The “bad gays” of history, explaed a podst - Vox

Contents:

• WHY WE NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY
• BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY
• LEARNG FROM THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORYLEARNG FROM THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN
• EMEM ADMS THE INTERVIEW SCENE WHERE HE ME OUT AS GAY TOOK MULTIPLE TAK

WHY WE NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY

Bad Gays, focg on the “evil and plited gay men history, ” tri to tell some of the stori that get left out. Bad Gays’ first episo ncerns a ls well-known figure: Nazi lear Ernst Röhm, “the world’s first openly gay polician.

” The show later turns to perhaps the first publisher of gay, lbian, and transgenr magaz — who tried to appease the Nazis. Listeners also hear about a very different si of Andrew Sullivan, the ntemporary wrer who helped popularize the nservative se for gay marriage and ntu to argue agast perceived radilism the LGBTQ muny.

BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY

An actual spy stggl wh layers of ncealed inty, and the season ends wh a fixture of the McCarthy era and Donald Tmp mentor, Roy Cohn, who aids a wch hunt agast imaged gay spi the US ernment. Each of the subjects be totally fascatg through Bad Gays’ lens; the rigoro rearch and eye for tellg tails evoke the feelg of unravelg a mystery.

LEARNG FROM THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORYLEARNG FROM THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY

It’s also pretty funny — each episo ends wh realy TV-style snap judgments of “bad gay or not bad gay? In the meantime, our nversatn about how they choose their subjects, bat over gay inty history, “evil twk energy, ” and how we might learn om the mistak of the bad gays, is below. For , the tert is not to perpetuate the ia of the good and bad role mols, but to e the ia of the “bad gay” to talk about thgs that jt focg on activist hero or thors or artists might not allow you accs to.

The show is, so far, about the bad gay men of history bee, as you repeatedly note, “men are fnally the most bad. I thk on the qutn of your stereotypil “good gay” — I mean, one of the people that we profile, Andrew Sullivan, is someone whose entire kd of public reer has been about embodyg and promotg the good gay as a liftyle.

In that particular se, the kd of “born this way” le about gay people is first ed a big splashy public settg not as an activist plea but as a kd of exce for murr, the ntext of this very strange trial. Which is jt btal how tri to be bslike and rdial about the dangers they face om public scty as gay men while still makg clear his te feelgs.

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

There seems to be some bate among historians about how we should treat the language ed the private letters and other rrponnce om the era, about how we might perceive “rrectly” or “rrectly” gay inty historil documents. So for , when we talk about a figure like Jam I and VI, to e the term “gay” is on the one hand totally absurd bee mak absolutely no sense given the historil ntext which he lived.

On the other hand, what do we learn by cludg him a seri of shows about different kds of bad or evil gay men history? Bee you see an article a gay magaze praisg a Nazi, and you know the wrg of that headle be irristible. One of the most tertg arguments I thk you make on the show is that Andrew Sullivan sort of vented gay marriage and that the nservative se he ma for was actually a vastatg setback for LGBTQ rights.

[Miller and Lemmey see Sullivan’s work the ia that gay marriage — and makg queer people’s liv look more like those of rich whe straight people — is the end goal of the LGBTQ rights movement.

EMEM ADMS THE INTERVIEW SCENE WHERE HE ME OUT AS GAY TOOK MULTIPLE TAK

And terms like gay marriage and ias of relatnship regnn have been a part of a lot of different kds of activism, about which people might have a lot of different kds of feelgs sce well before Sullivan.

What I thk is tertg is the gay marriage that we got, at least the English-speakg world.