LGBT Cliffnotes: Recent Episodes
LGBT Cliffnotes
A podcast about LGBT+ issues and culture from a historical and scientific perspective. Each episode focuses on a relevant science or history topic, summarizing important points for the LGBT+ community.
Amelio Robles Ávila was a trans man who fought in the Mexican Revolution who lived as himself for over seventy years and was a total badass!
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | Discord | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel Links: Oral history compiled by Olga Cárdenas Trueba Mexican Secretary of Culture history on Amelio Lydia Zárate's article in Pikara Magazine Maria's thread reflecting on trans identity and stuff, you don't actually have to follow her, unless you want to?
Doing history can be tough, especially when it comes to addressing LGBTQIA+ topics! In this episode, we talk about some of the challenges we face, how we overcome them, and how our perspectives can color our view of history. Also we have a spirited discussion on technical jargon, and why we hate it with a passion!
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | Discord | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel Links: "The New Unhistoricism in Queer Studies" by Valerie Traub
Examples of erotic murals in Pompeii (NSFW...obviously)
In this episode we talk about how gender influences the way people speak and communicate. We start with a study on the differences between men and women using signed languages like ASL, then talk about a few studies examining the differences in word choice between cis-men and cis-women, and end with an article on trans men and what people perceive as “gay sounding” speech in men.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | Discord E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel Sources:
Turn-Taking, Fingerspelling, and Contact in Signed Languages edited by Ceil Lucas
Women, Men, and Language by Jennifer Coates
Hegemonic masculinity and the variability of gay-sounding speech: The perceived sexuality of transgender men by Lal Zimman
Cyberpunk 2077 is out and it sure is a video game! In this episode, Maria takes off her historian hat, puts on the gamer socks, and talks about what the game did right, what the game did wrong, and why QA teams are highly undervalued in video game development! All without any meaningful spoilers!
CW: Transphobia (15:04-15:23) Homophobia (20:54-22:12)
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | Discord E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Links:
Bella Blondeau’s article at The Gamer
Interview with Kasia Redesuik at Eurogamer
Charlie Hall’s interview with Redesuik at Polygon
Anthony Gramuglia’s article at CBR
Riley MacLeod’s piece at Kotaku
We’ve had two episodes about gay animals, now it’s time for an episode about animals that have more than two genders. These animals move beyond the gender binary that so many people think is set in stone and easily defined.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | Discord E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Links: 1980 paper about female mimicry in bluegill sunfish
2003 paper about hormones and behavior in tree lizards
Evolution’s Rainbow (link to book on Goodreads)
We are going on a brief hiatus until January 7th! Happy holidays!
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com
Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
"One-Eyed" Charlie Parkhurst was a stagecoach driver and (probably) a trans man who led an awesome, cool life in the early days of California's statehood. Locally famous during his life, and then nationally afterwards, Charley's story is one very familiar to many: moving out to California and living your best life as your true self.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com
Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Sources
Reggie Sigal. ”the old west.” Karen lindsey, et al. Women: A Journal of Liberation, vol. 1, no. 3, 1970.
Hafen, LeRoy R. “Reviewed Work: Via Western Express & Stagecoach by Oscar Osburn Winther.” Western Folklore 6, no. 1 (1947).
Kathi Bristow, "Those Daring Stage Drivers", California Dept. of Parks and Recreation, 2008.
Charlie’s Obituary and story in the New York Times, January 9, 1880.
California State Parks map of Stagecoach lines in 1850s-1860s.
This episode discusses Edward Carpenter and his book The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women. Edward Carpenter was a pretty cool guy overall, although (as you’ll learn) not quite as progressive as Alyssa first thought when she found this book.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Links:
Edward and George’s gravestone
Wikipedia article with pictures of Edward being stylish
Wikipedia article on Ulrichs’ classification of sexual preferences
Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
More gay animals! This time we talk about genetic mutations that cause same-sex attraction in fruit flies as well as two examples of gayness in birds that might be even cooler than gayness in penguins.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com
Sources:
1996 study with fruitless mutations in male flies
2005 study with fruitless mutations in female flies
Courtship Behavior in Flies
Female-Female Pairing in Western Gulls in Southern California
News article with more context on the lesbian seagulls and conservative Christian responses
Actual photo of bird insides with testes and other organs labelled, as well as more information than you’ll ever need about bird reproduction
NYT article about gay albatross
2008 Laysan albatross paper, unfortunately not open-access
Photos of Laysan albatross and their gorgeous smoky eye
Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
An intersex person, born in England, moves to America and finds out how shitty people can be. Includes a ridiculous court case that ruled T Hall had to dress as both a man and a woman at all times.
Trigger warning: Really shitty behavior by colonial Virginians.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Sources:
"Minutes of the Council and General Court, 1622-1629 (Continued)." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 31, no. 3 (1923): 207-14. Norton, Mary Beth, "Communal Definitions of Gendered Identity in Colonial America", Ronald Hoffman, Mechal Sobel, Fredrika J. Teute (eds) Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Personal Identity in Early America. University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Reis, Elizabeth. "Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America, 1620-1960." The Journal of American History 92, no. 2 (2005): 411-41.
Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
What do we know about brain differences between genders? Are gendered brain differences innate or a product of the environment? How do the brains of trans people compare to brains of cis people? This episode discusses all these questions and more!
I could have talked about this for many, many hours. If you want to hear more, sign up for our Patreon and come chat with us on Discord!
Sources:
Regions of brain activity while experiencing compassion
Newborns looking at a human face vs a mobile
The effect of biology vs environment on personality from cis-girls who experienced high testosterone in the womb: 1 and 2
Review discussing limitations of studies like the above two
The brain and puberty
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Hadrian inherited the Roman Empire at its greatest extent and is regarded as one of Rome’s best emperors.
He also started a cult for his dead boyfriend that lasted 300 years.
Sources:
Scriptores Historiae Augustae. Historia Augusta.
Cassius, Dio. Roman History.
Duncan, Mike. History of Rome. ep. 82 “May His Bones Be Crushed”.
Livius.org. “Hadrian”.
Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1. New York, New York: The Heritage Press, 1946, p.59, note 26.
Examples of statuary - https://www.antinoos.info/antin4a.htm
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
What is heteronormativity? Whether you've dealt with it yourself or you're thinking "wow that's a long word", this episode gets everyone on the same page and then digs a little deeper. Look out for follow-up episodes, something as complex as heteronormativity is impossible to cover in an hour.
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Who did Shakespeare write his sonnets for - men, women, both? Who was the "fair youth" (and should it really be "fair lord")? Sources: “Was Shakespeare Gay? Sonnet 20 and the Politics of Pedagogy” by Casey Charles
“Shakespeare’s Queer ‘Sonnets’ and the Forgeries of William Henry Ireland” by Michael Keevak
“Was Shakespeare gay, and does it matter?” by John Sutherland
“All’s Well That Ends Well’ and Shakespeare’s Marriage”. by R. Brian Parker
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
The first episode on what might become a series on gay and/or transgender animals. We start with the general idea of same-sex attraction in animals and using animals to argue about whether being gay is "natural".
Skip to 34:10 if you just want to hear about gay penguins.
Trigger warning: brief mention of nonconsensual sex in a hypothetical example about humans from 50,000 years ago. Skip 20:15 to 21:05 to avoid that part of the episode.
Bonus content: Alyssa’s cat sneezing
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Was Julius Caesar gay? Bi? Straight? In this episode we discuss the evidence for one of Rome's most famous.
Sources:
Roman History by Dio Cassius
De Vita Caesarum (The Lives of the Caesars) by Caius Tranquillus Suetonius
Masculinity, Appearance, and Sexuality: Dandies in Roman Antiquity by Kelly Olson
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
This is a short episode about how Alyssa does research for the science episodes, focusing on the case of researching hormones for the first episode. Just a bit of behind-the-scenes for people curious about how we decide what information to pass along to listeners.
Sources:
1999 paper
2018 paper
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel
Our first episode! Note: Alyssa is nervous and says um constantly, please forgive her, it's her first time. She's already more chill, listen to the intro for a better idea of what new episodes will be like. Please check out other episodes if the giggly anxiety is too annoying, maybe we'll re-record this one some day. :)
Patreon | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Facebook | E-mail us! lgbtcliffnotes@gmail.com
Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel