“While recording the podcast, we found that there were recurring themes,” says Lemmey. The podcast began in 2019 when Lemmey, an author and film-maker, and Miller, a writer and historical researcher, were introduced to each other by friends. “But if we’re ever going to understand our sexual identity in a way that is based around solidarity and friendship, we need to discuss gay people who were devious and ruthless, too.” “We want to address our history and how gay identity came to be,” Lemmey says.
Photograph: Alamyīad Gays is a continuation of the duo’s podcast of the same name, which profiles the “evil and complicated queers in history” – such as Ernst Röhm, the world’s first out gay politician – a Nazi – and J Edgar Hoover, the FBI director who helped harass political dissidents and gay government employees and was posthumously outed by his friend, Broadway star Ethel Merman. The book’s central argument is that, if we are to fully understand how today’s gay identities evolved, the lives of villains – the most deceitful, criminal, manipulative and power-hungry gay people – are just as important as those of gay heroes such as Oscar Wilde.Įrnst Rohm, the world’s first out gay politician. The question of why that should be the case is the starting point of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. But unlike LGBTQ+ heroes such as Alan Turing or Audre Lorde, they are seldom remembered or claimed as gay. History is littered with famous probably-gay villains, from Alexander the Great to Roy Cohn, Senator McCarthy’s chief counsel and Trump’s favourite lawyer. We seem to be more accepting of some baddies than others.
HUGE GAY CUM LOAD ON BEARD TV
And with hindsight’s perfect vision, it’s clear that plenty of characters in TV and film were not the “ actual villain” either. Meanwhile, famous young women such as Britney Spears, who were once demonised, are now being reappraised as victims. Social media is pretty much a conveyor belt of villainy, too, with different echo chambers picking their own adversaries.
HUGE GAY CUM LOAD ON BEARD SERIES
“Well, if that makes me a villain,” proclaimed an unrepentant Cassie Howard, “then so fucking be it.” This much-memed line encapsulates popular culture’s preoccupation with baddies, from Netflix’s endless scammer series to Disney’s villain origin stories. I n February, season two of HBO’s teen drama Euphoria reached a climax.