In this episode, Thomas talks about the discovery, investigation, and historiography of the “Weerdinge Couple” bog bodies.
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Sources:
Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
Aerts-Bijma, A.T., Wijnand Sanden, Johannes Plicht, and H.J. Streurman. “Dating bog bodies by means of 14C-AMS.” Journal of Archaeological Science. 2004. Nr. 31.
Bianucci, Raffaella, Wijnand Sanden, Grazia Mattutino, Andreas Nerlich, and Bob Loynes. “Unravelling the Weerdinge Couple.” Presentation for the Drents Museum, The Netherlands. 2003.
Black, Sue. All that Remains. A Life in Death. New York City: Doubleday Press, 2018.
Miller, Kristyn. J. “Displaying the Lindow Man. A Case Study.”Blog Post. 1.11.2023. Available at BogBodyResource.com.
National Geographic. "Mysterius Double Murder." Ancent Bodies, Secrets Revealed. 2024. Season 1, Episode 3.
Sanders, Karin. Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
In this episode, Megan shares the secret-not-so-secret queer history of their hometown, Kansas City. Whether on the Missouri or the Kansas side, you might be quite surprised at just how much queer history can be found in this mid-size Midwestern city in what a lot of people consider a "flyover state."
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If you're into what we do, please share/like/subscribe/contact us and share! It really helps us out. Sources:
Bailey, Hannah. March 8, 2022. Womontown: How 12 city blocks in Kansas City became a radical enclave by and for women. www.kcur.org. https://www.kcur.org/history/2022-03-08/womontown-how-12-city-blocks-in-kansas-city-became-a-radical-enclave-by-and-for-women
Curators: Cantwell, Christopher D. Carpenter, Kathryn B., Hinds, Stuart. Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights. https://info.umkc.edu/makinghistory/
Hawley-Bates, Savannah. April 2, 2023. Kansas City has a long history of drag shows, drawing performers from around the U.S. www.kcur.org. https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2023-04-02/kansas-city-drag-shows-gay-history-queer-performance-prohibition-bans
Our Community Roots. July 30, 2015. InLoving Memory of Edye Gregory. https://ourcommunityroots.com/?p=379
Mid-America Regional Council. March 2, 2023. The history of racial discrimination in housing still impacts the Kansas City region today. www.marc.org. https://www.marc.org/news/economy/history-racial-discrimination-housing-still-impacts-kansas-city-region-today
Montalvo, Nasir. May 17, 2022. Remembering Edye and Ray: The First (Well-Documented) Black Drag Queens of Kansas City. www.kansascitydefender.com. https://kansascitydefender.com/lgbtqia2/black-drag-queens-kansas-city/
Szczepanski, Carolyn. June 3, 2010. KC’s new Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America remembers a pioneer town. www.thepitch.com. https://www.thepitchkc.com/kcs-new-gay-and-lesbian-archive-of-midamerica-remembers-a-pioneer-town/
A People’s History of Kansas City. How Kansas City blazed a path for gay liberation. May 30, 2022.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aeHC3zZ85Z0R7OBVZtuGU?si=EZyX9RpVS2SeqEegNB5lQw
In this episode, Thomas discusses the history and complexity of Two-Spirit identities.
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If you're into what we do, please share/like/subscribe/contact us and share! It really helps us out.
Sources:
Chrystos. Not Vanishing. Vancouver: Press Gang Publishing, 1988. Driskill, Qwo-Li. Asegi Stories. Cherokee
Queer and Two Spirit Memory. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016. Driskill, Qwo-Li, Chris Finley, Brian JosephGilley, and Scott Lauria Morgensen, eds.
Queer Indigenous Studies. Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011. Driskill, Qwo-Li, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, and Lisa Tatonetti, eds.
Sovereign Erotics. A collection of Two-Spirit Literature. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011. Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, eds.
Two-Spirit People. Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Champaign: University of IllinoisPress, 1997.
Roscoe, Will. Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. London: Macmillan, 1998. Sigal, Pete, ed.
Infamous Desire. Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Smith, Merril, ed. Sex and Sexuality in Early America. NewYork: New York University Press, 1998.
image: A widely used Two-Spirit flag
In this episode, Megan shares the stories of lesbian action during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as her own experience growing up in the shadow of AIDS.
CW: this episode mentions homophobia as well as death and dying of AIDS, please take care while listening
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If you're into what we do, please share/like/subscribe/contact us and share! It really helps us out.
Sources:
Gonsalves, Jordan. “The Lesbians Who Led the AIDS Response.” But We Loved with Jordan Gonsalves. May 22,2024. 46:50.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qQmFXJSy3rcwLlCiDtIGH?si=Qn7WPRWVRrGms7vtgVlBuw
Hansford, Amelia. 28 April 2023.Lesbian icon Lisa Power explains how AIDS crisis healed riftbetween lesbians and gay groups. Pink News. Accessed 31 May 2025.https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/04/28/lesbians-lesbian-visibility-week-lisa-power/
National AIDS Memorial. “Marcy Fraser – Women and AIDS – Surviving Voices.” YouTube. Uploaded by National AIDS Memorial. 5 December, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKY0JfZp6us&t=482s
Office of the Mayor. 7 February 2025. Part of Mayor Lurie’s Continued Focus on Keeping San Francisco Safe and Helping Residents Prepare for Emergencies. www.SF.gov. Accessed 4 April 2025. https://www.sf.gov/mayor-lurie-announces-fire-commission-appointments-marcy-fraser-to-remain-on-commission-allan-low-to-join
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library. 1985. “AIDS: An Incredible Epidemic.” YouTube. Uploaded by San Francisco Public Library. 7 December, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjDIoLlOWQo
Yale University Library Online Exhibitions. We Are Everywhere: Lesbians in the Archive: Lesbian AIDS Activism. Yale Library Website. Accessed 31 March 2025.https://onlineexhibits.library.yale.edu/s/we-are-everywhere/page/lesbian-aids-activism
Did you know that many of the rules against trans gender markers come from an infamous legal battle involving a trans Scottish nobleman, Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet , general practitioner and expert in Scottish heritage? Learn all about one of the most significant court cases that led us to where we are today when it comes to changing to a chosen name or legal name change.
CW: This episode mentions medicalized transphobia, please take care while listening.
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If you're into what we do, please share/like/subscribe/contact us and share! It really helps us out.
Sources:
Forbes, Ewan. The Aul' Days. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1984.
Playden, Zoe. (2021). The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience. Scribner/Bloomsbury Publishing.
Strudwick, Patrick. "The Secret Court Case 50 Years Ago That Has Robbed Trans People of Their Rights Ever Since." The I Paper. 10.11.21. http://www.inews.o.uk.
In the final episode of our three part deep-dive into thrill killers, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb we learn about their lives in prison and beyond.
CW: this series includes mention of violence, murder, rape and other things listeners may find disturbing. Please take care while listening.
Sources:
Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. HarperCollins. October 13, 2009.
Higdon, Hal. The Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1995, 1999 & 2010.
Fass, Paula S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. OxfordUniversity Press. November 20, 1997.
Rebain, Erik. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of NathanLeopold. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. April 15, 2023.
and:
Crimes of the Centuries with Amber Hunt. S1Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.
Bad Gays. Episode 9: Leopold and Loeb. May 14, 2019.
“Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb – A Chicago Stories Documentary.” YouTube, uploaded by WTTW Chicago. November 1, 1924, https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=i6Og58n8tbNYh32x&v=OCn98CGD-3A&feature=youtu.be
In Part Two of our 3 part episode about teenage thrill killers, Leopold and Loeb, Megan and Thomas discuss the bonkers trial for what would become known as the "crime of the century."
CW: this series includes mention of violence, murder, rape, child molestation, child murder and other things listeners may find disturbing. Please take care while listening.
Sources:
Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. HarperCollins. October 13, 2009.
Higdon, Hal. The Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1995, 1999 & 2010.
Fass, Paula S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. OxfordUniversity Press. November 20, 1997.
Rebain, Erik. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of NathanLeopold. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. April 15, 2023.
and: https://loebandleopold.wordpress.com/
Crimes of the Centuries with Amber Hunt. S1Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.
Bad Gays. Episode 9: Leopold and Loeb. May 14, 2019.
“Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb – A Chicago Stories Documentary.” YouTube, uploaded by WTTW Chicago. November 1, 1924, https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=i6Og58n8tbNYh32x&v=OCn98CGD-3A&feature=youtu.be
In this 3 part episode, Megan shares the story of notorious 1920s thrill killer couple: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.
Part One looks into the childhoods and backgrounds of Leopold and Loeb, as well as the events leading up to what would become known as the "crime of the century."
CW: this series includes mention of violence, murder, rape, child molestation, child murder and other things listeners may find disturbing. Please take care while listening.
Sources:
Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. HarperCollins. October 13, 2009.
Higdon, Hal. The Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1995, 1999 & 2010.
Fass, Paula S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. OxfordUniversity Press. November 20, 1997.
Rebain, Erik. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of NathanLeopold. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. April 15, 2023.
and
https://loebandleopold.wordpress.com/
Crimes of the Centuries with Amber Hunt. S1Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.
Bad Gays. Episode 9: Leopold and Loeb. May 14, 2019.
“Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb – A Chicago Stories Documentary.” YouTube, uploaded by WTTW Chicago. November 1, 1924,https://youtu.be/OCn98CGD-3A?si=i6Og58n8tbNYh32x
Thomas tells us about young Quaker woman, Jemima Wilkinson, who after a grave illness was reborn as the genderless, spiritual being the Public Universal Friend.
Sources:
Cleveland, Stafford. History and directory of Yates County [...] and a narrative of the Public Universal Friend, her society and doctrine. Pen Yan, New York: S. C. Cleveland, 1873.
Gordon, Colby. Interview on "Gender Reveal," October 7, 2024. Podcast episode 179, season 13.
Larson, Scott. "'Indescribable being': theological performances of genderlessness in the Society of the Public Universal Friend, 1776-1819." Critical Approaches to Sex and Gender in Early America, vol. 12, nr. 3 (2014): 576-600. (Special Issue, Beyond the Barriers).
Moyer, Paul. The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and religious enthusiasm in Revolutionary America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 2015.
Wisbey, Herbert. Pioneer prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1964.Kawamoto, Hanna. “'Spiritually unsexed': believers, critics, and early histories of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776-1835. UC Santa Barbara, 2024. (Winner of The Library Award for Undergraduate Research).
Megan shares the story of artists, activist antifa couple: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.
Here's hoping in these dark, despotic times their story of courage and radical activism can inspire us moving forward.
CW: anorexia, suicide
Sources:
2018 novel, Never Anyone But You, RupertThomson
https://www.huckmag.com/article/claude-cahun-jerseys-queer-anti-nazi-freedom-fighter
https://greyartmuseum.nyu.edu/2015/12/claude-cahun-as-anti-nazi-resistance-fighter/
Cole,Julie, "Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore and the Collaborative Construction of a Lesbian Subjectivity", in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (eds.), ReclaimingFemale Agency: Feminist Art History after Postmodernism(California: University of California Press, 2005), 343–60.
Jeffrey, Jackson (2020). Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. New York: Algonquin Books. pp. 122–23. ISBN 978-1616209162.Don't Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore - Aperture/Tate; First Edition (June 15, 2006) Editor: Louise Downie
In this episode, Thomas tells the infuriating saga of the withholding of medical care - or rather, murder - of transman, Robert Eads.
CW: this episode deals with topics related to accessible healthcare/preventative healthcare of trans people which some might find upsetting. Please take care while listening.
Sources:
Kate Davis. "Southern Comfort." 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0L3wlV0hg
Danielle Jones and Jamie Lotun-Raines. "Do trans men need pap smears? An interview with @Jammidodger." Mama Doctor Jones. 20.2.2022.
Imara Jones. "Hormones and IDs: Preparing for Trump 2.0." TransLash Podcast. 12.12.2024.
Paul Pireta, et al. "Ovarian, breast, and metabolic changes induced by androgen treatment in transgender men." Fertility and Sterility. 2021. Vol. 16, 4: 936-942.
Mallery Jenna Robinson. "The Murder of Robert Eads: 'Southern Discomfort.'" A Hateful Homicide. 2024. Season 5, Episode 4.
Megan shares the story of Eleanor Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1831) - known as the Ladies of Llangollen: an intrepid Irish lesbian couple who eloped to Wales to live their truth...and to invent lesbogothcottagecore. Because #lesbiansinventedeverything
Sources:
To the Lady E.B. and the Hon. Miss P, link: http://l-adam-mekler.com/ww_ladies.pdf
Poem of the Week: Anna Seward’s ‘Llangollen Vale’, Link:
https://pastplace.exeter.ac.uk/2014/03/poem-of-the-week-anna-sewards-llangollen-vale/
The Strange Couple who Never Left Home | The Ladies of Llangollen, Fogotten Lives, link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24AACkDqNrs
February 2016, the Ladies of Llangollen, episode 7 of series 3 of Mysteries at the Castle, Travel Channel.
RTÉ radio documentary An Extraordinary Affair, April 2011
Thomas tells us about pioneering German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Research during the height of the Weimar Republic and through to its destruction by the Nazis.
Sources:
Karl M. Baer. Memoirs of a Man's Maiden Years. University of Pennsylvania Press: 2009. (Original German edition published in 1907, author's name given as N.O. Body).
Heike Bauer. The Hirschfeld Archives. Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture. Temple University Press: 2017. Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin, Birthplace of a Modern Identity. Knopf: 2014.
Robert Beachy. "Gay Berlin, Birthplace of a Modern Identity." Lecture, American Academy in Berlin: 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFvP2xOFzfcRalf Dose. Magnus Hirschfeld. The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement. NYU Press: 2014. (Original German edition published in 2005).
Jennifer Evans. "The Nazi Policy Against Homosexuals." Lecture, U of MN Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAg2e3DUZeEMagnus Hirschfeld. Racism. Victor Gollancz, Ltd.: 1938. (Translated and edited by Eden and Cedar Paul.)Richard Oswald and Magnus Hirschfeld. "Anders als die Andern." (Different from the Others.) 1919. 50 min., film fragment.
https://archive.org/details/youtube-oEMeNthlvRQ
Fresh from their travels in Egypt, Megan talks to us about queer aspects of ancient Egypt that prove that queer folx have been around for quite a long time...despite attempts to water down and suppress expressions of queer longing by some homophobic historians and archeologists.
Thomas takes us through the world of 17th and 18th century smut...which curiously features a wealth of lesbian pornography.
Sources:
The School of Venus, or the Ladies Delight, Reduced into Rules of Practice (Orig. L'Ecole des filles, ou la Philosophie des dames, attributed to Michel Millot and Jean L'Ange 1650.)
The School of Women (Orig. Aloisiae Sigae Toletanae Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris et Veneris, Nichlas Chorier, 1660).
Aristotle, pseud. Aristotle's Masterpiece, Secrets of generation displayed in all the parts thereof. London:
Printed for J. How, 1684. (1788 reprint, New York City: United Company of Flying Stationers).
Literature on the subject:
Mudge, Bradford K., ed. When flesh becomes word: an anthology of early eighteenth-century libertine literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Peakman, Julie. Mighty lewd books: the development of pornography in eighteenth-century England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Toulalan, Sarah. Imagining sex. Pornography and bodies in seventeenth-century England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Megan tells the heart-wrenching story of the fire of a neighborhood bar in 1973 that ripped through the local LBGTQIA+ community, and became the catalyst for the gay rights movement in New Orleans, Louisiana.
*Content Warning*
This episode involves the use of anti-gay slurs, as well as content that might be difficult to listen to. Please take care while listening.
Sources:
Fieseler, Robert W. Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation. Liveright. June 5, 2018
Townsend, Johnny. Let The Faggots Burn: The Upstairs Lounge Fire. Booklocker.com Inc. August 15, 2011.
Thomas tells us about a lesser-known queer uprising that happened in 1966 at an all night diner in San Francisco, California.
Sources:
Stryker, Susan. Transgender History. New York City: Seal Press, 2008. (Revised edition, 2017).
Silverman, Victor and Susan Stryker, dirs. "Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria." 2005. Personna, Donna, Victor Silverman, Susan Stryker, and Shane Zaldivar.
"Compton's Cafeteria Riot and the Legacy of Police Violence." GLBT Historical Society. 2021. Available on YouTube.
"The Courageous Queens of Compton's Cafeteria Riot Inspire a New Generation. KQED Arts. 2019. Available on YouTube.
Thomas and Megan introduce themselves, discuss their queer coming-of-age experiences and why they identify as queer. In These Old Queers, they discuss queer history, identity and aging as queer people.
image: Thomas Donald Jacobs
https://www.bugsnart.com/
music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet - 'Pretty Baby' (1916) - Written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn - Library of Congress
