40. Real-Life Xenas: Warrior Women Across the World

Happy 2022 and welcome to another episode of History is Gay! This time, we’re picking up where we left off with Meghan Rose and S.C. Lucier in our discussion of Amazons and real-life warrior women in history! It’s not just the Greco-Roman world that marveled at fierce, strong female fighters, but all over the world! This episode, we’re visiting Benin, Africa to learn about the real-life dora milaje of Black Panther fame, the gender-bending Dahomey Amazons; badass female samurai defending their homesteads in Japan, and Viking shieldmaidens and mythical Valkyries– who may have been a third gender? Strap-in for a whirlwind worldwide tour of gender transgression and badass real-life Xenas we want to see all the movies about!

But first, let me introduce to your fantabulous guest hosts for this episode, Lucier&Rose!

S.C. Lucier

S.C. “Luci” Lucier is an SDC director, writer and librettist. A former member of SCDF Observership Class emerging directors, Lucier is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College’s Theatre Directing program and recently completed a master’s in Theatre/Museology History at The Graduate Center (NYC). Director: HELD: A Musical Fantasy (Fringe 2016, NYMF 2018). Associate Director: Kerrigan-Lowdermilk’s The Bad Years, the new immersive house party musical. Director: multiple Shakespeare at Hip to Hip Theatre Company, Midsummer 2019. Regular collaborator at Jennifer Jancuska’s (Hamilton) The Bringabout, designed at Joyce Theater for Richard Move’s The Show (Achilles Heels) in which Debbie Harry performed, designed at Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theatre, toured on the production team of Martha Graham Dance Company, stage-managed Cape Dance Festival (MA), performed at Baryshnikov Arts Center on roller skates, among others. Lucier captains the championship Gotham Roller Derby team, archives Sally Silver’s choreographic work for NYPL, and is the first staff member of American LGBTQ+ Museum (NYC).

Meghan Rose

Meghan Rose is a composer and musician. She is classically trained in piano, taught herself guitar at 16, joined a ska band in college at University of Wisconsin-Madison and has hopped from band to band and genre to genre ever since. Currently she plays bass in NYC bands Monte and LoveHoney, and in various shows around the city, sometimes even impersonating Courtney Love, Janis Joplin, and Lindsey Buckingham. She has acted as a vocal instructor, bass teacher, and band coach for both the Madison and NYC chapters of Girls Rock Camp. Rose was a music director for the Bartell Theater (Madison) for 6 years, and won awards for best music direction for Xanadu and Bare: A Pop Opera. Written scores include Z-Town: The Zombie Musical (Fringe 2012), an original rock musical called Alice based on Alice in Wonderland (Bartell), Held: A Musical Fantasy (Fringe 2016, NYMF 2018).

You can learn more about S.C. Lucier, Meghan Rose, and Xena: Warrior Musical - The Lost Scroll:

• www.xenawarriormusical.com

• @XenatheMusical Twitter

• @XenaWarrior Musical Instagram

• @XenaWarriorMusical Facebook

• @XenaWarriorMusical Youtube

You can purchase and download the entire concept album for Xena: Warrior Musical on Bandcamp!

Amazon-Like Women in Africa: the mino/agojie, also known as the Dahomey Amazons!

This fierce military regiment of women warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), originating in the early 19th century, were truly formidable opponents and carry their own impressive stories and legends passed down to current-day Beninese locals!

Illustration of mino women by Chris Hellier

Group of veteran Amazons at a summit meeting held in Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, in 1908

Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, a mino leader holding the decapitated head of an enemy, illustrated by one of the missionary visitors who wrote 18th and 19th century accounts, Frederick Forbes, in 1851.

Magazine cover depicting the last king of independent Dahomey, Behanzin, flanked by mino attendants and bodyguards.

The Dahomey Amazons around 1890.

A group of Amazons on their trip to Paris, assumed in the late 1800s.

Unknown mino warrior, photographed near the end of the kingdom.

King Gezo, who expanded the female corps from around 600 women to as many as 6,000

Illustration from one of the missionary accounts, depicting a parade of mino after battle displays, severed heads of their enemies displayed on the tops of the walls.

As mentioned in our Pop-Culture Tie-In, Lupita Nyong’o visited Benin in 2019 for a BBC documentary called Warrior Women, in which she went into the entire history of the Dahomey Amazons! It is available online on BBC4’s website, and if you don’t live there, you can use a VPN to check out the full documentary, it’s absolutely worth it! But we have a wonderful clip here for you:

And here’s another video on the Dahomey Amazons that has some great information:

Let’s hop over to Japan and take a look at female samurai warriors, the onna-bugeisha and onna-musha!

The image of the samurai that has been taken hold in history and pop-culture is an extremely masculine one, but there were several female warriors in the bushi throughout Japan’s history that were just as significant as the men, with the specific role as defensive fighters (or if you were an onna-musha, going off to fight and joining the samurai)!

An onna-musha named Ishi-jo wielding a naginata, a curved pole-arm sword made specifically for women which allowed them to fight nimbly and take advantage of distance combat. Illustrated by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1848.

The first onna-bugeisha, the legendary Empress Jingū, depicted when she set forth in Silla (modern-day Korea. Painted by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1880. Credit: Waseda University Theatre Museum

Empress Jingū is also the first woman in Japanese history (legend or otherwise) to be featured on a banknote!

Tomoe Gozen, one of the most well-known and respected onna-musha, and considered Japan’s first general. She decapitated an enemy by wrenching his head against the pommel of her saddle! Painted by Kangetsu Shitomi. Collection of Tokyo National Museum

Another onna-musha and contemporary of Tomoe Gozen, Hangaku Gozen. Painted by Yoshitoshi. Credit: US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Tomoe Gozen at the Battle of Awazu

And then here we have some pictures of Nakano Takeko, and we couldn’t resist showcasing this quote from one report during the siege of Aizu:

With her tied-back hair, trousers, and steely eyes, [she] radiated an intense 'male spirit' and engaged the enemy troops, killing five or six with her naginata.”

A recreated photo of Nakano Takeko, onna-musha of the Aizu Domain, who fought and died in the Boshin War in 1868. She led a group of female warriors called the joshitai, or Girls’ Army, during a renaissance and essentially last-stand of the onna-bugeisha!

Another image of Nakano Takeko.

A photograph of an unknown onna-musha, often misidentified or attributed to Nakano Takeko. This woman is likely an actress, but she still looks SUPER cool!

Statue of Nakano Takeko at Hōkai-ji shrine in Aizubange, Fukushima. Today, many naginata schools are even named for her.

And finally, were there real life Lagerthas out there in the Norselands? We’ve got some Viking women warrior graves and historical artifacts that say so!

Strong female warriors have shown up for centuries in Norse and Scandinavian Viking sagas, depicting fierce shield maidens and mythical Valkyries who fly on horses and escort fallen men to the halls of Valhalla. And recent discoveries of warrior graves throughout Sweden and other northern European territories are showing that they may have been less myth than originally thought!

An image stone from Sweden shows a female figure bearing drinking horns to a rider on an eight-legged horse (what up, Loki), very well depicting a mythical Valkyrie.

Another picture stone from Stenkyrka Parish (Lillbjärs III), depicting a valkyrie guiding a fallen warrior to Valhalla.

Mythical valkyries Hildr, Þrúðr and Hlökk bearing ale in Valhalla (1895) by Lorenz Frølich

The Norse Sagas and histories, like the Saxo Grammaticus and Gesto Danorum, tell the story of several shieldmaidens like Hervor, depicted here as she retrieves Tyrfing, the magical sword of her dead father, on the island of Angantyr. Painted by Christian Gottliebe Kratzenstein

Silver figure of a woman with a drinking horn, found in Birka, Sweden

Various Viking-age jewelry depicting valkyries!

Figurine found in the village of Hårby, on the island of Funen in Denmark. Thought to be dated around 800 BCE and the Viking age, and this one is unique in that it’s one of the few found that are 3 dimensional! She is thought to depict, obviously, a valkyrie, but other possibilities are a shield maiden or the Norse goddess Freya.

Illustration of the infamous Birka, Sweden viking warrior grave, labeled BJ 581 by Hjalmar Stolpe in 1889. In it, you can see this warrior was buried with not one, but two horses, multiple weapons, and even a gamjng set, indicating that she was an officer! Originally thought to be a male grave, osteological and DNA evidence from 2014 and 2017, respectively, confirmed the skeleton was female!

Weapons found in the BJ 581 Birka, Sweden gravesite.

If you want to learn more about all the various warrior women from this episode, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Books and Print Articles:

• “The Valkyrie’s Gender: Old Norse Shield-Maidens and Valkyries as a Third Gender” by Kathleen M. Self, Feminist Formations, Spring 2014, Vol. 26, No. 1

• “Ladies with Axes and Spears” by Santa Jansone, Medieval Warfare, 2014, Vol. 4, No. 2, Theme - Queens and Valkyries - Women as warriors (2014, pp. 9-12

• “The ‘Amazons’ of Dahomey” by Robin Law, Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, 1993, Bd. 39 (1993), pp. 245-260

Online Articles/Resources:

• “The History of the Onna-Bugeisha, Japan’s Bad Ass Female Samurai” by Katie Serena for All That’s Interesting

• “How Onna-Bugeisha, Feudal Japan’s Women Samurai, Were Erased from History” by Christobel Hastings for VICE

• “The Forgotten Tales of the Female Samurai” - Catawiki.com

• Onna-Musha Wikipedia article

• "The Warrior Woman" by Geoffrey Bunting for History of Yesterday

• “Unearthing the Secret Life of a Viking Warrior Woman” by Sarah Durn for Atlas Obscura

• “Did Viking shield maidens really exist?” from SKY History

• “An officer and a gentlewoman from the viking army in Birka” from Science Daily

• Gesta Danorum (The Danish History) by Saxo Grammaticus, available on Project Gutenberg

• “Dahomey’s Women Warriors” by Mike Dash for The Smithsonian

• “Warrior Women of West Africa” by Michael Lyons for Xtra Magazine

• “The legend of Benin’s fearless female warriors” by Fleur Macdonald for BBC

• “Meet the Most Feared Women in History” for MessyNessy
  
  

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

39. The Amazons: Stoner Horse Girl Warriors of Antiquity

In this episode, we introduced everyone to all the details we could fit about the badass warrior women of antiquity, the Amazons! In this first part of a two-part episode examining warrior women throughout history, we dove full-tilt into the myths, legends, and misconceptions about the all-female militant society that struck fear into the hearts of ancient Greek men – powerful women, GASP! Where did these stories come from? How queer were they? And were they real, or just figments of mythology? Listen to the episode for those answers, and come back here for more bonus material!

But first, let me introduce to your fantabulous guest hosts for this episode, Lucier&Rose!

S.C. Lucier

S.C. “Luci” Lucier is an SDC director, writer and librettist. A former member of SCDF Observership Class emerging directors, Lucier is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College’s Theatre Directing program and recently completed a master’s in Theatre/Museology History at The Graduate Center (NYC). Director: HELD: A Musical Fantasy (Fringe 2016, NYMF 2018). Associate Director: Kerrigan-Lowdermilk’s The Bad Years, the new immersive house party musical. Director: multiple Shakespeare at Hip to Hip Theatre Company, Midsummer 2019. Regular collaborator at Jennifer Jancuska’s (Hamilton) The Bringabout, designed at Joyce Theater for Richard Move’s The Show (Achilles Heels) in which Debbie Harry performed, designed at Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theatre, toured on the production team of Martha Graham Dance Company, stage-managed Cape Dance Festival (MA), performed at Baryshnikov Arts Center on roller skates, among others. Lucier captains the championship Gotham Roller Derby team, archives Sally Silver’s choreographic work for NYPL, and is the first staff member of American LGBTQ+ Museum (NYC).

Meghan Rose

Meghan Rose is a composer and musician. She is classically trained in piano, taught herself guitar at 16, joined a ska band in college at University of Wisconsin-Madison and has hopped from band to band and genre to genre ever since. Currently she plays bass in NYC bands Monte and LoveHoney, and in various shows around the city, sometimes even impersonating Courtney Love, Janis Joplin, and Lindsey Buckingham. She has acted as a vocal instructor, bass teacher, and band coach for both the Madison and NYC chapters of Girls Rock Camp. Rose was a music director for the Bartell Theater (Madison) for 6 years, and won awards for best music direction for Xanadu and Bare: A Pop Opera. Written scores include Z-Town: The Zombie Musical (Fringe 2012), an original rock musical called Alice based on Alice in Wonderland (Bartell), Held: A Musical Fantasy (Fringe 2016, NYMF 2018).

You can learn more about S.C. Lucier, Meghan Rose, and Xena: Warrior Musical - The Lost Scroll:

• www.xenawarriormusical.com

• @XenatheMusical Twitter

• @XenaWarrior Musical Instagram

• @XenaWarriorMusical Facebook

• @XenaWarriorMusical Youtube

You can purchase and download the entire concept album for Xena: Warrior Musical on Bandcamp!

A Closer Look at Amazons in ancient Greek art, literature, and myth!

Stories of Amazons show up in multiple places in Greek literature, including the histories of Herodotus, Homer’s The Iliad, and myths around Heracles, the founding of Athens, and more. Check out some excerpts below.

Herodotus, Book IV: Chapter 100:

The history of the Sauromatae is as I will now show. When the Greeks warred with the Amazons (whom the Scythians call Oiorpata, a name signifying in our tongue killers of men, for in Scythian a man is oior, and to kill is pata) after their victory on the Thermodon they sailed away carrying in three ships as many Amazons as they had been able to take alive; and out at sea the Amazons set upon the crews and threw them overboard. But they knew nothing of ships, nor how to use rudder or sail or oar; and the men being thrown overboard they were borne at the mercy of waves and winds, till they came to the Cliffs by the Maeetian lake; this place is in the country of the free Scythians. There the Amazons landed, and set forth on their journey to the inhabited country. But at the beginning of their journey they found a place where horses were reared; and carrying these horses away they raided the Scythian lands on horseback.

Chapter 114:

Now the men could not learn the women's language, but the women mastered the speech of the men;​ and when they understood each other, the men said to the Amazons, "We have parents and possessions; now therefore let us no longer live as we do, but return to the multitude of our people and consort with them; and we will still have you, and no others, for our wives." To this the women replied, "Nay, we could not dwell with your women; for we and they have not the same customs. We shoot with the bow and throw the javelin and ride, but the crafts of women we have never learned; and your women do none of the things whereof we speak, but abide in their waggons working at women's crafts, and never go abroad a‑hunting or for aught else. We and they therefore could never agree. Nay, if you desire to keep us for wives and to have the name of just men, go to your parents and let them give you the allotted share of their possessions, and after that let us go and dwell by ourselves. The young men agreed and did this.

From Homer’s The Iliad:

In ancient time, when Otreus fill'd the throne,
When godlike Mygdon led their troops of horse,
And I, to join them, raised the Trojan force:
Against the manlike Amazons we stood,
And Sangar's stream ran purple with their blood.
But far inferior those, in martial grace,
And strength of numbers, to this Grecian race.

From the Pseudo-Apollodorus Library of Greek Mythology, describing the ninth labor of Heracles and Hippolyte:

[2.5.9] The ninth labour he enjoined on Hercules was to bring the belt of Hippolyte. She was queen of the Amazons, who dwelt about the river Thermodon, a people great in war; for they cultivated the manly virtues, and if ever they gave birth to children through intercourse with the other sex, they reared the females; and they pinched off the right breasts that they might not be trammelled by them in throwing the javelin, but they kept the left breasts, that they might suckle. Now Hippolyte had the belt of Ares in token of her superiority to all the rest…Having put in at the harbor of Themiscyra, he received a visit from Hippolyte, who inquired why he was come, and promised to give him the belt. But Hera in the likeness of an Amazon went up and down the multitude saying that the strangers who had arrived were carrying off the queen. So the Amazons in arms charged on horseback down on the ship. But when Hercules saw them in arms, he suspected treachery, and killing Hippolyte stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest he sailed away and touched at Troy.

And here, mentioning Penthesilea:

[E.5.1] Penthesilia, daughter of Otrere and Ares, accidentally killed Hippolyte and was purified by Priam. In battle she slew many, and amongst them Machaon, and was afterwards herself killed by Achilles, who fell in love with the Amazon after her death and slew Thersites for jeering at him.

[E.5.2] Hippolyte was the mother of Hippolytus; she also goes by the names of Glauce and Melanippe. For when the marriage of Phaedra was being celebrated, Hippolyte appeared in arms with her Amazons, and said that she would slay the guests of Theseus. So a battle took place, and she was killed, whether involuntarily by her ally Penthesilia, or by Theseus, or because his men, seeing the threatening attitude of the Amazons, hastily closed the doors and so intercepted and slew her.

And Antiope:

[E.1.16] Theseus joined Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons and carried off Antiope, or, as some say, Melanippe; but Simonides calls her Hippolyte. Wherefore the Amazons marched against Athens, and having taken up a position about the Areopagus19 they were vanquished by the Athenians under Theseus. And though he had a son Hippolytus by the Amazon,

[E.1.17] Theseus afterwards received from Deucalion in marriage Phaedra, daughter of Minos; and when her marriage was being celebrated, the Amazon that had before been married to him appeared in arms with her Amazons, and threatened to kill the assembled guests. But they hastily closed the doors and killed her. However, some say that she was slain in battle by Theseus.

And lastly, the tale of Atalanta in the Apollodorus:

[3.9.2] And Iasus had a daughter Atalanta by Clymene, daughter of Minyas. This Atalanta was exposed by her father, because he desired male children; and a she bear came often and gave her suck, till hunters found her and brought her up among themselves. Grown to womanhood, Atalanta kept herself a virgin, and hunting in the wilderness she remained always under arms. The centaurs Rhoecus and Hylaeus tried to force her, but were shot down and killed by her. She went moreover with the chiefs to hunt the Calydonian boar, and at the games held in honor of Pelias she wrestled with Peleus and won. Afterwards she discovered her parents, but when her father would have persuaded her to wed, she went away to a place that might serve as a racecourse, and, having planted a stake three cubits high in the middle of it, she caused her wooers to race before her from there, and ran herself in arms; and if the wooer was caught up, his due was death on the spot, and if he was not caught up, his due was marriage. When many had already perished, Melanion came to run for love of her, bringing golden apples from Aphrodite, and being pursued he threw them down, and she, picking up the dropped fruit, was beaten in the race. So Melanion married her. And once on a time it is said that out hunting they entered into the precinct of Zeus, and there taking their fill of love were changed into lions. But Hesiod and some others have said that Atalanta was not a daughter of Iasus, but of Schoeneus; and Euripides says that she was a daughter of Maenalus, and that her husband was not Melanion but Hippomenes And by Melanion, or Ares, Atalanta had a son Parthenopaeus, who went to the war against Thebes.

Check out some of the depictions of mythical Amazons we have on ancient Greek vases:

An ancient Greek Attic white-ground alabastron, depicting an Amazon wearing pants, wielding a bow. Image credit: British Museum

Atalanta wrestling Peleus. Chalcidian black-figure hydria, ca 6th century BCE. Staatliche Antikensammlung collection, Berlin, Germany.

Check out the geometric patterns and hat on the figure on the right, depicting an Amazon warrior!

Amazonomachy on a vase ca. 420 BCE— check out the similar patterns as above!.

Amazons battling the Athenians, Theseus in the center. It may be Hippolyte or Antiope on the horse. Terracotta red-figure volute-krater, ca 450 BCE, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Amazonomachy frieze on the mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

Heracles battling the Amazons, Hippolyte wearing Ares’ war belt in the center — Attic black-figure neck amphora, ca. 510-500 BCE.

Another vase depicting Heracles battling the Amazons and killing Hippolyte.

And here’s a different version of the myth depicted on a vase— this time Hippolyte freely offering Heracles the war belt. Red-figure bell krater, Campania, Italy, ca. 4th-5th century BCE. Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester.

Achilles killing Penthesilea on an amphora

Look at the contrast between the vases depicting Amazons and this one, showing the more demure, domestic life of Greek women.

Enough with the myths, show me the real deal! A Closer Look at Scythian Warrior Women:

The areas we’re dealing with when talking about Amazons generally consists of the lands surrounding the Black Sea, where various nomadic tribes lived— including the Thracians, Scythians, and Sarmatians:

Artist D V Pozdnjakov’s impression of a Scythian woman warrior on horseback.

Drawings of Scythian tattoos, illustrated by Elena Schumakova, from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethography, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Tattoos of the 13 year old “Ice Princess” Ukok mummy, discovered by Natalya Polosmak on the Ukok Plateau in Siberia.

A 2500 year-old Iranic Scythian woman mummy, showing the stag tattoo on her arm.

Some Scythian tattoo designs seen on a mummy found in 2017 - State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Scythian woman wearing a ceremonial headdress. Institute of Russian Archaeology, Academy of Sciences

Golden Scythian warrior from the Issyk kurgan. Image credit: Derzsi Elekes Andor

Preserved Scythian women’s boots, leather, cloth, tin and gold, excavated from the Pazyryk kurgan area, ca. 300-290 BCE.

Two Scythian warrior women’s graves excavated at a cemetery called Devitsa V in Siberia, which contains 19 burial mounds. Look at the bowed position of the bottom graves’ legs, as if she were riding a horse! Institute of Archaeology RAS.

Mythical Amazon queen Penthesilea being presented with a love-gift of a rabbit by Thracian huntress Theraichme, one of the few pieces of visual evidence we have of possible wlw relationships between Amazons. white-ground alabastron, Pasaides Painter, ca. 525-500 BCE

Small metal plaques depicting Scythians drinking, most likely fermented mares’ milk — State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2017.

Amazon terracotta figures, ca. 300-280 BCE. South Italian Canosan

Detail from a Karagodeuashkh kurgan headdress, showing the Scythian goddess Tabiti surrounded by priestesses and androgynous enarei shamans (shown on the right).

Cannabis burning equipment found in a Scythian grave.

Some gold vessels found in another grave — the Scythians really knew how to make fancy blinged-out bongs!

Check out author of The Amazons: Lives & Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, Adrienne Mayor, presenting a TED Talk!

And another talk by Adrienne Mayor, for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology!

If you want to learn more about Amazons and Scythian warriors, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Books and Print Articles:

• The Amazons: Lives & Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor

• “Amazons: Warrior Women of the Ancient World”, National Geographic History, January 2020 issue

• The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus, translated by Robin Hard

Online Articles/Resources:

• “Atalanta: The Forgotten Greek Heroine” by Bethany Williams, for The Collector

• “Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men” by Simon Worrall, for National Geographic

• “Stanford researcher explores truths behind myths of ancient Amazons” by Fabrice Palumbo-Lium for Stanford News Service

• “Siberian Princess reveals her 2,500 year old tattoos” for The Siberian Times

• “Were There Ever Real Amazons?” by Jessica Mason for The Mary Sue

• “Amazons were long considered a myth. These discoveries show warrior women were real.” by Derek Hawkins for Washington Post

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

38. Trans-sister Radio: Synth Icon Wendy Carlos

For the first time on the pod we’re covering someone who is still among us: Synth pioneer Wendy Carlos. This computer nerd and classical music enthusiast helped create electronic music the way we know it today. Her friend Robert Moog might be the one whose name is attached to the different kinds of synthesizers, but according to Moog himself Wendy Carlos deserves all the credit. From The Beatles to Donna Summer, from The Shining to Daft Punk— none of them would have sounded the way we know them now. Even classical artists like Bach and Beethoven were completely redefined because of Carlos’ work. Get ready for a deep dive into the achievements of this transistor trans sister!

But first, let me introduce to you our guest host for this episode, Hannah van Rhee!

Music plays a huge role in queer life. With so many memories, anecdotes and other stories that have songs attached to them, it would be a shame if no one would ever share them. Through the QueerSounds podcast, Hannah van Rhee (they/them) hopes to give queer folks a break from all kinds of activism by creating a space where they can just talk about their favourite songs and have a laugh. From obscure Indonesian movie soundtracks to the biggest pop divas in the world, Hannah and their guests cover it all.

They're born a Pisces and raised in the Netherlands. They're close to getting a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in music marketing and management. Hannah is a stereotypical vegan, yoga-practicing, thrift-shopping brand of queer with some of their favourite types of music being Punk and Disco.

Locate Hannah and QueerSounds upon the internet:

• @duchessofdeer on Twitter

• @queersoundspod Twitter

• @queersoundspod Instagram

• https://queersounds.com

A Closer Look at Wendy Carlos

Robert Moog with his Moog Synthesizer in 1970. Jack Robinson/Getty Images

Wendy in 1972.

Wendy in 1979 at her Moog synthesizer.

Another 1979 photo. Image from Len Delessio/Corbis/Getty Images

Wendy in her studio in 1992, flanked by her three Siamese cats.

Wendy in her studio in the early 1990s

Blueprints for Wendy’s studio in her NYC apartment, lovingly nicknamed “The Spaceship” by her and friends.

Listen to some of Wendy Carlos’ music!

First up, check out the transition from Beethoven’s original composition “Ode an die Freude/Ode to Joy”:

And below, Wendy’s synthesizer version arranged for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in 1971:

And another clip from A Clockwork Orange, this time Beethoven’s Ninth.

Below, the opening sequence to Wendy’s return to Kubrick with The Shining, one of the two tracks produced by Carlos and Elkind that ended up in the final film:

And music from Tron:

Some video interviews featuring Wendy

Before Wendy had come out publicly, here she is demonstrating her Moog in 1970, with the pasted-on sideburns and wig, dressing in drag for this BBC feature.

And here’s another from BBC, this time in 1989

Here’s one with her and Robert Moog!

We’re not usually fans of Amazon around here, but considering you can’t get Wendy’s music anywhere online other than the few bits we linked to above, they will be the best resource for purchasing her albums! You can check them all out here.

If you want to learn more about Wendy Carlos, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Books and Print Articles:

• Bell, A. Playboy Interview: Wendy Carlos, 1979. 

• Bond, J. "A Clockwork Composer." FilmScore Monthly Magazine, 1999. 

• Moog, Robert. “Wendy Carlos: New Directions for a Synthesizer Pioneer”, Keyboard Magazine, November 1982. 

• Reed, Susan. “After a Sex Change and Several Eclipses, Wendy Carlos Treads a New Digital Moonscape.” People Magazine, July 1, 1985.
  

Online Articles/Resources:

• WendyCarlos.com

• Graham, M. (2018, nov 20) Switched-On Bach: How a transgender synth pioneer changed music. The Irish Times 

• Foley, Ryan. "Wendy Carlos", Music Museum of New England

• Manzella, Sam. “Love Synth Pop? Thank Wendy Carlos, the Trans Woman Who Invented It”, New Now Next, October 25, 2019. 

• Oteri, Frank J. "Wendy's World". New Music Box USA, April 1, 2007.

• Riedel, Samantha (October 10, 2019). “Gen(d)erations: Wendy Carlos’ Life and Work Show the Beauty (and Trauma) of Being Openly Trans”, them. 

• Rogers, Jude. “She Made Music Jump into 3D: Wendy Carlos, the reclusive synth genius”, The Guardian. Nov 11, 2020. 

• Uppal, Shrishti. “The Story of Wendy Carlos And Why Synth Pop is Trans Culture”. Gaysi: The Gay Desi. December 10, 2020.

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

36 & 37. The Life of Pauli Murray

For this two-part episode, Leigh is joined by return guest host, Aubree Calvin to do a deep dive into the story of Pauli Murray, an important African American lawyer, and activist who is finally getting the historical attention they deserve. In their time, Murray was a labor rights, civil rights, and women’s rights activist, and broke significant barriers all while facing sexism and racism. In addition to having a brilliant legal mind, they were a writer, poet, and priest, and had time to be friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Pauli Murray should be in every U.S. History book in every K-12 school.

So, if Pauli Murray was so important to so many movements, why has history largely forgotten them? Leigh and Aubree try to answer that across two episodes — the first, looking at their upbringing, many careers, and accomplishments, then in part two, discussing their multfaceted queerness and try to get a handle, as best we can, on their gender identity.

• www.aubreecalvin.com

• Aubree Writes on Facebook

• @BreeinTX on Twitter

Aubree, or Bree to her friends and enemies alike, is a black, queer trans woman on the edge of turning 40. A southerner for most of her life, Aubree has family roots across the south. She loves studying politics, history, and learning about all aspects of queer culture. Aubree started her podcast, Southern Queeries, because she’s tired of society ignoring the south's diverse communities. Professionally, Aubree is a community college government professor and part time writer. When not talking, teaching, or writing, Aubree’s spending her free time with her wonderful wife and daughter.

We also got the opportunity to speak with amazing activist, lawyer, and reproductive justice advocate Preston Mitchum, previously Policy Director at URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity) and current Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project, on his own personal history coming to Pauli Murray’s story, how they influenced him as a Black queer man, and continues to inspire and influence current and future generations of queer civil rights attorneys all across the country.

Preston Mitchum is a Black and queer civil rights advocate, writer and public speaker who uses critical thinking and intersectionality in his writing and analyses. In his role as Policy Director at URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, he shaped state and federal strategies and policies that center the voices and leadership of young people in the South and Midwest. Prior to joining URGE, Preston served as senior legal and international policy analyst with Advocates for Youth. Preston is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center teaching LGBTQ Health Law and Policy, is the co-chair of the board of directors for the Collective Action for Safe Spaces and was also the first openly LGBTQ chair of the Washington Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.

Preston can be found online at:

• www.prestonmitchum.com

• @preston.mitchum on Instagram

• @prestonmitchum on Twitter

A Closer Look at Pauli Murray

Pauli presenting their family biography, Proud Shoes, presents the first edition of their book to Lloyd K. Garrison, former president of the National Urban League.

Pauli in Ghana, where they taught law briefly in the 1960s.

Pauli after earning their JSD from Yale in 1965.

Pauli with Betty Friedan and others who would be influential in founding NOW

A Little Glimpse into Pauli’s Gender Journey

“Why do I prefer experimentation on the male side, instead of attempted adjustment as a normal woman?”

Pauli’s various “identities” they tried out and modeled in a 1930s photo album they titled “The Life and Times of an American Called Pauli Murray”:

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"The Vagabond"

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"The Crusader"

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"The Imp"

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"The Dude"

Pauli in New Hampshire, Nov 1955. They sent this photo to Eleanor Roosevelt, describing it as “It’s my most natural self, I think”. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

Some of Pauli’s Loves

Pauli’s longtime partner Irene “Renee” Barlow

Pauli with their girlfriend Peggy Holmes, who they met at the New Deal Women’s Camp. LOOK HOW CUTE THIS IS!

Pauli with their dog, Doc, at Benedict College, SC in 1967.

Pauli with another of their dogs, Roy, in 1976

Pauli with their BFF for life, Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1962 on a trip to Val-Kill Cottage, Hyde Park.

Pauli, The Reverend and Poet

Pauli in their Virginia apartment, 1977, after becoming a reverend.

Pauli’s portrait at Yale Law, unveiled in November 2018.

Listen to Pauli read the entirety of Dark Testament:

Pauli reading from their epic poem, “Dark Testament”

“Rediscovering Pauli Murray”, a panel discussion from 2017 at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, featuring panelists Patricia Bell-Scott, Brittney Cooper, Rosalind Rosenberg, and Kenneth W. Mack.

If you liked hearing our episode on Pauli, you might also you might also enjoy these Pop-Culture Tie-Ins:

• My Name is Pauli Murray (2021)

• Amend: The Fight for America, Episode 4: “Control” on Netflix

If you want to learn more about Pauli Murray, the 14th Amendment, and more, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles & Resources:

• Meet the Forgotten Woman Who Forever Changed The Lives of LGBTQ+ Workers

• Who is Pauli Murray? | The Pauli Murray Center 

• QSpirit: Pauli Murray - Queer saint who stood for racial and gender equality

• "The Many Lives of Pauli Murray" by Kathryn Schulz 

• The Pauli Murray Family Home | National Park Service 

• N.O.W. | Finding Pauli Murray: The Black Queer Feminist Civil Rights Lawyer Priest who co-founded NOW, but that History Nearly Forgot

• Imp, Crusader, Dude, Priest

• Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Beloved Radical

Books and Print Articles:

• Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family by Pauli Murray

• Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage by Pauli Murray

• Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind Rosenberg

• Dark Testament: and Other Poems by Pauli Murray

• The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship by Patricia Bell-Scott

• “Poetry, Ethics, and the Legacy of Pauli Murray” by Christiana Z. Peppard in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2010).

• “Boy-girl, Imp, Priest: Pauli Murray and the Limits of Identity” by Doreen M. Drury in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 2013).

Films/Audio:

• Pauli Murray reads "Dark Testament"

• Sundance Doc Honors Civil Rights Pioneer Pauli Murray 

• RBG Wanted People To Know More About One of Her Legal Heroes | TIME

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

31. The Gaymother of Rock n' Roll, O.G. Electric Lady: Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Holy crap, y’all! It’s already AUGUST. Somehow this year has simultaneously lasted forever and also gone by way too quickly. We’re back in your podcatchers today with a new episode, this time introducing you all to the Godmother (or Gaymother) of Rock n’ Roll, the original stadium rockstar, and badass Black woman guitar virtuoso, Sister Rosetta Tharpe! Think Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry invented rock n’ roll? Think again! Sister Rosetta was shredding on guitar way before them, and it’s time she gets the credit she is due. She broke boundaries wherever she went, straddling the line between worldly and chaste, secular and gospel, and loved both men and women.

But first, let me introduce to you our friend and fantastic guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin!

You can also find more from Aubree online below:

• www.aubreecalvin.com

• Aubree Writes on Facebook

• @BreeinTX on Twitter

Aubree, or Bree to her friends and enemies alike, is a black, queer trans woman on the edge of turning 40. A southerner for most of her life, Aubree has family roots across the south. She loves studying politics, history, and learning about all aspects of queer culture. Aubree started her podcast, Southern Queeries, because she’s tired of society ignoring the south's diverse communities. Professionally, Aubree is a community college government professor and part time writer. When not talking, teaching, or writing, Aubree’s spending her free time with her wonderful wife and daughter.

Aubree and Leigh met through the Friends of Nancy facebook group (RIP Nancy Podcast), and we’re excited to have her join us for this episode and more!

You can hear more from Aubree on her brand new podcast with co-host India Bastien, Southern Queeries, all about LGBTQ life in the south! The first episodes just dropped, and are fantastic!

A Closer Look at Sister Rosetta Tharpe

publicity photo of Sister Rosetta in 1938 shortly after she had been signed to decca records, photo by james j. kriegsmann

Rosetta and marie, photographed together as a duo

Rosetta and Marie Knight signing autographs in st. louis after a show, 1947.

You could (and still can) actually purchase a record of the entire wedding ceremony/concert!

Please be delighted with us to listen to a portion of the wedding ceremony, where you can hear the absolute showmanship and pageantry! The preacher even continually pokes fun at the idea of Rosetta “obeying” Russell!

A selection of Rosetta’s music and performances:

Sister Rosetta Tharpe in an excerpt from the 1964 Granada television production of the Blues and gospel train. Filmed in the then disused Chorlton railway st...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head (I hear music in the air) unknown performance date (appox. around the 1960's) on the show TV Gospel Time with the Ol...

Finally, in 2018, Rosetta was inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. This video has some fantastic footage and info! Check it out:

If you want to learn more about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Film:

• The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, by Mick Csaky, 2014. You can watch it in entirety below on Vimeo:

Online Articles:

• “The Most Elaborate Wedding Ever Staged: Sister Rosetta Tharpe at Griffith Stadium”

• Marie Knight Dies at 84: gospel vocalist sang with Sister Rosetta Tharpe

• Her Gospel Truth

Books and Print Articles:

• Shout, Sister, Shout!: the Untold Story of Rock and Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle Wald

• Singing in my soul black gospel music in a secular age, Jackson, Jerma A. author, 2004 “Chapter 4: With Her Spirituals in Swing Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Gospel, and Popular Culture

• The Fan Who Knew To Much: Aretha Franklin, The Rise of the Soap Opera, Children of the Gospel Church and Other Meditations by Anthony Heilbut

• Pentecostals in America “Chapter 3:Gender, Sexualities, and Pentecostalism” Arlene Sanchez Walsh 2018

• Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music . Vincent L. Stephens Series: New Perspectives on Gender in Music Copyright Date: 2019 Published by: University of Illinois Press

• “From Spirituals to Swing: Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Gospel Crossover” by Gayle Wald in American Quarterly vol 55

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

27. Sappho: F*cking Superb, You Funky Little Lesbian

At long last, hosts Gretchen and Leigh are going back to the beginning, to the OG lesbian: Sappho herself. Despite the dearth of information about her life and history, your hosts still find plenty to say about Sappho, her poetry, her legacy, and all the debate that’s circled around her for years. Was she a ‘school mistress’? Was she actually a man? Did she really have a husband or throw herself from a cliff? Find out what Leigh and Gretchen think and listen to fragmentary poetry filled with queer longing and other relatable feels like fire burning beneath flesh, wind crashing through mountain oaks, and…celery.

We’ll start off with one of the poems we didn’t discuss in the episode, but is a piece of writing that forms the basis for why we do this show. As Sappho writes in Fragment 147,

someone will remember us
I say
even in another time

A Closer Look at Sappho

Painting of Sappho by the “Sappho Painter” (circaa 510 BCE).

Sappho depicted holding a plectrum and lyre on the side of a vase (circa 470 BCE).

Head of a female figure widely believed to be a copy of the 4th Century BCE portrait of Sappho by Silanion.

Roman scupture of Sappho (5th Century BCE). Inscription reads “Sappho of Eresos.”

“woman with Wax Tablets and Stylus,” a Fresco from Pompeii (circa 55-79 CE). IT is frequently called “Sappho,” though we have no idea if the artist meant it as a portrait of the poet or not.

Fragment 58 (tithonus poem). Unfortunately, this is what a lot of Sappho’s poetry looks like, though usually even worse for the wear. :(

Woodcut of Sappho from Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris (circa 1541).

Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon (1864).

Sappho, by Charles Mengin (1877).

Sappho by Amanda brewster Sewell (1891).

Sappho by Francis Coates Jones (1895).

Sappho of Lesbos by John William Godward (1904).

The Sapphic Stanza

Sappho not only wrote beautiful, haunting poems, but invented an entirely unique poetic form, appropriately named after her! Composed of two hendecasyllabic (eleven syllables) verses, and then a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five more syllables (sometimes written as a fourth line), it gave Sappho’s poetry its lyrical nature.

Using "–" for a long syllable, "∪" for a short syllable, and "x" for a free syllable, the meter looked like this:

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ ∪ – –

The Mixolydian Mode

This link also has some great information about another invention of Sappho’s: the Mixolydian Mode, which is a musical scale that is still in use today, although heavily altered through history!

What did Sappho’s poetry sound like?

Sappho’s poetry was meant to be recited to the sound of an ancient Greek instrument called a lyre, sometimes made from tortoise-shell, and looked like this:

She references the instrument in her poetry often, like in this fragment:

I took my lyre and said:
Come now, my heavenly
tortoise shell: become
a speaking instrument

And in the below video, you can see a modern replica of an ancient Greek tortoise-shell lyre, and hear what it would have sounded like, also being plucked and strummed with a plectrum, the picking instrument also credited as an invention of Sappho’s! A musical genius! The person in the video is Michael Levy, a musician who records and interprets ancient Greek lyre music:

Here’s a video of someone’s recorded interpretation of a Sapphic wedding hymn:

And here’s some more of Michael Levy’s music, with several different hymns and songs on lyre:

As a special bonus, two of our amazing listeners created a Sappho poetry generator you can play around with, as referenced in this episode!

Check it out here!

If you want to learn more about the Sappho, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

• Poets.org: About Sappho

• Girl, Interrupted: Who was Sappho?

• Gender Relations and Sexual Behavior in Ancient Greece

• Making Queer History: Sappho

• Sappho: the Original Lesbian of Greece

• Ancient History Encyclopedia: Sappho of Lesbos

Books and Print Articles:

• Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women by Leila J. Rupp

• Who’s Who in Gay & Lesbian History ed by Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon

• The Lesbian Lyre: Reclaiming Sappho for the 21st Century by Jeffrey M. Duban

• Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho by Jane McIntosh Snyder

• Early Greek Poets' Lives: The Shaping of the Tradition by Maarit Kivilo (Sappho chapter)

• Ten Poems of Sappho: Provenance, Authenticity, and Text of the New Sappho Papyri

• Reflecting Sappho by Glenn W. Most

• Sappho's Company of Friends by Anne L. Klinck

• Re-Queering Sappho by Ella Haselswerdt

• Sappho and her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality by Judith P. Hallett

Translations of Sappho’s Poetry Used in this Episode:

• Sappho: A New Translation translated by Mary Barnard

• If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson

• Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works translated by Diane Rayor

• Hymn to Aphrodite

• Poems of Sappho

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

24. Transcestor Artists, A Look At Art Beyond the Binaries

Leigh and Gretchen are back from hiatus with an extra special episode! Recorded live at the Dallas Museum of Art on June 21st as part of the museum’s Pride events, your friendly neighborhood queer history nerds sat down to chat about gender diversity in art. Love mythology? Think that heteronormativity shouldn’t apply to deities? You’re in luck! Take a brief tour through gender diversity in Mesopotamian, Hindu, and Norse mythology—and it’s just scratching the surface! Leigh and Gretchen round off their conversation with a look at two modern artists who questioned and transcended gender norms in their lives and art: Anton Prinner and Frida Kahlo. So pull up a chair and hang out with a couple of gayvenclaws to, retroactively, celebrate pride and art beyond the binary!

A Closer Look at Trancestor Artists: Watch Our DMA Slide Show

Transcestors: A Look at Art Beyond the Binary

Gretchen and Leigh Find Gay Things at the DMA!

So Excite!

Holy cow…

So official!

Etruscans

Their underworld was gay.

Because they’re Hapi

Clap along if you feel like a god with two genders.

Our favorite communist, bisexual, anti-colonialist, Picasso hating artist, Frida!

That’s it for History is Gay live from the DMA!

If you want to learn more about the differently gendered deities in mythology, Anton Prinner, or Frida Kahlo, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Mythology

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_themes_in_mythology

• Inanna/Ishtar

  • https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/inanna-ishtar

  • http://www.willsworld.org/priests.html

  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1062957.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fdefault-2%252Fcontrol&refreqid=excelsior%3A6f7cb9f7e6ddc0c10825ee0633344c67

• Hindu Deities

  • https://lusmerlin.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/ten-intersex-gods-and-goddesses/

• Hapi

  • Wikipedia: Hapi

  • LGBTime Machine: Ancient Rome

  • Ancient Egypt Online: Hapi

  • Hapi - The God of the Nile

• Loki

  • Wikipedia: Loki

  • Norse Mythology for Smart People: Loki

  • Prose Edda

  • North, R; (2001) 'Loki's Gender: Or why Skaði Laughed'. In: Olsen, LAJR, (ed.) Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval Northwest Europe. (pp. 141-151). Peeters Publishers and Booksellers: Louvain/Leuven.

Anton Prinner

• http://biralat.hu/index.php?searchenginerUrl=muveszek/prinner_anton_.909.html&language=en

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Prinner

• https://next.liberation.fr/culture/2007/05/07/anton-prinner-entre-mystere-et-esoterisme_92262

• https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/06/06/anton-prinner-is-the-genderqueer-picasso-we-need-in-the-21st-century/

Frida Kahlo

• Imagining Her Selves by Gannit Ankori

• Religious Imagination and the Body: A Feminist Perspective by Paula Cooey

•  Biography of Frida Kahlo---Frida Kahlo Foundation

• Frida Kahlo: Role Model for Artists, People with Disabilities and Bisexual Women

• The Androgynous Frida

• Exploring Frida: The Sexuality, Gender, and Politics of Frida Kahlo

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

20. More Than Meets the Eye(brow): Frida Kahlo

In this episode, Gretchen and Leigh talk about Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist best known for her many self-portraits and for works inspired by nature and the culture and artifacts of Mexico. She may be known for her unibrow, but that’s far from the most important aspect of her art or her story or her art. In keeping with her self-exploration of identity in her paintings, we’re going to explore one of the things least well known about her: that she had relationships with men and women! That’s right, this famous postcolonial, multiracial, disabled artist was bisexual!

A Closer Look at Frida Kahlo

Frida, age 6, 1913. For this and other rare photos of her childhood, Click here.

Frida (right), age 9, and her sisters. photo taken by her father, 1916.

Frida (center) with her sisters and a younger male cousin, 1926. For this and other rare photos of Frida in the 1920s, click here.

Mural for the ministry of education, by Diego Rivera, 1929, featuring Frida Kahlo (bottom left, front).

Here you can see why Frida’s father called them, “The Elephant and the Dove.” Frida and Diego Rivera, 1932.

A photo from Toni Frissell’s vogue shoot of Frida, 1937.

Frida (Left) with Josephine Baker (Right) in paris, 1939.

Frida Kahlo (center) with Nayantara Sahgal and Rita Dar, 1947.

MIguel n. Lira’s Tabla con Diferentes Frasas y Firmas signed by friends, including frida kahlo, fellow member of “los Cachuchas,” 1948.

Close up of frida’s note to Miguel n. lira: “hermano de siempre no te olvides de la cahucha no 9, Frida Kahlo”— “Forever brother, do not forget la Cachucha no. 9, Frida Kahlo.” Alongside it is her doodle of herself wearing the cap for which the group was named, 1948.

Kahlo and Chavela Vargas by Tina Modotti, 1950.

Chavela Vargas performing “La Llorona” in Frida starring Selma Hayak as Frida Kahlo!

Frida in her garden with two fo her dogs, by gisle Freund, circa 1950. For this and other photos by Gisle Freund, Click here.

Frida’s studio with her wheelchair and adjustable easel, on display at La Casa Azul museum in Mexico.

Frida Kahlo’s death mask, also on display at La Casa Azul museum in Mexico.

A Selection of Frida Kahlo’s Paintings

Henry ford hospital, 1932.

Two nudes in a forest, 1939.

Self portrait with cropped hair, 1941.

Self portrait with monkey and parrot, 1942.

The broken column, 1944.

The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xolotl, 1949.

still life (dedicated to samuel fastlicht), 1951.

Living Nature, 1952.

If you want to learn more about Frida Kahlo, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

• Frida and Los Cachuchas

• Biography of Frida Kahlo---Frida Kahlo Foundation

• Frida Kahlo: Role Model for Artists, People with Disabilities and Bisexual Women

• The Androgynous Frida

• A Bisexual Affair: Frida Kahlo and Josephine Baker

• When Frida Kahlo Set Her Eyes on Josephine Baker

• Meet the bisexual, black cabaret dancer and spy who dated Frida Kahlo and helped defeat the Nazis in France

• A Fabulous Romance – Frida Kahlo and Josephine Baker break down barriers

• Exploring Frida: The Sexuality, Gender, and Politics of Frida Kahlo

• Diary of a Mad Artist

• 21 Facts You Didn’t Know About Queer, Feminist Icon Frida Kahlo

• Gay History: Mexican Artist Frida Kahlo

• Was Frida Kahlo the “greatest love” and muse to this iconic lesbian chanteuse?

• Chavela Vargas and Frida Kahlo an Item in ’60s-era Mexico?

Books and Print Articles:

• Kahlo by Andrea Kettenmann

• Frida by Hayden Herrera

• Imagining Her Selves by Gannit Ankori

• Religious Imagination and the Body: A Feminist Perspective by Paula Cooey

Videos:

• Was Frida Kahlo Bisexual?

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

18. She's a Real Wilde One

What would an exploration of the Wilde family be without taking a closer look at Oscar Wilde’s ‘virulently lesbian’ niece Dolly Wilde? Gretchen and Leigh take you on a journey to learn more about this elusive personality. Unlike her uncle, Dolly left little written work behind and is best known from her letters and from what other people have to say about her. They dive into the life and loves---many, many loves---of Dolly Wilde, including the love of her life Natalie Clifford Barney, speedboat racer Joe Carstairs, silent screen actor Alla Nazimova, and others. Come join the ouroboros of gay that is the Sapphic ‘sewing circle’ of 1920s Hollywood and Paris. 

A Closer Look At Dolly Wilde

One of a series of portraits of Dolly Wilde photographed by Cecil beaton.

Another of Cecil Beaton’s portraits of Dolly Wilde, and one of the most glamorous portraits of his early career.

Another glamor shot of Dolly, perhaps one of Beaton’s, but the exact date and photographer are unknown.

a more casual dolly wilde, date and photographer unknown.

Dolly doing one of her favorite things, being behind the wheel. Date and photographer unknown.

Still from 1937 film by Rognon de la Flèche (Lady Cara Harris) 'Treason's Bargain,” in which dolly appeared.

Dolly Wilde on Meeting Virginia Woolf

“Cambridge on a frosty night. The Dean’s room in King’s College, firelight, books, sober colours, elegance and a group of charming people holding conversation. We are waiting for dinner when someone says “Leonard and Virginia are very late.” The smooth waters of my mind are ruffled by fear by this unexpected remark, and my heart beats perceptibly quicker. The chief Lama of Thibet will be here any moment —easy manners must give place to decorum, familiar friendship be brought stiffly to attention. Then the door opens and a tall gaunt figure, grey-haired, floats into the room. Her age struck me first, and then her prettiness —shock and delight hand in hand. How to explain? There is something of the witch in her —as in Edith Sitwell— with the rather curved back and sharp features. She is dressed in black, old fashioned elderly clothes that make me feel second-rate in my smart clothes —her feet are very long and thin encased in black broché shoes with straps of the Edwardian period. All is faded and grey about her, like her iron grey hair parted in the middle and dragged into a bun at the back. And yet immediately one sees her prettiness and a lovely washed away ethereal look making all of us look so gross and sensual. The eyes are deep-sunk and small the nose fine and pointed, a little too pointed by curiosity, but the feature that most strikes one is the mouth —a full round mouth, a pretty girl’s mouth in that spinster face. It is so young, young like her skin that is smooth and soft. She greets Honey and me without looking at us and at dinner never once makes us the target of her eyes —there is embarrassment around the table and she only talks to her intimates. She is witty and kindly malicious. Then suddenly I say something that makes her laugh and the curtain of her eyelids are raised and we talk together, flippantly delightfully. I had once been told one must never mention her books and as we threaded byeways of humour I thought of your letters about her so much. I saw her, too, all the time as such a little pretty girl in a big hat, and Kew Gardens with the governess planting a kiss on the back of her neck —do you remember?— which was the parent of all the kisses in her life…

She has nothing to do with maternal life —is supposed to be a virgin, to have experienced no physical contact even with Orlando. She says she has no need of experience —knows everything without it: and this impression she gives as one meets her. I felt cruelty in her, born of humour —tiredness, great tiredness and her eyes veiled with visions rather than brightened by them.”

—A letter from Dolly Wilde to Natalie Clifford Barney, dated 1931

A Closer Look at Dolly’s Lady Loves

A young joe Carstairs holds a bow and arrow (and our hearts). Image Courtesy of the LIFE photo collection.

Joe Carstairs, butch icon, with her doll, Lord Tod Wadley.

Janet flanner ca 1920.

Silent screen actor Alla Nazimova.

Alla Nazimova photographed by Arthur Rice as ‘Marguerite Gautier’ in Camille.

Watch the full version of Alla Nazimova’s film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play “Salomé.”

Zelda Fitzgerald, 1917.

Gwen Farrar ca 1925

The 1920s Hollywood sewing circle chart, courtesy of Autostraddle.

Select Images of Natalie Clifford Barney

This portrait of Natalie Clifford Barney as “The Happy PRince” by Carolus-Duran hung on the wall of her salon at 20 Rue Jacob.

a young Natalie Clifford Barney.

Natalie Clifford Barney, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1910.

Natalie Clifford Barney (Left) and lover Romaine Brooks (Right), ca 1915.

If you want to learn more about Dolly Wilde, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

• Dolly Wilde, Lesbian News

• Joe Carstairs, Lesbian News

• Alla Nazimova, Lesbian News

• Natalie Clifford Barney, Lesbian News

• When Dolly Met Zelda Fitzgerald

• Dolly Wilde, An Impossible Burden

• Women of 1920s Paris: Dolly Wilde

• Niece who was wilder than Wilde

• Women who Paved the Way: Dolly Wilde

• Goodbye Dolly

• Natalie Clifford Barney

• Top 10 Most Sexually Prolific Lesbians and Bisexuals Of Old Hollywood

• Closet Hollywood

Books and Print Articles:

• Truly Wilde by Joan Schenkar

• Wilde’s Women by Eleanor Fitzsimons

• In Memory of Dorothy Ierne Wilde: Oscaria by Natalie Clifford Barney

• The Sewing Circle by Axel Madsen

• The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood by Diana McLellan

Videos:

• An interview with Natalie Clifford Barney

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

16. Lavender Apparitions

Happy Halloween everybody! As good Halloween gays, Leigh and Gretchin bring you a special, spoopy episode for Halloween. In the first half, they bring tales of gay and lesbian ghosts and lavender apparitions of all kinds, though of the kindly and perhaps a bit cheeky variety rather than bloody or scary. A ghostie who pinches bottoms? A long-dead monk who pulls the sheets off of straight couples? How queer! For the second half, they interview Joe Applebaum, one of the producers of Queer Ghost Hunters, a paranormal investigation series on YouTube focused on finding and talking to queer ghosts. So grab your bucket of candy and get ready for some spoopy fun on History is Gay!

Check out Queer Ghost Hunters!

• Queer Ghost Hunters YouTube Channel Have a look at the trailer for their first season:

• Queer Ghost Hunters Facebook

• Queer Ghost Hunters Twitter

• Queer Ghost Hunters Patreon

Check out Joe Applebaum and The Clowder Group!

• The Clowder Group Website

• The Clowder Group on Facebook

• The Clowder Group on Twitter

• The Clowder Group on Youtube

A Closer Look at the Queer Hauntings

The New Inn, Gloucester. site of the Pilgrims Rest Gay monk Ghost! (Source)

Queen’s Theater, Soho, London. site of the Voyeuristic ghost who spies on ushers changing (Source)

GEorge’s Hotel, East Dereham. Site of the Unzipping Ghost. (Source)

Francis Grierson, the Psychic Pianist.

Villa Montezuma, Grierson’s home in San Diego, CA.

Elephant and Castle Pub, Amersham. Site of the bum-pinching ghost. (Source)

If you want to learn more about Queer Hauntings, check out our full list of sources and further reading!

Books and Print Articles:

• Ken Summers, Queer Hauntings: True Tales of Gay and Lesbian Ghosts

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

15. Lizzie Borden Took a Labrys

Way back in the first episode, Leigh and Gretchen formed a historical ‘murder wives’ ship starting with Anne Bonny; in this episode, they take a closer look at murder wife #2: Lizzie Borden! That’s right folks, she too may very well have had a thing for the ladies as well as possibly murdering her father and stepmother. Just how queer was she? Did she have an affair with her maid and her stepmother caught them? Did she fall in love with a glamorous lesbian movie star after the murders? Why was she acquitted and what was society like for a single, Victorian woman who wanted to be in possession of a large fortune and upward social mobility? Find out on this week’s History is Gay!

A Closer Look at Lizzie Borden, The Trial, and Her Potential Loves

Lizzie Andrew Borden

Lizzie Borden, 1890, looking glam.

Lizzie’s Father, Andrew Borden, looking like a penny-pinching asshole.

Lizzie’s Stepmother, Abby Gray Borden.

Lizzie’s Older Sister Emma Borden.

Lizzie’s Uncle, John Morse.

The Borden Home: 92 Second St, Fall River Massachusetts, 1892.

Jurors at Lizzie Borden’s trial, 1893.

Sketch Illustration of Lizzie from the trail.

Illustration of Lizzie Borden in Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, v. 76 (1893 June 29).

An illustration of Lizzie fainting at the reveal of the disfigured skulls of Abby and Andrew in the courtroom.

Illustration and article in the Fitchburg Sentinel, August 13, 1892.

Bridget Sullivan, live-in maid to the Borden family.

Raging lesbian stage and film actress Nance O’Neil.

Another sultry shot of the seductress…

Article announcing Lizzie’s death in the Lewiston Daily Sun

If you liked hearing about Lizzie Borden, you may also like…

Plays:

• 1948: Fall River Legend, a ballet choreographed by Agnes De Mille, most famously known as the choreographer for Oklahoma!, Carousel, Brigadoon, and other classic 1950s American musicals. Takes the Lizzie Borden story and changes the outcome of the jury sentence to guilty.

• 1965: Lizzie, an opera by Jack Beeson

• 1990: Lizzie the Musical a rock opera by Tim Maner, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt called “a gothic rock ritual with a ‘riotgirl’ attitude by NYT and the Village Voice describes the music as “lush tunes that retch sex, rage, dyke heat, misanthropy, and incest.”

• Axed: An Evening of One Ax by Carolyn Gage, a collection of two one-act plays, Lace Curtain Irish and The Greatest Actress Who Ever Lived, both focused on women who were intimate with Lizzie during her lifetime, Bridget Sullivan and Nance O’Neil, respectively. Carolyn Gage is the playwright that called Nance O’Neil an “outrageous lesbian”.

Film & Television

• 1975: The Legend of Lizzie Borden, an ABC television film starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Borden and Fionnula Flanagan as Bridget Sullivan. Fun fact: It was discovered after Elizabeth Montgomery’s death that she was actually Lizzie Borden’s sixth cousin once removed!

• 2014: Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, a Lifetime television film starring Christina Ricci

• 2017: Lizzie Borden Documentary on the ‘Female Killers’ YouTube channel that we’ll link in the show notes.

• 2018: Lizzie movie starring Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny. The film centers around the intimacy between Borden (played by Sevigny) and maid Bridget Sullivan (played by Stewart) in the face of Lizzie’s gross father. Seems pretty gay! By the time this episode airs, it will have just released, which is why we wanted to do this episode!

Other

• The Borden Dispatches a duology that reimagines Lizzie as a warrior against supernatural horrors and her parents as possessed.  

• Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective novels by the late Richard Behrens are a fictional series of books where young Lizzie solves crimes.

• Plus, lots of other fiction books about Lizzie, Bridget, and the murders. Wikipedia is a great place to start your search.

• Lizzie Borden Podcast discusses Lizzie’s life, history, background of Fall River, has live readings from plays or radio dramas, and more! There are 11 episodes out and it seems to no longer be running.

• The podcast Most Notorious! A true crime podcast also has a Lizzie Borden episode, as do The History Chicks.

If you want to learn more about Lizzie Borden, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

• An awesome collection of primary source documents from the trial, inquest, and even Lizzie’s will!

• Lizzie Borden Didn't Kill Her Parents (Maybe)

• The Trial of Lizzie Borden

• Lizzie Borden Took an Axe

• Lizzie Borden: Why a 19th-Century Axe Murder Still Fascinates Us

• Lizzie Borden and the 1892 Borden Murders

• Representing 'Miss Lizzie'

• History Goddess: Lizzie Borden Biography

• How Lizzie Borden Spent Her Life After Being Acquitted

• Silence is Platinum: Nance O'Neil

• SISTERS ESTRANGED OVER NANCE O'NEILL

• Boston Discovers Miss Nance O'Neil

• Testimony of Bridget Sullivan in the Trial of Lizzie Borden

• Why Are We So Obsessed With Lizzie Borden?

• Early Asexual Feminists: The Asexual History of Social Purity Activists and Spinsters

• Original Spin: On the History of the Spinster

Books and Print Articles:

• Parallel Lives: A social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River by Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette

• A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight by Victoria Lincoln

• The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden by Charles River Editors

• The Life, Legend, and Mystery of Lizzie Borden by Trey Wyatt

• Lizzie: A Novel by Evan Hunter

• Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter by Arnold R. Brown

Videos:

• Lizzie Borden Documentary

• Lizzie the Musical

• Chloe Sevigny's Lizzie Borden

• Lizzie Borden Podcast

• Most Notorious! Podcast Lizzie Borden

• The History Chicks Podcast Lizzie Borden

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

13. Six Degrees of Virginia Woolf, Part 1

Gretchen and Leigh are pleased to announce their very first special guest to History is Gay, Dan Arndt of Write to Survive Podcast and The Fandomentals, to talk about Virginia Woolf and Vita-Sackville-West. This episode has everything: modernism, gay love letters, dramatic queers, queers with mommy issues, and a story of gay lovers running away to Europe and their spouses chasing them down that’s so cinematic we really are surprised they haven’t made a movie of it yet. Just how gay was Virginia Woolf? So gay we’ve got six degrees episodes to work with! Join us for Part 1 of an ongoing series.

A Closer Look at Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West

Baby Virginia in the arms of her mother, julia stephen

Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell in Firle Park in 1911.

Victoria Sackville-West in costume for the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre Ball at the Royal Albert Hall, June 20, 1911 ~ Photograph by N. Speaight

Virginia and Leonard Woolf, 1926.

Vita Sackville-West as her alter ego the Duke Orlando, posed specifically for Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando

Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West at Monk's House, Virginia's home.

VIrginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-WEst, and Vita's two sons, Benedict and Nigel Nichonson, at Sissinghurst.

Virginia and Leonard, Photographed by Gisèle Freund, 1939.

Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson at Sissinghurst with their dog Rollo.

Vita Sackville-West's Other Loves

We mentioned in the episode that unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go over all of Vita's many lovers, but we wanted to put a nice handy list of the "greatest hits", so to speak here for y'all to enjoy, straight from our outline notes (which you can get full access to by becoming a Patreon supporter!:

• Mary Garman (bohemian woman who's husband hated the Bloomsbury’s)

• Margaret Goldsmith Voigt (American Historian), 1928

• Hilda Matheson (BBC Director of Talks), 1929

• Evelyn Irons, Journalist, first female winner of Croix De Geurre, 1931 (this was a threeway with her and her lover Olive Rinder).Met while she was doing a piece on Vita

• Christabel Gertrude Marshall (Christopher St. John), Suffragette and Writer, lived in poly relationship her whole life 1932-1934

• Gwen St. Aubyn, (Vita’s HUSBAND’S SISTER) 1934

• Violet Pym, 1947

• Edith Lamont, (painter) 1947

• Bunny Drummond, (her elderly neighbor’s daughter in law) 1947-1952

• Her husband, Harold, who was also bisexual, had an open marriage with Vita, and may have slept with Violet’s husband as well. Other loves include writer and critic Raymond Mortimer. He wrote to her that he often would spend time in Paris with young men while she was away, and the two never shared a bed after 1917. Harold, his son said “viewed sex as incidental, and about as pleasurable as a quick visit to a picture gallery between trains”
  

Content Warning: Vita Sackville West's Memoriam and Virginia Woolf's Suicide Note

IN MEMORIAM VIRGINIA WOOLF

Many words crowd, and all and each unmeaning.
The simplest words in sorrow are the best.

So let us say, she loved the water-meadows,
The Downs; her books; her friends; her memories;
The room which was her own.
London by twilight; shops and unknown people;shops and Mrs Brown

Donne's church; the Strand; the buses, and the large
Swell of humanity that passed her by.

I remember she told me once that she, a child,
Trapped evening moths with honey round a tree-trunk
And with a lantern watched their antic flight.
So she, a poet, caught her special prey
With words of honey and lamp of wit.

Frugal, austere, fine, proud,
Rich on [in] her contradictions, rich in love,
So did she capture all her moth-like self:
Her fluttered spirit, delicate and soft,
Bumping against the lamp of life, too hard, too glassy,

Yet kept a sting beneath the brushing wing,
Her blame astringent and her praise supreme.

How small, how petty seemed the little men
Measured against her scornful quality.

Some say, she lived in an unreal world,
Cloud-cuckoo-land. Maybe. She now has gone
Into the prouder world of immortality.

V S-W  (The Observer 6 April 1941)

Woolf’s Suicide Note

Dearest,

I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight it any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V   

 

If you want to learn more about Virginia Woolf and Vita-Sackville-West, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

• A Timeline of Slang Terms for Vagina/Vulva

• How Virginia Woolf’s Orlando Subverted Censorship and Revolutionized the Politics of LGBT Love in 1928

• Harold Nicolson on Spartacus Educational

• Vita Sackville-West's erotic verse to her lover emerges from 'intoxicating night'

• 10 Very Gay Excerpts from Vita and Virginia’s Love Letters

• A Thing That Wants Virginia

Books and Print Articles:

• Virginia Woolf by Susan Rubinow Gorsky

• The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf edited by Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell a. Leaska (Editor)

• Diary of Virginia Woolf Vol. 2 (1920-1924)

• Diary of Virginia Woolf Vol. 3 (1925-1930)

• Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson

• Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf edited by Joanne Trautmann Banks

• Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings edited by Mary Ann Caws

• A History of Homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris by Florence Tamagne

• Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on her Life and Work by Louise DeSalvo

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

11. Rainbow Rising: The First Pride

Leigh and Gretchen welcome you to their first Pride month special and the first of an ongoing series on Queer civil rights movements in the United States. And what better way to do both than to dive into the lives of Gilbert Baker---the maker of the first rainbow pride flag---and Brenda Howard---one of the primary organizers of the first Pride march commemorating the Stonewall riots and Pride week. Pride is a special month for those of us in the queer community, so we wanted to celebrate our forefathers and foremothers that make this month possible. Do you like bisexual curmudgeons and people with nicknames like "Busty Ross"? We sure do. One of the best things about recent queer civil rights history in the United States is getting to know the people who directly affected how we live our lives now. And with these two, we've found people to admire and emulate. So, get ready to meet the Mother of Pride and the Gay Betsy Ross!

A Look at Gilbert Baker

Gilbert Baker in front of his mile long flag for Stonewall 25 in 1994 (© Fredrick Persson EP)

Gilbert (in the vest) and collaborators raising the first flag in 1978 (© gilbertbaker.com)

Gilbert Baker dressed as his drag persona, Busty Ross (© Getty Images)

More fabulous Busty Ross!

Gilbert's original eight-striped flag in 1978. The hot pink and turquoise were later removed to make mass production easier, and to make it easy to fly the flag in two halves (three colors each) from lightposts on either side of the street following Harvey Milk's assassination. However, in 2004 at the Key West Pride Festival, Gilbert said it was time to bring back the two stripes: "We lost two of the original colors, pink and turquoise. It’s time, however, to restore the original design. First, it is simply more beautiful and more authentic. Moreover, when we lost the pink, we lost the symbol for our sexual liberation. The missing turquoise honors Native Americans and the magic of life. Both colors are needed to embrace our history."

Baker's mile-long flag at Stonewall 25. (© Eric Miller)

Gilbert in the 2015 San Francisco Pride parade. (© Gilbert Baker's facebook)

Gilbert with president barack obama in 2016, where he presented obama with a handmade rainbow flag. look at that tie!

Homage to Gilbert

google's doodle for gilbert's 66th birthday. google animators went to fabric stores in san francisco, obtained fabric, and animated this stop-motion cuteness to emulate gilbert's process of the flag creation. (© google - learn more here)

 

A Look at Brenda Howard

Brenda (top right, glasses) resting with the women's contingent after the first Pride march in 1970. (Unless otherwise noted, all images of Brenda Howard © New York Area Bisexual Network's Facebook)

Brenda (second from left, glasses and pigtails) with Bob Kohler, Sylvia Rivera, etc. at an LGBTQ Demonstration at Bellevue Hospital in 1970.

Brenda (left, pigtails and glasses) at a meeting with other members of the Gay Liberation Front in 1970.

Meeting of radical women's group Lavender Menace with Brenda in the background (left, black shirt), early 1970s.

Brenda at NYC Pride marche late 1970s/early 1980s.

Brenda ca 1990.

Brenda Howard at an ACT UP New York demonstration circa 1997-1998.

Undated photo of Brenda (left, white pants) with her partner Larry Nelson marching with the PFLAG Queens at the St. Patrick's Day for All parade.

New York Area Bisexual Network contingent at NYC Pride March with Brenda Howard visible second from the right (black tank top).

An Ode to Brenda Howard 

Brenda's good friend Dorothy Danaher-Gilpin, Ed.D, wrote this poem in honor of Brenda’s passing:

In Honor of Brenda
When I was in pigtails
You were already marching
Voice firm and loud
Banners held high

I, blissful in suburbia
Years from sexual maturity
Watched you on TV
And wondered
What all the fuss was about.
I grew older
And tired of the nonsense
I moved to the Big City
In search of
My soul.

Many spirits were trampled
By Reagan-Bush
Yours was emboldened
Defiant
You strode harder
We followed
Made gains
Ideas changed
Laws changed
A leather vest and buttons
Your simple uniform
Tireless hours on the phone
Recruiting volunteers
To help you hold
Our banners
For Freedom
For Justice
For Compassion
For All.

You leave us now
With a Legacy
Of Hope
Fight for what’s Right
And
We will
Prevail.

If you want to learn more about Brenda Howard, Gilbert Baker, and the origins of Pride, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

• The First Pride Parades

• How Activists Plotted the First Gay Pride Parades

• Remembering Brenda: An Ode to the 'Mother of Pride'

• Idol Worship: Brenda Howard, Bisexual Curmudgeon and Mother of Pride

• From Brenda Howard to J. Christopher Neal: Bisexual Leaders and Pride

• Brenda Howard: Creator of the Pride March

• Picking Apart the Origin of Pride

• Brenda Howard's Memorial Page

• A Long History of Activism

• Mother of Pride, Earth-Girl, Activist: Remembering Brenda Howard

• Freedom, Joy, and Power: The History of the Rainbow Flag

• How the Rainbow Became the Symbol of Gay Pride

• Gilbert Baker Biography

• Gilbert Baker Biography from GilbertBaker.com

• Rainbow flag maker was inspired by Bible, U.S. Flag

• Gilbert Baker: All you need to know about the man who designed the iconic LGBT flag

• Pride-Flyin’ Flag: Rainbow-flag founder marks 30-years anniversary, Metro Weekly

• Gilbert Baker, Gay Activist Who Created the Rainbow Flag, Dies at 65

• Google Honors Gilbert Baker, creator of the Rainbow Flag

• Freedom, Joy, and Power: The History of the Rainbow Flag (comic)

Videos:

• Gilbert Baker, The Gay Betsy Ross

• How the Pride Rainbow Flag Came to Be

• Art as Activism: CBST Aleinu's 2015 Architects of the LGBTQ Movement Discussion Series Featuring Gilbert Baker

Books and Print Articles:

• Sewing the Rainbow by Gayle Pitman

• Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

10. Thigh Fencing and the Saffron Massage

In this episode, cohosts Gretchen and Leigh will take you on a tour of medieval Arabo-Islamic erotic literature and the many delightful descriptions of queer female experience it contains. Remember way back in episode two when ‘thigh fencing’ came up? Well, that and other martial imagery for wlw sexual experience come from medieval Arabo-Islamic poetry! Like shield banging, jousting without a lance, or our new favorite---the saffron massage. Love stories of cross dressing heroines who marry women? Then you’ll love Princess Budur and her wife Hayat. We’ve got another word of the week focused on queer female self-description, medical explanations for wlw preferences, and the music of love (moaning). We’ll also chat about the Arabic Sappho and the first lesbian couple, Hind and al-Zarqa’!

Just a warning, some of the images and poems are NSFW, so best read this at home.

Arabic Erotica and Sex Manuals

17th century, unknown Persian miniaturist depicts of sapphic women with a creative looking dildo. (thought we didn't have a lesbian emoji? surprise, now you do.)

The Perfumed Garden

Cover of Richard Francis Burton's 1886 translation of Muhammad al-Nafzawi's text.

In chapter 9 of The Perfumed Garden, one of the best known of the medieval Arabo-Islamic sex manuals, we get a long list of 'sundry names' for the vulva. The whole thing is both delightful and humorous, but we wanted to quote you this section on dreaming about seeing a vulva:

The person who dreams of having seen the vulva, feurdj, of a woman will know that "if he is in trouble God will free him of it; if he is in a perplexity he will soon get out of it; and lastly if he is in poverty he will soon become wealthy, because feurdj, by transposing the vowels, will mean the deliverance from evil. By analogy, if he wants a thing he will get it; if he has debts, they will be paid."

It is considered more lucky to dream of the vulva as open. But if the one seen belongs to a young virgin it indicates that the door of consolation will remain closed, and the thing which is desired is not obtainable. It is a proved fact that the man who sees in his dream the vulva of a virgin that has never been touched will certainly be involved in difficulties, and will not be lucky in his affairs. But if the vulva is open so that he can look well into it, or even if it is hidden but he is free to enter it, he will bring the most difficult tasks to a successful end after having first failed in them, and this after a short delay, by the help of a person whom he never thought of.

Full text of Burton's translation of The Perfumed Garden is available here.

The Tale of Qamar al-Zaman and Princess Budur: The Story That Keeps Getting Better

Illustration of Princess Budur, done by Edmund Dulac, for the 1907 edition of The Arabian Nights for Hodder & Stoughton.

We weren't able to find illustrations of Budur and Hayat, so here is one of Qamar and Budur from the 1958 Italian Young Readers book Le Mille E Una Notte. You can find more illustrations of this tale from this edition here.

Illustration of Qamar and Budur from the 1915 edition of More Tales from the Arabian Nights.

This tale was Gretchen's absolute favorite discovery in researching for this episode. What an utterly delightful story! After recording the podcast, she found new articles on the story that discuss the gender flipping and sexuality of Budur and Qamar on another level, namely, that of Budur taking the dominant male role in a m/m interaction when she and her husband reunite. Budur even propositions Qamar---while disguised as a man---using gay poetry:

My pintle is big and the little one said unto me,
"Tilt boldly therewith at my inwards and quit thee thy need."
Quoth I, "'Tis unlawful;" but he, "It is lawful with me;"
So to it I fell, supporting myself by his rede.'
--
The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it,
Had it been made for cunnus' sake it had been formed like a hatchet!

Wow. (What we want to know is, where did Budur learn this, or is she just that good at making up gay poetry?) All that to say, there are even more layers to the story that mess with cisheteronormativity! This is the best story ever, and we honestly need an adaptation of it yesterday. Full text of "The Tale of Qamar al-Zaman and Princess Budur" can be found here and here. 

If you want to learn more about queer women in the medieval Arabo-Islamic Literary Tradion, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Books and Print Articles:

• Sahar Amer, Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures

• Sahar Amer, "Medieval Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women" in Journal of the History of Sexuality (Vol 18, no 2, 2009).

• Sahar Amer, "Cross Dressing and Female Same-Sex Marriage in Medieval French and Arabic Literature" in Islamicate Identities

• Sahar Amer, "Lesbian Sex and the Military: From the Medieval Arabic Tradition to French Literature" in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages

• Fedwa Malti-Douglas, "Tribadism/Lesbianism and the Sexualized Body in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Narratives" in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages

• Samar Habib, Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality 850-1780 A.D.

• Samar Habib, Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations

• Kathryn Babayan, "'In Spirit We Ate Each Other's Sorrow': Female Companionship in Seventeenth Century Safavi Iran" in Islamicate Identities

• Stephen O. Murray "Woman-Woman Love in Islamic Society" in Islamic Homosexualities

• As'ad AbuKhalil, "A Note on the Study of Homosexuality in the Arab/Islamic Civilization" in The Arab Studies Journal (Vol 1, no 2, 1993)

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

1. Were Some Pirates Poofters?

This week, in our first episode, we introduced you to the dramatic pirate quartet of Anne Bonny, Mary Read, John “Calico Jack” Rackham, and Pierre “the pansy pirate” Bouspet! Two women eschewing stereotypical gender presentation, dressing as men, then falling in love each thinking the other is a man? Anne kicking Jack out of his quarters and sharing them with Mary instead? Jack Rackham being jealous of Mary and Anne's 'friendship' and walking in on Mary naked on Anne's bed? A pirate who owns a dress shop, coffee shop, and loves to paint with turtle blood? A pirate with a taste for splashy colors and may have been the lover of his former captain? Oh my! Or should we say, ‘arrrghhh’? These pirates may not have been as straight as people think.

How do we know about these folks?

As we mentioned in the episode, much of the histories of Anne, Jack, and Mary comes from the book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, published in 1724 by a mysterious  “Captain Charles Johnson”, whom some claim is a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe, aka author of Robinson Crusoe.

First edition cover, 1724.

Some images of our cast of queerios:

Anne Bonny - c. 1702-1782, born in Cork, Ireland

Illustration from the 1725 Dutch version of A General History of...Pyrates

Mary Read - c. 1690-1721, born in England

Illustration from the 1725 Dutch version of A General History of...Pyrates

John “Calico Jack” Rackham - c. 1682-1720

Illustration from the 1724 edition of A General History of the Pyrates

Sadly we have no images of our favorite drama pirate, Pierre Bouspet.

If you want to learn more about these folks, as well as the history of piracy in the 17th and 18th century, check out our full list of sources further reading below!

Online Articles:

• John Strausbaugh, Were Some Pirates Poofters?

• Christine Hernandez, Forging an Iron Woman

• Marcus Rediker, Liberty Beneath the Jolly Roger (Includes text of Captain Johnson’s accounts)

• Lesbian News, Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Queer Pirates of the Seas (Includes other sources for further reading)

• Rictor Norton, Lesbian Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Books:

• David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag

• David Cordingly, Women Sailors & Sailors’ Women

• Ed. C. R. Pennell, Bandits at Sea: A Pirate Reader

• Myra Weatherly, Pirate Women: Eight Stories of Adventure

• Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates

Anne and Mary, from the 1724 edition of A General History of the Pyrates

If you like Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack Rackham, and Pierre Bouspet, you might also like...

• The TV show Black Sails on Starz

• The Abyss Duology (The Abyss Surrounds Us and The Edge of the Abyss) by Emily Skrutskie

• The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember (mermaids and Vikings, but close enough!)

• This list of "16 Great Reads for Lesbians and Queer Girls who Love Pirates!"

• Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess comic by Jeremy Whitley

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!