Books That Make You Say: No Way! They were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves
Throughout history, gay people have done amazing things: led nations, made inventions, contributed to science, art, culture, sports, literature and more.
But very often, the nature of their orientation was hidden. Obscured. Not included in history books. Not discussed openly. Because for way too long people were told to keep that stuff in the closet. History, of course, has been crafted by the people who recorded it. And sometimes, those historians were biased against, didn’t see, or couldn’t even imagine anyone different from themselves.
Our guest today is Lee Wind, the author of “No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves.” He takes readers on a fascinating journey through primary sources—poetry, memoir, news clippings, and images of ancient artwork—to explore the hidden Queer lives and loves of two dozen historical figures.
He is also the author of the crowd-funded YA novel “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill,” featured as a Publishers Weekly Indie Success Story. His upcoming picture book “Red and Green and Blue and White”, will publish in October 2021. His day job is with the Independent Book Publishers Association, as their director of marketing and programming, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, as their official blogger.
