Q4Q: Queer Personals Podcast
by Haley Steinhilber
Let's get personal! Since the dawn of time, humans have been desperate for connection. Then we realized we could solicit strangers through the Sunday paper. You’ve heard of Craigslist personals, just imagine the pining and thirst from lonely queers searching for love. Listen as we read and rate personal ads from the ‘70s through 2000s! If you love gay yearning, you’ll love Q4Q! Be on the show: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8dOqRD6JF00L1fzyu8kXbBM58Z19ZlOs1aGeRv1usobmIDg/viewform
Copyright: © 2024 Q4Q: Queer Personals Podcast
Episodes
Itty Bitty Ads
32m · PublishedWelcome to a truly itty bitty episode with guest host, Gabriel—founder, creator, and archivist for @Itty_Bitty_Queer_History. In this episode, Haley takes a page out of Gabriel’s teeny tiny books to pursue some short & sweet personal ads. These authors are very concise yet have a diverse set of needs—from bowling buddies to sugar daddies, water sports to paranormal experiences. You should probably leave them a voicemail to learn more.
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
The New Works (Indianapolis, IN) - April 1987
BLK (Los Angeles, CA)- April 1990
BLK (Los Angeles, CA) - January 1994
Washington Blade (Washington, DC)- November 20, 1981
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) - February 15, 1986
Kick! (Detroit, MI)- October 1996
OUT FRONT (Denver, CO)- March 11, 1988
OUT FRONT (Denver, CO)- April 18, 1980
The San Francisco Bay times (San Francisco, CA) Sep 1989
Heavenly Bodies Looking for Venus: Sapphic Ads with Jack Jen Gieseking
50m · PublishedAre you ready to source the galaxies of love? Dip your tongue into this new episode, where Haley & Dr. Jack Jen Gieseking (author of the incredible book A Queer New York) match with some sapphic ads. Whether you’re looking for a good old-fashioned co-dependent, a skateboard bean, a Genteel Daddy pretty boy butch, or a chic Joni Mitchell lookalike—come explore the full spectrum of the sapphic longing.
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
- Joni Mitchel Tweet
- Jen Jack Gieseking Website
- A Queer New York: Geographies of Lesbians, Dykes, and Queers, 1983-2008 (NYU Press, 2020) on contemporary lesbian-queer society, economies, and spaces in New York City
- LBQTS Dating Study
- The Star Tarot Card Meaning
- Jewel Box Lounge, Kansas City
Primary Sources:
Personally, (Kansas City, MO) January 1988 Vol. 4 Issue. 1 Gale Archives of Sexuality and Gender
On Our Backs– summer and fall 1985 and 1986 (volume 1, issues 1-3, and volume 2, 1-2)- From Brown University Archives
Outweek (NYC) Jan 28 1990
Outweek Sept 19, 1990 (NYC)
The San Francisco Bay times., Dec 1989
The Lesbian Tide, 1 Nov 1979
Support the showAndrogynous Ads with Asho
52m · PublishedAttention all you macaroni boys and genderful twinks! Asho joins Haley for a series of ads written by self-acclaimed androgynous lovers. Do you dream of tossing a salad with a cute “she-boy” or maintaining eye contact all the way “through”? Catch these ads before another 30 years passes!
Follow Asho on Instagram at @Asho_Buckingham to view & purchase their incredible art!
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed December 2023
The Her app slang glossary
LGBTQ fandom Wiki page
McNeil, Peter (1999-11-01). ""That Doubtful Gender": Macaroni Dress and Male Sexualities". Fashion Theory. 3 (4): 412. doi:10.2752/136270499779476081. ISSN 1362-704X.
Fisher, Harriet (2015-01-19). "The Queen of Androgyny – Marlene Dietrich". Barnebys. Archived from the original on 2016-06-16. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
Ads:
LA Weekly (Los Angeles, CA) 1995 October 10 - Accessed from @LongLostPersonals
Focus Point (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1994 November 17
Outweek (NYC) 12 Nov 1989
Outweek (NYC) 11 July 1990
The San Francisco Bay times., Nov 1989
Support the showBitesized Bit: Lesbian Phone Sex
5m · PublishedYou think you're sexually frustrated? Try talking to a gal on the lesbian party lines in the '90s! In this truly tiny bite-sized episode, Haley reads from Liz Tracey's article in Outweek: "Hung Up on the Lesbo Line."
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
Liz Tracey, "Hung Up on the Lesbo Line," Outweek, January 14, 1990.
Out on the Town: Liz and Sydney in Outweek 1990-1991.
Cult... or Commune?
54m · PublishedBuckle up queers and prepare for a new episode of Q4Q! In this episode, Haley is joined by Esther Bley of @QueerAnimation to share some stories of cults, queer communes, and personal ads from people searching for a little bit more than a partnership. Will you decide to worship at the shrine of Pussy, or become a husband of Christ in Boston’s gayest monastery? The possibilities are endless.
Follow Esther’s work on Instagram @QueerAnimation.
Explore the Queer Animation website.
Buy a Queer Animation button!
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
ROBINOU. “QUEER COMMUNAL KINSHIP.” In Queer Communal Kinship Now!, 79–148. Punctum Books, 2023. http://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.2353823.7. Accessed November 2023.
Mack Moore, “What is the difference between a cult and a commune?” Quora comment, ca. 2019. Accessed November 2023.
Elizabeth Yuko, Cult or Commune? How Utopian Communities Turn Dangerous, Rolling Stone, November 10, 2016. Accessed November 2023.
Stephen Vider, “The Ultimate Extension of Gay Community”: Communal Living and Gay Liberation in the 1970s, Gender & History. Volume 27, Issue 3. November 2015. Accessed November 2023.
Kaliflower Commune - Wikipedia
Radical Faeries - Wikipedia
Faeriefilm by Eugene Salandra that you can watch on Queer Animation
Lavender Hill: A Love StoryProducer/Writer: Austin Bunn | Cinematographer/Editor: Bob Hazen
Gorsline, Robin Hawley. “Queering Church, Churching Queers.” CrossCurrents 49, no. 1 (1999): 111–14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24460524.
Charles Manson's Hollywood, Part 8: Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski — You Must Remember This
Ads:
Outweek (NYC), 26 December 1990
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 1974
GAY (Houston, TX) 19 July 1971
The Atlanta Barb (Atlanta, GA) April 1976
RFD Issue 73 Spring 1993
Just Out (Eugene, OR) 30 March 1984
Sentinel USA (San Fran, CA) - 11 Oct 1984
Support the showThe Body Politic with Dr. Alex Ketchum
1h 5m · PublishedHaley sits down with Dr. Alex Ketchum, a professor at McGill University’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and author of books such as Engage in Public Scholarship: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication & Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses. In this episode, we’re playing matchmaker for several Canadian hotties who posted personals in a 1984 issue of Toronto’s The Body Politic. Will the shy young woman find a gal to satisfy her fantasies? Can we crack the code to some super spy language? Is it possible to be hedonistic AND unpretentious? Come find out!
Follow Dr. Alex Ketchum at:
Twitter (X) and Instagram @aketchum22
https://www.alexketchum.ca/
Read her latest book, Ingredients for Revolution a History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses.
Further Exploration:
The Arquives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives
Archives gaies du Québec - Mémoires de nos communautés
Archives lesbiennes du Québec
Pussy Palace Audiograms
Esto no tienne nombre Collection, founded by tatiana de la tierra, housed at UC Santa Barbara
Sara Youngblood Gregory, “Raging Against Cultural Amnesia: tatiana de la tierra and Latina Lesbian Herstory,” Autostraddle, June 19, 2018. Accessed September 5, 2023.
Gordon Richardson, “What’s in the Archives?The Body Politic” The Arquives website, April 17, 2013. Accessed Sept 5, 2023.
History of The Body Politic - A Timeline, Information in the timeline has been taken from Bébout, online and Jackson & Persky, pgs. 224-24, Western University, Canada.
Denise Benson, “Then & Now: Voodoo,” Then and Now Toronto, September 20, 2014. Accessed Sept 5, 2023. Article originally published November 16, 2011 by The Grid online (TheGridTO.com).
The Body Politic Wikipedia page, Accessed Sept 5, 2023.
Arshy Mann, “What was The Body Politic, anyway?: A brief explainer on a radical gay and lesbian magazine,” Xtra, June 9, 2016. Accessed Sept 5, 2023.
Jack Gieseking,A Queer New York
Find the Ads here:
The Body politic (Toronto, Canada), March 1984 Archives.org.
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Support the showSeeking Nice Jewish Girls
1h 7m · PublishedIn this episode, Haley & Lauren Hoffman of the Capital Jewish Museum wander through New York, San Francisco, and Minnesota following these Jewish sapphic lonely hearts. Check your baggage at the door and prepare to meet a Would-Be Cowboy, a“Highly Flawed and Special” artist, and a gal looking for a “New Age thinker with a specific physical discipline….”?
Follow Lauren on Instagram @spicylilscorpio and @wanderthrumuseums.
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
Jewish Women’s Archive
GBLT History Museum and Archive
2019 Twin Cities Jewish Community Study
Focus Point (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1994 November 17
Focus Point (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1997 October 8
J-Pride - TC Jewfolk
The San Francisco Bay times, December 1989
The San Francisco Bay times, September 1989
Outweek (New York City), 1990 July 11
Additional Websites to Browse:
Instagram: @dchistory @dchistcon @marenorchard
Swann Queen: A Short Film GoFundMe
Marjorie Morgan, "From slavery to voguing: the House of Swann"
Sha’ar Zahav Archives
An inside look at the history of Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBTQ synagogue
Alpert, Rebecca. Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Alpert, Rebecca, Sue Levi Elwell and Shirley Idelson, Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
Balka, Christie, and Andy Rose, eds. Twice Blessed: On Being Lesbian or Gay and Jewish. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
Beck, Evelyn Torton, ed. Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1982; Rev. and updated 1989.
Biale, Rachel. Women and Jewish Law: An Exploration of Women’s Issues in Halakhic Sources. New York: Schocken, 1984.
Brettschneider, Marla. The Family Flamboyant: Race Politics, Queer Families, Jewish Lives. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006.
Brettschneider, Marla. “Jewish Lesbians: New Work in the Field.” Journal of Lesbian Studies. 2019, 23(1): 2-20 and passim special issue.
Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie, and Irena Klepfisz, eds. Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women’s Anthology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.
Moore, Tracy, ed. Lesbiot: Israeli Lesbians Talk About Sexuality, Feminism, Judaism and Their Live. New York: Cassell, 1995.
Rogow, Faith. “Why Is This Decade Different from All Other Decades? A Look at the Rise of Jewish Lesbian Feminism.” Bridges 1 (Spring 1990): 67–79.
Sarah, Elizabeth. “Judaism and Lesbianism: A Tale of Life on the Margins of the Text.” Jewish Quarterly 40 (1993): 20–23.
Support the showBitesized Bit: Sentenced to Voicejail
21m · PublishedYou ignore your voicemail, but have you heard of voicejail? Imagine the world before the internet, before blogs and discord servers and reddit forums or Google reviews. Where did people release their pent up anxieties, how did they share their niche interests, or act out their weird bits? In this bite-sized episode, Haley looks at the fascinating microcosm that sprang up in the 1980s and ‘90s in Silicon Valley, and those that called themselves the voicejailers. Clips of the radio show, “Midnight Voicejail,” are sprinkled throughout the episode to highlight how a few voicejailers manipulated and recreated the messages left on their voicemail boxes.
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
Midnight Voicejail - Episode 01 - What is Voicejail? | NCN | The National Cynical Network
The sonic geeks of KFJC's 'Midnight Voicejail' bring you 'that Sept. 11 show'
By Richard von Busack - Metroactive Music | 'Midnight Voicejail'
Midnight Voicejail FAQ
Phineas Narco’s Livejournal
National Cynical Network: NCN FAQ - What We're All About
Midnight VoicejailRecordings used, from Bandcamp :
- Episode 1 - What is Voicejail?
- Episode 2 - Drugs
- Episode 4 - Manic Depression
Full List of Midnight Voicejail’s episodes: National Cynical Network: Midnight Voicejail Episode Guide
Support the showBad, Bold, and Wiser Ads from Florida
1h 2m · PublishedThrow on some sunscreen and grab your mosquito spray, we’re going to Florida! Haley & Kayleigh read ads from Orlando, Cape Canaveral, and Pasco County. Help us choose between a gay nudist tour guide, Xena the Warrior princess, and the vegetarian aesthete. It’s probably one of the most ‘90s centered episodes yet!
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Sources:
The Center Fold (Orlando, FL) January 1992. LGBTQ History Museum of Central Florida.
Watermark, (Orlando, FL) September 20, 1995. University of Florida’s George A Smathers Library and Special Collections in Gainseville, Florida
Watermark, (Orlando, FL) October 2, 1995. University of Florida’s George A Smathers Library and Special Collections in Gainseville, Florida
LGBTQ History Museum of Central Florida Timeline
"'Queer Miami' shows often-erased LGBTQ history of South Florida" Tampa Bay Times, April 5, 2019. Accessed May 24, 2023.
Jerry T. Watkins III, Queering the Redneck Riviera: Sexuality and the Rise of Florida Tourism, University Press of Florida, 2018.
Jodi Mailander Farrell, "Florida’s Stonewall Reigns as Nation’s Largest LGBTQ Museum," Visit Florida, Accessed May 24, 2023.
Nadege Green, "The Queer Stories in Florida's Black History," Harper's Bazaar, February 24, 2023. Accessed May 24, 2023.
Support the showBitesized Bit: Mousie Mousie Wildflower
19m · Published"All my love, Porcupine" was a poetic sign-off for one smitten woodland creature to her mousie lover. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, the personal ads to the Gay Community News in Boston began with an entry addressed to "Mousie Mousie Wildflower." And for once, Haley has found a (vaguely) satisfying conclusion to this classified ad mystery. Tune in to this bite-sized episode to get your daily dose of sweet gay love!
Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!
Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
Cover art by Bekah Rich. Music by Kaz Zabala.
Thank you to the staff at Northeastern University Libraries, Boston Public Library (for sponsoring digitization), and the Internet Archive for making this freely accessible by anyone who has an interest!
Sources:
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 25 December 1982
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 1 April 1983
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 1977 March 25
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 10 March 1979
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 12 April 1980
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 9 June 1980
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 20 September 1980
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 30 April 1983
Gay Community News (Boston, MA) 5 November 1983
"Nancy Walker" Making Gay History Interview, 1989. Accessed https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/nancy-walker/
Eric Marcus, "Love is Love," Making Gay History, https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/bonus-episode-love-is-love/
“Nancy Walker: March 17, 1935 - May 20, 1996 [memorial book],” Documented | Digital Collections of The History Project, accessed April 14, 2023, https://historyproject.omeka.net/items/show/459
Q4Q: Queer Personals Podcast has 40 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 36:11:28. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on November 28th 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on April 22nd, 2024 20:11.