/180/ Bunga Bunga (but Gay) ft. Mark Simpson & River Page (Patreon)

On gay liberation and sexual politics.

After big advances over the past decades, we can now ask, did the gays win? And if so, so what? Mark Simpson in the UK and River Page in Florida join us to discuss whether something was lost in that victory.

We ponder whether gay politics was the original identity politics and what happens when a narrow focus on equality triumphs over liberation. Do sexual liberation politics have any future? Plus: how Blairism was the biggest drag act of all.

Readings:

• Anti-Gay, Mark Simpson (Bloomsbury, 1996)
• Being Gay in the Thirties (Gay Life), documentary mentioned by Mark
• Trading in the Past: Queer London, Mark Simpson
• The Standpoint Bureaucracy, River Page, TwinkRev
• The Woke Resurrection of a Gay Sex Panic, River Page, TwinkRev