Born in a violent and difficult childhood in the American South, Truman Capote would rise to the highest levels of literary celebrity, praise, and fame: even joining the highly-exclusive jet set of 1960s and 1970s high society. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a "nonfiction novel". His works have been adapted into more than 20 ...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast A man with a passion for the dangerous, subversive, and avant garde; who eschewed the middle brow and loved the urbane and modern. Known in his life not just as a man of taste, but a tastemaker, someone who set the tone for elite cultural society in his lifetime; the white author, critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten became enchanted with the Harlem Renaissance, approached Black cultures as a source of ideas that he could take and exploit, and perpetuated racist stereotypes in his work. Visi...
Nov 17, 2020•58 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast The composer Benjamin Britten was a central figure of 20th century music; and the national composer that Britain had been searching for since the death of Henry Purcell in 1695. He never shook his Communist and pacifist sympathies –– even as he rose to the highest levels of elite British cultural production. A fervent pacifist, antinationalist, and homosexual –– with a deep, complex, and troubling love of children –– Britten, through the strength of his music and through the nation’s desire to h...
Nov 10, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast This is a story of sex, death and political malfeasance that will make Teddy Kennedy look like Anne of Green Gables. It has everything you’ve come to expect from a Bad Gays story about the English upper classes — psychosexual repression, violence, class prejudice, hypocrisy, the brutality and cheapness of life at the heart of the political system, and plenty of people named things like Rupert, Auberon and Emlyn. =Content warning for child sexual abuse in the early parts of this story= But as rid...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast This "deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love" rose to stardom playing "classical music without the boring parts" and didn't need to stay in the closet because he wore its entire contents. How could he become an emblem of Middle American family entertainment? The United States of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s was undergoing enormous social change –– the Civil Rights Mo...
Oct 27, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Season 4 –– ! –– with apologies for socially-distanced audio quality. Today's victim was a British colonist and mining magnate who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. An ardent white supremacist – no matter what revisionist historians and the right-wing press claim – he rose from being a sickly child to having a near-complete domination of the world diamond market. Come for the "private secretaries," stay for the Big Hole. Visit our website for t-shirts, an episode archive, and a link t...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Despite beginning his career as a member of the civil service ruling Britain's colonial empire, John Maynard Keynes was also a key member of London's cultural and artistic elite, the Bloomsbury Group, whose libertine approach to sexuality and relationships marked them out from their stuffy Victorian forebears. A patron of art, literature, opera and ballet, Keynes' economic writings would go on to make him one of the 20th century's most influential economists. Huw discusses the life and theories ...
Sep 01, 2020•2 hr 54 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast The author of the iconic lesbian –– and trans –– novel The Well of Loneliness was born to privilege before consorting with suffragettes and radicals, embarking on scandalous lesbian affairs with singers, and writing the novel whose release and censorship would turn it into "the Lesbian bible" and them into "sapphic Jesus." But what problematic racial politics –– and flirtations with Fascism –– lie lurking in the biography of Radclyffe Hall, who offers a non-gay perspective on early 20th century ...
Jul 28, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast To close our season, the story of Lisa Miller, an American woman who gave birth to a child coparented with her partner Janet Jenkins, and then left Janet, became a self-proclaimed ex-lesbian, sued for single custody of their daughter, and when the courts decided against her, abducted their child and fled the country with the assistance of well-connected far-right pastors in 2009. Lisa and their daughter, Isabella, are still missing. Visit our website for T-shirts, an episode archive, and more in...
May 26, 2020•51 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast An essay on the Smiths frontman whose music and lyrics turned the abject aspects of the identities of so many queer teenagers into something that made them stand out and shine – and whose focus on working class cultures of masculinity began to turn towards the far right. Visit our website for T-shirts, an episode archive, and more information about the show. ----more---- SOURCES: Bret, David. Morrissey: Scandal & Passion. London: Robson Book Ltd, 2004. Goddard, Simon. Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia...
May 19, 2020•52 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast In 1992, Aileen Carol Wuornos, an itinerant sex worker, was arrested for the murders of seven men in or near Volusia County, Florida in 1989 and 1990: all of them shot while Wuornos was on the job, all of them shot at point-blank range. She became, in the view of the public, according to the filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made two documentaries about her and about the media storm that surrounded her, a "man-hating lesbian prostitute who tarnished the reputations of her victims,” a useful foil fo...
May 12, 2020•52 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast At the height of his career, today's subject was a national hero in the UK, knighted by George V. His life ended as a traitor and a pervert, executed by hanging in Pentonville Prison before being thrown in an unmarked grave in the prison yard, his body covered in quicklime. His name was Roger Casement, and we'll talk about his rise and fall, Britain’s hypocritical relationship with imperialism and colonialism, and secret black diaries full of "gentle thrusts" and "splendid erections." Visit our ...
May 05, 2020•1 hr•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Philip Cortelyou Johnson may be more responsible than anyone for the shift from Modernism as a new way of living to Modernism as an elite bauble. Born into immense power and privilege, he was a deeply committed elitist, and dilettante fascist, who used his money and connections to whitewash his youthful (and ongoing) embrace of Hitler in specific and far-right politics in general. As a key curator and preacher of the Modernist gospel in the United States, he was central in divorcing the style fr...
Apr 28, 2020•45 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast A fraud and liar of epic proportions: a dashing art forger whose difficulties selling his naturalistic work in the Modernist-dominated 20th century art market, and experience of persecution as a gay Jew in Central Europe during World War II, fueled the creation and sale of millions' worth of fake Picassos, Matisses, and other masterpieces: some of which are still hidden in major collections and museums. ----more---- SOURCES: Forgy, Mark. The Forger's Apprentice: Life With the World's Most Notori...
Apr 21, 2020•44 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast On the "complicated" side of "evil and complicated" that makes up our show's motto, we present the story of the gravely-voiced Congressman who blazed trails for gay political involvement at the highest levels of power in Washington, only to spend the latter part of his career selling out the left to finance capital and excluding trans people from fights for non-discrimination legislation. Whip-smart, funny, and always ready with a biting comeback, Barney Frank came to embody the transformation o...
Apr 14, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ou...
Apr 07, 2020•50 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Pre...
Mar 31, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast 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 G...
Mar 24, 2020•53 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast 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 audien...
Jan 29, 2020•2 hr 33 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ex...
Dec 25, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Offici...
Nov 27, 2019•58 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast 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: Poli...
Nov 19, 2019•47 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast 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 radica...
Nov 12, 2019•55 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Nationali...
Nov 05, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast 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 wit...
Oct 29, 2019•49 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Bo...
Oct 22, 2019•1 hr•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast 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:...
Oct 15, 2019•42 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast 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, sw...
Oct 08, 2019•43 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast "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 Angele...
Oct 01, 2019•44 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Sep 24, 2019•43 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast 
