Queer as Fact

Queer history podcast covering content from around the world and throughout time.

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One of the fun things about making a queer history podcast is the other amazing queer history researchers we get to meet along the way!

You can find our interviews and their work here:

Roland Betancourt - interview, book

Luciella Scarlett - interview, online exhibition

Danielle Scrimshaw - interview, book

Lazou - interview, podcast

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Happy birthday to Josephine Baker, born on 3 June in 1906. Josephine was bi, making this a perfect day to celebrate some her and some other Black queer figures from history during Pride month!

Check out podcasts on each of them here: Josephine Baker, Marsha P Johnson, Njinga of Ndongo, Simon Nkoli

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Today is Festa della Repubblica in Italy, and the second day of Pride month, so here's a few pieces of queer Italian history to celebrate the day!

Find podcasts featuring all these stories here: Fonteia Helena and Fonteia Eleusis, Hadrian and Antinous, Christina of Sweden, Fiore de Henriquez

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NEW EPISODE OUT!

Today's episode is on Hwarang, a group of elite youth in first millenium Korea who have come to simultaneously represent nationalism, masculinity, and gay love. Join us to learn about the most talented and beautiful men in the Korean Peninsula, enjoy some historical song lyrics about gay love, and hear us discuss about the challenges of approaching queer history across cultures and centuries.

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Happy Pride!

Find podcasts on each of these women here: Anne Lister, Frida Kahlo, Isadora Duncan, Sa Bangji

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Happy birthday to Taiwanese lesbian writer Qiu Miaojin, born 29 May 1969!

Check out our podcast to hear her story

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idk who you are but you might be interested to know that jews, going back to around 2000 years ago have a framework of what we would call intersexuality that's more impressive than the average person's today. although the discussions predate the modern understanding of gender and it's mostly discussing how it plays a role in religious obligations but you'd probably still find it cool

Thanks for the message! You’ll be happy to know we have got a few notes regarding Jewish conceptions of gender and sex in our list of suggestions to explore in the future.

Alice

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If objectum is considered a potential topic (fair enough if not), the surreal French drama Jumbo, about a French theme park worker who falls in love with a ride she operates, might make a Queer as Fiction episode. As far as I'm aware, it's the only work of fiction specifically about objectum identity as it is in the real world, rather than as a gag.

Thanks for the message. This is a bit out of our wheelhouse, but it does sound like an interesting film all the same!

-Alice

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In 1617, Ethiopian noblewoman Walatta Petros left her husband to take up life as a nun. She maintained her Orthodox faith in the face of Portuguese attempts to convert Ethiopia to Catholicism, and went on to found seven religious communities, working alongside her life partner, fellow nun Eheta Kristos.

Hear her story on our podcast

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In 1791, during the early days of the Haitian revolution, free Black landowner Romaine Riviere led a group of rebels against French colonial rule, freeing enslaved people and taking control of a large area, including several towns.

Romaine was inspired by visions of the Virgin Mary, who conveyed the divine message that slavery was to be abolished. As part of this religiously-inspired leadership, Romaine took on the feminine name Romaine, and the title La Prophetesse, while continuing to use masculine language when referring himself.

Learn more with our podcast!

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Happy birthday Sally Ride, the first US woman in space and, to the best of our knowledge, the first queer person in space!

Hear her story on our podcast

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Today, 23 May, in 2014, ‘Pride’ premiered, a joyful, queer movie celebrating the solidarity between the queer activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, and striking miners in south Wales in the 1980s. If you haven’t watched the movie, you should definitely check it out, and if you have, check out our podcast where we talk about the history behind the film!

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“…I had read some wonderful books, from prehistory to the present time, explaining how this kind of human being – the third sex – could be really quite good and happy. So I decided to be that.”

After being raised as a girl, and then experimenting with testosterone, intersex sculptor Fiore de Henriquez made the decision to live proudly as an intersex person, inspired by the history of others who had gone before her.

Check out our podcast to hear her story

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Happy Pan Visibility Day! Enjoy some pan history:

Links to podcasts of each of these: Abu Nuwas, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Christina of Sweden, Mary Shelley, Frida Kahlo

[queerasfact]

Today, 23 May, in 2014, ‘Pride’ premiered, a joyful, queer movie celebrating the solidarity between the queer activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, and striking miners in south Wales in the 1980s. If you haven’t watched the movie, you should definitely check it out, and if you have, check out our podcast where we talk about the history behind the film!

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Today is Harvey Milk Day, celebrating one of the USA’s first openly gay politicians, Harvey Milk.

Harvey was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in January 1978, and used his position as supervisor to fight for queer rights, in particular against the firing of teachers who were gay or who supported gay people.

In November 1978, Harvey was assassinated by one of his fellow San Francisco supervisors who opposed Harvey politically, and also opposed gay rights more broadly. Aware that he was at risk of assassination, Harvey had recorded a tape to be played in the event of his death, in which he stated,  “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.”

Check out our podcast on Harvey to learn more

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QueerasFiction suggestion: The cult classic surreal, religious teleplay Penda's Fen where the only unambiguous plot element is the homoerotic awaking of the protagonist. You could also make an argument for a trans(feminine) and/or nonbinary interpretation.

Thanks for the suggestion! Some of us watched Penda's Fen a few years back, and I remember finding it a weird and unsatisfying film - but perhaps a Queer as Fiction episode could change that!

-Alice