Last week we learned that the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, may have been gay. Unfortunately, we also learned he was kind of garbage, so we’re not going to claim him. 

Today, we forge ahead into Part 5 of our series on the queer history of the United States. Not only is our guide, best-selling author and LGBTQ+ historian Dr. Eric Cervini, back to help us, but we also have John Beynon, professor of Literature at Fresno State University to teach us about the life of Oscar Wilde, and his contribution to the global conversation about same-sex love. 

So to put us in the right era: The civil war is over. It’s the late 1800s. And we’re going to go all the way until just before the Stonewall riots in 1969. That’s about 100 years to cover, so buckle in.