These Old Queers

Did you know that many of the rules against trans gender markers come from an infamous legal battle involving a trans Scottish nobleman, Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet , general practitioner and expert in Scottish heritage? Learn all about one of the most significant court cases that led us to where we are today when it comes to changing to a chosen name or legal name change.

CW: This episode mentions medicalized transphobia, please take care while listening.

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Sources:

Forbes, Ewan. The Aul' Days. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1984.

Playden, Zoe. (2021). The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience. Scribner/Bloomsbury Publishing.

Strudwick, Patrick. "The Secret Court Case 50 Years Ago That Has Robbed Trans People of Their Rights Ever Since." The I Paper. 10.11.21. http://www.inews.o.uk.

In the final episode of our three part deep-dive into thrill killers, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb we learn about their lives in prison and beyond.

CW: this series includes mention of violence, murder, rape and other things listeners may find disturbing. Please take care while listening.

Sources:

Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. HarperCollins. October 13, 2009.

Higdon, Hal. The Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1995, 1999 & 2010.

Fass, Paula S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. OxfordUniversity Press. November 20, 1997.

Rebain, Erik. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of NathanLeopold. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. April 15, 2023.

and:

Crimes of the Centuries with Amber Hunt. S1Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.

Bad Gays. Episode 9: Leopold and Loeb. May 14, 2019.

“Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb – A Chicago Stories Documentary.” YouTube, uploaded by WTTW Chicago. November 1, 1924, https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=i6Og58n8tbNYh32x&v=OCn98CGD-3A&feature=youtu.be

In Part Two of our 3 part episode about teenage thrill killers, Leopold and Loeb, Megan and Thomas discuss the bonkers trial for what would become known as the "crime of the century."

CW: this series includes mention of violence, murder, rape, child molestation, child murder and other things listeners may find disturbing. Please take care while listening.

Sources:

Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. HarperCollins. October 13, 2009.

Higdon, Hal. The Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1995, 1999 & 2010.

Fass, Paula S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. OxfordUniversity Press. November 20, 1997.

Rebain, Erik. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of NathanLeopold. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. April 15, 2023.

and: ⁠https://loebandleopold.wordpress.com/⁠⁠

Crimes of the Centuries with Amber Hunt. S1Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.

Bad Gays. Episode 9: Leopold and Loeb. May 14, 2019.

“Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb – A Chicago Stories Documentary.” YouTube, uploaded by WTTW Chicago. November 1, 1924, https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=i6Og58n8tbNYh32x&v=OCn98CGD-3A&feature=youtu.be

In this 3 part episode, Megan shares the story of notorious 1920s thrill killer couple: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

Part One looks into the childhoods and backgrounds of Leopold and Loeb, as well as the events leading up to what would become known as the "crime of the century."

CW: this series includes mention of violence, murder, rape, child molestation, child murder and other things listeners may find disturbing. Please take care while listening.

Sources:

Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago. HarperCollins. October 13, 2009.

Higdon, Hal. The Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1995, 1999 & 2010.

Fass, Paula S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. OxfordUniversity Press. November 20, 1997.

Rebain, Erik. Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of NathanLeopold. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. April 15, 2023.

and

https://loebandleopold.wordpress.com/

Crimes of the Centuries with Amber Hunt. S1Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers.

Bad Gays. Episode 9: Leopold and Loeb. May 14, 2019.

“Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb – A Chicago Stories Documentary.” YouTube, uploaded by WTTW Chicago. November 1, 1924,https://youtu.be/OCn98CGD-3A?si=i6Og58n8tbNYh32x

Thomas tells us about young Quaker woman, Jemima Wilkinson, who after a grave illness was reborn as the genderless, spiritual being the Public Universal Friend.

Sources:

Cleveland, Stafford. History and directory of Yates County [...] and a narrative of the Public Universal Friend, her society and doctrine. Pen Yan, New York: S. C. Cleveland, 1873.

Gordon, Colby. Interview on "Gender Reveal," October 7, 2024. Podcast episode 179, season 13.

Larson, Scott. "'Indescribable being': theological performances of genderlessness in the Society of the Public Universal Friend, 1776-1819." Critical Approaches to Sex and Gender in Early America, vol. 12, nr. 3 (2014): 576-600. (Special Issue, Beyond the Barriers).

Moyer, Paul. The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and religious enthusiasm in Revolutionary America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 2015.

Wisbey, Herbert. Pioneer prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1964.Kawamoto, Hanna. “'Spiritually unsexed': believers, critics, and early histories of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776-1835. UC Santa Barbara, 2024. (Winner of The Library Award for Undergraduate Research).

Megan shares the story of artists, activist antifa couple: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.

Here's hoping in these dark, despotic times their story of courage and radical activism can inspire us moving forward.

CW: anorexia, suicide

Sources:

2018 novel, Never Anyone But You, RupertThomson

https://www.huckmag.com/article/claude-cahun-jerseys-queer-anti-nazi-freedom-fighter

https://greyartmuseum.nyu.edu/2015/12/claude-cahun-as-anti-nazi-resistance-fighter/

Cole,Julie, "Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore and the Collaborative Construction of a Lesbian Subjectivity", in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (eds.), ReclaimingFemale Agency: Feminist Art History after Postmodernism(California: University of California Press, 2005), 343–60.

Jeffrey, Jackson (2020). Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. New York: Algonquin Books. pp. 122–23. ISBN 978-1616209162.Don't Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore - Aperture/Tate; First Edition (June 15, 2006) Editor: Louise Downie

In this episode, Thomas tells the infuriating saga of the withholding of medical care - or rather, murder - of transman, Robert Eads.

CW: this episode deals with topics related to accessible healthcare/preventative healthcare of trans people which some might find upsetting. Please take care while listening.

Sources:

Danielle Jones and Jamie Lotun-Raines. "Do trans men need pap smears? An interview with @Jammidodger." Mama Doctor Jones. 20.2.2022.

Imara Jones. "Hormones and IDs: Preparing for Trump 2.0." TransLash Podcast. 12.12.2024.

Paul Pireta, et al. "Ovarian, breast, and metabolic changes induced by androgen treatment in transgender men." Fertility and Sterility. 2021. Vol. 16, 4: 936-942.

Mallery Jenna Robinson. "The Murder of Robert Eads: 'Southern Discomfort.'" A Hateful Homicide. 2024. Season 5, Episode 4.

Megan shares the story of Eleanor Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1831) - known as the Ladies of Llangollen: an intrepid Irish lesbian couple who eloped to Wales to live their truth...and to invent lesbogothcottagecore. Because #lesbiansinventedeverything

Sources:

Poem of the Week: Anna Seward’s ‘Llangollen Vale’, Link:

https://pastplace.exeter.ac.uk/2014/03/poem-of-the-week-anna-sewards-llangollen-vale/

The Strange Couple who Never Left Home | The Ladies of Llangollen, Fogotten Lives, link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24AACkDqNrs

February 2016, the Ladies of Llangollen, episode 7 of series 3 of Mysteries at the Castle, Travel

RTÉ radio documentary An Extraordinary Affair,

Thomas tells us about pioneering German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Research during the height of the Weimar Republic and through to its destruction by the Nazis.

Sources:

Fresh from their travels in Egypt, Megan talks to us about queer aspects of ancient Egypt that prove that queer folx have been around for quite a long time...despite attempts to water down and suppress expressions of queer longing by some homophobic historians and archeologists.