45. There's No Crying in Baseball, But There Are Lesbians! Queer History of the AAGBPL

An episode Leigh has been dreaming of since the start of the pod is finally here! In this ep, Leigh is joined by guest host Frankie de la Cretaz, sports journalist, queer history buff, and certified Gaylor Swiftie, to discuss the queer history of women’s baseball & softball, in particular the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, aka the inspiration behind A League of Their Own! We discuss all the extreme “no-homo”ing that was happening in the League’s rules and regulations, and all the YES HOMO-ing that happened in spite of it, making the sport into an important site of queer community. We also introduce you to the wonderful world of AAGBPL’s rival for women’s baseball at the time, the National Girls’ Baseball League, and the contrasts between the two leagues. 

Also, don’t forget to check out our bonus episode discussing A League of their Own, with co-creator Will Graham!

Outline

0:00 Introduction
5:26 Socio-Historic Context
12:12 The Leagues: AAGPBL
27:42 Why Do We Think They’re Gay?: Queerness and Women’s Sports
31:48-34:44 Word of the Week: Muscle Moll
34:44 Back to why do we think they’re gay
47:07 The Leagues: NGBL
53:19 Who Were They? Queer ball players of note
1:24:00 -1:24:53 Content Warning: Homophobic violence
1:27:50 Pop Culture Tie In
1:34:15 How Gay Were They?
1:39:50 Closing and Where to Find Us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

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44. Can We Just Title an Episode "Fuck Colonialism"?: Reclaiming Two-Spirit Histories

For this episode, Leigh is joined by guest host Sam Campbell for the pod’s first episode focusing on Indigenous North America, discussing the history behind various Two-Spirit identities and Indigenous cultural norms around gender and sexuality. In this episode, we’ll talk about the pre-colonial significance of Two-Spirit people to Indigenous communities, how early colonists were able to shape the narrative of what it meant to be Two-Spirit and how that has changed, and lastly, how colonization has nearly eradicated Two-Spirit histories. How can we uplift these stories to highlight Two-Spirit resilience despite the genocide they faced?

Outline

0:00 – Introduction and Announcements
7:49 – Socio-Historic Context
12:40 – Main Topic: What is Two-Spirit?: Indigenous Gender & Sexuality
14:33 – Word of the Week
24:47 – Two-Spirit Identity: Gender, Sexuality, Spirituality
50:04 – Different Tribal Two-Spirit Roles
1:04:26 – What Happened to these Histories? Fuck Colonialism!
1:12:48 - 1:16:16 – Content Warning: Discussion of anti-Indigenous genocide
1:16:16 - 00 – Content Warning: Discussion of genocide and religious violence
1:23:23 – Pop Culture Tie-In
1:30:07 – How Gay were They?
1:32:30 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

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43. Rainbow Rising: Homo-Feels about Homophiles, Part 2

For this episode, Leigh is joined again by guest host Tyler Albertario, as we continue diving into the history of the Homophile movement. In this second and final part of this discussion, Leigh and Tyler cover the rise of East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), its restructuring as the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO), and the ultimate downfall of NACHO and most of its member organizations in the wake of the Stonewall Rebellion. What are the lessons we can learn and take from early gay rights organizing, and how the movement transitioned into gay liberation?

Outline

0:00 – Introduction and Announcements
3:33 – Follow-Ups/Corrections from last episode
4:59 – Socio-Historic Context
17:16 – Phase One: Coming Together – Regional organizing & Collaboration
22:21 - 31:07 – Content Warning: Discussion of attempted Nazi invasion
26:24 - 26:34 – Content Warning: Suicide attempt mention
44:24 – Phase 2: Homophile Organizing Goes National
1:03:32 – Phase 3: Stonewall & Failure to Capture Lighting in a Bottle
1:05:04 - 1:05:30 – Content warning: Blood mention
1:14:54 – Epilogue & Final Thoughts/Takeaways
1:18:03 – Pop-Culture Tie-In
1:22:26 – How Gay were They?
1:23:58 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

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42. Rainbow Rising: Homo-Feels about Homophiles, Part 1

We return with another episode in your podfeeds today, this time from our long-since visited mini-series, Rainbow Rising! Leigh is joined by guest host Tyler Albertario to talk about pre-Stonewall gay rights and the rise, heydey, and subsequent fall of the Homophile movement and how the fight for gay civil rights evolved into the struggle for queer liberation. In this first episode of a two-parter, Leigh and Tyler discuss the birth of the homophile movement and some of the main players – gay civil rights organizations in 1950s-1960s America who dared to gather together amid communism moral panic, FBI raids, and spurious homomedicalist points of view about queer identity. Scandalous tales found within, including secret identities and anonymous cells, the gaslighting J. Edgar Hoover himself, fake “ancient Greek” lesbian poetry, and more!

Next time, we’ll come back in Part 2 to discuss how all these groups came together at regional and national conferences to organize, including all the juicy drama and disagreements, and the decline of homophile-style organizing post-Stonewall.

Outline

0:00 – Introduction and Announcements
5:34 – Socio-Historic Context
6:41-7:44 – Content Warning: Mention of anti-gay medical treatments 
17:16 – Main Topic: The Rise of the Homophile Movement
15:20 – Mattachine Foundation/Mattachine Society
16:00 – Word of the Week
39:21 – ONE, Inc. 52:49 – Daughters of Bilitis
1:17:38 – Mattachine Society of Washington & Frank Kameny
1:21:03 – Pop-Culture Tie-In
1:22:31 – Main Takeaways and Conclusions
1:25:15 - 1:27:22 – Content Warning: Mention of pederasty/NAMBLA
1:27:24 – How Gay were They?
1:31:36 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

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37. The Life of Pauli Murray - My Gender is Imp, Part 2

In this episode of History is Gay, Leigh and guest host Aubree Calvin return to 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 in this two-episode series. In this second part of our first-ever two-part episode, we look at what made Pauli queer, and try to get a handle, as best we can, on their gender identity.

We also get 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 can be found online at www.prestonmitchum.com, on Instagram @preston.mitchum, and on Twitter @prestonmitchum.

Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin, can be found at www.aubreecalvin.com or on her podcast Southern Queeries. You can also hear Aubree in previous episodes, which you can check out by clicking here!

Outline
0:00 – Introduction
4:49 – Why Do We Think They’re Gay?
7:19 – Looking at Pauli’s Relationships
14:21 – How do we talk about Pauli’s gender?
36:17 – Interview with Preston Mitchum
1:12:16 –1:14:173 – TW: Discussion of sexual abuse, rape, and assault
1:16:40 – Pop Culture Tie-In
1:18:13 – How Gay Were They?
1:22:40 – Closing and Where to Find Us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

Apple Podcasts  |    Google Play    |    RadioPublic    |    Stitcher    |   Download

36. The Life of Pauli Murray - Confrontation by Typewriter, Part 1

In this episode of History is Gay, Leigh and guest host Aubree Calvin discuss 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 in this two-episode series. This first episode looks at their upbringing, many careers, and accomplishments. Later, in part two, we look at what made Pauli queer, and try to get a handle, as best we can, on their gender identity.

Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Aubree Calvin, can be found at www.aubreecalvin.com or on her podcast Southern Queeries. You can also hear Aubree in previous episodes, which you can check out by clicking here!

Outline
0:00 – Introduction
10:00 – Main Topic: Pauli Murray
13:06 – Socio-Historical Context
14:36 – A Note on Pronouns
16:11 – Who were they? Bio Time.
19:26 – Content Warning: Racial violence
30:05 – Fun Segment: Word of the Week
57:13 – Poetry and Memoir Writing
1:12:19 – Content Warning: Stark descriptions of slave trade
1:20:55 – Closing and Where to Find Us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page (coming soon with Part 2)! 

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35. Claim to Flame: Edmonia "Wildfire" Lewis and her Harem Scarem

In this episode of History is Gay Leigh and guest host Amanda Helton discuss Mary Edmonia “Wildfire” Lewis, the first internationally recognized African American and indigenous artist in the United States. Join us while we ponder how exactly a literal 2-ton sculpture goes missing, discuss the merits of lesbian drama in 1800s Rome, and did you know that blister beetles have been used as aphrodisiacs for centuries? Yeah... neither did we….

Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Amanda Helton, can be found at www.amandahelton.com or @oryxbesia on Instagram. You can also hear Amanda in our episode on Michelangelo!

Outline
0:00 – Introduction
7:18 – Socio-Historical Context
20:58 – Who were they? Bio Time.
25:06 – 26:18 — Content warning: racial violence
30:29 – Fun Segment: Word of the Week
58:27 – Why do we think they're gay? 
1:22:52  – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions
1:27:51 – How Gay were They?
1:30:53 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

Apple Podcasts  |    Google Play    |    RadioPublic    |    Stitcher    |   Download

32. Stealing Horses & Hearts: Trans Vagabonds of the Wild West

In this episode of History is Gay, Leigh and guest host Ashten Hope slap on some cowboy boots and head to the wild west to tip our hats to a slew of badass transgender pioneers. We’ll first meet Harry Allen, a handsome horse-stealing and heart-stealing trans man who was both loved and hated by papers and police across the pacific northwest. Then we’ll dance with the dazzling and talented Mrs. Nash, who’s baking and sewing charmed many a soldier boy. Lastly, prepare to be lassoed by the legendary Charley Parkhurst who was known as one of the best “whips” in all the west. Grab your horse and your headphones and get ready to ride into the fantastic lives of these frontier queers.

Outline: 

0:00 – Introduction
4:12 – Main Topic: Stealing Horses & Hearts: Trans Vagabonds of the Wild West
4:47 – Socio-Historical Context: What was the Wild West and Why do we think its gay?
16:51 – Who were they? Bio Time: Harry Allen
31:40 – 33:04 – Content warning: suicide mention
36:29 – Word of the Week
39:12 –39:31 – Content warning: sexual assault reference
42:52 – 43:03 – Content warning: substance abuse mention
50:26 – Who were they? Bio Time: Mrs. Nash
1:01:26 – 1:03:06 – Content warning: suicide mention
1:06:54 – Who were they? Bio Time: Charley Parkhurst
1:21:16  – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions
1:22:36 – How Gay were They?
1:25:47 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

For a full list of sources and bonus content, visit our Notes page! 

Apple Podcasts  |    Google Play    |    RadioPublic    |    Stitcher    |   Download