Wait, what’s so gay about witches, you ask?

First of all — sit down.

When I was a young f/hag in the late ’90s, Wicca was having a moment. The Halliwell sisters ruled the WB, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock were burying men in their back gardens, and I gobbled the GAGathon down with glee.

Only later did I realize what made these witchy bitchies so alluring: it wasn’t (just) that they were different — it was that they were powerful.

Outsiders who could fight back. Like the X-men...or democratic socialists.

But were they always outsiders? No! In the ancient world, everyone dabbled in magic. Pagans love a hag with a herb garden.

Then Christianity came along and ruined everything. AS ALWAYS.

By the 20th century, witchcraft was beginning to mean "freedom" to a lot of repressed Westerners. Which might explain why nearly half of Wiccans today identify as queer.

Join us for this Halloween special as we trace The Craft™ from ancient love spells to Victorian occultists, with brilliant guest Professor Marion Gibson.

Together we ask:

🧙‍♀️ When did “wise women” in the woods become “evil hags”?

🔥 Why did we burn so many witches?

🌍 How did colonialism export Europe’s hag-phobia worldwide?

💅 And how did queer people turn witchcraft into a symbol of defiance, glamour, and spiritual fulfilment?

So come on in, the cauldron-water is human temperature.

–

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Beard and severed thumb sold separately.

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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash

Edited by Alex Toskas

Produced by Dani Henion

Guest: Professor Marion Gibson

Remember when you found out you were gay (iconic of you btw) and you thought:

"Oh this is fine – I'll just have a regular heterosexual wife, a couple of kids, and a very elaborate sex life on the side."

Just me? OK, fine.

But the question remains: why do little gay children like me grow up assuming a straight nuclear family is our only option?

Has family always been one man, one woman, and a couple of snot-nosed heirs to the milkman?

This week, we’re talking to writer and educator Kirsty Loehr, author of A Short History of Queer Parenting, as we uncover:

• What family looked like before “heterosexuality”
• Matriarchal hunter-gatherers for whom all holes were goals, plus Amazons and Jesus' 2 dads
• Victorian respectability politics vs. Oscar Wilde
• DIY lesbian turkey-baster chic
• And why men are obsessed with spreading their seed.

It’s a fluid-filled romp through the history of chosen families, accidental babies, and deliberate love.

JOIN THE CULT

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Turkey baster sold separately.
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Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please do leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review.

Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash.Guest Kirsty Loehr.Edited by Alex Toskas.Produced by Dani Henion.

"Hollywood was swarming with gay people."

You know how Pedro Pascal hasn't come out yet? Well: this episode will explain why.

Between the 1930s and 1960s, the Hays Code banned “sexual perversion” of all kinds from the silver screen, which (spoiler alert) meant queers.

That has bequeathed us a predominantly homophobic industry in Hollywood, even if the stars and culture have always been decidedly – how do you say? – VERY GAY.

This week we dive into the queerness of Hollywood’s first Golden Age.

We cover:

• The pre-Code era archetypes of pansies, sissies, butches, and sapphics, oh my!
• The Code's first filmic victim: a 1936 adaptation of Lillian Hellman's thesbian stage classic The Children’s Hour
• Hitchcock’s Rope, featuring two fascist dandy murderers whose day jobs included playing the piano and being fantastically rich
• The legacy of homophobia and queer desire in post-Code films up to the present

This week, Bash is joined by film critic and filmmaker, Michael Koresky, who is the recent author of Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness — a love letter to the sly, coded, and deeply horny films that the uptight, antisemitic, racist, homophobic, Catholic censors forced out of the era's greatest artists.

Hollywood was always swarming with queers, as Michael puts it, but people weren't naïve or stupid. We saw the signs – and we shot each other furtive glances as we hid our brain-boners...

🎧 Listen now on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you pod. Wigs and cigarettes sold separately.

📱 Follow Historical Homos on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you care about gay people, like, at all.

Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review on Apple or Spotify.

Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash.

Edited by Alex Toskas.

Produced by Dani Henion.

Guest host: Michael Koresky.