Universal monsters — a franchise that’s defined horror for nearly a century. And who do we have to thank? A man once called The Queen of Hollywood. A WWI vet who mixed dark visions, gallows humor, and a painter’s eye, James Whale’s work made him the toast of Hollywood. And […]
In the 1980s, the united states military went on a witch hunt for Dorothy and her network of friends. Long before “Friend of Dorothy” meant sketchy supplements, it was code for gay men. And years before DADT, it was military policy to root them out. But why were these seamen […]
The Jinkx and Dela Holiday Special has everything: Prancing! Holiday spirits! Gay apparel! Not to mention, ME! …in the credits! I was the behind the scenes photographer, and I want to share what I love about this show, along with some of my memories and experiences. And a conversation with […]
When did TV first permit joking while gay? I’ve been combing through sitcoms to figure out when queers stopped being a scary threat, and were allowed to be real people with love lives and funny punch lines. Here are just a few of my favorite early gay characters on sitcoms. […]
The movie Dog Day Afternoon features Al Pacino as a bank robber whose summertime heist goes terribly wrong. But he’s no ordinary criminal: One of the film’s biggest twists is that he’s robbing the bank to pay for his transgender girlfriend’s surgery. And the even bigger twist … it all […]
In the last Culture Cruise video, I talked about how the show All in the Family introduced Beverly LaSalle, presenting a female impersonator as being worthy of love and respect at a time when TV tended to depict queer people as mere punch lines. But Beverly was also one of […]
Interview With the Vampire is one of the most influential vampire stories ever told, and also one of the gayest. Originally published as a novel in 1976, the book spawned 12 sequels, a wildly successful film (and one less-successful one), graphic novels, a Broadway musical, and now a TV series […]
For over a hundred years, the ballrooms of New York have been host to extravagant, exciting, and sometimes secret queer dance parties. And by looking back at old documentaries like Paris is Burning & The Queen, and at new ones like Kiki, we can start to reconstruct the history of […]
One actor has inhabited the role of Batman more iconically than any other — Kevin Conroy, the voice actor who holds the record for having played Batman for longer than any other performer, starting with Batman the Animated Series in the early 90s. There was a reason Kevin could relate […]
Back in the 80s, “longtime companion” was the code that newspapers used to describe the partners of people who died of AIDS. And it’s the title of one of the first films to talk about epidemic. I watched the movie last night and I’ve only just now stopped crying and […]
