Walt Whitman and New York gay history

Just spotted this review of a fascinating new book about Walt Whitman and gay sociability in late 19th century New York.  This is very timely for us, because Oscar Wilde Tours is planning a gay history tour of New York, to start hopefully in the spring.  New York is of course one of the richest gay history sites in the world, but there isn’t much information available about the topic:  there’s no book about it, and the only walking tours cover only the Village. 

Gay History in Paris

More gay history notes for gay travelers.  I don’t think that most Americans associate Paris with gay history, but it is one of the richest cities for gay history, as it is for all other kinds of history.  In fact, Paris is the only city that offers a whole series of gay history tours:  Paris Gay Village’s “visites inverties” (inverted tours).  They are only offered irregularly and in French, but Oscar Wilde Tours will always include them (with translation of course) in our Paris tours.

Gay Heroes of Ancient Athens

While I was in Greece researching Oscar Wilde Tour’s 2016 Greece tour, I was following a great story from gay history: the story of the ancient Athenians’ favorite heroes—right up there with Theseus, the city’s mythical founder— Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the male-male couple who assassinated the brother of the last tyrant of Athens and whom the Athenians regarded as the founders of the democracy. It would be hard to exaggerate how honored these guys were in Athens.

The Green Carnation Explained

“Why the green carnation?”

That’s a question we get regularly asked at Oscar Wilde Tours. And it’s one we love to answer, because it tells so much about us— Oscar Wilde.