won titles, land, and money for himself by sacrificing these gay virtues at the altar of the king's pleasure.
But who was George the man? Was his royal boyf really in love with him (or indeed George with James)? And were George's narcissistic antics responsible for driving the country into the ground, laying the path for King Charles I's beheading in 1649?
Join me and my fabulous, hilarious, and shockingly erudite guest, Guy Branum, to steep yourself in the deeply queer historical tea.
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.com
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok. Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.
If you like what you hear, please give us an extremely high rating on Apple or Spotify - FIVE STAR ONLY.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Long live Queen James I of England!
James, as our guest Guy Branum notes this week, was always a little “dyke-y”.
Obsessed with love and relationships, she ruled Scotland and England entirely from her heart – and through her loins. James was known above all for promoting his male favourites to intolerable positions of power and wealth.
The rest of the court loathed these scheming twinks. But George Villiers, the most successful of them all, was particularly devastating to James’ credibility.
Tune into Part One to learn about James I's sleazy Scottish beginnings, and prepare for our next episode on George Villiers, his faggiest favourite!
For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.com
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok. NOW.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Welcome to our queer book club! Here's your cat and gluten-free martini, please have a seat.
This week we're discussing Virginia Woolf's suicide (it's my Roman Empire), giant red leather dildos, and the realization that sex between women may be the greatest threat to masculinity in 10,000 years.
You'll find it all and more, you greedy guts, in our hilarious and fascinating interview with Kirsty Loehr, the author and queer historian behind A Short History of Queer Women.
Kirsty's 2,500-year romp through lesbian, bisexual, and trans history will grab you by the mind-pussy (WITH CONSENT) from start to finish.
Featuring more than 100 overlooked queer women and trans men from all over the world, Kirsty's wry and witty tome shows us that queerness has reared its bedazzled head in every era before our own.
For more from Historical Homos, sign up for our newsletter at: www.historicalhomos.com
And follow us on Instagram and TikTok.
Episode Credits:
Writing & Research: Bash
Editing: Alex Toskas
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Näytä enemmän
