This month, it's all about a fantastic reader question about the sex we cannot have. What do we learn from it? How do we think about it? What can it teach us? Please keep sending your Gaggony Guncles questions to us: emailbadgays[at]gmail[dot]com. 

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Today we welcome Michael Huldt, host of Worm From Home, an environmental history podcast focused on East London, to discuss the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Born in Berlin in 1769, he would travel the world amassing a wealth of botanical, geological, and human knowledge. Working in Europe, Russia, and South America, Humboldt became a pioneer of Western environmental thinking, breaking with contemporary scientific norms to forge an interconnected, ecological view of the world that still resonates today. His life was one of illuminating contradictions, and he is a fascinating figure for thinking about the creation of new concepts of 'Nature'  as racial capitalism was in its ascendancy - a vocal anti-slavery advocate, who was personal friends with Thomas Jefferson; an early European proponent of the idea that colonial extraction created massive environment destruction, who also forged a career through that colonial infrastructure; and a man with many famous friends whose very private - and homosexual - private life is still shrouded in mystery and historiographic embarrassment. 

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Subscribers to our monthly "extra" show get to hear advice segments that we, (hopefully) charmingly refer to as the Gaggony Guncles. Here's last month's sample–for one or two juicy questions and thoughtful answers each month, plus conversations about the latest in queer history, culture, and politics, subscribe at Patreon.com/badgayspod or on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s subject, Jacques de Molay, was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, or to give them their full title, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Ever since their dissolution, the Knights Templar have been associated with all sorts of apparent manifestations - of occultism, of shadowy transnational powerbrokers, as the Guardians of the Holy Grail or whatnot. Today we’re going to steer away from these fantastical theories, because the reality of the Templars is far more interesting.

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SOURCES:

Michael Barber, A New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993)

Dan Jones, Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Land (New York: Viking, 2019)

Dan Jones, The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors (New York: Viking, 2007)

Amin Maalouf, The Crusades through Arab Eyes (New York: Schocken Books, 1984)

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix, by Yann Terrien. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicdesigner.

This month, we begin with a conversation about the just-occurred German elections. The far right made gains: but the elections offer a ray of hope for the Left, and a conclusive disproving of the "anti-woke" left thesis. Then, we turn to a discussion of a Gaggony Guncles question: how to gay sauna? We give some tips and tricks for a smooth entry into the exciting world of cruising. 

For the full story, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or here on Patreon.

Adele Spitzeder, born into operatic royalty, washed up when she tried a career on the stage: so instead, she started accepting bank deposits for 10% monthly interest, and paying old customers with new customers' money. In three years, she  amassed deposits of 38 million Gulden, or the equivalent of more than 500,000,000 euros: the world’s first Ponzi scheme. Attempts to squirrel away some money by smuggling it with her girlfriend went about as well as expected. 

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SOURCES:

“Adele Spitzeder.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://www.literaturportal-bayern.de/themen?task=lpbtheme.default&id=697.

“Betty Vio – Biographische Informationen aus der WeGA.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://weber-gesamtausgabe.de/de/A008536.html.

“‘Die Zehn Gebote Der Adele Spitzeder’, Bild 1 von 14 | MDZ.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10999593?q=%28adele+spitzeder%29&page=1.

“Digitale Bibliothek - Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0006/bsb00067974/images/index.html?fip=193.174.98.30&id=00067974&seite=1000.

Dokumentation, Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon und biographische. “Spitzeder, (Johann) Josef.” Text. ISBN 978-3-7001-3213-4. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003. https://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_S/Spitzeder_Josef_1794_1832.xml.

Freiberger, Harald. “Geld - Adele Spitzeder und ihr Schneeballsystem.” Süddeutsche.de, November 11, 2017. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/schneeballsystem-es-begann-in-der-au-1.3743735.

“Germany - Metternich, Unification, 1815-71 | Britannica,” February 18, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-age-of-Metternich-and-the-era-of-unification-1815-71.

Schumann, Dirk. “Der Fall Adele Spitzeder 1872: Eine Studie Zur Mentalität Der ‘Kleinen Leute’ in Der Grübderzeut.” Zeitschrift Für Bayerische Landesgeschichte 58, no. 2/3 (1995): 991–1025.

Spitzeder, Adele. Geschichte meines Lebens. Stuttgarter Verlagscomptoir, 1878.

Zeno. “Lexikoneintrag zu »Spitzeder-Vio, Betty«. Damen Conversations Lexikon, Band 9. [o.O.] ...” Accessed February 18, 2025. http://www.zeno.org/DamenConvLex-1834/A/Spitzeder-Vio,+Betty.

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicdesigner. Image via.

 She was an industrialist, a lesbian, a landlord, a traveler, a businesswoman, a womanizer, a butch, a snob, a pioneer of gay marriage, a Tory. She was the original Tory girlboss, and19th century English diarist who coined such terms as "grubbling," for mutual masturbation. Ey up love, been grubbling? She was, of course, Anne Lister.

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SOURCES:

Caroline Gonda and Chris Roulston, eds., Decoding Anne Lister: From the Archives to ‘Gentleman Jack’ (Cambridge, United Kingdom New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2025)

Jill Liddington, Female Fortune: The Anne Lister Diaries, 1833–36: Land, Gender and Authority: New Edition (Manchester University Press, 2022)

H. Whitbread, I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840 (New York: New York University Press, 1992)

“Packed With Potential,” https://www.packedwithpotential.org/.

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicdesigner.

Today we profile Larry Kramer, the writer and AIDS activist. Kramer took space, took credit, operated in the world with tremendous privilege, and was somewhere between actively and passively misogynist and racist. But politically effective people are not always as we imagine them. We document Kramer's exclusions and blind spots, and explore how his hatred and fear of gay male sex culture, one that predated the AIDS epidemic, made his political work less effective; his gay male supremacism that led actual gay men to constantly disappoint him; and his prefiguring of a moralizing social media politics understanding rhetorical maximalism as the proof of radicality. We address Kramer as one of his narrators addressed his stand-in in the first volume of his last novel, The American People: “You fuckster! You are so fucksome. I love you very much.”’

Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays for monthly episodes, our advice segments, and to support our work.

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SOURCES:

Larry Kramer, Faggots, reprint edition (New York: Grove Press, 2000)

Larry Kramer, “March 27, 1983: 1,112 and Counting,” Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ News, Rights, Politics, Entertainment (blog), May 27, 2020, https://www.losangelesblade.com/2020/05/27/march-27-1983-1112-and-counting/

Larry Kramer, TheNormal Heart and The Destiny of Me: Two Plays (New York: Grove Press, 2000)

Ben Miller, “Larry Kramer’s Great Expectations,” Literary Hub (blog), June 11, 2020, https://lithub.com/larry-kramers-great-expectations/

Sarah Schulman, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc, 2021)

Michael Shnayerson, “Kramer vs. Kramer | Vanity Fair,” Vanity Fair | The Complete Archive, accessed February 4, 2025, https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1992/10/kramer-vs-kramer

“Larry Kramer’s Anger Is Essential in Historic ‘Plague’ Speech,” accessed February 4, 2025, https://www.advocate.com/news/2020/5/27/larry-kramers-anger-essential-historic-plague-speech

Jane McAlevey on How To Organize for Power,” Current Affairs, April 20, 2019, https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/04/jane-mcalevey-on-how-to-organize-for-power.

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicdesigner.

In this month's subscriber-only episode, we examine some recently discovered diaries from Unity Valkyrie Mitford, odious sister of the odious Tom. How precisely was her brother supposed to be a devoted Nazi but "not an anti-semite?" Only British journalists can tell. Then, we discuss Trump's executive orders in the context of lavender scares past and present before diving into a slutty advice segment about a woman dating two gay guys. She's confused! So are we! Subscribe on Patreon or Apple Podcasts for the full story.

The Crown Prince of Iraq, Abd Al-Ilah, ruled the country as a prince regent on behalf of his nephew, from 1939-1953 - although not interrupted. A member of the powerful Hashemite dynasty, Al-Ilah was also an authoritarian antisemite who once took refuge on a British naval ship called the HMS Cockchafer. A dandy, he charmed MP Chips Cannon into writing: "We are very intimate …I never can resist a Regent.”

Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays for monthly episodes, our advice segments, and to support our work.

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