Bad Gays: A Homosexual History

One of the most revered traditions of LGBT culture is the recitation of the stories of our illustrious predecessors. If great men and women like Sappho, Oscar Wilde, Billie Holiday and Alexander the Great fell in love with people of their own gender, that surely gives me a strong moral argument to confront homophobes with ... doesn't it? Almost every book on queer history has some version of this catalogue of Good Gays in it, and a few — like the embarrassing Homosexuals in History by A.L. Rowse — make it their sole raison d'être.

There are some major weaknesses in this approach, attractive though it might seem, as you will realise if anyone has ever pointed out to you that Hitler was a vegetarian(*). Not only is it tricky to equate show more modern identities with the usually-undocumented sexual preferences of people who lived long ago, but celebrity doesn't necessarily guarantee an exemplary life...

In this spin-off from their successful podcast, Lemmey and Miller take us through the lives of a number of famous queer figures from the past who are anything but role-models. Ruthless dictators like Hadrian, J Edgar Hoover and Frederick the Great, underworld figures like Jack Saul, Pietro Aretino and Ronnie Kray, far-right sympathisers like Ernst Röhm, Yukio Mishima, Philip Johnson and Pim Fortuyn, facilitators of colonialism like T E Lawrence, or people like Roger Casement who combined exemplary (at least in hindsight) public lives with exploitative sexual adventures in private.

Obviously, it's fun to have the inversion of the usual pious histories (they deliberately pick quite a few figures who appeared in lists of "good gays" in the past), and Lemmey and Miller insert a few suitably camp and often very funny snarky comments as they go along. The section on "The bad gays of Weimar Berlin" — Miller's own field of historical research — was especially interesting. But the real point is a bit more sophisticated than that. They want to highlight the way that the "gay movement", whatever good intentions it may start with, always seems to wind up campaigning to make the world safe for wealthy white men who want the freedom to have sex with whomever they choose. "Queer sensibility" shows a disturbing tendency to veer off into a love of order, discipline, and blond boys in tight uniforms, whilst solidarity with women, people of colour, and the working classes goes out of the window.

A more interesting book than I was expecting. Marred by some small editing slip-ups and the clichéd use of Fraktur on the cover, but solidly referenced and with a good bibliography and index. Some illustrations wouldn't have hurt, although we all know how to use Google, I suppose.
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(*) He wasn't, but this particular canard never goes away show less

The Publisher Says: An unconventional history of homosexuality

We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those ‘bad gays’ whose unexemplary lives reveal more than we might expect? Many popular histories seek to establish homosexual heroes, pioneers, and martyrs but, as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked despite their being informative and instructive.

Based on the hugely popular podcast series of the same name, Bad Gays asks what we can learn about LGBTQ+ history, sexuality and identity through its villains, failures, and baddies. With characters such as the Emperor Hadrian, anthropologist Margaret Mead and notorious show more gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors tell the story of how the figure of the white gay man was born, and how he failed. They examine a cast of kings, fascist thugs, artists and debauched bon viveurs. Imperial-era figures Lawrence of Arabia and Roger Casement get a look-in, as do FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, lawyer Roy Cohn, and architect Philip Johnson.

Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge mainstream assumptions about sexual identity: showing that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century, one central to major historical events.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: This book made me laugh a lot more often than it made me angry...given the subject, that is quite a compliment.

Every so often it is useful–and let's not front, good catty fun–to contemplate the lives of those gay guys among us who exemplify the adage, ‘if you can't be a shining example, you can be a horrible warning...choose wisely.’ We in historically oppressed minority communities tend to hold up the shining examples and quietly ignore the shady, rotten, or even downright evil people that make up our world. Since those people are literally everywhere, some among them statistically must be gay...often we know they were, at least by modern lights, but we stay shtumm to avoid handing ammunition to Them, The Oppressors.

Time to wiggle out of that girdle, y'all, the haters gonna hate no matter what we do or don't celebrate, talk about, venerate.

This browser's garden of delights is so much fun to romp through, tutting in horror, chuckling in sympathy, staring slack-jawed in appalled repulsion. What these figures from the past would make of being lumped into a category based on what history—gossipy old thing, history—has to say about their sexual lives and/or natures, we will not likely ever find out. I'm pretty hopeful that the current round of gains made by the QUILTBAG spectrum of outlaws will solidify and become embedded in the culture. The sheer rage and hate that the thunderous scum on the reactionary end of the social spectrum tells me that they're very afraid of that happening and are doing everything they've ever done before to stop it from happening...but it seems to be less effective this go-round.

Books like this remind us all that just because They are worse, doesn't mean we are all good. Accepting that people are people, an inconsistent and highly changeable lot, every-damn-where on every metric and spectrum any huan mind can devise, is a key weapon to deploy against demonization by Them.

Learn your history...all of it...and no one can ever surprise you with a hurled accusation again.

Self-gifting for the whitest gay (not lesbian, trans, or PoC) guy this #Booksgiving. If you know some white gay man well enough to want to give him a gift, you can count on this one making a hit. show less

First off — I never knew so many historical figures were gay! Even the ones who aren’t the focus of the chapters. Secondly — there’s a perfect balance here: spot-on humour that (I’m ashamed to admit) made me laugh out loud several times; biting, disdainful wit levelled squarely at some of the most despicable people in history; and a compassionate eye towards a queer project of future-making that uses its complicated history (and the figures which shaped it) to forge a path forwards towards solidarity and liberation.

I listened to the audio book produced by Tantor Media and read by Ben Allen. I listened through Hoopla, which did not provide chapter titles, so I was pleasantly surprised by the curation of historical figures; some of these figures I had never heard of or had never assumed homosexuality.

This is a must-read for any interested in homosexual history. Unfortunately, the novel itself covers white men. However, the novel covers POC topics affected by some of these bad gays. I also can't comment on historical accuracy as I could not review sources audibly, but any student historian can find beneficial secondary accounts of the bad gays mentioned. I especially enjoyed Lawrence of Arabia, Jack Saul, and Yukio Mishima. If I were to have least show more favorites chapters, they were Pietro Aretino and J. Edgar Hoover & Roy Cohn. Regardless, consider me a fan who will scour the backlogs of their podcast.

Those interested should know the historical figures discussed are:
1. Hadrian,
2. Pietro Arentino,
3. James VI & I,
4. Frederick the Great,
5. Jack Saul,
6. Roger Casement,
7. Lawrence of Arabia,
8. The Bad Gays of Weimar Berlin,
9. Margaret Mead,
10. J. Edgar Hoover & Roy Cohn,
11. Yukio Mishima,
12. Philip Johnson,
13. Ronnie Kray, &
14. Pim Fortuyn. show less

This was such an interesting read. It’s definitely not like anything I have ever read so it made it a bit difficult to like but I really liked it. It was strange reading about such horrible people. Like there are have some assholes I didn’t know about. But what I really liked about this book is how it brings you through the different obstacles, both legally and socially, for gay people through history. It really shows how homophobia has always been based in stupidity and no shred of logic.

Now I have a few problems with this book. For one, there is hardly any diversity for this to be called a “homosexual history.” Out of the 14 people, only two are not white men. Another thing is that there is hardly any information that you show more wouldn’t know about without doing simple research on gay history.

This book was written in a way that was very entertaining and witty. Regardless of my problems, I did really enjoy this book and think it’s a great read for anyone. show less

Bad Gays by Ben Miller & Hew Lemmey is a fascinating take on the history of homosexuality from the Greeks to 2020. Rather than using famous LGBTQ that qualify as being role models/ethical/perfect, they delve into bad gays.

A collection of capsule biographies with some insightful conclusions. The conclusion ties it together quite well. I'm not convinced of the relevance of some of the very early books except to illustrate how mores and attitudes have changed over time, but they're interesting. Philip Johnson was probably the most surprising.