This post is brought to you by - me driving an hour to work and suddenly finding myself with lots of time on my hands to burn through podcasts!
Specifically, I want to bring up and highlight one podcast I’ve been listening to a LOT in order to catch myself up on something important to me - Queer History!
LGBTQIA people have a specific obstacle when it comes to history (or several, who are we kidding) - we struggle to pass culture and history down cross-generationally like other marginalized groups might be able to do. LGBTQ kids are often separated from LGBTQ elders and don’t have spaces to learn about their own history - but it’s still HELLA important!
I am personally not a history buff - but I HIGHLY recommend @queerasfact - an inclusive, trans-friendly, ace-friendly queer history podcast!
Each episode (around 40~60 minutes long) covers an important historical figure or event and how it pertains to LGBTQIA history. They cover lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, NB and asexual historical figures. Each episode describes the life and/or important accomplishments of the person in question, as well as focusing a discussion around their identity, how it impacted their life and how they might have influenced other queer people after their time.
Why do I love it so damn much?
1) It’s INCREDIBLY layman friendly.
As your standard non-historian grump who barrel-rolled out of social studies class as if it were a Tardis, I feel that this is perhaps their most praiseworthy point.
The episodes are done in a storytime style format which mimics casual conversation you’d have with your gay friends while you all sit around a campfire (or a coffee table) and listen to a particularly well-read, distinguished gay info-dump on a specific niche interest of theirs.
It’s relatively simple to follow along, and similarly simple to space out while someone details political war and upheaval until a more interesting plot point comes up.
2) It’s really good about content warnings and inclusivity.
At the beginning of the episode the hosts will run over all the potentially unsavory content that will come up in order to give you fair warning. I’ve already mentioned that they’re trans-friendly, ace-friendly and etc, but I want to also praise how much effort and research they put into making sure that the subjects they’re talking about are gendered correctly and treated with respect.
They’re really frank about the less shining parts of history but they’re also not insensitive about it, which makes learning about these important events so much easier.
3) It’s well-researched and works to debunk common rumors AND provides sources to back up claims!
It’s honestly humbling how seriously the hosts tackle their volunteer service to the community and how committed they are to bringing verified information to the table without resorting to shortcuts. If they don’t know something or can’t verify it, they will say so. If there are conflicting accounts, they will say so. Often I learn more about things by just listening HOW historians think about one thing or another, and that, in turn, makes ME better about how I analyze information I glean from other sources.
I think I’ve probably said enough, so I’ll finish it off there - but I’ll say it again:
If you’re LGBTQIA+ and you don’t know much about our history - I highly encourage you to use this opportunity to dive into it with minimal effort on your part! Not only will you learn more about yourself by listening to the accounts of others who came before you, but you will also learn about how our way of defining identity has evolved through the ages and how we’ve come to be where we are today!
