France Paris SeineIle scaled
January 14, 2018 No Comments  

Paris Gay History and Art Tour

Everybody knows that Paris is a fantastic city to visit, with fascinating historic neighborhoods, amazing museums, fabulous shopping, and of course spectacular food. But many people seem not to realize that Paris is also one of the greatest cities of gay history. But so it is: I think Paris has so many other great sides that people almost overlook this one.  France was the first modern country to decriminalize homosexuality—in 1798, almost 2 centuries before the US. And from that time on, it was a relatively free city for gay life, and gay themes appeared more and more openly in French culture.

Hadrian and Antinous BM
February 27, 2017 No Comments  

London is the gay history capital of 2017!

In the next week, Oscar Wilde Tours will announce its Europe season for 2017, with Gay London/Gay Paris (August 14-22), followed by our first gay history tour of Amsterdam (August 22-25), and then our new Gay Gods and Heroes package, consisting of two back to back tours of the gay history and art of the Classical world:  Gay Greece, Homeland of Same-Sex Love (September 7-19) and Gay Italy, from Caesar to Michelangelo and Beyond (September 20-29).  There will be lots to tell when we make the announcement, including for instance our first visit to Northern Greece, where we will explore the life of that ultimate gay hero, King Alexander the Great.  But first I want to talk about what a great year it is for the Gay London/Gay Paris tour, because London is the gay history capital of 2017!

Shakespeare 1 e1457502193360
December 27, 2016 No Comments  

2017 European Gay History Tours

Oscar Wilde Tours is just about to announce its new season of European gay history tours, with London, Paris, and Amsterdam in August, and tours (which can be combined) of Greece and Italy in September.  And as I plan them, the things that stick with me most are the fun new things that I discovered this year or have added to the tour.

greece gay tours
May 29, 2016 No Comments  

The Gay Past vs. Modern Homophobia

In a way, this blog post is a protest against Facebook and its homophobia. I am intentionally writing a post that I will not be able to treat as an ad on Facebook, because (as you may or may not know) Facebook will not allow companies to have any nudity in their ads—even the naked chest of a statue in the Metropolitan Museum. When I first started advertising on Facebook, they claimed that art was exempt, but it wasn’t, if my experience is any guide; now they don’t even claim it is. And yes, as you may already suspect, they are stricter about this when the subject is gay. I know that directly, because I also do tours that focus on courtesans and royal mistresses, and they seem to give my “straight” ads a little leeway. With my “gay” ads, we get none: they tell me (a professor selling history tours) that I cannot advertise ‘adult products’ on Facebook. An obvious case of homophobia—and there is no-one to appeal to.

Antinous Ecouen Louvre
May 5, 2016 No Comments  

“Gay Paris” is one of the greatest gay cities

Paris is of course one of the world’s greatest cities—above all, one of its great cultural cities, with literature and art and architecture and fashion and cuisine and so on and so forth.  But I think that Americans easily forget how great a gay city it is as well.  They don’t call it ‘Gay Paris’ for nothing!

Naples Pan and Daphnis 1 e1459832512410
April 5, 2016 No Comments  

More Gay History in Europe: the Naples Archaeological Museum

When Oscar Wilde Tours designs gay history tours, we always try to show people the gay side of famous places.  We do for instance “gay secrets” tours of Westminster Abbey, the Louvre, and the Vatican.  But we also try to take people to some places that are important in gay history and that they might otherwise never think to visit.  Bletchley Park is an example, where Alan Turing (as in The Imitation Game) developed the machine that broke secret German codes in World War II and at the very least hastened the victory over Hitler.  Another of these places is the Naples Archaeological Museum.  Most people these days seem to skip Naples on their way from Rome to Pompeii (another place with great gay history), but Naples merits a stop for a number of reasons.  On our gay Italy tour, we spend 3 days exploring Naples and its surroundings (Pompeii, Paestum, Capri).

Shakespeare 1 e1457502193360
March 9, 2016 No Comments  

Gay History of England, Sights to See

England is a great country for the traveler interested in gay history and culture.  London is one of the great gay cities, and there are also places of gay historical interest spread around the country, from Sissinghurst in the south to Castle Howard in the north.  The great thing about the gay history of England is that there are a number of famous and relatively well-documented people in English history who loved people of their own sex.  These include at least one king, James I, a number of aristocrats of note, and many authors, such as Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf.

tour group with HA e1454972497183 scaled
February 8, 2016 No Comments  

Gay History In Greece

Since I wrote my blog post last week about my gay history explorations, people have been asking me to say something more about gay history in Greece. And this is very much on my mind, as I am leading Oscar Wilde Tours’ gay history and art tour in Greece in only 3 or 4 months (https://www.oscarwildetours.com/gay-greece-travel-tours/)!

Greece is of course one of the great countries for gay history, because some form or forms of same-sex love were customary in the ancient Greek world.  And lots of evidence remains—if you know where to look!

Paris Louvre Antinous Mondragone 1 e1449877728451
December 10, 2015 No Comments  

Gay History and Art in Paris–and the Louvre

Last month I was in Paris to do some research for our gay history and art tour of London and Paris tour in this coming August, and wow did I hit gold. We had always planned on including a tour of the Louvre: several local guides offer a tour of the Louvre following the theme of male beauty through the collection, and we intended to have one of them do that for us.

group photo paestum
October 24, 2015 No Comments  

Gay history and art tour of Italy launched!

For a couple of days, I’ve been thinking I need to write a summary blog post about the first gay history and art tour of Italy. But how to talk about 10 intense days of touring? Should I talk about the people? I’d have to ask for everyone’s permission to tell you about the fascinating cast of characters; but I can tell you that it was a very lively group and gratified me in particular by how well they got along. I remember how happy I was when I passed the bar at our gorgeous hotel overlooking the bay of Sorrento and saw them all having drinks together. It was that way right until the last breakfast.