Tan France's Queer Icons Podcast By Tan France cover art

Tan France's Queer Icons

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Tan France's Queer Icons

By: Tan France
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

About this listen

Please note: contains adult themes and explicit language.

As long as there have been humans, there have been LGBTQI+ people. From an 18th century gentleman's servant known as 'Princess Seraphina', to a lesbian punk rocker in Malaysia, challenging her country‚ homophobic laws today; queer life always finds a way.

We join Queer Eye's Tan France to take a look at the lives, past and present, of those who have proudly defied rigid concepts of normality. Featuring interviews with: Shirlette Ammons, Dr Michell Cressfield, Aaron Devor, Brittany Evans, Robert Bruno, A.A. Brenner, Christine Ansel, Tim Hitchcock, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Dan Vo, Eric Marcus, Sacha Coward, Linda Garnets, Douglas Kimmell, Pat Meza, David Evans Frantz, C. Ondine Chavoya, Simon Doonan, Yoyo and Shh...Diam, Cat Brogan, Dr Carlo Bonura, Channing Gerard Joseph, KC Cambrel, Esan Regmi, Kyle Knight, Manisha Dhakal.

A 7Digital Production for Audible Originals.

This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 8 episodes to your Library now.

©2021 Audible, Ltd (P)2021 Audible, Ltd Biographies & Memoirs Parenting & Families Relationships
Episodes
  • Ep 1: Gladys Bentley

    Ep 1: Gladys Bentley
    Jun 9 2021

    When sexually explicit lyrics are the least scandalous part of your persona, you know you’re doing something right. Tux and top hat wearing Gladys Bentley was the toast of 1920s Harlem queer culture.
    Show more Show less
    39 mins
    Try for $0.00
  • Ep 2: Bobbie Lea Bennett

    Ep 2: Bobbie Lea Bennett
    Jun 9 2021

    Bingo, Barbie and big car journeys: few people knew how to get media attention like Bobbie Lea Bennett, forcing 1970s Medicare to consider trans rights through a different lens.
    Show more Show less
    23 mins
    Try for $0.00
  • Ep 3: Princess Seraphina

    Ep 3: Princess Seraphina
    Jun 9 2021

    Breeches, petticoats and late night Chelsea scandals are all in vogue for our cross-dressing 18th century icon.

    Show more Show less
    28 mins
    Try for $0.00
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro805_stickypopup

Featured Article: The Best LGBTQIA+ Podcasts for Pride Month and Beyond


Representing the vast diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community, this assortment of podcasts covers a range of topics from a variety of different perspectives and voices: from queer-inclusive sex-positive podcasts to takes on pop culture and news to deep dives into the strides made by the queer community and the courageous folks who made progress possible. These podcasts will entertain, challenge, comfort, and delight you with every single episode.

Featured Article The Best LGBTQIA+ Podcasts for Pride Month and Beyond
All stars
Most relevant
As a history buff, who happens to be queer, I appreciated the thoughtful & honest approach to the lives of some rather amazing individuals from the annals of written history. There are so many more of these types of individuals who are lost in those same vast records. Whether lost by being purposefully erased, willfully ignored or intentionally mislabeled. So, it is always a true joy (for me) to discover little troves of these delightful & thought provoking treasures. I hope one day, for future generations, there will be a large encyclopedia of these amazing forebears they can turn to & discover they are not alone. Queerness is part of the human experience and has been for a very long time.

A Wonderful Listen!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Queer history told by beautiful voice of Tan, I would recommend this any day. Think there should be a sequel as I would
imagine there have been more icons we all can learn in addition to these 8.

Educational & Entertaining

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was uninformed about many of the people Tan France profiled. As a queer person, that is a sad admissions. This series of profiles is well done, people are well chosen to cover a diverse range of queer experiences. Highly recommend .

People you should know about.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful piece of work. Shout out to Gladys Bentley. Only grip is that I don’t know how to search for the music artist who co-narrated this piece.

So informative, meaningful, and entertaining 💜

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
4 stars - It was really good

In this eight episode podcast, Tan France takes us through some of history's LGBTQIA+ icon. These episodes also include interviews with some of the queer icons, historians, psychiantists, family and friends of the icons, as well as other people connect to the icon. The eight episodes discuss the lives of Gladys Bently, Bobbie Lea Bennett, Princess Seraphina, Dr. Evelyn Hooker, Mundo Meza, Yoyo, William Dorsey Swann, and Esan Regmi

Of these icons, I only knew about Gladys Bently but I didn’t know her full story, which was very surprising. I never realized that she sang raunchy songs about the LGBTQ community. She was definitely a musical icon of the time and I want to learn more about her now.

Bobbie Lea Bennet was a disabled and transgendered rights activist. Her history was heartbreaking at points and yet encouraging because she was able to get Medicare to pay for her reassignment surgery. I found her story fascinating, especially since she was also dealing with the effects of osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) on top of trying to transition.

Princess Seraphina is possibly one of the first recorded trans women. She lived in the 18th century and all that is really known about them is what is reported from the trials. I do wish we had more information on their story but I know that will most likely never happen. I had never heard of Mundo Meza and his art before this podcast, but with such a short life that is understandable. I looked up his work and understood why it was popular at the time. It is a fascinating mixture of different art styles and something about it is very captivating. It was nice to see that his work is gaining attention again and steps have been taken to preserve it for LGBTQ archives.

Dr Evelyn Hooker is the only ally in this podcast but her psychological study has made a huge impact on the LGBTQ community. Her work contributed to the APA’s decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM of mental disorders in 1973. As someone with a psychology degree, this episode was very fascinating and I would like to study more of this experiment in the future. I was surprised that this series included an ally but allies are important to the community.

Yoyo is a lesiban, Malaysian musician who has created secret LGBTQ parties for the community. It was heartbreaking to learn of the strict LGBTQ laws in Malaysia. I did like that we got to hear Yoyo’s story in her own words though. William Dorsey Swann is the first known person to self-identify as a "queen of drag." He had a very interesting story and I loved that his brother continued his drag party legacy by dressing the participants. Esan Regmi is an intersex activist from Nepal. His story, and the story of other intersex people mentioned in this episode, was very heartbreaking. Intersex is one of the areas of the community that I know little about so this episode was very enlightening for me.

Overall, this was a fascinating and informative podcast. I loved Tan France’s narration and that interviews with others were included, especially the icons themselves. I highly recommend this series if you want to learn some quick history about these queer icons.

Trigger Warnings:
- References of depression, homophobia, transphobia, racism,
- Bobbie Lea Bennett lost first her wife and unborn child in a car accident
- Dr. Evelyn Hooker episode has discussions of conversion and aversion therapies, forced sterilization, and lobotomies.’
- Yoyo episode has discussion of suicide.
- William Doresey Swann references to slavery, racism, and homophobia.
- Esan Regmi episode has discussion of suicide, gender surgery and mutilation.

A wonderful look at a few of histories lgbtq icons

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I absolutely loved every single one of these episodes. As embarrassing as it is to admit that I had not heard about ANY of these icons before, I am equally, if not even more so, appreciative for the opportunity to broaden my knowledge and share what Ive been able to learn, with others. I want to know even more! Thank you for putting this collection out into the world.

Schooled.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I've only listened to the first episode but these stories seem to bed beautifully pit together helpung the icons come to life.

love it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tan is such an icon himself and I absolutely love him and this podcast really just further opened my eyes on top of what I knew about past icons and struggles, and I thank him for creating this!

MUST LISTEN

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Each episode of this fun and informative podcast features a different queer person of the past, who paved the way for queer people today. These are people who, despite society’s rejection, created lives, embodied queer pride long before it was a thing, and built communities.
I was appalled to see an ignorant and poorly-spelled rant against this wonderful podcast here in the reviews. There are still people who hate queer people just for existing. Podcasts and other forms of media that tell stories about queer people are an important part of opening people’s ‘hearts and minds’ to the human experience of queer people, and the knowledge that we all have a right to pursue happiness for ourselves.
Tan France did a fantastic job with this podcast; combining a light hearted commentary with comments from authorities on the figure or period being discussed.

A fabulous journey through queer history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I don't care what anyone what's to be or do in there life but I don't like to see things like this and should have the option to remove things like this from my view. Im not hating on anyone or knocking them for their views, I just don't want to have to see it. If I'm in public and see it, that's one thing but it shouldn't be forced into my personal experience on my devices. I would say I find it offensive but then I'm the bad guy, I might be considered the bad guy for just saying what I have but it's not my fault I'm not comfortable seeing/hearing things like this. Again, I'm not trying to be hurtful or shaming or hateful to anyone, your views are your own and mine are my own and there should be a choice to hide whatever content that's not wanting to be viewed.

Needs to be a way to remove content like this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews