gay history
NSFW! The first ever twink superstar: Kip Noll
Blonde, tousle-haired Kip Noll set gay porn alight in the late seventies and early eighties. The first genuine twink superstar of gay porn topped and bottomed with unbridled enthusiasm. On his knees, his back, a bed, truck or beach, the well-endowed 🍆Mr Noll was always up — and down — for it. The middle man …
Prison Sex
Documented prison sex in Aussie institutions illustrates how much more common gay sex was in Australia than the authorities would have us believe. Fred Affleck, the closeted son of an impoverished Queensland baronet went to jail several times, the first in NSW in 1927. In December 1927, Fred Affleck thought all his Christmases were coming …
Queensland’s 4th governor: Sir William Wellington Cairns
In 1876, the Porpoise steamed into Trinity Bay, carrying officials tasked with establishing a port. They named the new settlement for then governor of Queensland, Sir William Wellington Cairns. But the fourth governor of Queensland never saw the settlement that bore his name. Indeed, he departed from his post within six months of the founding …
How a long-forgotten ‘confirmed bachelor’ informs our history
When Robert Herbert and John Bramston sailed home to England after six years in the new colony of Queensland, John’s younger brother remained. A ‘confirmed bachelor’, Henry Bramston played a prominent role in Brisbane life but was quickly forgotten after his death. Robert Herbert, private secretary to Sir George Bowen, arrived in Brisbane in November …
Herston: the companionship that dared to speak its name
In the century when ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ became a euphemism for homosexuality, Queensland’s first premier and his longtime male companion enjoyed a companionship that not only spoke its name but bequeathed it to posterity. Robert Herbert and John Bramston combined their two surnames into one and named the home they …
Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire
Newly appointed Speaker of the US House of Representatives homophobe Mike Johnson becomes the latest propagandist for the nonsense that gay sex led to the fall of the Roman Empire. “Some credit to the fall of Rome to not only the deprivation of the society and the loss of morals, but also to the rampant …
That infamous time queens drank Wallaby Bob’s pub dry
The Brisbane Queens Ball has had many homes, including a notorious once-only event at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast. However, the event could never return to Mudgeeraba. The locals were a forgiving mob. But not if you drank Wallaby Bob’s pub dry. The Brisbane Queens Ball began on Mt Tamborine in 1962. A group of …
1923: What The Bulletin said about gays a century ago
In 1923, The Bulletin reviewed Austrian writer Emil Lucka’s How Love Evolved and explained why the ancient Greeks were allegedly so partial to same-sex relationships. First published in 1880, The Bulletin became Australia’s longest-running magazine and a highly influential publication. But it was often wrong. Notoriously racist for much of its history, the magazine’s banner …
Fellow Travelers trailer tells epic Cold War gay love story
Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer have to hide their intense love affair in a new full-length trailer for the highly-anticipated Cold War drama Fellow Travelers. The eight-part series stars the two gay actors as political staffers from 1950s McCarthy-era Washington to the 1980s. A new full-length trailer shows a lot more of the historical drama, …
1929: Gay artist Adrian Feint – hiding in plain sight
In 1929, Adrian Feint boldly queered the Rum Corps for the cover of Australia’s most prestigious magazine, The Home. The bachelor artist lived a nigh-on open gay life in an era famed for inflicting cruel social and legal punishment on the non-heterosexual. But like many others, Adrian Feint practised the age-old skill of hiding in …
