Special Episode: Daniel Dunglas Home

This special episode of Bad Gays dives deep into the enigmatic life of Daniel Dunglas Home, a 19th-century spiritualist medium whose flamboyant persona, supernatural claims, and complex relationships made him a central figure in the history of queer identity and performance. Hosted by the podcast’s regular team and featuring guest Avery Curran—a scholar of Victorian spiritualism and queer history—the episode explores Home’s extraordinary career, from his early visions and transatlantic rise to fame, to his controversial stays in Paris and London, and his intimate, ambiguous relationship with Viscount Adair. The discussion unpacks the gendered nature of mediumship, where male mediums like Home were seen as inherently feminine, blurring lines between performance, spirituality, and sexuality. The episode also examines how Home navigated power, class, and scandal—being accused of fraud, sodomy, and manipulation—while maintaining an aura of mystique and charisma. Through biographies, letters, and spiritualist texts, the hosts and guest argue that Home was less a fraud than a master performer who embodied the liminal space between the real and the theatrical, the sacred and the sensational. Ultimately, Home emerges not as a simple 'good' or 'bad' gay, but as a 'spooky queer'—a figure whose very existence unsettled Victorian norms and whose legacy lives on in modern magic, queer camp, and spiritualist mythos. Key takeaways include: 1) Spiritualism offered a space for gender and sexual nonconformity long before modern identity categories existed; 2) Home’s self-presentation as a passive, spirit-possessed medium was both a genuine belief and a strategic performance; 3) His relationships with men, especially Adair, suggest deep emotional and possibly sexual intimacy, even if not explicitly confirmed; 4) The era’s obsession with death, communication, and the occult created fertile ground for figures like Home to thrive; 5) His legacy lives on in the camp aesthetic of modern magicians and the enduring fascination with the uncanny. The episode concludes with a call to support the podcast through Patreon, highlighting its independent, community-driven ethos.