These Old Queers

queer history by queer people

References

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1. “Welcome to These Old Queers”

  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Thomas Donald Jacobs

2. “Compton’s Cafeteria Riot”

  • Susan Stryker. Transgender History. New York City: Seal Press, 2008. (Revised edition, 2017).
  • Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker, dirs. “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.” 2005. Donna Personna, 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.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Inside Compton’s Cafeteria, Tenderloin location, San Francisco. Photograph by Henri Leleu. Ca. 1966. GLBT Historical Society, Museum and Archives.

3. “The UpStairs Lounge Arson Attack”

  • Robert W. Fiesler. Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation. New York City: Liveright, 2018.
  • Johnny Townsend. Let The Faggots Burn: The UpStairs Lounge Fire. Trenten, GA: Booklocker, 2011.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: The Upstairs Lounge. Unknown photographer and date. “The Upstairs Lounge Arson Attack, New Orleans: 50 Years Later,” symposium hosted by The American LGBTQ+ Museum and The LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana,2023.

4. “Libertine Smut”

  • Anon. The School of Venus, or the Ladies Delight, Reduced into Rules of Practice. 1680 (Orig. L’Ecole des filles, ou la Philosophie des dames, attributed to Michel Millot and Jean L’Ange 1650.)
  • 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).
  • Nicholas Chorier. The School of Women (Orig. Aloisiae Sigae Toletanae Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris et Veneris, 1660).
  • Bradford K. Mudge, ed. When flesh becomes word: an anthology of early eighteenth-century libertine literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Julie Peakman. Mighty Lewd Books: The Development of Pornography in Eighteenth-Century England. New York City: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  • Sarah Toulalan. Imagining Sex. Pornography and Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Frontispiece, The School of Venus, unknown artist. 1680. Anon. translation of L’Escole des Filles, attributed to Michel Milliot, 1655).

5. “Queer Ancient Egypt”

  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Niankhknum and Khnumhotep embracing. Photograph by Ahmed Moussa and Hartwig Altenmmüller, Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, 1977.

6. “Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Research”

  • Karl M. Baer. Memoirs of a Man’s Maiden Years. Philadelphia: 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. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2017.
  • Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin, Birthplace of a Modern Identity. New York City: Knopf, 2014.
  • Ralf Dose. Magnus Hirschfeld. The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement. New York City: NYU Press, 2014. (Original German edition published in 2005).
  • Magnus Hirschfeld. Racism. London: Victor Gollancz, 1938. (Translated and edited by Eden and Cedar Paul.)
  • Robert Beachy. “Gay Berlin, Birthplace of a Modern Identity.” Lecture, American Academy in Berlin. 2014. Available on YouTube.
  • Jennifer Evans. “The Nazi Policy Against Homosexuals.” Lecture, University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 2018. Available on YouTube.
  • Richard Oswald and Magnus Hirschfeld. “Anders als die Andern.” (Different from the Others.) 1919. 50 min., film fragment. Available on Archive.org.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Costume party at the Institute for Sexual Research. Unknown photographer and date. Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft, Berlin.

7. “The Ladies of Llangollen”

  • Walt Whitman. “To the Lady E.B. and the Hon. Miss P.” Unpublished poem, 1824. Available here.
  • Anna Seward. “Llangollen Vale.” Unpublished poem, 1795. Available here.
  • “An Extraordinary Affair.” RTÉ radio documentary. April, 2011.
  • Nico Waters. “The Strange Couple who Never Left Home: The Ladies of Llangollen,” Forgotten Lives YouTube Channel. 22.06.2023.
  • “The Ladies of Llangollen.” Season 3, episode 7, Mysteries at the Castle. The Travel Channel. February, 2016.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Portrait of Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. Susan Murray Tait. 1819. The National Library of Wales.

8. “The Death and Life of Robert Eads”

  • 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.
  • Danielle Jones and Jamie Lotun-Raines. “Do trans men need pap smears? An interview with @Jammidodger.” Mama Doctor Jones YouTube Channel. 20.2.2022.
  • Imara Jones. “Hormones and IDs: Preparing for Trump 2.0.” TransLash Podcast. 12.12.2024.
  • Mallery Jenna Robinson. “The Murder of Robert Eads: ‘Southern Discomfort.’” Season 5, episode 4, A Hateful Homicide podcast. 2024.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Robert Eads. Kate Davis, director of “Southern Comfort.” 2001.

9. “Marcel Moore & Claude Cahun: Surrealist Antifa Revolutionaries”

  • Julie Cole, “Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore and the Collaborative Construction of a Lesbian Subjectivity”, in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (eds.), Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History after Postmodernism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 343–60.
  • Louise Downie, ed. Don’t Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore – Aperture/Tate; First Edition (June 15, 2006).
  • Jackson Jeffrey. Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. New York City: Algonquin Books, 2020.
  • Katherine Smith. “Claude Cahun as Anti-Nazi Resistance Fighter.” Grey Art Museum, New York University. 2015. Available here.
  • Jessie Williams. “Claude Cahun: Jersey’s Queer, Anti-Nazi Freedom Fighter.” Huck Magazine. 14.05.2020. Available here.
  • Rupert Thomson. Never Anyone But You. New York City: Other Press, 2018.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe. Unknown photographer. 1939. Jersey Heritage Collection.

10. “The Public Universal Friend”

  • Stafford Cleveland. 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.
  • Colby Gordon. Interview. Season 13, episode 179 of Gender Reveal podcast. October 7.10.2024.
  • Scott Larson. “‘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, 3 (2014): 576-600. (Special Issue, Beyond the Barriers).
  • Paul Moyer. The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 2015.
  • Herbert Wiseby. Pioneer prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1964.
  • Hanna Kawamoto. “’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, not referenced in episode 10, signal boosted in episode 11).
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Portrait of the Public Universal Friend. Unknown artist. David Hudson, Memoir of Jemima Wilkinson, a preacheress of the eighteenth century. 1844.

11. “Leopold & Loeb, Part One”

  • Simon Baatz. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.
  • Paula S. Fass. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Hal Higdon. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
  • Erik Rebain. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of Nathan Leopold. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2023.
  • Amber Hunt. “Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.” Season 1, episode 2, Crimes of the Centuries podcast. 2020.
  • Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. “Leopold and Loeb.” Episode 9, Bad Gays podcast. 2019.
  • “Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb.” Season 4, Chicago Stories documentary series. 2024. Available on YouTube.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Photograph of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold. Unknown artist. “Chicago Tribune.” 1924.

12. “Leopold & Loeb, Part Two”

  • Simon Baatz. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.
  • Paula S. Fass. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Hal Higdon. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
  • Erik Rebain. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of Nathan Leopold. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2023.
  • Amber Hunt. “Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.” Season 1, episode 2, Crimes of the Centuries podcast. 2020.
  • Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. “Leopold and Loeb.” Episode 9, Bad Gays podcast. 2019.
  • “Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb.” Season 4, Chicago Stories documentary series. 2024. Available on YouTube.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Phrenological analysis of Nathan Leopold. Unknown artist. Courtesy of Erik Rebain, “The Nose Knows: Phrenology and Physiognomy as the Keys to Understanding Leopold and Loeb,” 1.10.2022. The Lives and Legends of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Blog. Available here.

13. “Leopold & Loeb, Part Three”

  • Simon Baatz. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.
  • Paula S. Fass. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Hal Higdon. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
  • Erik Rebain. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of Nathan Leopold. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2023.
  • Amber Hunt. “Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.” Season 1, episode 2, Crimes of the Centuries podcast. 2020.
  • Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. “Leopold and Loeb.” Episode 9, Bad Gays podcast. 2019.
  • “Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb.” Season 4, Chicago Stories documentary series. 2024. Available on YouTube.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Albany, New York, newspaper coverage of the 1931 Joliet riot featuring an image of Nathan Leopold, the penitentiary’s most notorious resident at the time. The Knickerbocker Press, 19.3.1931.

14. “Ewan Forbes“

  • Forbes, Ewan. The Aul’ Days. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1984.
  • Playden, Zoe. The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience. Scribner/Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.
  • 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.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Ewan Forbes, from Sarah Schulman, “The Secret 53-Year-Old British Case That Could Have Legalized Trans Identity.” The New York Times, 2.11.2021.

15. “Blood Sisters“

  • Colangelo, Gabrielle and Sarah Davis, curators. “We Are Everywhere: Lesbians in the Archive.” Yale University Library, 2022. Available at Yale University Library Online Exhibitions.
  • Fraser, Marcy. “Women and AIDS – Surviving Voices.” National Aids Memorial, 5.12.2017. Available on YouTube.
  • Gonsalves, Jordan. “The Lesbians Who Led the AIDS Response.” But We Loved with Jordan Gonsalves. Podcast episode released on 22.5.2024. Available on Spotify.
  • Hansford, Amelia. “Lesbian icon Lisa Power explains how AIDS crisis healed rift between lesbians and gay groups.” Pink News, 28.4.2025.
  • Office of the Mayor of San Francisco. “Mayor Lurie Announces Fire Commission Appointments: Marcy Fraser to Remain on Commission, Allan Low to Join.” 7.2.2025. Available here.
  • San Francisco General Hospital. “AIDS: An Incredible Epidemic.” 1985. Available on YouTube.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Blood Sisters blood drive, San Diego, 1983. The Lambda Archives, San Diego.

16. “Two-Spirit Identities“

  • 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 Joseph Gilley, 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 Illinois Press, 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. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Osh-Tisch, Apsáalooke. Photo by Calvin H. Ashbury, ca. 1928. Photo Lot 24 SPC NAA INV.00476300, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

17. “Queer Kansas City”

  • Bailey, Hannah. “Womontown: How 12 city blocks in Kansas City became a radical enclave by and for women.” 8.3.2022. Available at NPR in Kansas City.
  • Cantwell, Christopher D., Kathryn B. Carpenter, and Stuart Hinds (Curators). “Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights.” Traveling Pop-Up Exhibition, 2022. Digital companion available here.
  • Hawley-Bates, Savannah. “Kansas City has a long history of drag shows, drawing performers from around the U.S.” 2.4.2023. Available at NPR in Kansas City.
  • Our Community Roots. “In Loving Memory of Edye Gregory.” 30.7.2015. Available here.
  • Mid-America Regional Council. “The history of racial discrimination in housing still impacts the Kansas City region today.” 2.3.2023. Available here.
  • Montalvo, Nasir. “Remembering Edye and Ray: The First (Well-Documented) Black Drag Queens of Kansas City.” 17.5.2022. Available at The Kansas City Defender.
  • Szczepanski, Carolyn. “KC’s new Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America remembers a pioneer town.” 3.6.2010. Available at The Pitch.
  • A People’s History of Kansas City. “How Kansas City blazed a path for gay liberation.” 30.5.2022. Available here.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: The Jewel Box Lounge. Photographer and date unknown. M.C. Overshot. Sex Under Construction: Architecture, Gender, and Sexual Science in the 20th Century American City. (PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Forthcoming).

18. “Bog Bodies”

  • Aerts-Bijma, A.T., Wijnand Sanden, Johannes Plicht, and H.J. Streurman. “Dating bog bodies by means of 14C-AMS.” Journal of Archaeological Science, nr. 31 (2004).
  • 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.” Season 1, episode 3, Ancient Bodies, Secrets Revealed. 2024.
  • Sanders, Karin. Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: The Remains of the Weerdinge Men. Image courtesy of the Drents Museum.

19. “The Pansy Craze”

  • Ames, Jack. “Remembering Ray.” Email Communication, June of 2000. Published on “Don’t Call Me Madam. The Life and Work of Rae Bourbon.” RaeBourbon.com.
  • Bullock, Darryl W. “Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife.” The Guardian, 9.14.2017.
  • Bunyon, Patrick. All Around the Town: The Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Lincoln: Fordham University Press, 1999.
  • Doyle, Dave. “The ‘Pansy Craze’ Pioneered LGBT Acceptance in America.” The Syncopated Times, 12.30.2023.
  • Starr, Kevin. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. Oxford University Press, 2002.
  • Wilson, James. Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: “You Never Can Tell.” Cartoon by an unknown artist. Brevities, 30.11.1931.

20. “Colonel Barker”

  • Collis, Rose. Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment. A Tale of Female Husbandry. London: Virago, 2001.
  • Gottlieb, Julie V. Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain’s Fascist Movement, 1923- 1945. London: Tauris Publishers, 2000.
  • Lemmey, Huw and Juliette Jacks. “Christmas Special: Colonel Victor Barker.” Bad Gays podcast. 25.12.2019.Manion, Jen. “Female Husbands.A Trans History.” Presentation for Cary Memorial Library. 2.9.21. Available on YouTube.
  • Pavda, Gilad. “Joseph/Josephine’s Angst: Sensational Hermaphroditism in Tod Browning’s Freaks.” Social Semiotics 28, nr. 1 (2017): 1-17.
  • Portnoy, Edward A. “Freaks, Geeks, and Strongmen: Warsaw Jews and Popular Performance, 1912-1930.” TDR: The Drama Review 50, nr. 2 (2006): 117-135.
  • Pugh, Vicki. “Problem Bodies and Sideshow Space: A Study of the Twentieth Century Sideshow in Blackpool. 1930-1940.” (PhD. diss., University of Sheffield, 2020).
  • Szoradova, P.E. “LGBTQ+ History: The Red Rose of Colonel Barker.” Blog post from The National Archives. 2.25.2029.
  • Music: Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet, “Pretty Baby,” written by Egbert Van Alstyne, Tony Jackson and Gus Kahn. 1916. The Library of Congress.
  • Image: Victor Barker as the actor Ivor Gauntlett. Photogragh by an unknown artist. “‘Dash and Daring. The Strange Masquerade. From Schoolgirl to ‘Colonel’.” The Graphic, 16.3.1929.