Bad Gays

*Bad Gays*
Bad Gays
Genre	LGBTQ; history; human interest; culture;
Language	English
Cast and voices
Hosted by	Huw Lemmey; Ben Miller;
Production
Length	45–90 minutes (approximate)
Publication
Original release	April 19, 2019
Updates	Fortnightly
Related
Website	badgayspod.com

Bad Gays is a queer history podcast about "evil and complicated queers" in history hosted by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller.

Each episode of Bad Gays explores the story of a complicated queer person in history.

Reception

The Advocate listed Bad Gays in its 2023 list of "Five Gloriously Gay Podcasts You Need To Listen To."^[1] Bad Gays was also reviewed by Vice Media,^[2] Another Magazine,^[3] Vox Media,^[4] The Washington Post,^[5] and The Boar.^[6]

Book

Based on research for the podcast, Lemmey and Miller wrote a book, Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, published by Verso Books.^[7]^[8] The book won the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for History and Biography.^[9]

Episodes

Season One
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Ernst Röhm	March 19, 2019	^[10]
2	Lord Alfred Douglas	March 26, 2019
3	T. E. Lawrence	April 2, 2019
4	James VI and I	April 9, 2019
5	Andrew Sullivan	April 16, 2019
6	Anthony Blunt	April 23, 2019
7	Friedrich Radszuweit	April 30, 2019
8	Ronnie Kray	May 7, 2019
9	Leopold and Loeb	May 14, 2019
10	Roy Cohn	May 21, 2019
Bonus	Andy Warhol	June 24, 2019

Season Two
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Alexander the Great	September 24, 2019	^[10]
2	Andrew Cunanan	October 1, 2019
3	Pietro Aretino	October 8, 2019
4	Frederick the Great	October 15, 2019
5	Charles George Gordon	October 22, 2019
6	Pim Fortuyn	October 29, 2019
7	Nicky Crane	November 5, 2019
8	The Stonewall Colony	November 12, 2019
9	Piers Gaveston	November 19, 2019
10	J. Edgar Hoover	November 27, 2019
Bonus	Victor Barker	December 25, 2019
Bonus	Pete Buttigieg	January 29, 2020

Season Three
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Nikolai Yezhov	March 24, 2020	^[10]
2	James Buchanan	March 31, 2020
3	Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh	April 7, 2020
4	Barney Frank	April 14, 2020
5	Elmyr de Hory	April 21, 2020
6	Philip Johnson	April 28, 2020
7	Roger Casement	May 4, 2020
8	Aileen Wuornos	May 11, 2020
9	Morrissey	May 19, 2020
10	Lisa Miller	May 26, 2020
Bonus	Radclyffe Hall	July 28, 2020
Bonus	John Maynard Keynes	September 1, 2020

Season Four
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Cecil Rhodes	October 20, 2020	^[10]
2	Liberace	October 27, 2020
3	Jeremy Thorpe	November 3, 2020
4	Benjamin Britten	November 10, 2020
5	Carl Van Vechten	November 17, 2020
6	Truman Capote	November 24, 2020
7	Prince Albert Victor	December 1, 2020
8	Gertrude Stein	December 8, 2020
9	Camilla Hall	December 14, 2020
10	Violette Morris	December 22, 2020
Bonus	Dennis Cooper	February 23, 2021
Bonus	Arthur Gary Bishop	April 13, 2021
Bonus	Pacchierotto (15th century sodomite)	August 10, 2021

Season Five
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Francis Bacon	December 24, 2021	^[10]
2	Joe Carstairs	January 4, 2022
3	Ernst vom Rath	January 11, 2022
4	Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg	January 18, 2022
5	Anne Bonny	January 25, 2022
6	Franco Zeffirelli	February 1, 2022
7	Freddie Mercury	February 8, 2022
8	Cressida Dick	February 22, 2022
9	Cressida Dick	February 22, 2022
10	John Wojtowicz	March 1, 2022
11	Jeffrey Dahmer	March 15, 2022
Bonus	Eugen Sandow	June 1, 2022
Bonus	Magnus Hirschfeld	October 5, 2022
Live Show	Jack Saul	December 25, 2022

Season Six
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	George Santos	March 20, 2023	^[10]
2	Julie d'Aubigny	March 28, 2023
3	Jorge Horacio Ballvé Piñero	April 4, 2023
4	Mustapha Ben Ismaïl	April 11, 2023
5	André Gide	April 25, 2023
6	Griselda Blanco	May 2, 2023
7	Tom Driberg	May 9, 2023
8	Dong Xian	May 16, 2023
9	Tokugawa Iemitsu	May 30, 2023
10	Benedetta Carlini	June 6, 2023
Live Show	Simeon Solomon, Sascha Schneider	December 25, 2023

Season Seven
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Karl Lagerfeld	February 13, 2024	^[10]
2	Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell	February 20, 2024
3	Ahebi Ugbabe	February 27, 2024
4	Elagabalus	March 5, 2024
5	James Levine	March 12, 2024
6	John Whitgift	March 19, 2024
7	Marthe Hanau	April 2, 2024
8	Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah	April 9, 2024
9	Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás	April 18, 2024
10	Rotha Lintorn-Orman	April 25, 2024
Bonus	Christopher Marlowe	June 25, 2024
Bonus	Jerome Robbins	August 25, 2024
Bonus	Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie	October 30, 2024

Season Eight
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Olive Yang	December 23, 2024	^[10]
2	Tom Mitford	December 30, 2024
3	Elisar von Kupffer	January 7, 2025
4	Albrecht Muth	January 14, 2025
5	Reed Erickson	January 20, 2025
6	Abd al-Ilah	January 29, 2025
7	Larry Kramer	February 5, 2025
8	Anne Lister	February 11, 2025
9	Adele Spitzeder	February 19, 2025
10	Jacques de Molay	March 11, 2025
Bonus	Alexander von Humboldt	April 30, 2025
Bonus	Gavin Arthur	June 10, 2025
Bonus	Coil	August 12, 2025

Season Nine
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Little Richard	November 04, 2025	^[10]
2	Dorian Corey	November 11, 2025
3	Charles Hitchen	November 18, 2025
4	Jacob Israël de Haan	November 25, 2025
5	Angela Calomiris	December 01, 2025
6	Tracey Wigginton	December 16, 2025
7	Captain Moonlite	December 23, 2025
8	E. M. Forster	December 30, 2025
9	William Beckford	February 3, 2026
10	Tom of Finland	February 10, 2026
Bonus	Daniel Dunglas Home	Apr 2, 2026

**Season Ten**
Episode number	Topic	Release date	Ref
1	Peter Mandelson	April 29, 2026	^[11]
2		May 6, 2026
3		May 13, 2026
4		May 20, 2026
5		May 27, 2026
6		June 3, 2026

References

↑ "5 Gloriously Gay Podcasts You Need to Listen To". www.advocate.com. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
↑ Segalov, Michael (2019-03-28). "The Podcast Shining a Light On History's 'Bad Gays'". Vice. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
↑ Greig, James (June 10, 2022). "Why We Need to Talk About the "Bad Gays" in History Too". AnOther Magazine. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
↑ Williams, Tim Ryan (2019-06-26). "Why we need to get to know the "bad gays" of history". Vox. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
↑ Fitzgerald, Tom; Marquez, Lorenzo (May 31, 2022). "In 'Bad Gays,' historical figures are products of their times". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
↑ Randell, Matthew (March 18, 2024). "Bad Gays, Good Podcast". The Boar. Archived from the original on August 3, 2024. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
↑ "Bad Gays: A Homosexual History". Verso Books. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
↑
Reviews:
- Fitzgerald, Tom; Marquez, Lorenzo (31 May 2022). "Review | In 'Bad Gays,' historical figures are products of their times". The Washington Post.
- Koski, Jacob (30 October 2023). "Book Review: Bad Gays: A Homosexual History". Journal of International Women's Studies. 25 (7). ISSN 1539-8706.
- Stern, Scott W. (3 June 2022). "What History's "Bad Gays" Can Tell Us About the Queer Past and Present". Los Angeles Review of Books.
- Irwin, Andy (5 January 2024). "Reviewing Bad Gays; or how we use the past to shape the future". Lambda Literary Review.
↑ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best History & Biography!". Goodreads. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Episodes". Bad Gays. 2024-08-25. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
↑ "Mandelson: A Homosexual History". Bad Gays. 2026-04-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

Official website

[1] "5 Gloriously Gay Podcasts You Need to Listen To". www.advocate.com. Retrieved 2024-08-04.

[2] Segalov, Michael (2019-03-28). "The Podcast Shining a Light On History's 'Bad Gays'". Vice. Retrieved 2024-08-04.

[3] Greig, James (June 10, 2022). "Why We Need to Talk About the "Bad Gays" in History Too". AnOther Magazine. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2024.

[4] Williams, Tim Ryan (2019-06-26). "Why we need to get to know the "bad gays" of history". Vox. Retrieved 2024-08-04.

[5] Fitzgerald, Tom; Marquez, Lorenzo (May 31, 2022). "In 'Bad Gays,' historical figures are products of their times". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2024.

[6] Randell, Matthew (March 18, 2024). "Bad Gays, Good Podcast". The Boar. Archived from the original on August 3, 2024. Retrieved August 3, 2024.

[7] "Bad Gays: A Homosexual History". Verso Books. Retrieved August 3, 2024.

[8] Reviews:
Fitzgerald, Tom; Marquez, Lorenzo (31 May 2022). "Review | In 'Bad Gays,' historical figures are products of their times". The Washington Post.

Koski, Jacob (30 October 2023). "Book Review: Bad Gays: A Homosexual History". Journal of International Women's Studies. 25 (7). ISSN 1539-8706.

Stern, Scott W. (3 June 2022). "What History's "Bad Gays" Can Tell Us About the Queer Past and Present". Los Angeles Review of Books.

Irwin, Andy (5 January 2024). "Reviewing Bad Gays; or how we use the past to shape the future". Lambda Literary Review.

[mwA08] Fitzgerald, Tom; Marquez, Lorenzo (31 May 2022). "Review | In 'Bad Gays,' historical figures are products of their times". The Washington Post.

[mwA1Y] Koski, Jacob (30 October 2023). "Book Review: Bad Gays: A Homosexual History". Journal of International Women's Studies. 25 (7). ISSN 1539-8706.

[mwA2A] Stern, Scott W. (3 June 2022). "What History's "Bad Gays" Can Tell Us About the Queer Past and Present". Los Angeles Review of Books.

[mwA2Y] Irwin, Andy (5 January 2024). "Reviewing Bad Gays; or how we use the past to shape the future". Lambda Literary Review.

[9] "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best History & Biography!". Goodreads. Retrieved 2026-06-02.

[:0-10] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Episodes". Bad Gays. 2024-08-25. Retrieved 2025-02-28.

[11] "Mandelson: A Homosexual History". Bad Gays. 2026-04-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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