They continue: “…hy do we assume that Wilde’s life and attitudes shaped the track record of the project of homosexuality better than Bosie’s?” That phrase ‘project of homosexuality’ immediately raised my hackles.

It all begins as expected when the authors question why Oscar Wilde’s legacy endures as opposed to that of “the Machiavellian, anti-Semitic, and louche” Lord Alfred Douglas, or ‘Bosie’ as he was fondly known. The problem is with that second part of the title, ‘A Homosexual History’. With a title like ‘Bad Gays’, you’d expect a juicy rundown of a rogues’ gallery of horrible people who just happened to be gay. I had just finished a book about Jeffrey Dahmer, probably the epitome of a ‘bad gay’, but curiously he is not included here. It is certainly not the kind of book I would stumble upon in my local vanilla bookstore, so thanks to my Goodreads friends for their consistent forays into the weird and wonderful! I only found out about this title because it popped up on my newsfeed. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.Īmusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queer villains and evil twinks in history. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those ‘bad gays’ whose unexemplary lives reveals more than we might expect? Too many popular histories seek to establish 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.

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