Join Hosts Ben Miller and Huw Lemmey for a LIVE AUDIENCE taping of their podcast "Bad Gays" at PodFest Berlin.

The ticket includes your half day festival pass, and access to more great events.

Pride month is populated by LGBTQ iconography, celebrating the figures across history who demanded the right to live and love freely. Yet how is gay history oversimplified when we only spotlight the heroes of the movement? In Bad Gays, authors Ben Miller and Huw Lemmey have the courage to complicate things. Recounting the lives of people who made mistakes, harmed others, acted in contradictory ways, and happened to be queer, they reveal hidden, human nuances across queer history. At the Library, Miller will offer a more critical perspective on the current status of LGBTQ politics, asking who has been excluded from the political terrain, how previous political failures have been glossed over, and how introducing nuance into our understanding of queer identity can lead to a more just queer future. 

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Writer and researcher Ben Miller, co-host of the acclaimed Bad Gays podcast explores the fascinating history of queer community in Ireland with historian Maurice Casey at this live podcast recording.

GET TICKETS HERE.

Maurice Casey’s scholarship has covered Irish women’s activism and internationalism, the Irish gay rights movement, and Irish radicalism in the inter-war period. He’ll be discussing the life and times of Gavin Arthur, the queer grandson of an American president who came to Ireland in the 1920s at the height of the Irish Civil War.

Like the podcast itself, this is bound to be a roller coaster, deepening our understanding of some of the worst, or just the most complicated, queers in history.

We are used to history books emphasizing heroes, pioneers and martyrs. In an attempt to tell a more wide-ranging story about the history of the queer movement, however, historians Ben Miller and Huw Lemmey focus on anti-heroes. Everyone loves Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for his flawed lover Bosie?

What about those ‘bad gays’ whose less than exemplary lives might just reveal more about the queer emancipation struggle than expected? Drawing on figures such as Emperor Hadrian, anthropologist Margaret Mead and gangster Ronny Gray, Bad Gays chronicles the troubled genesis of the LGBTQ movement.

Like the makers of Bad Gays, Tim Devriese and Max De Moor examine the prejudices and clichés about LGBTs in their podcast Scheef Bekeken (A skewed view). One could hardly imagine better hosts for a thought-provoking conversation with Ben Miller about the life stories that turn upside down common concepts about sexual identity.

Get tickets here! 

Bad Gays is a passionate argument for rethinking gay politics beyond questions of identity, compelling readers to search for solidarity across boundaries.

The event is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition TO BE SEEN. queer lives 1900–1950. 

TO BE SEEN is an exhibition devoted to the stories of LGBTQI+ in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century. Through historical testimony and artistic positions from then and now, it traces queer lives and networks, the areas of freedom enjoyed by LGBTQI+, and the persecution they suffered. The exhibition takes an intimate look at a variety of genders, bodies, and identities.

Why do we remember our queer heroes better than we remember our queer villains? And why is it sometimes so hard to tell the difference? Join the thousands of Bad Gays enthusiasts as podcasters Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller answer these knotty questions and share the lowdown on some of the most amusing, disturbing and fascinating queer villains in history.

Huw Lemmey is a novelist, artist and critic living in Barcelona. He is the author of three novels: Unknown Language, Red Tory, and Chubz. He has written for the Guardian, Frieze, Tribune, the Architectural Review, New Humanist, the White Review, and L’Uomo Vogue, among others.

Ben Miller is a writer and researcher living in Berlin, where he is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Global Intellectual History at the Freie Universität. He has written for the New York Times, Literary Hub, Los Angeles Review of Books, Tin House, and Radical History Review, and is the author of The New Queer Photography. Since 2018 he has been a member of the board of directors of the Schwules Museum, one of the world’s largest independent queer museums and archives.

AMSTERDAM LAUNCH JULY 7! #new BAD GAYS: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller * Published by Verso Books * 368p, €27,50

We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those ‘bad gays’ whose unexemplary lives reveal more than we might expect? Many popular histories seek to establish homosexual heroes, pioneers, and martyrs but, as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked despite their being informative and instructive.

No reservations.

Join Huw Lemmey and the Berlin-based author Ben Miller for the Berlin launch of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History.

Join Ben Miller, author of "Bad Gays: A Homosexual History," in conversation with Professor Aaron Lecklider at Trident Booksellers & Cafe!

Reserve tickets.

Join us to celebrate Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller, hosts of the eponymous podcast. Author Ben Miller will be joined by writer and professor Grace Lavery.

Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs, but the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and/or dastardly deeds have been overlooked. Everyone remembers Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those "bad gays" whose un-exemplary lives reveals more than we might expect? With characters such as the Emperor Hadrian, anthropologist Margaret Mead, and notorious gangster Ronny Gray, Bad Gays tells the story of how the figure of the white gay man was born, and how he failed. According to The Washington Post, "'‘Bad Gays' succeeds in its goals in every way, offering an infuriating, thoughtful, deliciously judgmental history of the very worst we had to offer.”

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/s98rt78f

Join us at Third Space Chicago to celebrate Bad Gays: A Homosexual History with author Ben Miller on Sunday, June 19th at 3pm!

No RSVP necessary, just show up! More information here.

Join us Friday, June 17th, for an event to celebrate the release of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History. Co-authors Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller, who also co-host the popular podcast of the same name, herein challenge the oversaturated tradition of queer histories that "seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs" where there are often only complicated people. Resisting this sterilized form of history-making, Lemmey and Miller examine "villains and baddies" whose biographies — and the contexts surrounding them — often prove more richly informative than the stories and figures myriad historians have cemented in the cultural records. 

Tickets/RSVP here.

Ben Miller — a writer and researcher living in Berlin, where he is a Doctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Intellectual History at the Freie Universität — will be joined by writer and curator Bradford Nordeen. Q&A and signing to follow. Copies of the book will be available.

Why do we remember our queer heroes better than we remember our queer villains?

You heard all about the good, palatable homosexuals in history… It’s time to revise that history. With thousands of monthly listeners, Bad Gays is a podcast about evil and complicated queers in history. This June, just in time for Pride Month, it’s coming to you in paperback for your bookshelves.

The Common Press bookshop is thrilled to celebrate the publication of Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller’s Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by hosting a fantastic panel to conclude their UK tour in grand style! The panel will be chaired by none other than the formidable Juliet Jacques.

Join us for an evening that promises to be as amusing, disturbing, and fascinating as all queer villains and evil twinks in history.

Tickets include a free bad gays-themed cocktail.

As listeners of Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller's hit podcast Bad Gays will know, Cambridge University has, historically, been a hotbed of, as Miller and Lemmey say, 'evil and complicated queers'. Join Lemmey and Miller as they discuss their new book Bad Gays: A Homosexual History (Verso, 2022)—and the historical bad gays of Cambridge—in conversation with Diarmuid Hester. As well as previously appearing on the Dennis Cooper episode of Bad Gays, Hester is also the creator of A Great Recorded History: Queer Cambridge Audio Trail.

This event is hosted by Cam Queer History and lgbtQ+@cam with the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. It is open to all. Those wishing to purchase a copy of the book in advance of the event will be able to do so through the ticket-booking link. Ordering a copy of the book ahead also includes a 'Bad Gays' tote bag!

The event will be held in the Alison Richard Building rooms SG1 and SG2, with book signing and reception to follow in the Atrium.

Buy a ticket or reserve a spot (free for students and unwaged people).

We are delighted to host the Glasgow edition of Bad Gays book tour, welcoming Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller in conversation with Claire Biddles.

Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller are visting Glasgow as part of the BAD GAYS Book Tour, and will read excerpts from the book, followed by an in–conversation with bisexual icon, Claire Biddles.

RESERVE TICKETS NOW.

⏰ Doors at 7pm, with the talk starting around half past (on queer time!)

🎫This event is ticketed with unreserved seating. If you'd like to book a ticket using the pay-it-forward fund just use discount code SOLIDARITY.

📚 Copies of Bad Gays will be available to purchase at the event. There will also be copies available using the bookshop pay-it-forward fund.

✨ Please note that we have teamed up to host this event at our favourite profit sharing, workers co-op queer bar, (Saltmarket) and not at the bookshop. ✨

♿ Bonjour is an accessible venue with level access from the street. Let us know if you need more venue information or have questions on access / disability / neurodiversity needs.

We’re really excited to be welcoming Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller as they talk to us about their book on Monday 6th June from 7PM.

Tickets.

The talk is a joint fundraiser hosted by Partisan and our space users and friends, Queer Family Tea, with all ticket proceeds being split between both groups. We’re pleased to announce that the talk is going to be hosted by QFT regular Grey:

Grey is a queer, non-binary writer and creative living in Manchester after completing an MA in Gender Studies and Creative Writing.They work at Queer Lit in NQ, volunteer at Queer Family Tea and host a monthly podcast called Munchin’ on Voices Radio.

Hosts of ‘Bad Gays’ podcast, Huw Lemney and Ben Miller, and coincidentally, writers of the book of the same name, will of the Sustainable Studio to discuss their new text. Interviewed by Nazmia Jamal and Zara Siddique, co-runners of ‘Lez Read’, Cardiff’s literary salon for lesbians (& lesbian adjacent folks) who enjoy gossiping about queer writers & admiring their outfits, join us and prepare to gossip and judge the bad gays of history.

Book here.

To celebrate the launch of their book, Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, Huw and Ben will be hosting a live recording of their podcast in Foyles Charing Cross Road. They will be joined by the writer, editor and presenter Shon Faye, whose landmark work The Transgender Issue is now available in paperback.

This event will be followed by a book signing. Doors will open from 6:30pm. Due to the nature of the event, we strongly advise arriving early.

Tickets: £23 Book & Ticket, inc. a copy of ​Bad Gays (RRP £20) / £8 General Admission

Please note that the Auditorium at Foyles is fully accessible from the Ground floor lifts.

To celebrate the launch of the History Faculty LGBTQ+ network, we are delighted to host Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller to discuss their new book.

Register here.

Entertaining and engaging speakers, Lemmey and Miller are the authors of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History (Verso, 2022), based on their hit podcast of the same name. They will read from the book and take questions about topics including the book's arguments, its contemporary political relevance, and writing queer history for the public.

All are welcome, but attendees are asked to register through Eventbrite.

The authors will read selected excerpts from Bad Gays, followed by an in–conversation.

Doors will open at 6.30pm, with the talk starting at 7pm.
Bad Gays will be available to purchase at the event.

Capacity is limited. Free, booking essential.