Matt Baume

For a time, a woman named Maggie Gallagher was one of the world's most outspoken opponents of marriage equality: She was on the news, she wrote articles, she spoke at anti-equality rallies. You name it, if there was an opportunity to say something terrible about queer people getting married, she was

A new film called Lavender Men comes to theaters this month, and streaming in June — it’s about a theatrical stage manager who daydreams about her connection to Abraham Lincoln through queer romance. I’m chatting with two of the folks involved in the film this week: Lovell Holder directed the film,

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is filmmaker David Beck. His childhood love of theater led him to a life as an actor — and also a difficult struggle to keep his head above water in a career where work was unpredictable and fiercely competitive. After coming out of the closet with the

My guest this week on the Sewers of Paris podcast is Johnnie McNamara Walker, whose solo shows The Heterosexuals and Redheaded Stepchild led to him being described as a comic genius by The Irish Times. Johnnie spent a lot of his youth doing everything he could to hide the queer kid trying to break f

You've probably never heard of the Workshop of the Player's Art, but this grungy little 99-seat theater had a colossal impact on American culture -- and helped save Disney animation in the 90s. In this week's bonus video I want to tell you about how a bunch of scrappy theater kids managed to turn a

My guest on The Sewers of Paris podcast this week is actor Ray Stewart, who first came to my attention in the role of Darryl Driscoll on the '70s sitcom Barney Miller. Ray played half of a same-sex couple at a time when such characters were vanishingly rare. But you’ve also seen him on everything fr

My guest this week is Timothy Siragusa, who was very popular with about 30 lesbians in Omaha. He was part of an experimental theater scene in a small city that was at first a little, let’s say, challenging for mainstream audiences to appreciate … until one night he had a brainstorm that transformed

As we reach the conclusion of a particularly busy Pride month, I wanted to dive back into the Sewers of Paris archives for a conversation with someone who knew Greenwich Village in the years before Stonewall. The Village is the gay enclave that was the model for many of the enclaves we know today, a

My guest this week is Trystan Reece, who starred as Yitzhak in the original LA production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. From an early age, Trystan was laser focused on going to Broadway and becoming a famous actor. But the experience of being an actor, it turns out, helped him learn about passions h

My guest this week has a single-minded determination when it comes to entertaining, parties, and filling everyone’s lives with joy. Freddy Molitch is a Seattle playwright and DJ who also goes by the name DJ King of Pants, and he’s on a mission to bring happiness to audiences through theater and musi

My guest this week has spent his life traveling the country to bear his soul, and now he’s settled down in the last place he ever expected — the town where he grew up. David Schmader is a writer and performer who wrote for The Stranger in Seattle by day, and who turned his articles into dramatic the

Where do you pick up the skills to design the life of your dreams? My guest this week is artist and theatrical designer Pete Rush, who fell in love with drama at an early age and thought he’d be a New York actor until he realized he had an aptitude for stage design. So he crossed over from creating

My guest this week has spent the last 25 years tapping into inner heroes — first on screen, and then in real life. David Yost played Billy, the Blue Ranger on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, portraying a teenager with attitude who saved the world every week. But in his private life, he struggled to a

Thanks to everyone who supports The Sewers of Paris on Patreon -- with your pledges I'm able to release monthly bonus episodes like this one. This week we'll be going beyond The Sewers of Paris with someone for whom I am truly grateful. Kate Kendell is the outgoing director of the National Center fo

Thanks to everyone who pledges their support on Patreon, I'm able to put out bonus episodes of The Sewers of Paris! Here's a conversation with Zack Ford, who never planned to become the LGBTQ Editor at ThinkProgress.org. He was going to be a music teacher, and writing about current events was just a

My guest this week is actor Wyatt Fenner, who you've seen on Veronica Mars, Bones, and the movie Take the Yuletide Gay. New Yorkers, you can see him right now in the show Transparent Falsehood at Theater 511 on West 54th Street. As an actor, Wyatt's an expert at inhabiting personas and hiding himsel

Why is villainy so much fun? Whether it's cackling Emperor Palpatine or Joan Collings smirking smugly on Dynasty, bad guys invariably seem to be having such a good time ... and it can be hard to resist wanting to join them. My guest this week is Ira Madison, culture writer for The Daily Beast and co

How do you balance a need for solitude with a need to collaborate? This week's guest is Jamie Pierce, an actor, comedian, and dancer who's no stranger to career changes. Several years ago, he decided to transform his work and his life after an experience onstage. And just last year, he reached anoth

What's the project of your life? My guest this week is Josef Krebs, who's done a lot of thinking about the impact he can have on the world, whether through the evangelical church in which he grew up, or the world of theater where he eventually found a more satisfying home. Josef's work has always be

When did you first escape your bubble? We all start life protected by adults, looked after and shielded from the harsh realities of the world. Some of us burst out of it as fast as we can, and others like to pretend they never have to leave. This week's guest is comedian Joel Kim Booster, whose pare

What's the difference between an end and a beginning, and are they sometimes the same thing? My guest this week is Albert Williams, a longtime queer artist and activist who's seen the queer world transform over the course of his life. Throughout that time, there were periods when change just wasn't

My guest this week is Justin Sayre, whom you may know from the excellent Sparkle and Circulate podcast, or his delightful live show The Meeting of the International Order of the Sodomites. He always knew there was a big queer community out there, but he never quite felt a connection with it, so he d

Have you ever proved yourself wrong? My guest this week is actor Tom Lenk, who appeared as Andrew on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Tom was convinced for years that he lacked the skills that seemed to come naturally to other actors -- and so he was terrified when cast in a show that demanded more of him

Longtime listeners may remember way back in episode 4 of The Sewers of Paris, my guest Greg talked about picking up copies of an unofficial queer opera zine called Parterre Box in the men's room of the Metropolitan Opera. The publisher of that zine is this week's guest. James Jorden always wanted to

This Week's Guest: Dan Savage If, like me, you are a huge fan of Dan Savage's work, you've probably heard him speak at length about sex and love and news and politics -- but this conversation is going to be a little different as we dive into 8-track tapes, secret bike rides, family arguments, and a

At this point, we're all very familiar with the foundational queer story that many of us have lived: feeling like outcasts, fleeing from small towns to big cities, and searching for our tribe. But what happens once you get to that big city? What can you create once you're free to create the life you

Who can you trust to keep your secrets safe? Well that might depend on the secret. Jonathan Federico wasn't sure the people in his life could handle the truth about him, so he entrusted the truth to fictional figures, disappearing into alter-egos on stage. Occupying characters was comforting to him

This Week's Guest: AK Miller Would you rather travel the world to seek out new experiences, or create new experiences in your own home town? My guest this week is Chicago theater person AK Miller, who couldn't wait to leave his small town and find the big-city gay communities he'd always read about.

This Week's Guest: Daniel Krolik Is it better to hope for the best and risk disappointment, or expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised? My guest this week is Daniel Krolik, one of the hosts of the podcast Bad Gay Movies Bitchy Gay Men. On each episode he and his co-hosts select one bad gay movi

Before Pride, before gay marriage, before disco, before most of what we recognize today as gay culture, there was Greenwich Village. It's the gay enclave that invented gay enclaves, a place where you went to reject mainstream after the mainstream had rejected you. My guest today is playwright Robert