This Week in Queer History

Every week, Kris Fitzgerald digs into the archives of LGBTQ+ history to uncover the moments, people, and movements that shaped queer life and culture. From landmark legal victories to unsung heroes, from underground parties to mass protests - This Week in Queer History celebrates the agency, resilience, and brilliance of queer communities across time. History isn't just what happened. It's who we are. Watch the video versions on YouTube: youtube.com/@thisweekinqueerhistory Join our community: thisweekinqueerhistory.circle.so

This Week in Queer History is a history podcast hosted by Kris with a K, with 114 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Kris with a K hosts This Week in Queer History, a history show with 114 episodes published.

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  Episode #116

  He Came Out on Live TV in 1972 and Nobody Stopped Laughing

  Sep 29, 202617 minS3

  Graham Chapman came out on live British television in 1972, when it could have ended everything, and then just... kept going. Doctor, drunk turned sober, Python, pioneer, and honestly one of the funniest people to ever exist. This is the story of a man who turned joy into resistance before that was even a phrase. Chapman was the openly gay member of Monty Python at a time when the law had only just changed, when coming out meant losing your career, when humor was one of the only weapons that didn't get you arrested. He used it anyway. His sobriety story, his activism, his refusal to play it safe, and the way Python's absurdism slipped queer sensibility past every cultural censor: this is what Joy as Resistance looks like in practice. Thirty-seven years after his death, Chapman's story is still one of the most under-told in queer history. He didn't just survive. He made people laugh while the world burned, and that mattered. Listen to more episodes: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe Website: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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  Episode #115

  They Called It "Megahood" and It Changed Everything

  Sep 22, 202617 minS3

  In 1984, a Filipino housing activist and a lesbian labor organizer threw a block party on six blocks of industrial asphalt in San Francisco and called it "Megahood." They weren't trying to start an institution, they were trying to save one. Forty-two years later, that party draws up to 400,000 people and has donated over seven million dollars to charity. This is the origin story of Folsom Street Fair: part neighborhood fight, part AIDS-era survival, part queer joy that refused to be gentrified out of existence. Kathleen Connell and Michael Valerio built something that started as a block party to save leather bars from displacement and became one of the largest LGBTQ events on the planet. The Folsom Street Fair is also one of the most misunderstood stories in queer history. The leather and kink community that built it wasn't just throwing a party. They were practicing Concentric Fidelity: staying true to their core values as the circle expanded, absorbing new communities without losing the thing that made them them. In the middle of the AIDS crisis. Against gentrification. Without permission. Listen to more episodes: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe Website: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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  Episode #114

  DOMA Was Supposed to Bury Us: The Defense of Marriage Act and the Thirty-Year Fight

  Sep 15, 202615 minS3

  On September 21, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act after midnight. No cameras. No ceremony. No press conference. With that signature, the federal government declared that the love of every same-sex couple in America was legally invisible, locking them out of over 1,100 federal rights and protections. This is the story of how institutional betrayal became the fuel for the longest sustained civil rights campaign in recent American history. From Edie Windsor's $363,053 estate tax bill to Jim Obergefell's name missing from his husband's death certificate, the movement refused invisibility and organized for nineteen years until the Supreme Court delivered marriage equality. DOMA was designed to be the last word. Instead, it became the beginning of the fight that won everything. The movement converted rage into legal briefs, state campaigns, and coalitions that crossed every difference to build the case that could not be denied. This is Part 2 of "The Cost of Courage," following Leonard Matlovich's story in Part 1. Together, they trace the arc from one soldier's letter to a movement that changed the law. Listen to more episodes: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com">https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe">https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe Website: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com">https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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  This Week in Queer History

  He Wore His Medals to Come Out: Leonard Matlovich and the Cover That Changed Everything

  Sep 8, 202614 minS3

  In September 1975, a decorated Air Force sergeant with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine. The headline read: "I Am a Homosexual." His name was Leonard Matlovich, and by the time America picked up that magazine, the military was already trying to erase him. This is the story of how one man used the institution's own paperwork, a strategic partnership with activist Frank Kameny, and a single sentence to change the course of queer history. When his commanding officer asked what his coming-out letter meant, Matlovich answered: "It means Brown versus the Board of Education." From three tours in Vietnam to the cover of TIME, from a federal court victory to a tombstone at Congressional Cemetery that reads, "They gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one," Matlovich's story is the blueprint for using documentation as a weapon against institutional discrimination. This is Part 1 of "The Cost of Courage," a two-part series exploring the arc from individual courage to organized collective power. Part 2 picks up in 1996, when the institution struck back with the Defense of Marriage Act. Listen to more episodes: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com">https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe">https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe Website: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com">https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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  Episode #112

  I Made Big Mistakes (And I'm Owning All of Them)

  Sep 1, 202612 minS3

  I got some things wrong. A few things. Okay, maybe more than a few. Look, I am a queer person with a library card and a lot of feelings, not a PhD, and sometimes that shows. This is my official corrections video, where I own my mistakes, thank the people who caught them, and remind everyone (including myself) that history is complicated, sources disagree, and I am genuinely out here learning alongside you. Two years in. Still getting it wrong sometimes. Still showing up anyway. If you've been here for any of it, thank you for staying. If you're new, welcome to a channel where we care more about getting it right eventually than pretending we got it right the first time. If this episode resonated, join the email list for free queer history downloads and early word on upcoming episodes: thisweekinqueerhistory.com/subscribe Watch this episode on YouTube: I Made Big Mistakes (And I'm Owning All of Them) Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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