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Bad Gays: A Homosexual History


$29.95

An unconventional history of homosexuality for readers of The Deviant's Warby Eric Cervini

We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary lives reveal more than we might expect? Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but, as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked.  

Based on the hugely popular podcast series,
Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ+ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to anthropologist Margaret Mead and notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes kings, fascist thugs such as Nazi founder Ernst Rohm, artists, and debauched bon viveurs.

 
Hadrian
 
Aretino
 
James I and VI
 
Frederick the Great
 
Jack Saul
 
Roger Casement
 
Lawrence of Arabia
 
The Bad Gays of Weimar
 
Margaret Mead
 
J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn
 
Yukio Mishima
 
Philip Johnson
 
Ronnie Kray
 
Pim Fortuyn

Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.

Bad Gays is a passionate argument for rethinking gay politics beyond questions of identity and the search for solidarity across boundaries. Hardcover.
An unconventional history of homosexuality for readers of The Deviant's Warby Eric Cervini

We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary lives reveal more than we might expect? Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but, as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked.  

Based on the hugely popular podcast series,
Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ+ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to anthropologist Margaret Mead and notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes kings, fascist thugs such as Nazi founder Ernst Rohm, artists, and debauched bon viveurs.

 
Hadrian
 
Aretino
 
James I and VI
 
Frederick the Great
 
Jack Saul
 
Roger Casement
 
Lawrence of Arabia
 
The Bad Gays of Weimar
 
Margaret Mead
 
J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn
 
Yukio Mishima
 
Philip Johnson
 
Ronnie Kray
 
Pim Fortuyn

Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.

Bad Gays is a passionate argument for rethinking gay politics beyond questions of identity and the search for solidarity across boundaries. Hardcover.

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