Bad Gays

<p>Happy pride! Gather around, we've got a story to tell! For Stonewall weekend, a special treat: writer, critic, and journalist Cameron Cook joins Ben to talk about the one and only Liza through the stories of the bad (and good) gays in her life, from her father Vincente Minnelli to her first husband Peter Allen to her diabolical fourth husband David Gest. Liza learned on her (and our) mother Judy Garland's knee how to survive by appealing to gay guys. Gay guys used Judy, then Liza to self-fash

<p>The final episode of our saga: Mandelson's fall from grace in the aftermath of Keir Starmer's election first as leader of the Labour Party and then as one of Britain's most rapidly unpopular Prime Ministers.</p> <p><a href='https://www.patreon.com/posts/extra-bad-gays-i-159465916?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link'>Can't get enough Mandelson? Subscribe now to Extra Bad Gays to hear our subscriber-only followup discussion with Jam

<p>Today we are reaching the next to last chapter––for now!––of the Mandelson story.</p> <p><a href='https://www.patreon.com/cw/badgayspod'>Listen to the sixth and final episode now by subscribing to Extra Bad Gays on Patreon.</a></p> <p>As we are recording this, on 18th May 2026, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is facing a potential leadership challenge and a collapse in legitimacy following two major crises, both of these the responsibility of Peter Mandelson; one, directly, the other a cons

<p>Peter Mandelson has been the definitive comeback kid of British politics, and it’s impossible to ever rule out his return.</p> <p><a href='http://patreon.com/badgayspod'>Listen to Episode Five right now and get Extra Bad Gays every month by subscribing on Patreon!</a></p> <p>Today, we will learn why he got that reputation as we look at Mandelson in power. The Millennium Dome, a Y2K fever dream! His public outing! A wider cultural shift in attitudes towards gay men, one which contributed to th

<p>This week, on Mandelson: A Homosexual History, we cover the 1992 UK election and the birth of New Labour.</p> <p><a href='https://www.patreon.com/badgayspod'>Subscribe on Patreon to support our work and stay a week ahead on this miniseries!</a></p> <p>If Huw's Margaret Thatcher wasn't enough to turn your stomach, try his John Major on for size. Neil Kinnock loses the 1992 election. John Smith becomes leader of the Labour Party, flanked by two feuding up-and-coming reformers named Gordon Brown

<p><a href='https://www.patreon.com/badgayspod'>Subscribe on Patreon to hear Episode Three now, get our monthly Extra Bad Gays episodes, and stay a week ahead on the miniseries.</a></p> <p>Last week we looked at Mandelson’s early years, and his move from a flirtation with Marxism to being firmly on the right of the Labour Party. We also discussed the left-right split in the Labour Party, and how, in the 1980s, that became a full blown civil war. This week, it's time for the 1987 General Election

<p><a href='https://www.patreon.com/cw/badgayspod'>Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to hear Episode Two of Mandelson: A Homosexual History now, and to stay a week ahead as the miniseries continues.</a></p> <p>They call him the Prince of Darkness. Peter Mandelson's decades-long political career is a skeleton key to everything that's gone wrong in Western politics in the last forty years. He's a spin doctor, a sometime minister, and a networker whose downfall through the Ep

<a href='http://patreon.com/badgayspod'>Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to support our work, get monthly bonus episodes, and join our community of listeners!</a>   Daniel Dunglas Home always knew he wasn't like the other boys. Not because he was gay, but because, while they were out on the sports field playing rugby, he was communicating with the dead. Despite being a huge celebrity in Victorian England, today Home is almost unknown. In this special episode, academic and