This Week in Queer History
Kris with a K
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About This Podcast
Every week, Kris Fitzgerald digs into the archives of LGBTQ+ history to uncover the moments, people, and movements that shaped queer life and culture. From landmark legal victories to unsung heroes, from underground parties to mass protests - This Week in Queer History celebrates the agency, resilience, and brilliance of queer communities across time.
History isn't just what happened. It's who we are.
Watch the video versions on YouTube: youtube.com/@thisweekinqueerhistory
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Recent Episodes
S3E100 A Straight Couple Gave LGBTQ+ People the Right to Marry
On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court told sixteen states they couldn't ban love anymore. When Richard and Mildred Loving won their case against Virginia, they didn't just win the right to stay married…
S3E99 They Showed Up in Red Shirts - No Permission Required
In June 1991, three thousand LGBTQ+ people wore red shirts to Walt Disney World. No sponsors. No corporate blessing. No permission. Just community - coordinated through word of mouth, built on trust,…
S3E98 The Fashion Industry Lied About How Perry Ellis Died - Here's Why
On May 30, 1986, one of America's most influential fashion designers died at forty-six years old. His company said it was encephalitis. The newspapers printed it. And an entire industry exhaled -…
S3E97 From Nixon's White House to Pride Parade: The Wild Story Behind Tales of the City
What if a newspaper column could teach America that queer people deserve happy endings? On May 24, 1976, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City arrived in the San Francisco Chronicle - a serialized…
S3E96 When the WHO Finally Admitted Being Gay Isn't a Mental Illness (1990)
On May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization endorsed the ICD-10 and quietly removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. It was, in the words of the activists who had fought for it, a…
S3E95 They Burned the World's First Trans Clinic - And They're Doing It Again
On May 6, 1933, members of the German Student Union marched to the Institute of Sexual Research in Berlin - with a brass band. Like a parade. They stormed the building, seized tens of thousands of…
S3E94 When Ellen Said "I'm Gay" and Changed TV Forever
On April 30, 1997, Ellen DeGeneres leaned into an airport PA microphone and said three words to 42 million people watching at home. In this episode, we go back to that night - the bomb threats, the…
S3E93 He Could Have Escaped - But Refused to Hide | Oscar Wilde's Trial
What happens when the most famous man in England is told his love is a crime? In 1895, Oscar Wilde stood in a London courtroom and called love between men "beautiful" and "noble," refusing to…
S3E92 The Drag Nuns Who Saved Lives When the Church Stayed Silent
In 1979, a group of queer activists in San Francisco put on nun habits as an Easter joke. Within a few years, they were saving lives.The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence started as camp and…
S3E91 The Straight White Boy Who Accidentally Saved Gay Lives
Ryan White never asked to be the face of AIDS in America. He was a teenager from Kokomo, Indiana, who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion used to treat his hemophilia. He was thirteen years…
S3E90 We Buried a Generation to Get This Drug. Don't Let Them Take It Back.
In 1996, a new class of HIV drugs changed everything. The protease inhibitors, combined with existing antiretroviral treatments, turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition…
S3E89 A 19-Year-Old Dropout Who Helped Save Millions of Lives
A playwright. A bond trader. A college dropout. A teenager. These are the people who walked into the FDA in the late 1980s and early 90s and came out having redesigned how drugs get approved in…
S3E88 How 1,500 Dying Activists Outsmarted the U.S. Government
In 1987, there was one approved AIDS drug in the United States. It cost $10,000 a year. And the government's message to the people dying while they waited for more options was essentially: be…
S3E87 Why Palm Springs Became Gay (It Wasn't the Pool Parties)
Palm Springs today looks like it was always a gay paradise. Sun-drenched streets, rainbow flags, elected queer mayors, world-famous events. But the real story is grittier, more complicated, and far…
S3E86 The Secret History of Gay Gyms (They Were Never Just About Fitness)
Before the apps, before the bars were safe, before there were queer community centers in most cities, there were gyms. And for generations of LGBTQ people, the gym was not primarily about fitness. It…
S2E38 The Little Mermaid Was Always a Queer Story
You probably know "The Little Mermaid" as a fairy tale about a girl who wants to live on land. But look at who wrote it, and the story takes on a whole new meaning.Hans Christian Andersen wrote some…
S3E85 Broadway Didn't Just Entertain Us - It Helped Gay People Survive
Before there were gay bars in every city, before there was queer television or LGBTQ+ social media communities, there were show tunes. And for generations of gay people who grew up isolated,…
S3E84 How Self-Hatred Shaped Anti-LGBTQ Laws
What happens when the people most aggressively persecuting LGBTQ lives are secretly LGBTQ themselves? It is one of the most painful patterns in queer history, and this episode examines it honestly,…
S3E82 Ten LGBTQ+ Protest Tactics That Actually Worked
Queer history is full of people who were told their protests were too loud, too disruptive, too theatrical, too radical. This episode is a love letter to all of them.We go through ten of the most…
S3E81 Everyone Laughed at Rent. Then It Changed the World.
In 1996, a scrappy rock musical about artists and activists living with AIDS in New York's East Village opened on Broadway. Critics were skeptical. The subject matter was raw, the staging was bare,…
Frequently Asked Questions
This Week in Queer History has published 99 episodes since August 2024, covering topics in Documentary, Education.
This Week in Queer History is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 8m.
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