In this episode, Megan shares the stories of #HenryGerber and #PearlMHart - two #queer Chicagoans from immigrant, working class backgrounds whose work shaped not just #queerrights in the Midwest, but throughout the country.

also mentioned, "seances and other strange behavior"...

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

images:
1 Pearl M. Hart in her later years
2 Henry Gerber
3 Henry Gerber House - Chicago
4 Henry Gerber headstone at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington D.C.
5 Pearl M. Hart
6 Pearl M. Hart campaign materials
7 Report of Hart's actions during the 1950s #redscare years from the Chicago Sun-Times
8 #MattachineMidwest newsletter featuring Hart

#lgbtqia2shistory #lgbthistory #lesbianhistory #bihistory #pansexual #panhistory #queerhistory #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

I will be tabling at this craft fair together with my #theseoldqueers podcast co-host, Thomas, at Amazone in Brussels, Belgium this coming Thursday. I'll be selling zines and embroideries. Come say hi if you're around!

#diymakers #artmarket #queer #witchy #woo #queerpodcast

In the second of this two-part special on #AncientRome, Thomas takes us through the current state of research on gender bending in the Ancient Roman world. We then quickly dive into the controversial case of the young Emperor #Elagabalus. What do the primary sources actually say, and what might they actually tell us about Roman attitudes towards gender boundaries and boundary crossers?

Content Warning: this episode mentions castration and human sacrifice.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

#lgbtqia2shistory #lgbthistory #lesbianhistory #bihistory #pansexual #panhistory #queerhistory #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

In the first of this two-part episode, Thomas takes us through how “homosexuality” – or rather, same sex erotic experiences – were conceptualized in the weird world of #AncientRome. We then discuss the particular case of the relationship between the Emperor #Hadrian and his purported lover, #Antinous. What do the primary sources actually say, what is implied, and what might it mean to us now?

Content Warning: this episode includes discussion of sexual violence and pederasty, and mentions pedophilia.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

#lgbtqia2shistory #lgbthistory #lesbianhistory #bihistory #pansexual #panhistory #queerhistory #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

Megan takes us on a ride through the life of #AnitaBerber : Weimar Germany's Priestess of Depravity. Dancer and legendary #bisexual bad girl, Anita was the first true star of her era and her short life was shocking even for hedonistic #Berlin of #the1920s.

Content Warning:
MAJOR warning for underage grooming, inappropriate adult/child relationships, animal mistreatment, drug use, violence. Please take care while listening.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

all images from Mel Gordon's #SevenAddictionsandFiveProfessionsofAnitaBerber

1 'Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber' - #OttoDix 1925
2 Felix Berber
3 Lucie Thiem Berber 1921
4 Anita with Grandma Thiem, 1901
5 Anita 'Allegory of Spring', 1916
6 Valeska Gert 'Dance in Orange', 1916
7 Susi Wandrowski and Anita, 1922
8 Anita as Eton-Boy in 'Please Pay!' by Ernst Scheider, 1921
9 Sebastian Droste, by Francis Bruguiere, 1925
10 Henri 'Lotus Land', 1931

#lgbtqia2shistory #lgbthistory #lesbianhistory #bihistory #pansexual #panhistory #queerhistory #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

In this episode, Thomas tells us about the life of Black, lesbian blues singer, pianist and entertainer: #GladysBentley. A star of the #HarlemRenaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, Bentley seemed in every way someone living their life on their terms. Until, that is, her star power began to dim and Bentley began to doubt her identity.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of medical abuse and fatphobia. Listeners are strongly encouraged to consider to exercise caution.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

1. Gladys Bentley. Unknown photographer.
2. Gladys Bentley and Willie Bryant in front of the Apollo Theater
3. Advertisement for a Gladys Bentley performance at Mona’s 440, San Francisco
4. Advertisement for a Gladys Bentley and Miss Jimmy Reynard performance at Mona’s
5. Advertisement for a Gladys Bentley performance at the Memphis Club, Philadelphia, 1934
6. Clipping from Vere John's "In the Name of Art," New York Times, 1934.
7. Gladys Bentley. Photographer unknown. "I Am a Woman Again," Ebony Magazine, August of 1952.
8. Clipping from unknown author, "Here's What Happens at Harlem's Famous Ubangi Club,"1936
9. E. Simms Campbell, "A Night Club Map of Harlem," 1932

#lgbtqia2shistory #lgbthistory #lesbianhistory #Blacklesbian #Blacklesbianhistory #queerhistory #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

In this second part of our two part story about the lives of AMAB femmes, Fanny and Stella, we dive into the trial that shocked Victorian England, its outcome, and what became of the bold Stella and Fanny in the remainder of their lives.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

images:
1 Fanny and Stella enter the Bow Street jail
2 Fanny and Stella in court
3 illustration of Coldbath Fields Prison

#FannyandStella #FrederickPark #ErnestBoulton #transhistory #lgbtqia2sphistory #queerhistory #queerpodcast #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

In the first episode of our second season, Megan shares the story of Fanny and Stella: two gender non-conforming young people from Victorian England who presented female (and sometimes male) while carousing the exciting streets of 1860s/70s London. That is, until their antics got them in hot water with the law in what would be one of the most significant trials in British queer history. In this first part of our two part episode we learn about their lives leading up to their arrest.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

images:
1 #FannyandStella
2 Fanny #FrederickPark (right) and #ErnestBoulton as Fanny and Stella, 1869
3 Stella and Fanny (back right, holding mallets), dressed in character for the drawing-room entertainments they toured to small country houses and market-town assembly rooms
4 Park, in male attire, 1868
5 Fanny
6 Stella
7 Boulton, in male attire, 1875
8 #BurlingtonArcade, 1870s
9 Park (standing) and Boulton (on the floor) with Clinton, c. 1869
10 John Safford Fiske

#transhistory #lgbtqia2sphistory #queerhistory #queerpodcast #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers

In this episode, Thomas takes us through the life and times of convicted swindler, #VictorBarker. From his time in Holloway Prison to the sideshows of Blackpool and beyond, Barker insisted on maintaining a male identity throughout his adult life despite often being described as a cross-dresser. This early-twentieth century trans-man was not an admirable character, but he was definitely an interesting one.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out across the web!

images:
1) Ivor Gauntlett a.k.a. Victor Barker. 1929.
2) Captain Victor Barker. 1929.
3) “On a Strange Honeymoon,” sideshow in Blackpool. Photograph by Julian Trevelyan.
4) Attributed to Victor Barker. “The Man-Woman. ‘My Story.’” The Weekly Dispatch. 3.10.1929.
5) ”’Colonel Barker,’ Queen of Hoaxers, Faces Destitution.” 1933.
6) Josephine Joseph on the set of “Freaks.” 1931.
7) Albert Alberta Karas. Promotional flyer for Josephine Joseph.
8) Holloway Prison. 1913.
9) Interior of a woman’s cell, Holloway Prison. 1909.
10) Outside of Colonel Barker’s sideshow, Blackpool Promenade. 1937.

#ColonelBarker #ColonelVictorBarker #transman #transmanhistory #transhistory #lgbtqia2sphistory #queerhistory #queerpodcast #queerhistorypodcast #theseoldqueers