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Paris is one of the world’s great LGBTQ history cities—and Père Lachaise cemetery is possibly Paris’s richest LGBTQ history site!  How did it get that way?  Père Lachaise was the first garden cemetery—a trend in the 19th century that led to the creation of London’s so-called Magnificent Seven, New York’s Green-wood, and Boston’s Mount Auburn.  The garden cemeteries were meant as a kind of public park, and one of the...Read More

One of the great things about England is its grand, historic houses, what the British call “stately homes.”  Today’s post is about two castles with an LGBTQ past.  And who better to write about LGBTQ England and its Queerest Stately Homes than Nick Collinson and Dan Vo?  Nick is the founder of the LGBTQ working group at English Heritage, and Dan, who developed the well-known LGBTQ tours at the Victoria...Read More

Penises in art are a bigger theme than you might think.  After all, what is the number one question people ask in the Greek and Roman collection of any museum?  There is no competition:  why the penises in Classical art are smaller than real-life average adult penises.  And the second is:  whether Christians really broke off the penises that are missing from so many male nude statues.Read More

Over the last few years, several museums in Europe have organized an LGBT trail, i.e. a self-guided trail following LGBT themes through the museums’ collections.  The British Museum and the Prado are both prominent examples.  No museum in the US has ever put together such a trail until now, when the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford has launched one.  The trail, called “Out On View,” covers 16 artworks spread through the...Read More

Gay men have always been part of the American military. In an era before gay marriage or open pride, military men fell in love, formed passionate friendships and had same-sex encounters same-sex encounters. Due to social and official discrimination, though, most of their stories have gone untold. But in the case of one of the military’s founding heroes, homosexuality was always part of the story. Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a...Read More