www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

Philippe d’Orléans is back! And it's no more Mr. Nice Queen thanks to his brother, Louis XIV, and his bitchass absolutist ways.

In Part Two of our series on Philippe, this fabulous fuckboi nepo baby pass around party bottom of 17th century France, our hero is getting fed up with playing second fiddle.

Fresh off the suspicious death (aka murder?) of his wife and the return to court of his chaotic boyfriend, the Chevalier de Lorraine, Philippe dives headfirst into the messy latter half of his astonishing life.

A brilliant military strategist, he will win a major victory for France (which Louis just cannot handle) and get himself banned from ever holding a future post in the army.

He will marry his second wife, the fantastically witty Madame Palatine (aka Liselotte of the Rhineland), and try her patience by spending all her money on his conniving boyfriends.

He will also become the second richest man in France after his brother, thanks to inheritances, real estate development (is there anything gayer?), and a private collection of Chinese porcelains that Bash is looking to purchase, if anyone has any leads.

The playboy becomes the player, in other words, though Louis will continue to play him at every turn. And when Philippe's son starts getting passed up for army jobs – things get heated rivalry (but not sexy, just kind of plain rivalry).

In fact, things get so heated rivalry that heads begin to roll...but in the end, Philippe will have the last word.

🎧 Listen on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Lace cuffs and Ming Dynasty butt plugs (porcelain) sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

⭐ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash
Edited by Alex Toskas
Produced by Dani Henion
Guest: Dr. Jonathan Spangler

© Sebastian Hendra 2026

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

Everyone knows about Louis XIV, the Sun King of 17th century France, who built Versailles, slept with every noblewoman in France, and invented men wearing high heels (see, straight people can do the right thing sometimes!).

But did you know his brother, Philippe, was gayer than Christmas?

Raised as the “spare” heir to the French throne, Philippe was never destined to rule, but that didn’t stop him from becoming fabulously rich, politically influential, and very well-acquainted with the rectums of Versailles' male population.

From childhood drag to a 40-year-old relationship with his favourite, the Chevalier de Lorraine, Philippe lived a life that was equal parts power, party, and pig bottom realness.

In Part One of our series on Philippe, we travel back to a France where “homosexuality” didn’t quite exist yet, but sodomy and bisexual libertinism very much did. We unpack Philippe’s early years, the politics of being a royal second son (which Bash understands firsthand), and how Philippe tried to carve out a role for himself in the shadow of the Sun King – all while assembling a harem of triflin' pansies, sorry I mean loving, aristocratic boyfriends*.

In 17th century France, as in every period of human history, the only crime was being boring. And Philippe was anything but.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Shepherdess gowns and diamond-studded heels sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

⭐ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash
Edited by Alex Toskas
Produced by Dani Henion
Guest: Dr. Jonathan Spangler

© Sebastian Hendra 2026

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

*

THE ANCIENT ROMANS HAD A GOD OF BIG DICK ENERGY AND WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT.
GIRLS AND BOYS, MEET PRIAPUS. 🍆

Remember when the internet decided Pete Davidson had a giant schlong? Well, turns out people have been fantasizing about hung humans since the Ancient Romans.

Everyone always complains that the marble statues of antiquity seem to have surprisingly small penises – was everyone micro back then? What did the size queens do?

But the truth is – the ancient world was full of dicks, big and small. There were dicks on houses, at intersections, in art, and of course, in milady's bedside table.

AND – dicks were actually sacred to the ancients!

From the phallic Herms that warded off evil to Priapus' fertility-granting member, Big Dick Energy was everywhere. Because dicks were a symbol of agricultural power, magical protection, and prosperity.

2,000 years ago, Cock was King.

But it wasn’t all rainbows and dildos. In Greece, big dicks were a joke, a sign of an oversexed – and therefore unrestrained – man. Meanwhile, the Romans took things in a more violent direction (surprise). Which is why they turned the Hung Horny Goat Weed, Priapus, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, into a toxic masculinity fantasy of sexual violence.

This fantasy of priapic domination was unique to the Romans in the ancient world – the Greeks preferred to model self-restraint and wisdom, which of course is the unique jurisdiction of the average-size penis.

But really…let’s be honest.
If a 10-foot marble Hercules walked in with his tiny little “11th toe”?

You’d be so fucking down.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Giant garden gnome dildo sold separately.
📱 Follow @historical.homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and sign up to our newsletter at www.historicalhomos.com if you care about gay people, like, at all.
⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ reviews are welcome, encouraged, and financially rewarded. (Kidding.) (Maybe.)

Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash.
Edited by Alex Toskas.
Produced by Dani Henion.

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

When history says "they were just friends," what do we say back?

We say: SHUT UP IDIOT HAVE YOU READ THEIR GAY LITTLE DIARIES?

Ahem. Sorry. I get so passionate.

This week's episode is about two women who lived in a castle together, wrote each other poetry, decorated each other's rooms, said they openly loved and were obsessed with one another in diaries and funerary monuments, and, after refusing to marry or have children, spent all their money (which was a lot) on trips to Europe together.

Historians call them "romantic friends." A phrase that I find...hilarious. (Is a "romantic friend" my friend I want to...fuck? And what, sort of, does that mean?)

It's only by diving into the long, storied past of Highland lesbianism that we're going to find out. If anyone holds the secrets to romantic friendship it's Elyza Fraser and Mary Bristow.

So break out the single malts and your snazziest kilt/sporan combo, because the Scottish lesbian water is a pipingly warm human temperature, and it's time to dive in.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Solid 18-ct gold sporan sold separately.
📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and sign up to our newsletter if you care about gay people, like, at all.
⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ reviews are welcome, encouraged, and financially rewarded. (Kidding.) (Maybe.)

Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash.
Edited by Alex Toskas.
Produced by Dani Henion.
Guest host: Indigo Dunphy-Smith

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

Disney sells itself as a guardian of childhood innocence and cis-het happy endings. (That's not – I didn't mean – you know what I mean.)

So why did so many gay kids grow up flicking their hair back like Ariel in the hotel pool? Or mincing like Scar and shimmying with Ursula's cleavage? Above all, why did every queer child since 1998 stare in the mirror and demand to know: who is that girl, staring "straight," back at me?

We're joined this week by Professor Sean Griffin, who helps Bash unpack over a century of Disney’s weirdly romanticizing, heteronormalizing fairy tales – which we homosexuals have always insisted on making much, much gayer.

We begin with the hornier Mickey Mouse no one ever knew – the 1920s were crazy man! – and then stop over for some surprising episodes in Walt's homophobic 1940s and 1950s regime. Before finally, we go the distance – all the way to the Broadway Renaissance that made Disney fabulous again.

It could have just been an episode about which female villains we'd like to dress up as, but ultimately we are very serious historians. So enjoy the full scoop, my little Hormones.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. $2000 mermaid tail sold separately.
📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and sign up to our newsletter if you care about gay people, like, at all.
⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ reviews are welcome, encouraged, and financially rewarded. (Kidding.) (Maybe.)

Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash.
Edited by Alex Toskas.
Produced by Dani Henion.
Guest host: Sean Griffin

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

–

Do all Christians hate gays?

Amazingly: no. Despite how annoying we all are.

In fact, millions and millions of Christians ARE themselves...very gay.

So why is it that we automatically associate Christianity with homophobia?

The answer lies in the brief, but fascinating history of gay evangelical activism you'll find in this episode.

Before the gay rights movement, American Christians weren't more homophobic than anyone else. Homophobia was common in America, but it wasn't yet one of the defining features of American Christianity.

But then: a sexy bear of a Pentecostal pastor, Reverend Troy Perry, launched a successful gay church (the MCC) in 1968. And then: a feminist evangelical lesbian wrote a book about how gays were – surprise! – people, too.

Things started to change: people's hearts and minds shifted on homosexuality. And that's when the Religious Right first got organised. That's when televangelists and Jerry Falwell and Anita Bryant began to wage a campaign not just against gay evangelical activists, but all gay people.

The modern assumption – that all Christians "hate f*gs" (and anyone else they deem queer) – was born.

So this Christmas, while you're putting on your Sunday best (read: Elf-themed jockstrap), join Bash and his fabulous guest, Professor William Stell, as they explore this little-known corner of Christian homophobia.

William Stell is a professor of American religion and queer history at NYU, and his book, Born Again Queer, will be published in May 2026.

Now get ready to get wet and wild, because the gay evangelical hot tub is open and the water is a pipingly warm...human temperature.
–

🤑 Subscribe to our ⁠Patreon⁠, if you have the means and/or the madness to do so.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our monthly ⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

✍️ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

–

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: William Stell
Copyright Sebastian Hendra 2025

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos
–
LEATHER. It's hot, it's taut, it's everything everybody else is not.

But when did it become so big in the gay community?

My guest today, Race Bannon, leather community activist and co-host of the On Guard podcast, taught me a few things I never knew about leather that I bet you don't either:

1) Leather is all about play: it seems hyper-masc and dark. But really it's a bunch of beautiful horny people expressing themselves erotically and inventively. In a world where adults are never allowed to play, leather allows all people, queer or not, to explore their true selves.

2) Leather literally saved lives. The leather community was at the vanguard of the AIDS epidemic, providing sex education and support to show gay men in particular how to express desire and intimacy without penetrative/fluid-exchanging sex.

3) Leather is a protest! Leather began because queer men wanted to be seen as masculine - in the 1950s, that was radical. And in the 1980s, The Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, which is now one of the biggest leather festivals in America, launched as an anti-gentrification demonstration uniting queer communities in the SoMa neighbourhood in San Francisco.

Leathermen have much to teach us, in and out of the sack, and you can start by diving into this episode where the water is a deliciously...human temperature.

–

🤑 Subscribe to our ⁠Patreon⁠, if you have the means and the madness to do so.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our monthly ⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

✍️ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

–

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: Race Bannon

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

–

Why should anyone care about a queen who lived 400 years ago and did nothing but party, spend money, and sponsor musical theatre?

If I have to answer that question for you, you're in the wrong place.

This week, we cover the fabulously insane world of King Christina of Sweden, the lesbian (?), trans (?), or possibly intersex (?) sovereign who abdicated her Scandi throne to move down South and party with the art-loving, wine-guzzling, loose-moraled Catholics.

My guest, Veronica Buckley, wrote the book on Christina, and has another one coming out on European royals next year. I am obsessed with her.

King Christina was a scandal in her own time: a difficult, frustrating figure, but also a brilliant strategist and profound thinker who wrote, 400 years ago, that the soul has no gender.

Her magnificent ego got her into plenty of trouble, but while she abandoned the crown and burned through all her cash, she never stopped making bold plans for her own life.

Selfish, rich, insane, and living in a Roman palazzo? It's giving White Lotus Season 2 but #MakeItBaroque.

So get ready to dive in, because the Swedish meatball water is a tantalising...human temperature.

–

🤑 Subscribe to our ⁠Patreon⁠, if you have the means and madness to do so.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our monthly ⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

✍️ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

–

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: Veronica Buckley

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

www.patreon.com/historicalhomos

–

Welcome to the wild and infuriating world of ancient homophobia!

You know how everyone thinks ancient Greece and Rome were queer free-for-alls, where all holes were goals (as long as you were a male, bisexual top) and pederasty was the only acceptable form of same-sex love between men?

Yeah, well that's not quite the full story.

We're thrilled to introduce to the podcast Harry Tanner, the author of The Queer Thing About Sin: Why the West Came to Hate Queer Love. Harry joins us to discuss his fascinating research into the Greek, Hebrew, Roman, and Christian origins of homophobia.

We cover:

• The story of two gay lovers overthrowing Athens' last tyrant
• Ancient Greece's porn pot industry (Onlyfans, but make it ceramic!)
• The real meaning of Leviticus and the story of Sodom & Gomorrah in the ancient Hebrew Torah
• The surprisingly homophobic writings of small-time philosophers like friggin' PLATO and ARISTOTLE
• And, for our Patreon subscribers, a deeper dive into the STRAIGHT historian who bequeathed us our current, warped view of ancient Greek homosexuality

If you were ever told that homosexuality or queerness is "unnatural," this episode is required listening for you.

Because we show how homophobia, like homosexuality, is simply a social and cultural construction. As Harry Tanner explains, it is a response to political and economic instability. A desire for control. That's the only human thing about it.

Same-sex desire occurs naturally in every society and culture in history. But condemning it only seems to happen when there is profound economic inequality in those societies.

Get ready to dive into this fascinating story of homophobia's ancient history.

The chastity cages are mandatory and the water is a preposterously inviting...human temperature.

–

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Semen-stained tunics sold separately.

🤑 Please support the burgeoning Historical Homos empire on our ⁠Patreon⁠, if you have the means – or the madness – to do so.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our monthly ⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

✍️ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review on Apple or Spotify.

–

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: Dr. Harry James Tanner

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode attempts to answer that fraught and necessary question.

As you may know, Hercules (1997) is a story about a small-town girl who goes to the big city to discover himself, become famous, land a few sponsorship deals, and build a chosen family in an imperfect world.

It's like All About Eve but with much, much better music. (Though Hades and Bette Davis look uncannily alike, I'll admit.)

Hercules was the first anatomically male Disney princess to grace the silver screen – and this innovation changed the lives of every gay boy and girl born between 1987 and 1997.

The fact that it has some of the sharpest writing of the Disney Renaissance – and deeply layered mythological references – did not escape our notice either.

Which is why Bash and his honoured guest, Liv Albert (Let's Talk About Myths, Baby!) have embarked on a heroic quest to explore:

• 🏺 the queer origins of the original Greek hero, Herakles
• 🏺 a VERY close queer reading of the Disney film
• 🏺 Hades' camp, power-hungry effeminacy
• 🏺 Meg's BFH (Big Fag Hag) energy
• 🏺 Hercules' NYC twink to WeHo twunk story arc

By the end of it all you will find out that, honey, we did indeed mean HUNKULES.

So come on in and don't be shy! The water is...human temperature.

–

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Pain and Panic sold separately.

🤑 Please consider supporting the podcast on our Patreon, if you have the means – or the madness – to do so.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

✍️ Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

–

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: Liv Albert

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First of all — sit down.

When I was a young f/hag in the late ’90s, Wicca was having a moment. The Halliwell sisters ruled the WB, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock were burying men in their back gardens, and I gobbled the GAGathon down with glee.

Only later did I realize what made these witchy bitchies so alluring: it wasn’t (just) that they were different — it was that they were powerful.

Outsiders who could fight back. Like the X-men...or democratic socialists.

But were they always outsiders? No! In the ancient world, everyone dabbled in magic. Pagans love a hag with a herb garden.

Then Christianity came along and ruined everything. AS ALWAYS.

By the 20th century, witchcraft was beginning to mean "freedom" to a lot of repressed Westerners. Which might explain why nearly half of Wiccans today identify as queer.

Join us for this Halloween special as we trace The Craft™ from ancient love spells to Victorian occultists, with brilliant guest Professor Marion Gibson.

Together we ask:

🧙‍♀️ When did “wise women” in the woods become “evil hags”?

🔥 Why did we burn so many witches?

🌍 How did colonialism export Europe’s hag-phobia worldwide?

💅 And how did queer people turn witchcraft into a symbol of defiance, glamour, and spiritual fulfilment?

So come on in, the cauldron-water is human temperature.

–

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Beard and severed thumb sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: Professor Marion Gibson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Oh this is fine – I'll just have a regular heterosexual wife, a couple of kids, and a very elaborate sex life on the side."

Just me? OK, fine.

But the question remains: why do little gay children like me grow up assuming a straight nuclear family is our only option?

Has family always been one man, one woman, and a couple of snot-nosed heirs to the milkman?

This week, we’re talking to writer and educator Kirsty Loehr, author of A Short History of Queer Parenting, as we uncover:

• What family looked like before “heterosexuality”
• Matriarchal hunter-gatherers for whom all holes were goals, plus Amazons and Jesus' 2 dads
• Victorian respectability politics vs. Oscar Wilde
• DIY lesbian turkey-baster chic
• And why men are obsessed with spreading their seed.

It’s a fluid-filled romp through the history of chosen families, accidental babies, and deliberate love.

JOIN THE CULT

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Turkey baster sold separately.
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Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash.Guest Kirsty Loehr.Edited by Alex Toskas.Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know how Pedro Pascal hasn't come out yet? Well: this episode will explain why.

Between the 1930s and 1960s, the Hays Code banned “sexual perversion” of all kinds from the silver screen, which (spoiler alert) meant queers.

That has bequeathed us a predominantly homophobic industry in Hollywood, even if the stars and culture have always been decidedly – how do you say? – VERY GAY.

This week we dive into the queerness of Hollywood’s first Golden Age.

We cover:

• The pre-Code era archetypes of pansies, sissies, butches, and sapphics, oh my!
• The Code's first filmic victim: a 1936 adaptation of Lillian Hellman's thesbian stage classic The Children’s Hour
• Hitchcock’s Rope, featuring two fascist dandy murderers whose day jobs included playing the piano and being fantastically rich
• The legacy of homophobia and queer desire in post-Code films up to the present

This week, Bash is joined by film critic and filmmaker, Michael Koresky, who is the recent author of Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness — a love letter to the sly, coded, and deeply horny films that the uptight, antisemitic, racist, homophobic, Catholic censors forced out of the era's greatest artists.

Hollywood was always swarming with queers, as Michael puts it, but people weren't naïve or stupid. We saw the signs – and we shot each other furtive glances as we hid our brain-boners...

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Wigs and cigarettes sold separately.

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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review on Apple or Spotify.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Guest host: Michael Koresky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to one of history’s darkest (and dumbest) closets: fascists who are also, annoyingly, gay.

From Hitler’s Brownshirt boy toy, Ernst Röhm, to closeted McCarthyists like Roy Cohn, to lesbian “nationalist” hypocrites like Alice Weidel — it seems that the 20th and 21st centuries gave rise not only to modern fascism, but to a couple of queer rightwing nutjobs as well.

Join Bash and his gorgeous guest this week, Alexis Sakellaris, as they wade into the icy swamp water of gay fascism to ask: why do some of our siblings keep ending up on the wrong side of history?

Along the way we discover:

• Ernst Röhm's gay Nazi clique that met in Berlin drag bars
• The Lavender Scare, a lesser known gay witch hunt that issued from the communist-targeting "Red Scare"
• The queer fascination with skinhead aesthetics that no one asked for
• And Alice Weidel, the blonde, blue-eyed German lesbian who hates… well....everyone who isn't that

It’s an episode full of hypocrisy, homophobia, and hidocious messes — proof that queerness doesn’t automatically make you good. Just really, really organized.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Hordes of idiotic followers sold separately.

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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits: Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Answer: extremely gay chaos.

This week on Historical Homos, we’re diving into the doomed romance of Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine—the most sensationally toxic boyfriends in the history of French poetry.

With our guest this week, Robert St. Clair, we’ll unpack:

• The social revolution of the 19th century: just a fun little reminder of where class warfare was born!
• Rimbaud and Verlaine’s poetry: because toxic people can be great artists too
• The couple’s love letters, extortion notes, and pornographic sonnets: including a gorgeous reading of 1872’s “To the Butthole”
• The Brussels Incident™: in which our drunken hero pulls a gun, fires wildly with his eyes covered, and somehow manages to shoot his boyfriend in the wrist
• Courtroom dick reports. in which forensic "doctors" examine the hero’s hole and pole to “prove” he was gay, because it turns out science is just as toxic as poetry
• Their legacy. Rimbaud stopped writing at 20, Verlaine went to prison for love and revolution – and both still managed to change poetry forever.

It’s toxic. It’s fascinating. It’s, how you say, very fucking French

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Pipe and syphilis sold separately.

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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest host: Robert St. Clair, Associate Professor of French, Dartmouth College

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JB was a chain-smoking, vodka-swilling romantic who fell hard and often—usually for straight men he could never have.

This week, Bash and his bestie guestie, Clark Moore, crack open Baldwin’s chaos: from his Harlem childhood all the way to his retirement villa in the South of France.

Along the way we meet the English teachers who found him a pleasure to have in class, revisit the first gay nights in Greenwich Village, and soak in the winter sun at his Swiss twink's chalet.

This is a tour of Baldwin's life through his greatest loves.

Get ready to talk about:

• Love with a capital L, and how it was the key to Baldwin's ideas on race, sex, and revolution
• The contradictions of Baldwin's genius—he was a brilliant debater who lived on a bottle a day and a prophet of love, who struggled to love himself

• Giovanni’s Room, the gay novel he swore wasn’t about being gay
• And why his words still influence us today, from antiracists "doing the work" to an almost annual New Yorker article summing up his life, work, or legacy

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Vodka and cigarettes sold separately.

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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

© Sebastian Hendra 2025

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

That was Frida Kahlo’s motto—and sweetie, she LIVED by it.

We all know about Frida’s messy, horny marriage to Diego “Toad Face” Rivera and her revenge fling with Leon Trotsky.

But what about the women? The affairs, the crushes, the rumors, the gossip that turned her into Mexico’s most iconic bisexual?

This week, we’re serving you a slutty portrait of the artist as she truly was: a fearless, flirtatious rake who let the gossip mills churn while she tallied up an ever-increasing body count.

We discuss:

✨ Georgia O’Keeffe NOT making love to Frida while hospitalized (Frida's response: "Too bad.")

✨ Hitting it off with the Real Housewife of Parisian Surrealism, Jacqueline Lamba, who kept Frida entertained at her first expo in Paris

✨ A tasty rumour that Josephine Baker, the Beyoncé of 1930s Europe, reportedly got it on with the newly divorced Frida on the eve of WWII

✨ Hollywood starlets and Mexican divas—like Dolores del Río and Paulette Goddard—getting plowed and painted by the Rivera-Kahlos back at the Casa Azul

✨ Chavela Vargas, a ranchera rebel who moved in with Frida on the first date, serenading Frida while she painted

✨ Why Frida’s bisexuality mattered—it's not just gossip, but a core part of her art, politics, and legend

So grab your tequila and maybe pack an extra toothbrush—you never know where a night with Frida might end up.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Lesbian manicure sold separately.

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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She’s on your ex-girlfriend’s tote bag, your niece’s notebook, and probably a few questionable dorm-room tapestries.

But behind the unibrow is a Frida Kahlo you don’t know: a bisexual, communist, pain-embracing rascal who painted from her gut and fucked whomstsoever she pleased.

This week, we’re peeling back the kitsch to get at the real Frida, with filmmaker Carla Gutierrez, director of the fabulous new documentary, Frida (now streaming on Prime).

We discuss:

• Little Frida the rascal—from classroom pranks and her muchacho wardrobe, to falling in love with everything that moved.
• The bus crash that made her body a battlefield and her art a visceral diary of pain
• Her toxic, electric, and surprisingly horny marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera (aka "Toad Face), until he went one boink too far...
• Frida's bisexual chaos: her lovers of all genders, from Chavela Vargas to Leon Trotsky, plus the lady lovers she painted boldly onto the canvas for all to see
• How Frida became less “artist” and more “branded merch” — and why she still matters as a queer revolutionary

So: grab your eyeliner and fill in that unibrow you've been growing out, because it's time to get freaky with Frida.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Pet monkey and traditional garb sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And of course: sodomy.

This week we’re swanning back into Georgian England (1714–1837), a century of empire, cholera, imperialism, and very flouncy coats – but also one of the gayest domestic revolutions in history.

With special guest Dr. Anthony Delaney (author of Queer Georgians, out today!), we explore the LGBTQIA+ pioneers who didn’t just hook up in parks or "molly houses," but built full-fledged homes, lives, and legacies together.

Inside this episode:

🍸 Molly Houses — the proto-gay bars of London, where effeminate “mollies” cultivated community (and each other's C*CKS)

👬 An Odd Couple of "Cotqueans" — Lord John “Jack” Hervey and Stephen Fox: two aristocrats who went on a very gay Grand Tour of Europe, wrote love letters to one anotherwith phrases like “I look upon you as my dwelling,” and redecorated their way into history

👒 The Ladies of Llangollen — Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, two cottagecore lesbians who fled Ireland with a dog named Frisk and set up their gothic sapphic country paradise in Wales

🏠 Queer Domesticity — how 18th-century queers literally invented the idea of “home," defying societal expectations through the radical power of hot sex and interior design.

Because sometimes being gay isn’t just about who you shag—it’s about how nice your fucking house is.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Perruque and East India Company shares sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Right? WRONG.

Western Europe may have been a shitshow for much of what we ridiculously call the "Dark Ages," but the rest of the world had its act together.

Specifically: Baghdad around the 800s AD. At the height of the Golden Age of Islam. They had libraries, they had mathematics, and...they had lesbian sex scientists.

This week we’re taking a tantalizing dip into the Golden Age of Islam to uncover a treasure trove archive of lesbionic women from medieval Arabia.

Muslim philosophers and physicians had actual words for lesbians (or lesbian-like women), entire books about famous lesbian couples, and specific manuals that explained how to vigorously rub one out with your beloved.

From labia gas to celery-and-rocket shakes, the science was...shaky, at best. But the spirit of inquiry was strong, and the genuine respect for lesbian love profound.

Tune in to explore:

• Why doctors thought the only sensible treatment for lesbianism was – get this! – lesbian sex
• A 13th-century Kama Sutra-style manual that coined the “saffron massage” (and came with a guide to lesbian sound effects)
• The interfaith power couple Hind Bint al-Nu'man and al-Zarqāʾ, whose legendary love story inspired queer and heterosexual writers for centuries to come
• The lost books of lesbian couples with names like Basil and Clove and Justice and Happiness (welcome, ladies, to the queer Muslim SPICE RACK)
• How medieval lesbian communities were rumoured to hold meetings and sex ed classes, because like all good homosexuals, they got organized.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Willow oil and saffron grinder sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following on from our cruise through history last week, we've delved deeper into the notorious handkerchief code.

The code was a form of flagging, which used different coloured bandanas to signal sexual / kink preferences.

In this bonus Quickie episode, Bash unpacks the extremely colourful history of flagging—from gay Gold Rush cowboys to scrappy leather entrepreneurs in San Francisco.

Along the way, we learn:

• How a 1923 law in New York basically criminalized the gayest activity in history (loitering)
• The surprising role of the BDSM community and their business cards in spreading the code
• Inventive twists and additions for the lesbians (white lace for Victorian kink , anyone?).
• And just how absurdly complicated it got—aka how to distinguish lemon from mustard yellow at 1AM in Central Park?

Spoiler alert: you can't.

The hanky code wasn’t just about getting off—it was about queer ingenuity, solidarity, and desire in a hostile world.

Today it may be more relic than reality, but it still reminds us of the brilliant, horny creativity of our queer elders.

We'll be back on September 4 with our next full episode on the history of Queer Georgian homemakers. So stay tuned!

Till then, enjoy this bonus episode and get ready for some exciting announcements from us when we all go back to school...

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Fluid-stained bandanas sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You're about to be cruising, my king!

And all it took was a public park, centuries of sexual shame, and a little bit of courage to get you there...

Now it's no surprise that the elegant and much-envied act of Fucking in Public has been around for thousands of years.

But how did the "radical pastime" of modern-day cruising develop? Why did men start having sex with men in public parks and bathrooms? And why, in an allegedly sexually liberated world, do we still cruise today?

Join Bash and his guest this week, Professor Alex Espinoza, as they chart over 4,000 years of men getting it off with men. From the Roman bathhouse to Paris' first urban parks, this is a steamy, rushed romp through history designed to be enjoyed from your very own public bathroom stall.

You're welcome.

We will cover:

• Why cruising needs cities, strangers, and the thrill of getting caught to really thrive

• The ancient rules of cruising the Roman bathhouse

• How policing and persecution actually helped cruising thrive, creating the modern "homosexual"

• Cruising as class-conscious RESISTANCE
• The rise of cottaging in London's public bathrooms
• Al Pacino's absurdly terrible 1980 film Cruising
• Whether the eroticism of "looking" can survive Grindr's Era of Headless Torsos

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Grindr Unlimited subscription sold separately.

📚 Grab a copy of Alex's book ⁠⁠Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime⁠ on Bookshop.org (NEVER Amazon!)

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Alex Espinoza.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

But he ALSO  invented animal pelt kink, so could he have been THAT BAD?!

This week, Bash is joined by classicist and queer historian, Professor Andrew Lear, to discuss the scandalous, salacious, and slanderous life of Emperor Nero — Ancient Rome’s most notorious bisexual bad boy.

From castrating (and marrying) his wife’s male doppelgänger to "mauling" strangers’ crotches in animal pelts, the stories about Nero are a masterclass in ancient PR. But why did so many historians vilify Nero in this intensely OTT way?

Join us as we explore the answer to this question and many more, such as:

• How did Nero’s mother orchestrate his rise to power – and DID he murder her via collapsible boat?

• Did Nero really get gay married? Twice?!

• What did Roman “homosexuality” actually look like at the time — and why was being a bottom “not the Roman thing to do” (IYKYK)?

Along the way, we’ll learn why the real scandal for the raunchy Romans wasn’t so much Nero’s queer behaviour, but his dangerous subversion of class and gender hierarchy.

Plus: Justice For Roman Bottoms (my new charity), ancient pegging theories, and a verdict on the real question on everyone’s lips for the past two thousand years:

Was Nero a monster… or the "Elvis Presley Emperor" of the 1st century AD?

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Roman villa sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Andrew Lear.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're hoisting our slutty sails – that's what I call my underpants – to plunder the treacherous homosexual deep, with pirate historian and author Dr. Rebecca Simon (Pirate Queens; The Pirate’s Code) to answer the age-old question:

Why are men on a ship always kinda gay?

First of all, when we say "pirate," we mean the real 17th- and 18th-century swashbucklers who sailed the high seas. This is not Johnny Depp in eyeliner, but actual rum-soaked, textile-stealing anarcho-queers of the Caribbean.

Join us as we dive into the Golden Age of Piracy (c.1650–1730), and reveal the surprising egalitarianism of pirate society (it was pretty democratic and they had health insurance!) and its complex manifestations of queer desire — from situational sodomy to full-on civil unions (bonjour, matelotage 👬).

We also discuss:

• The difference between freelance pirates and government-backed privateers
• How pirate ships fucked up the burgeoning capitalism (and monopolistic tendencies) of 17th century imperial powers
• Their extraordinarily lush accessories budget
• How to board and charge a ship naked
• The 1720s pirate Anne Bonny's discovery that her crush “Mark” was actually a "Mary"
• The romance of John Swan and Robert Culliford: gay historical roommates... who were, tragically, actually roommates
• And, finally, a story about a French colony that proves the bonds of sodomy may be stronger than the bonds of (straight) marriage

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Parrot and peg leg sold separately.

📚 Grab a copy of Rebecca's book ⁠The Pirate Queens at our shop on Bookshop.org

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Rebecca Simon.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've all heard of the man behind the Mona Lisa. But did you know he was also one of Florence's sodomitical sweethearts?

In this episode, we pull back the vajazzled curtain on Leonardo da Vinci to reveal a homo neither tormented nor repressed, suffering dramatically for his art, but a messy, charismatic, and brilliant dilettante obsessed with the world.

More than anything, Leonardo cared about curiosity. He was fascinated more by the world than his paychecks, which got him into trouble more often than his penchant for very handsome twinks – ahem, sorry, apprentices.*

Join Bash and Renaissance historian Catherine Fletcher as they answer all the big questions:

Was Leonardo gay? Does it matter? Did it affect his fantastically innovative artwork? Did he think outside the box? And whose box did he eat?

We'll also give you a taste of what it was like to be horny, humping Leo in 1470s Florence, dashing across the Ponte Vecchio from paint job to blow job in an Italian minute (aka seventeen hours).

We'll cover:

• Leonardo’s arrest at age 24 for...sodomy
• How the city responded to its "epidemic" of...sodomy
• Leonardo’s lifelong entanglement with his apprentice/lover/twink-goblin, Salai
• The saga of Michelangelo vs. Leonardo, who were briefly Florence's duelling divas of the day
• Why Leonardo’s refusal to care — about his sexuality or finishing any of his damn paintings — is actually the gayest and most important thing about him

If you’ve ever wanted a crash course in the gayest corners of the Italian Renaissance — or just an excuse to say “I heard you're into the Florentine vice” out loud — this is the episode for you.

🎧 Listen now on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or wherever you pod. Espresso and slutty breeches sold separately.

📚 Grab a copy of Catherine's book The Beauty and The Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and do ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Catherine Fletcher.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's your Hinge profile all over again.

No, silly, it's vampires!

We are thrilled to welcome back folklorist and queer historian, Sacha Coward (author of Queer as Folklore) this week, as we trace the gloriously queer history of vampires—from ancient blood-sucking demons to modern brooding bisexuals.

Drape your capes and get ready to dive into:

• Lilith, the original bad girl who got kicked out of Eden for not sleeping with Adam.
• The juicy backstory of Lord Byron, a chaotic bisexual whose life inspired the first mean, cold, sexy vampires
• Carmilla, the 19th-century vampire lesbian who walked so Pam and Tara inTrue Blood could one day suck
• How Hollywood turned queer people into monsters so they could portray them onscreen
• Why vampires got hotter, more leathery, and more counterculture in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic

Plus, how vampires got from Dracula terror to Twilight trysting, from cursed to cool, from monsters of the fringe to main characters with fangbanging stans.

As Sacha eloquently puts it:

"Vampire here. Vampire not going anywhere." (Direct quote)

🩸 Whether you’re a Lilith stan, a Buffy devotee, or just into emotionally repressed men with centuries of baggage–*raises hand violently*–this one’s for you.

🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your blood.

📚 And grab Sacha Coward’s book Queer as Folklore in sexy new paperback form—wherever fine, gay books are sold.

You can follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people at all.

And if you like what you hear, please do leave us a (FIVE STAR ONLY) review. Praise, not blood, is what Bash feeds on.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Sacha Coward.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Famously a "construct," it turns out Mx. Gender has been around for hundreds of thousands of years.

This podcast is only 70 minutes long so we're sticking to the last 5,000... but still. Not bad.

Join Bash and his honoured guests this week – Kit Heyam and Marty Davies – as they delve into the deep-cut history of gender, long before we had words like cis, trans, or nonbinary.

Kit Heyam is the author and historian behind Before We Were Trans, our guiding text for this episode. And Marty Davies is the founder of Trans+ History Week, an award-winning initiative now in its third year in the UK.

You might think – like Bash did for an embarrassingly long time – that gender and sex binaries have been the norm since the beginning of time.

Everyone has "male" and "female" right? Husband and wife, penetrator and pregnancy-haver. And that's that.

That's actually wrong. It's waaaay messier than that. As long as there have been humans, there has been what Kit Heyam calls "gender disruption."

This essentially experimental and creative approach to gender is in fact the norm – the one thing we find in almost every civilisation.

As if that weren't enough, here are some other essential things you'll learn about in this episode:

• Ancient Egypt's female pharaohs, who insisted on wearing their beards
• (Plus, why their high priests didn't like gender creativity – spoiler alert: it fucked with their revenues!)
• A 17th century stand up comic who once wore trousers in St. Paul's Cathedral (WITCH!!!!! KILL IT!!!!!)
• The elegant and silk-draped wakashu, who were a third-gender class of adolescent sex workers in early modern Tokyo
• And the truth of why writing trans+ history is so fucking hard but so necessary.

As always thanks for listening, and if you love what you hear, please leave us a FIVE STAR ONLY review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

You can follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people at all.

You can also listen to the QueerAF podcast on Apple, Spotify or your fave podcast app, including all the episodes that came out this season with Trans+ History Week.

And subscribe to QueerAF's free newsletter to understand the LGBTQIA+ world every Saturday, or find them on Instagram and Bluesky.

Episode Credits:

Written, researched, and hosted by Bash. Special thanks to guests Kit Heyam and Marty Davies. Edited by Alex Toskas and Jamie Wareham.

A QueerAF and Historical Homos Production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marie Antoinette was many things: a teen bride, a fashion icon, and according to Sofia Coppola, a big fan of The Strokes (I knew I liked this bitch!)

She's famous nowadays for losing her head, but did she also give it? And to whom / with what degree of relish?

In this week’s episode, Bash is joined by bestselling author and royal dirt-digger Eleanor Herman (Sex with Kings, Off With Her Head) to untangle the messy myth and misogyny surrounding France’s last queen.

From bedroom rumors to an actual revolution, we trace how Marie’s alleged lesbian love affairs and slutty reputation helped take down the French monarchy.

But how much of a labial libertine was dear old Marie?

Did she really let they/them eat cake, or did she prefer to have hers eaten?

And why did the revolutionaries care so much about who she was (or wasn’t) shtupping?

Get ready to cover:

👑 Marie’s teenage trauma: a 14-year-old Austrian girl dropped into horny French court politics

👑 Her disastrous marriage to Louis XVI, France’s least sexy locksmith

👑 Count Axel von Fersen: the hot Swede who became her baby daddy and was the only man in France who loved her

👑 The lesbian propaganda: 18th-century porn pamphlets and political smear campaigns that took Marie down

👑 Marie’s tragic downfall—and why she still makes us feel some kind of way about money, sex, fashion, and power

Plus: masquerade balls (aka cruising for cis-hets), Versailles orgies with her stepbrother, and the story of how Marie Antoinette's lesbian reputation became a 19th century pickup line for aspiring sapphics.

You can find out more about women in power by reading Eleanor Herman's books at her website.

Please also follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people at all.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Eleanor Herman

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

But why? Why were we so hell-bent on getting married? And how did the fight for marriage equality impact real people on the ground?

In this episode, Bash is joined by writer and memoirist Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told, to explore the long, messy, and horny history of gay marriage in America—from deportation threats in the 1950s to a rainbow-lit White House under Obama.

Along the way, we ask:

💍 Who decides what a marriage is? Who gets to say who/what you are?

🏳️‍🌈 What happens when a bi(coastal) relationship collides with the full force of the U.S. immigration system?

🐴 Is a man marrying a man the same as a man marrying a horse? (The question, historically, was asked.)

Also featuring:

– Clive Boutilier, the Canadian gay man deported for being a “psychopath” (1950s medical slang for "gay")

– A 1996 government letter from the Department of Justice that literally said to two gays: “A legal marriage cannot exist between two faggots.”

– Bill Clinton wriggling out from under the S&M grip of DOMA

– And one very filthy reading from our beloved guest...

Not to mention this very real quote:

🗣️ “Ordinarily a homo is psycho, but many are not.” — actual Supreme Court justice, 1967

You can follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people at all.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Guest: Jeremy Atherton Lin

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No this is not propaganda from the ultra-secret "Pinko" department of the Kremlin (they def have one of those).

This is the very real story of the magnificent Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the world's greatest composers and a big old homosexual.

He wrote the 1812 Overture, The Nutcracker, and the world’s gayest violin concerto (because it's "exuberant").

He also did Swan Lake, by the way, so perhaps most importantly, we wouldn't have Natalie Portman calling herself a WHORE on a mirror in red lipstick without him.

This week, Bash is joined by Princeton professor of music history Simon Morrison — author of Tchaikovsky’s Empire — to explore what it meant to be gay (and fabulous) in 19th-century Russia.

Together, they dismantle the myth of the tortured, closeted genius and paint a much queerer, more joyful picture of Tchaikovsky’s life.

💅 Topics include:

• Why Tchaikovsky thrived as a gay man (in certain elite Russian circles, of course)

• His disastrous lavender marriage to Antonina Milyukova

• The kinky rumors, the tragic myths, and the straight up gay lies about his death

• His read on Wagner (who made him yawn) and the dish on the famous Violin Concerto, dedicated to his hottie violinist crush, Iosif Kotek

Along the way, we ask the hard questions: Where were the best gay bars in St. Petersburg? Is Eugene Onegin queer-coded? And why does being gay make us better artists?

Stick around at the end for a special conversation with Oliver Zeffman, founder of Classical Pride, about this year’s line-up of queer classical music events in London and LA.

You can follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people at all.

Written and hosted by Bash. Guest: Professor Simon Morrison. Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The answer, OF COURSE, lies in 18th century France.

In fact, food's sexy origins go even further back, all the way to the ancients: from Eve's naughty apple to Ancient Roman oysters (they made their orgasms more intense!).

But it was the invention of the restaurant in 18th century Paris that made food sexy, dangerous, and ultimately, gay.

By the 20th century, figures like Oscar Wilde and the Bloomsbury Set had made sure it was officially queer to eat out. Their associations of food with aesthetics and art ran counter to Anglo-American fears of public pleasure.

Eventually, it became more normal for people other than the French to talk about food, and even to try making their daily fare at home more edible. Thus began the modern association of caring about good food with homosexuality.

We end this episode discussing the lasting impact of those associations on our modern relationship with food.

Join us for this open buffet on food's queer history, featuring Professor Rachel Cleves, author of Lustful Appetites: A History of Good Food and Wicked Sex.

Together we uncover:

• The origins of the restaurant (aka Whore Dinner)
• 18th century Viagra broth
• Virginia Woolf's gay best friend who made English food more French (thank GOD)
• The Lavender Scare's impact on American food
• How capitalism made food less gay for straight men

You can follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people at all.

Written and hosted by Bash. Guest speaker: Rachel Cleves. Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're a fan of Greek myth, you know the gods love to act like humans: they love, they fuck, they fight...they throw dinner parties.

But they also love to kill us. When gods show up on Earth, it typically means someone's about to get pregnant or dead, real quick. (Or both.)

And the pattern holds for the gay Greek myths. (With admittedly fewer pregnancies carried to term.)

Zeus and Apollo never seem able to keep their mortal boyfriends alive, while demigods like Herakles and Achilles also find it tricky to maintain their lovers' pulses.

Why is this? What's going on psychologically, historically, narratively, and yes, erotically, when the ancients were sang of so much LITERAL twink death in their myths?

Join Bash and Liv Albert, renowned Greek myth expert and host of the Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! podcast this week as they discuss:

• Herakles and Hylas being afraid of women (and the bottomless depths of ancient Greek misogyny)
• Apollo, the god of being a total DICK all the time, and Hyacinth, a beautiful youth slain in a totally avoidable "frisbee tragedy"
• Achilles and Patroclus, the famed comrades-at-arms, who die for one another in most toxic fashion

You can follow Historical Homos for more on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ too, if you care about gay people at all.

Written and hosted by Bash. Guest host: Liv Albert. Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And the perp? A rascally, resourceful enigma named John Rykener, who enters the court records "calling herself Eleanor," wearing women's clothes, and defying gravity / everything we know about medieval gender.

But John/Eleanor Rykener – or Jeleanor, as they shall henceforth be known to scholars – doesn't map easily onto our modern categories of "trans," "queer," or "sex worker."

Jeleanor lived and presented as both a man and a woman, depending on when it suited them. That made them highly creative with their gender, especially when it came to their day job, but does it mean they were "trans"?

They learned the cons that kept them surviving and thriving from a local madam. But in medieval London, to be a prostitute was to be a woman. The court is clear that Jeleanor was AMAB and that their crime was sodomy, not prostitution. So can we say they were seen as a sex worker in their own time?

And finally, they took to bed men and women from all walks of medieval life, for money and for fun. Does that make them queer or "bisexual"? Can we trust this court record to tell us about Jeleanor's experience of sexual desire? Did the court care more about the gender of Jeleanor's conquests, or their ties to the Church?

Join Bash and the brilliantly clever medievalist, Dr. Mireille Pardon, as we unpick and unpack the surviving legal record that details Jeleanor's deliciously saucy life.

Along the way we'll learn about:

• Streetside sodomy in the Little Ice Age

• Common cons to make sure your medieval john pays
• The wages for a sex worker in the 1390s
• Why the cops REALLY cared about busting trans sex workers 600+ years ago

You can follow Historical Homos for more on our ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ too, if you care about gay people at all.

Credits: "Running up that hill Cover in Early Middle English BARDCORE/MEDIEVAL version. Original by Kate Bush." Accessed June 2025 on YouTube. Owned by @the_miracle_aligner.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It seems like, as a species, we're at a bit of a breaking point. Which means revolution is afoot, and we have to wonder: what the hell happens when it gets here?

For most of us, though, it's not easy to project what life looks like after the next economic revolution.

It's even more complex to wonder what happens to queer life: do we keep all our labels – "gay" "cis" "queer" – without a capitalist framework? Can we still go on vacation with our chosen families? Will there be any good gay bars?!

In this bonus episode, we team up with sociologist and author, Eman Abdelhadi, to imagine the radical, queer, and–get this–genuinely optimistic future that The Much-Awaited Revolution could offer us.

Drawing from her speculative oral history novel Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052–2072, we explore what a world organized around care, kinship, and collective survival might look like.

Books mentioned:

• Everything for Everyone – Iman Abdelhadi & E.M. O'Brien

• Family Abolition – M.E. O'Brien

• Enemy Feminisms – Sophie Lewis

• The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin

• Against the Grain – James C. Scott

• The Invisible Doctrine – George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison

You can follow Historical Homos for more on our ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠, and you should ⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠ too, if you care about gay people at all.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're getting penetratingly political with writer and podcaster Josh Rivers (⁠Busy Being Black⁠), as we explore the radical legacy of Mario Mieli's ⁠Towards a Gay Communism⁠.

Here's the thing: Capitalism doesn't just steal your time and money—it also reinforces the gender binary, nuclear families, and heterosexual urges (which are totally normal to have!).

It turns out Capitalism is extremely tied up in our sex lives, because our sex lives have economic value.

And for that reason, The Big C is terrified of anything that rocks our sexy boats. According to Mieli, eros – ancient Greek for romantic-sexual desire – is a liberating force, which has the power to free us from the constrained categories of "homosexual" and "heterosexual." These "mutilations," as he calls them, only developed to reinforce the gender and sexual "norms" Capitalism needs to survive, the very same ones that keep us reproducing and addicted to respectability.

In this time of Globapocalypse, we're all looking for answers as to (a) what has led us here and (b) how we can move forward. It could be that part of the answer is in our pants, so join us this week as we discuss:

• Eros as substructure: how sex and desire determine with our society's economic logic

• The radical nature of anal sex (especially The Gay Version)

• The capitalist scam of the "nuclear" family

• Homo-normativity and the gay betrayal of queer radical Marxists

We also talk The Italian Job (what I call cruising in Rome), "educastration," "psychonazis," and the emotional dilemma of getting Obama’s inauguration date tattooed on one's arm (the solution is to get more tattoos of people doing sex on each other apparently).

Fabulous Books To Read:

• Towards a Gay Communism – Mario Mieli

• One-Dimensional Queer – Roderick Ferguson

• The Prophetic Imagination – Walter Brueggemann

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come for the history, stay for the laughs, and if you're lucky, leave with a boner.

Please note: Erectile Gift With Purchase (EGWP) not guaranteed. First cum, first served.

We'll be penetrating your tight little earholes – with consent – on May 29, 2025.

Hit that follow/subscribe button, so you don't miss a thing.

Love you...bye!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our last episode of the year, we welcome Coco, the Time Traveling Slut, into your tight little earholes to answer some eternally pressing questions:

• Where do sluts come from?
• Have gay men always been promiscuous?
• Have lesbians not?
• Who were the greatest skanks in history?
• And why can't women f*ck in peace, for once, generally speaking, like ever?

From the original Biblical temptress, (St)Eve, to Julius Caesar, Charles II, and Marie Antoinette, we take you on tour of history's scuzziest slores (slut whores), enriched with Coco's insider scoops – which, even for village bicycles like us, will shock and appall.

(Oh! Suddenly I'm dripping.)

Along the way, you'll get all the gossip about Ancient Greco-Roman Sluts; a little known Middle Eastern Startup that disrupted sex 2,000 years ago: it's called Christianity; ancient Indian and Islamic sex positivity, and much, much more.

(No wait I am actually fully wet now.)

You can get more good stuff from Coco on her ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, and make sure to ⁠⁠book one of her tours⁠⁠ in London or Paris if you're there in early 2025!

Now, time to get lubed up and ready to ride, cuz this is one venereal Christmas special you can't afford to ignore!

–

If you like what you hear, please leave us a five star rating on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠, or your favorite platform.

Want to join our cult? ⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ to keep abreast and a-testicle of all Historical Homos announcements.

For more very gay jokes in very good taste, follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok.⁠⁠⁠⁠

–

Episode Credits

• Written and hosted by Bash
• Edited by Alex Toskas
• Guest host: Max Norman (aka Coco)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

– Conner, 18, college student from Ohio

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a trans kid in America today?

(Hint: it f*cking sucks.)

Groups on the right and their politicians use trans kids as pawns in the political game of vote and media attention. 

And they love to act like trans kids are an anomaly of modern woke leftists.

But actually trans youth have been around for centuries in America.

And when you hear what their stories are, you start to understand they’re just regular kids, like any others.

My guest this week, Nico Lang, spent nearly a year of his life living with eight trans and nonbinary kids around the 50 states.

The result is a wonderfully empathetic and revealing book, titled American Teenager: How Trans Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy In a Turbulent Era.

You can purchase it on Allstora, where LGBTQ+ and marginalized authors are fairly compensated for their work.

–

If you like what you hear in this episode, please leave us a five star rating on ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠, or your favorite platform.

Want to join our cult? ⁠⁠Sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠ to keep abreast and a-testicle of all Historical Homos announcements.

For more offensively historical content, follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok.⁠⁠

–

Episode Credits

• Written and hosted by Bash
• Edited by Alex Toskas and Bash
• Guest host: Nico Lang

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lincoln is commonly called the greatest president in American history: but what if he was also frequently in love with men?

What if he slept with them in bed for years of his life?

What if he had moved to Fire Island, fallen in love with Bowen Yang, and roamed the beaches like a giant gay giraffe?

Shaun Peterson is the director, writer, and producer of a provocative new documentary on Lincoln's queer side that asks (most of) these urgent questions.

⁠Lover of Men: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln⁠ serves viewers a Boston TEA Party of Honest Abe's "lavender" leanings – and reveals its 150-year-long cover-up.

It's 90 minutes of must-see queer history TV, and you can stream it today on ⁠Apple TV⁠, ⁠Prime Video⁠, and ⁠Vimeo⁠.

–

If you like what you hear in this episode, please leave us a five star rating on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple⁠, or your favorite platform.

Want to join our cult? ⁠Sign up to our newsletter⁠ to keep abreast and a-testicle of all Historical Homos announcements.

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–

Episode Credits

• Written and hosted by Bash
• Edited by Alex Toskas
• Guest host: Shaun Peterson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.)

—

If you want more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult on ⁠⁠our website⁠⁠.

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Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Stephen Brower.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

—

If you want more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult on ⁠our website⁠.

And follow us on Instagram and ⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Do it. Yeahhhhhh just like that.

Written and hosted by Bash. Edited by Alex Toskas. Guest host: Sacha Coward.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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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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– 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!

––––

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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– 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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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.

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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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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, Paestum

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: Cosima Carnegie.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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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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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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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.

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- Lord Brabazon of Tara, House of Lords, December 1957

What 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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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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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 Sebastian
• Giovanni 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).

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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.

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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.

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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

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George wrote over 70 novels and plays between 1804 and 1876, during which she witnessed the rise and fall of SEVEN political regimes in France. When she wasn't busy writing about women's oppression and worker's rights, she was actively rubbing shoulders (and genitals) with Paris' liberal media elite.

And she did it all traipsing around in men's clothes, bedding a hot actress named Marie Dorval, and falling in love with luminaries like Frederic Chopin and Alfred de Musset.

Which begs the question, what have you ever done?

Our guest this week is the brilliant playwright and actress Léa Des Garets, whose new play GEORGE portrays our heroine in all her queer glory. Catch it in London at the Omnibus Theatre this June.

For more, sign up for our newsletter at:www.historicalhomos.com

You can also follow us on Instagram and TikTok.

This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash and Lea Des Garets, and edited by Alex Toskas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Bash is thrilled to be sharing the mic this week with a dear friend and hysterical comedia, Rachel Joravsky, to talk about a fascinating and oft-overlooked group: Ancient. Jewish. Lesbians.

Rachel is a TV writer, comedian, activist, educator, and self-acclaimed "power Jewess," so naturally we took a gay look at The Book of Ruth together (shout out to all the Ketuvim) to uncover what is so "queer" about two women living together and raising a baby on their farm. (Hint: a lot.)

We also delve into the medieval Rabbinic scholars' views on how to deal with lesbians (hint: flogging), and we cap it all off with the story of a modern day Ruth and Naomi in honor of our guest's Jewish Socialist tendencies.

Pauline Newman and Frieda Miller raised their daughter together in Greenwich Village in the 1920s and were fundamental to the US Labor movement's inclusion of women's rights. As always, come for the fabulously sexy history and stay for the jokes about Jewish pu$$y ("It's Chosen," says Rachel.)

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

www.instagram.com/historical.homos

www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

This episode was written, researched, and hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're reviewing an old favorite called "The Favourite" (God, I'm a poet). Starring Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, and Emma Stone, this sultry romp follows an alleged love triangle that rocked 18th century England. It's the story of Queen Anne, last royal of the Stuart line, and the rugmunching rivalry of her court favorites: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and Abigail Masham, Baroness...something.

But how much of the film is true to history? Who served the fiercest c*nt in life vs. onscreen? And most importantly, who read whomst to truest filth? Come for the bisexy history and stay for our Top Five Period Moments in all the familiar menstrual categories: Sex, Tears, Violence, Misogyny, and our favorite, Quippery & Bitchery.

For more, follow us on Instagram, TikTok and on our website: www.historicalhomos.com

This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash and Lucy Hendra, and edited by Ross Brennan.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The lack of public restrooms for women in particular has been a central and often-overlooked foundation of the patriarchy, which demands that women stay at home. But people (read: conservatives) have also used the public restroom to attack gay men, Black people, and more recently, trans people.

Bathroom policing isn't really about biological difference or the threat of sexual violence. It's about the privileged few deciding who does and doesn't get to exist in public. Tune in to discover this shitty history, so we can start flushing it into the past where it belongs.

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

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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.

This week, we examine the life, luxuries, and labial exploits of Françoise Raucourt, one of 18th century Paris' most iconic lesbian actresses. La Raucourt catapulted to fame at the age of 16, and stayed in the public eye plus ou moins for the next 40 years.

Renowned for her lavish spending as much as her riotous rugmunching, she survived the fall of France's royals, the Revolution, and the Napoleonic Chode himself with sapphic savvy.

We'll also explain in this episode how the 18th century turned Bash gay, because you are clearly dying to know.

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

www.instagram.com/historical.homos

www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

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.

Beautiful stories abound in Chinese literature and history of queer love, from doting emperors to divine influencers in the spirit world. We are of course primarily concerned with the latter.

Tu'Er Shen, or "Rabbit God," got his start as a lowly bureaucrat in 18th century China, but now he presides over all our gay relationships, thanks to his connections in the Afterlife. You will want him on your team, so tune in to this week's episode and learn how to please capital H-I-M.

We'll also cover gay marriage in 17th century China because frankly we're the only journalists prepared to do so.

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

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www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

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.

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

www.instagram.com/historical.homos

www.tiktok.com/historicalhomos

This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Lucy Hendra and Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now, why does that qualify her to be on this podcast? No one knows, and no one cares. Least of all our subject this week: Alexander the Great, Murdering, Bisexual Fuckboy. We are taking it back to Ancient Greece because that's where Bash feels safe. Plus, the parallels between his life and Alexander's are just straight up freaky! You'll also discover what Grindr tribes Alexander had on his profile, whether eunuchs can pee or not, and why Lucy should ultimately apologize to Bash for everything straight people have done wrong in history.

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

www.instagram.com/historical.homos

www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

This episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Lucy and Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For more, follow us at:

www.historicalhomos.com

www.instagram.com/historical.homos

www.tiktok.com/historicalhomos

This episode of Historical Homos is hosted by Bash and Donal Brophy, written and researched by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Historical Homos was hosted and written by Bash, executive produced by Zachary Quinto, and edited by Alex Toskas.

For more, follow us at:

⁠⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Historical Homos is hosted by Bash and Donal Brophy, written by Bash, edited by Alex Toskas, and executive produced by Zachary Quinto.

For more, follow us at:

⁠⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Written and Hosted by Bash

Executive Produced by Zachary Quinto

Edited by Alex Toskas

Follow Historical Homos at our website www.historicalhomos.com and on Instagram @historical.homos.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Bash for a bonus episode as he dives *deep* into the Sacred Band of Thebes – if only, sigh – an ancient Greek military experiment that led one city-state to total domination over her apparently-not-gay-enough neighbors. That is, until their utter annihilation at the hands of a notorious, warmongering, bisexual megalomaniac (guess who!).

Written and hosted by Bash. Executive Produced by Zachary Quinto. Edited by Alex Toskas.

P.S. Sorry about the terrible audio quality on this one. Mama will fix it for next time.

For more, follow us at:

⁠⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Written by Bash. Hosted by Bash and Donal Brophy. Executive Produced by Zachary Quinto. Edited by Alex Toskas.

For more, follow us at:

⁠⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Written by Bash. Hosted by Bash and Donal Brophy. Executive Produced by Zachary Quinto. Edited by Alex Toskas.

For more, follow us at:

⁠⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠⁠

⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Written by Bash. Hosted by Bash and Donal Brophy. Executive Produced by Zachary Quinto. Edited by Alex Toskas.

For more, follow us at:

⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠

⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠

⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted by Bash and Donal Brophy. Executive Produced by Zachary Quinto.

For more, follow us at:

⁠www.historicalhomos.com⁠

⁠www.instagram.com/historical.homos⁠

⁠www.tiktok.com/@historicalhomos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.