Historical Homos

PERIOD PIECE is back!Lucy returns, with her flow in tow, for another historical film that I mansplain to her because education 👏 never 👏 stops.This month, we're digging into MAESTRO, Bradley Cooper's biopic about the glorious, complicated, and very gay star conductor of the 20th century: Leonard Bernstein.Lenny was so much more than Gigi Hadid's boyfriend shows us. His life was full of fame and cocaine and fabulous people, yes, but he also struggled with his identity and image as a father, political activist, homosexual, husband, and atheist-leaning Jew.Tune in to discover the truth about LB's scandalously gay affairs, equally scandalous political activism, and of course the toiletries kit where he kept his personal stash (uppers on the left, downers on the right).At the grand finale, Lucy and I will share our Standing Ovulations in all standard categories: Horny, Tears, Violent, Do I Look Hot?, and Quippery & Bitchery.For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.comAnd 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.

"Saint Sebastian is really just a Bored Office Twink." – R. Eric Thomas (April 2024)Welcome to the wildly erotic, superheroic world of Saint Sebastian, who was initially martyred as a rugged Roman soldier before he blossomed into the lithe, Lana-Del-Rey-loving twink we cherish today.Scientists now know it was the extremely gay Italian Renaissance that decided Saint Sebastian should ALWAYS be painted with skimpy loincloths and penetrative arrows, leaving 80% of any canvas to be devoted entirely to his exposèd flesh.Along the way, Saint Seb – and the name Sebastian itself – has become a byword for "definitely gay maybe also kinky vibes" (a clunky phrase that needed a byword – thanks for that, Seb!). But how did this association with homosexuality develop?Join our hysterically homosexual guest, R. Eric Thomas, as we uncover the truth about the OG Sebastian; his Middle Age superpowers that totally didn't stop the plague; making the career jump from Patron- to Pin-Up Saint; and finally, his reception amongst modern gays today.Click on the paintings we discuss to follow along:7th century Saint SebastianGiovanni del Biondo - Sebastian (1350s)Saint Sebastian praying to Jesus (1490s)Andrea Mantegna - Saint Sebastians (1450s)Sandro Botticelli - Saint Sebastian (1474)Il Sodoma - Saint Sebastian (1525)Guido Reni - Saint Sebastian (1615)Gianlorenzo Bernini - Saint Sebastian (1618)Nicolas Regnier - Saint Sebastian (1620)Keith Haring - Saint Sebastian (1984)For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.comAnd 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).

"And it is well-known that the King of England f*cks the Duke of Buckingham." – Theophile de Viau (1628)If you've been watching Mary & George on STARZ, then you must be desperate to know how much of it is true. And the answer, my curious queers, is: a lot!George Villiers, the scheming twink who dominated King James I's court, was hot and 100% DTF. He won titles, land, and money for himself by sacrificing these gay virtues at the altar of the king's pleasure.But who was George the man? Was his royal boyf really in love with him (or indeed George with James)? And were George's narcissistic antics responsible for driving the country into the ground, laying the path for King Charles I's beheading in 1649?Join me and my fabulous, hilarious, and shockingly erudite guest, Guy Branum, to steep yourself in the deeply queer historical tea.For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.comAnd 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.

Long live Queen James I of England!James, as our guest Guy Branum notes this week, was always a little “dyke-y”.Obsessed with love and relationships, she ruled Scotland and England entirely from her heart – and through her loins. James was known above all for promoting his male favourites to intolerable positions of power and wealth.The rest of the court loathed these scheming twinks. But George Villiers, the most successful of them all, was particularly devastating to James’ credibility.Tune into Part One to learn about James I's sleazy Scottish beginnings, and prepare for our next episode on George Villiers, his faggiest favourite!For more from Historical Homos, you can join our cult at: www.historicalhomos.comAnd follow us on Instagram and TikTok. NOW.

Welcome to our queer book club! Here's your cat and gluten-free martini, please have a seat.This week we're discussing Virginia Woolf's suicide (it's my Roman Empire), giant red leather dildos, and the realization that sex between women may be the greatest threat to masculinity in 10,000 years.You'll find it all and more, you greedy guts, in our hilarious and fascinating interview with Kirsty Loehr, the author and queer historian behind A Short History of Queer Women.Kirsty's 2,500-year romp through lesbian, bisexual, and trans history will grab you by the mind-pussy (WITH CONSENT) from start to finish.Featuring more than 100 overlooked queer women and trans men from all over the world, Kirsty's wry and witty tome shows us that queerness has reared its bedazzled head in every era before our own.For more from Historical Homos, sign up for our newsletter at: www.historicalhomos.comAnd follow us on Instagram and TikTok.Episode Credits:Writing & Research: BashEditing: Alex Toskas

Historical Homos is back! This week we cover George Sand, who was, get this, a woman! And a writer! And queer!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.comYou 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.

While Lucy is off gallivanting in Europe this week, spreading hetero cheer to the needy, we invited our dear friend, Rachel Joravsky, to talk about a fascinating, but 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 together at The Book of Ruth (shout out to all the Ketuvim) to discuss what could possibly be so gay about two women living together and raising a baby on their farm. 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.comwww.instagram.com/historical.homoswww.tiktok.com/@historicalhomosThis episode was written, researched, and hosted by Bash, and edited by Alex Toskas.

Where the F do gendered bathrooms come from? To literally no one’s surprise, public bathrooms only became available to people who are not cis men a couple hundred years ago. Because guess what? If you can't pee in public, you can't BE in public for very long. 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. But bathroom policing isn't 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.comwww.instagram.com/historical.homoswww.tiktok.com/@historicalhomosThis episode was written and researched by Bash, hosted by Bash and Lucy Hendra, and edited by Alex Toskas.