The TWiQH Blog

When the WHO Finally Admitted Being Gay Isn't a Mental Illness

Every time I dig into a story like this one, I find hope in the people who refused to stop fighting. The reclassification of homosexuality by the WHO didn't happen because a committee decided to do th...

May 13, 2026

They Burned the World's First Trans Clinic

What stays with me from this episode is the image of someone reaching into the ashes and pulling out Hirschfeld's statue bust. The Institut für Sexualwissenschaft had just been ransacked and burned by...

May 6, 2026

New Episode: Ellen DeGeneres Comes Out on 'The Puppy Episode'

This week's episode is up! https://youtu.be/M_rtDtawXr0 In this episode, we look back at The Puppy Episode, the moment in 1997 when Ellen DeGeneres said 'Yep, I'm gay' on national television and 42 mi...

Apr 29, 2026

Jason Collins Comes Out (April 29, 2013)

On this day in 2013, NBA center Jason Collins came out in a Sports Illustrated cover story, becoming the first active male athlete in a major American professional sports league to publicly say he was...

Apr 29, 2026

Iowa Allows Same-Sex Marriage (April 27, 2009)

On this day in 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that banning same-sex marriage violated the state constitution, making Iowa the third state in the nation and the first in the Midwest to ...

Apr 28, 2026

Good Queer News This Week (April 28, 2026)

This week's Good Queer News is full of reasons to feel hopeful. The EU's highest court just ruled that Hungary's anti-LGBTQ law violates EU law, marking the first time an EU court has found a member s...

Apr 28, 2026

This Day in Queer History — April 25, 1993: The March on Washington

On this day in 1993, somewhere between 800,000 and one million people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation...

Apr 25, 2026

This Day in Queer History — April 23, 1990: The Hate Crimes Statistics Act

On this day in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, making it the first U.S. federal law to ever use the phrase 'sexual orientation.' What may sound like bureaucrati...

Apr 23, 2026

Good Queer News — April 22, 2026

Your weekly dose of Good Queer News. 🌈 Six LGBTQ+ People Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential of 2026 TIME's 2026 list includes at least six extraordinary LGBTQ+ people, led by trans civil rights att...

Apr 22, 2026

Episode: Oscar Wilde's Prosecution for Homosexuality

This week's episode is up! Oscar Wilde stood in a London courtroom in 1895 and, instead of cowering, delivered one of the most eloquent defenses of same-sex love ever recorded. He called it 'the love ...

Apr 22, 2026

Blog3 min read

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

📖 Our Next Read: The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne In July 1945, a pregnant 16-year-old named Catherine Goggin is denounced from the pulpit of her small Irish village and cast out by her pri...

Apr 21, 2026

This Day in Queer History — April 21, 1966: The Mattachine Sip-In

On this day in 1966, the New York Mattachine Society walked into Julius Bar in Greenwich Village and did something radical: they announced they were gay and asked to be served. Led by president Dick L...

Apr 21, 2026

🎙️ TWiQH is Now a Podcast!

Big news, friends! This Week in Queer History is officially available as a podcast on every major platform. That means you can now listen to all 88 episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, a...

Apr 18, 2026

The First Time We Stood at the White House

On this day in 1965, ten gay men and lesbians dressed in their most respectable clothes walked silently in front of the White House, carrying modest signs, becoming the first openly gay people ever to...

Apr 17, 2026

The Slogan That Turned Grief Into a Battle Cry

On this day in 1988, ACT UP activists handed flyers to thousands of New Yorkers filing into the post office on Tax Day, flyers bearing an inverted pink triangle and four words that would rewrite the r...

Apr 15, 2026

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: This Week's Episode Is Up!

This week's episode is up! Watch here: https://youtu.be/qYF0e_TCaSg In 1979, three men put on habits and became something the world had never seen: the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a radical order...

Apr 15, 2026

Good Queer News: Three Reasons to Smile This Week

Life doesn't stop surprising us in good ways. Here are three things happening in our community right now that deserve a round of applause. 🌈 Boise Wraps Its Flag Poles in Rainbow When Idaho passed a ...

Apr 14, 2026

"Yep, I'm Gay": Ellen DeGeneres on TIME

On this day in 1997, Ellen DeGeneres appeared on the cover of TIME magazine with words that stopped America in its tracks: "Yep, I'm Gay." That cover dropped the same week her sitcom character came ou...

Apr 13, 2026

💬 Ryan White: The Teenager Who Changed How America Saw AIDS — Discussion Guide

Ryan White: The Teenager Who Changed How America Saw AIDS He wanted to eat lunch with friends, get a job at a skateboard shop, have a crush on a girl, and maybe one day go to college. 📺 Watch the epi...

Apr 10, 2026

📥 Ryan White: The Teenager Who Changed How America Saw AIDS — Supplemental Guide

Ryan White: The Teenager Who Changed How America Saw AIDS He wanted to eat lunch with friends, get a job at a skateboard shop, have a crush on a girl, and maybe one day go to college. He was a teenage...

Apr 9, 2026

This Day in Queer History: April 3, 2009

On this day in 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that same-sex couples had the constitutional right to marry — making Iowa the third state in the nation, and the first in the Midwest, to ...

Apr 3, 2026

Good Queer News This Week

It's Tuesday and we're leading with the good stuff. Here are three stories that reminded us this week why community and persistence matter: California Fights Back with 12 Pro-LGBTQ+ Bills The Californ...

Apr 1, 2026

This Day in Queer History: April 1, 2001

On this day in 2001, at midnight in Amsterdam's City Hall, Mayor Job Cohen married four same-sex couples — the first legal same-sex weddings in the history of the world. The Netherlands didn't stumble...

Apr 1, 2026

FDA Approves AZT For HIV Treatment — EP 3

This week's episode is up! Watch here: https://youtu.be/_ZhbHARQzDA In 1987, the FDA approved AZT — the first drug ever approved to treat HIV/AIDS. The road to that approval was paved by activists who...

Apr 1, 2026

This Day in Queer History: March 30, 1958

On this day in 1958, Alvin Ailey premiered his dance company in New York City, launching one of the most celebrated arts institutions in American history. Ailey, a gay Black man from rural Texas, chan...

Mar 30, 2026

This Day in Queer History — March 25

Good Wednesday, community. Here's what happened on March 25 in queer history: ★ 1947 — Sir Elton John is born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex. He would become one of the best-selling musi...

Mar 25, 2026

FDA Approves AZT For HIV Treatment - EP 2

This week's episode is up! https://youtu.be/4_ThEj30aIQ In 1987, the FDA approved AZT — the first drug ever approved to treat HIV/AIDS. It didn't come easily. It came after years of grief, rage, and r...

Mar 25, 2026

Good Queer News This Week

Good Tuesday, community. In a week that can feel heavy, here are three stories that remind us our community keeps building, winning, and shining. ★ Nepal's First Out Trans Lawmaker — A prominent LGBTQ...

Mar 24, 2026

This Day in Queer History — March 23

Happy Monday, community. Here's what happened on March 23 in queer history: ★ 1971 — Frank Kameny becomes the first openly gay person to run for a U.S. Congressional seat, representing Washington D.C....

Mar 23, 2026

FDA Approves AZT For HIV Treatment - Ep 1

This week's episode is up! Watch here On March 19, 1987, the FDA approved AZT, the first drug for treating HIV/AIDS. It wasn't a cure, and it came with brutal side effects, but it was hope. For the fi...

Mar 18, 2026

🗓️ Why Palm Springs Became Gay — Visual Timeline

Why Palm Springs Became Gay — Visual Timeline From a secret escape for closeted Hollywood stars to a city where queer people governed, owned, and thrived — the story of Palm Springs is one of the most...

Mar 14, 2026

Good Queer News This Week

🌈 India's First Out Parliamentarian A pioneering LGBTQ+ activist who helped decriminalize homosexuality in India is set to become the country's first openly LGBTQ+ member of parliament, marking a his...

Mar 13, 2026

💬 Why Palm Springs Became Gay: A Queer History of America's Desert Oasis — Discussion Guide

Why Palm Springs Became Gay: A Queer History of America's Desert Oasis There's a phrase that gets used a lot when people talk about Palm Springs: "the gayest small city in America." It ranks first in ...

Mar 13, 2026

📥 Why Palm Springs Became Gay — Supplemental Guide

Why Palm Springs Became Gay: A Queer History of America's Desert Oasis How did a small desert city become one of the gayest places in America? This companion guide traces the full story — from Hollywo...

Mar 12, 2026

Why Palm Springs Became Gay

Palm Springs has always felt magical to me. Warm, open, welcoming in a way that feels almost effortless. But researching this episode showed me that the ease I feel there has a history behind it. Peop...

Good Queer News This Week ✨

Here are some uplifting queer stories to brighten your week! 🌈 🇮🇳 India's First Out Parliamentarian A pioneering LGBTQ+ activist who helped decriminalize homosexuality in India is set to become the...

🎬 This Week: Why Palm Springs Became Gay

This week's episode is live! 🌴 Why Palm Springs Became Gay (Hint: It Wasn't the Pool Parties) — Watch on YouTube Palm Springs looks like it's always been a gay oasis, but the real story involves clos...

📥 They Tried to Take Our Kids: Supplemental Materials Package — Supplemental Guide

They Tried to Take Our Kids: Supplemental Materials Package There is a particular kind of courage that doesn't look like courage at all. It looks like showing up to court. It looks like filing paperwo...

💬 The Secret History of Gay Gyms — Discussion Guide

The Secret History of Gay Gyms There is a photograph from the early 1950s. A man stands in a studio, posing in the classical tradition, muscles carefully lit, his expression composed. He arrived here ...

Mar 6, 2026

📥 The Secret History of Gay Gyms — Supplemental Guide

Mar 5, 2026

The Secret History of Gay Gyms (They Were Never Just About Fitness)

This week's episode is up! 🎬 Watch the episode here Gay gyms were not just places to sweat. They were bulletin boards, therapy sessions, and lifelines. Before apps, before the internet, before most o...

Mar 4, 2026

🕰️ This Day in Queer History - February 28

🌟 1992 - A Firefighter Lights the Way FireFLAG, New York City's LGBTQ firefighter organization, was formally incorporated on this day. Founded by Gene Walsh, the city's first openly gay FDNY firefigh...

Feb 28, 2026

Blame it on the trans?

Earlier this month, there was a school shooting in Canada, in my own province, which is rare in this country. What makes this story relevant to us is that the shooter was an 18 year old trans woman. A...

Feb 27, 2026

💬 Broadway Didn't Just Entertain Us — It Helped Gay People Survive — Discussion Guide

Broadway Didn't Just Entertain Us — It Helped Gay People Survive Not a seat in the audience, necessarily. For many queer people in the twentieth century, the theater's gift was more specific and more ...

Feb 27, 2026

👋 Hey everyone, I'm Kris (with a K)!

I'm the face and voice behind This Week in Queer History, and I am so glad you're here. A little about me: I'm 48, I live in LA with my partner Luis and our dog Atty (short for Atticus, gotta love TKA...

🕰️ This Day in Queer History - February 24

🌟 1995 - Greg Louganis Tells His Truth Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis came out publicly, becoming one of the first major athletes to be openly gay. A four-time Olympic gold medalist in diving, L...

🕰️ This Day in Queer History - February 26

🌟 1649 - A Queen Who Chose Herself Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated her throne on this day, citing her refusal to marry. She left behind a crown to live on her own terms, eventually settling in Ro...

📥 Broadway Didn't Just Entertain Us — It Helped Gay People Survive — Supplemental Guide

💬 How Self-Hatred Shaped Anti-LGBTQ Laws — Discussion Guide

How Self-Hatred Shaped Anti-LGBTQ Laws There is a pattern in queer history so consistent it almost qualifies as a law of nature: the loudest voice calling for the persecution of LGBTQ people is someti...

Feb 20, 2026

📥 How Self-Hatred Shaped Anti-LGBTQ Laws — Supplemental Guide

Feb 19, 2026

Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle

***Bury Your Gays is a 2024 horror novel by USA Today bestselling author Chuck Tingle, published by Tor Nightfire. The book is a satirical and social horror story that directly deconstructs the common...

Feb 12, 2026

📥 How the LGBTQ Community Beat Censorship — Supplemental Guide

How the LGBTQ Community Beat Censorship There is a pattern running through 150 years of queer history that almost nobody talks about: every time someone tried to erase LGBTQ people from the record, qu...

Feb 12, 2026

💬 Top 10 LGBTQ Protest Tactics That Changed History — Discussion Guide

Top 10 LGBTQ Protest Tactics That Changed History There is something worth sitting with when you look at the full arc of LGBTQ protest: how much creativity it took. Not just courage -- though the cour...

Feb 6, 2026

📥 Top 10 LGBTQ Protest Tactics That Changed History — Supplemental Guide

Feb 5, 2026

💬 ACT UP and the Ashes Action — Discussion Guide

ACT UP and the Ashes Action In the fall of 1992, people walked up to the White House fence carrying something no protester had ever carried before: the ashes of the people they loved. 📺 Watch the epi...

Jan 30, 2026

📥 ACT UP and the Ashes Action — Supplemental Guide

Jan 29, 2026

💬 Dolly's Kingdom: How a Barefoot Girl from Appalachia Became America's Queer Icon - Discussion Guide

Dolly's Kingdom: How a Barefoot Girl from Appalachia Became America's Queer Icon Dolly Parton was born in a one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, in 1946. No electricity. No running water. Four k...

Jan 23, 2026

📥 The Secret History of Dollywood — Supplemental Guide

The Secret History of Dollywood Dolly Parton was born in a one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, in 1946. No electricity. No running water. Four kids to a bed. By every measure of her time and pl...

Jan 22, 2026

💬 Hidden in Plain Sight: How Gay Couples Changed Soap Operas Forever — Discussion Guide

Hidden in Plain Sight: How Gay Couples Changed Soap Operas Forever Every afternoon, for decades, millions of Americans invited soap operas into their living rooms. These shows were there five days a w...

Jan 16, 2026

📥 Gay Lovers Hidden as "Best Friends" in Soap Operas — Supplemental Guide

Gay Lovers Hidden as "Best Friends" in Soap Operas Every afternoon, for decades, millions of Americans invited soap operas into their living rooms. These shows were there five days a week, fifty-two w...

Jan 15, 2026

💬 The Queer Comedians Who Changed the World — Discussion Guide

The Queer Comedians Who Changed the World It takes the shape of a punchline. It sounds like laughter. It lands in a comedy club or a nightclub or, eventually, on Netflix. 📺 Watch the episode: View on...

Jan 9, 2026

📥 The Queer Comedians Who Changed the World — Supplemental Guide

Jan 8, 2026

💬 Resolutions From Gay History: Turning Dreams Into Reality — Discussion Guide

Resolutions From Gay History: Turning Dreams Into Reality Not "decided" in the sense of signing a document or announcing a campaign. More like a quiet internal click. A moment where the gap between th...

Jan 1, 2026

📥 Resolutions From Gay History: Turning Dreams Into Reality — Supplemental Guide

Dec 31, 2025

💬 The People Who Funded the Revolution — Discussion Guide

The People Who Funded the Revolution Every march needs a megaphone. Every lawsuit needs a lawyer. Every magazine needs ink. The history of LGBTQ rights in America is often told as a story of the stree...

Dec 26, 2025

📥 The Secret Gifts That Built LGBTQ History — Supplemental Guide

The Secret Gifts That Built LGBTQ History Every march needs a megaphone. Every lawsuit needs a lawyer. Every magazine needs ink. The history of LGBTQ rights in America is often told as a story of the ...

Dec 25, 2025

💬 The Queer DNA of Christmas (And Why It Was Always There) — Discussion Guide

The Queer DNA of Christmas (And Why It Was Always There) Every December, millions of people watch a gay man's ballet, sing a closeted songwriter's most heartbreaking lyric, root for a misfit reindeer ...

Dec 19, 2025

📥 Gay Codes Hidden in Christmas — Supplemental Guide

Gay Codes Hidden in Christmas Every December, millions of people watch a gay man's ballet, sing a closeted songwriter's most heartbreaking lyric, root for a misfit reindeer who just wants to belong, a...

Dec 18, 2025

💬 The Gay Choirs They Tried to Silence — Discussion Guide

The Gay Choirs They Tried to Silence There is something almost alchemical about a chorus. Hundreds of individual voices, each shaped by a different life, a different body, a different story -- and the...

Dec 12, 2025

📥 The Gay Choirs They Tried to Silence — Supplemental Guide

Dec 11, 2025

💬 They Tried to Silence Us. We Built an Archive Instead. — Discussion Guide

They Tried to Silence Us. We Built an Archive Instead. There is a pattern running through 150 years of queer history that almost nobody talks about: every time someone tried to erase LGBTQ people from...

Dec 5, 2025

💬 The Secret Libraries That Saved LGBTQ History — Discussion Guide

The Secret Libraries That Saved LGBTQ History For LGBTQ communities, the work of preservation has always been personal. When governments raided bars, they seized membership lists. When families discov...

Dec 5, 2025

📥 The Secret Libraries That Saved LGBTQ History — Supplemental Guide

Dec 4, 2025

💬 La Cage aux Folles* — The Musical That Changed Everything — Discussion Guide

La Cage aux Folles* — The Musical That Changed Everything On August 21, 1983, a gay couple kissed on the stage of the Palace Theatre on 47th Street. Not in a downtown experimental space. Not in a blac...

Nov 28, 2025

📥 La Cage aux Folles — The Musical That Changed Everything — Supplemental Guide

La Cage aux Folles — The Musical That Changed Everything On August 21, 1983, a gay couple kissed on the stage of the Palace Theatre on 47th Street. Not in a downtown experimental space. Not in a black...

Nov 27, 2025

💬 The Families They Couldn't Stop — Discussion Guide

The Families They Couldn't Stop There is a particular kind of courage that doesn't look like courage at all. It looks like showing up to court. It looks like filing paperwork for the third time after ...

Nov 27, 2025

💬 How Queer Outrage Took Over TV and Changed America — Discussion Guide

How Queer Outrage Took Over TV and Changed America There's a phrase that gets used a lot in histories of LGBTQ+ representation on television: "a watershed moment." Ellen's coming out. The AIDS movie t...

Nov 21, 2025

📥 How Queer Outrage Took Over TV and Changed America — Supplemental Guide

Nov 20, 2025

💬 The Secret Gay Travel Guide That Mapped Our Hidden World — Discussion Guide

The Secret Gay Travel Guide That Mapped Our Hidden World Before there was a rainbow flag over your hotel lobby. Before there was an app that showed you exactly who was nearby, right now, in whatever c...

Nov 14, 2025

📥 The Secret Gay Travel Guide That Mapped Our Hidden World — Supplemental Guide

Nov 13, 2025

Why Kinsey's Legacy Matters More Than Ever

I didn't fully understand how divisive Kinsey was until after this episode came out and the comments started rolling in. The pushback was intense, and a lot of it centered on a specific claim: that Ki...

Aug 12, 2025

This 1919 Gay Film Was Almost Erased Forever

Working on this episode, I kept coming back to one thought: when people can't find the content they want, they create it. In 1919, queer people weren't going to see their stories in mainstream cinema....

May 28, 2025

The Dark Warning of Cabaret

Art is almost always the first to warn us. It holds up a light to what could happen, what will happen, if we stop paying attention and stop taking action. That's why Cabaret hits me so hard. It's not ...

Feb 12, 2025

Philadelphia: The Movie That Changed History

I love Philadelphia. But working on this episode made me sit with something I'd been carrying for a long time without quite naming it. That film came from a moment when queer culture was still in the ...

Dec 24, 2024