Bad Gays: A Homosexual History - Harvard Book Store

Contents:

• BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY
• LEARNG FROM THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORYLEARNG FROM THE “BAD GAYS” OF HISTORY
• BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
• BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY - HARDVER
• BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY

BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY

An unnventnal history of homosexualy for rears of The Deviant's War by Eric Cervi. What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary liv reveal more than we might expect? Based on the hugely popular podst seri, Bad Gays subverts the notn of gay ins and queer hero and asks what we n learn about LGBTQ+ history, sexualy and inty through s villas and baddi.

Hadrian * Areto * Jam I and VI * Frerick the Great * Jack Sl * Roger Casement * Lawrence of Arabia * The Bad Gays of Weimar * Margaret Mead * J. They show that homosexualy self was an ia that emerged the neteenth century and that s terpretatn has been central to major historil moments of nflict om the ptur of Weimar Republic to red-bag Cold War Ameri. Bad Gays is a passnate argument for rethkg gay polics beyond qutns of inty and the search for solidary across boundari.

Q&AOctober 26, 2022Learng From the “Bad Gays” of HistoryA nversatn wh Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller about queer crooks, villas, and anti-heros, and what we might learn om the sister si of gay polics.

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

Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller’s popular podst and now book, Bad Gays, tak a slightly arch approach to liver a rrective to the domant narrative of heroic queers perfectg liberal society. In each of their refully rearched chapters, they adopt one or more of the tular “bad gays” as an opportuny for a plited discsn of certa unsavory characters who neverthels left cisive marks on the shape of ntemporary sexual and genr inti, or whose experience provis a eful reference pot agast which to measure their change. The “bad gay” is a venerable slur, gleefully ployed agast Nazis or other figur of evil to distance their acts om implicly straight nocence by the further charge of sexual viance or, better, self-hatred.

BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY

Recently, I rrpond wh Lemmey and Miller to learn more about their approach to what they ll “homosexual history. Max Fox: One of the bolr premis the book is your claim that the project of homosexualy was a failure. Ben Miller: The quote is that the book “vtigat the failure of whe male homosexualy as an inty and a polil project.

” Whe male homosexualy is one of the most succsful polil projects of the 20th century terms of s abily to achieve civil rights and state regnn rerd time. Huw and I are both whe male homosexuals; we stand on top of that inty and are implited s succs, failur, exclns, and the vlence ’s done to others on s long march through the stutns.

One is the gree to which the whe gay man benefed om and evolved out of European lonizatn of the Global South—ias about lonized people circulated metropolan pals and served as the foundatn for gay activists’ claims about themselv, their histori, and their inti. Meanwhile, those gays were often plic the lonial project—some, like Cecil Rhos, were lears of that project—and too many whe gay movements have ignored or actively opprsed queer-of-lor anizg. Another is the whe gay man’s rejectn of femy and genr nonnformy: In tryg to be a “real man, ” he’s often thrown alli unr the b.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

MF: The gamb of thkg about “bad gays” is a way to move agast a certa figure of the homosexual as an eternally and ply opprsed inty, which was central to bids for rights on the basis of s rpectabily. So terms of gay polics, there may be ever more visibily for gay people, but the pth of that reprentatn is shallow; the ia of what sexualy uld mean, how uld challenge and strengthen , is limed.

BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY - HARDVER

The rponse to monkeypox is a great example: When outbreaks started occurrg major European and US ci, was gay men who were disproportnately affected.

To me, that was unsurprisg; although there are lots of ways to be gay, there is a different sex culture among many gay men ci. Yet when those same groups started advotg for accs to emergency health re and vacc, addn to the ual ernment foot-draggg and ristance, we also saw a phback om other LGBTQ people claimg that targetg gay men for vacce programs was “stigmatizg” homosexualy and would label monkeypox as a “gay plague. I thk part of this problem emerg om the reluctance or abily to have hont and ank nversatns between ourselv as gay people.

Gay life has broken through to mastream culture, but largely for a sympathetic straight dience, and discsns tend to be oriented outwards. So when we started Bad Gays, other gays were our dience. I thk that’s an important polil project; when other gays acce , as they have, of “airg our dirty len public, ” I’m OK wh that, bee means we’ve given up censorg our nversatns for the sake of straight people.

BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY

Imagg gay history as a seamls evolutn of ever-creasg rights and visibily is profoundly historilly accurate, and also borg and reactnary.

It led, for example, to the popularizatn of triumph narrativ about civil rights achievements the mid-2010s that helped ntue mobilizg gay movements; now, only a few years later, new far-right moral panics about “groomers” and trans kids monstrate how short-sighted that mobilizatn was. Sadly, isn’t te; history suggts that the gay inty is formed om a seri of moral panics. The moral panics untertuively munite to people the prence and availabily of viatg om the rtrictive norms and fdg solidary gay life.

My ncln om wrg the book is that much of the ep sexual anxiety we’re seeg Europe and the US at the moment, om gay as well as straight people, om an epochal shift wh our current sex-genr system that is very nfg for people who have e to thk of their sexualy as a transhistoril tth, somethg unchanged through the centuri that has only, the past century, been allowed to flower.