Historical Homos

🏴‍☠️ Before there was BRAT, there were Butt Pirates. 🏴‍☠️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 privateersHow pirate ships fucked up the burgeoning capitalism (and monopolistic tendencies) of 17th century imperial powersTheir extraordinarily lush accessories budgetHow to board and charge a ship nakedThe 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 roommatesAnd, 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 CreditsWritten and hosted by Bash. Guest: Rebecca Simon.Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Leonardo da Vinci? More like Leonardo da Fist Me.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...sodomyHow the city responded to its "epidemic" of...sodomyLeonardo’s lifelong entanglement with his apprentice/lover/twink-goblin, SalaiThe saga of Michelangelo vs. Leonardo, who were briefly Florence's duelling divas of the dayWhy Leonardo’s refusal to care — about his sexuality or finishing any of his damn paintings — is actually the gayest and most important thing about himIf 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 CreditsWritten and hosted by Bash. Guest: Catherine Fletcher.Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Hot, rich, European, emotionally unavailable... sound familiar?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 vampiresCarmilla, the 19th-century vampire lesbian who walked so Pam and Tara inTrue Blood could one day suckHow Hollywood turned queer people into monsters so they could portray them onscreenWhy vampires got hotter, more leathery, and more counterculture in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemicPlus, 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 CreditsWritten and hosted by Bash. Guest: Sacha Coward.Edited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Heads up! This is the episode where we solve gender.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 TokyoAnd 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.

She was young, she was hot, and she was hated. But did she eat pu$$y?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 powerPlus: 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 CreditsWritten and hosted by Bash. Guest: Eleanor HermanEdited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Once upon a time—aka the 90s, when I bravely decided to be born—gay marriage was the only thing we queers could talk about. 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, 1967You 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 CreditsWritten and hosted by Bash. Guest: Jeremy Atherton LinEdited by Alex Toskas. Produced by Dani Henion.

Imagine a world where you're Russian, gay, and happy about it.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 MilyukovaThe kinky rumors, the tragic myths, and the straight up gay lies about his deathHis read on Wagner (who made him yawn) and the dish on the famous Violin Concerto, dedicated to his hottie violinist crush, Iosif KotekAlong 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.

What's so gay about food? (Besides the fact that you use your mouth for it.)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 brothVirginia Woolf's gay best friend who made English food more French (thank GOD)The Lavender Scare's impact on American foodHow capitalism made food less gay for straight menYou 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.

Why do bottoms always die in Greek mythology?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 fashionYou 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.

The year is 1395. The city: London. The crime: an "unmentionable, ignominious vice" commonly known as sodomy.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 AgeCommon cons to make sure your medieval john paysThe wages for a sex worker in the 1390sWhy the cops REALLY cared about busting trans sex workers 600+ years agoYou 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.