A singer-songwriter claims an unexpected identity — Her parents really wanted a boy. The son of William and Myrtle Anderson was to be named ‘Robert John Anderson’. But in 1947, they had a girl. As she’d say, they had “to make do with what they got.” She was named Roberta Joan, later called ‘Joan’ and using the performing name ‘Joni’. Her career would be a whirlwind of identity dramas. …

Let’s look at a right-wing whisper campaign — He has been a Republican star since 2012, when elected to the House, then the Senate in 2014. All the while, Tom Cotton was frequently insinuated to be gay. As talk flares up about his sexuality again, I’m thinking back on his life, and those rumors about him—often from his own political side. Thomas Bryant Cotton was born in 1977 in the tiny town of Dardanelle, Arkansas.

The 1980s-era toy story isn’t too “cute” — No one would’ve thought a girl born in 1950 in Mayfield, Kentucky would create a generation-defining toy. Martha Nelson didn’t even like to talk. She liked to make things, like dolls. They’d do the talking for her. She went off to attend the Louisville School of Art — “because she was always making things and there seemed nothing else to do,” as a 1974 newspaper profile put it.

A new edition of his diaries brings up an old debate — If you read Franz Kafka’s diaries in the original 1948 edition, you’ll find the writer, in 1912, at a nudist sanatorium looking at “two handsome Swedish boys with long legs.” In a new English translation of The Diaries of Franz Kafka, the scene reads a bit differently. Kafka adds that the mens’ legs are “so formed and taut that one could really only run one’s tongue along them.”

A psychoanalyst had “issues” — In the early 20th century, a medical researcher in Vienna named Sigmund Freud became a superstar for a method of dissecting the mind. His work is now often dismissed as ‘pseudoscience’, as there’s doubts his ‘psychoanalysis’ ever cured anyone. I’m fascinated by Freud’s secretiveness. The great pioneer of sex talk often destroyed personal documents. He had no plans to be ‘analyzed’ by history.

It’s been hot and heavy — Right-wing social media is often obsessing about the sexuality of Barack and Michelle Obama. Stories of his supposed gay life circulate widely. The Donald Trump-friendly National Examiner has led the pack, with sensational headlines. So let’s look at the evidence. Let’s start with the 1983 letter? It was first mentioned by David Garrow in a biography of Obama published in 2017. …

Let’s look at the epic song in its first version — Is there new evidence available about one the most famous mysteries of Pop Culture? What the hell is Queen’s song “Bohemian Rhapsody” about? The legendary song feels epic, but incomprehensible, which seems to have been how its author, Freddie Mercury, liked it. A draft version has just emerged into public. I went in for a look. How the song was written has been mostly a blank.

Let’s look at sexuality in “Star Trek” — Were Kirk and Spock on the original “Star Trek” cast in some kind of erotic engagement? The suggestion has often been made. No less a Trekkie than Terry Matalas, showrunner for Picard, was asked if two women characters, Seven and Raffi, could have a romance as Captain and First Officer. He replies: “It never stopped Kirk and Spock!” On the surface, both Kirk and Spock were ‘straight’.

The nasty story of Ali Alexander vs. Milo Yiannopoulos — If you’ve been skipping Twitter, you’re really missing out on the right wing gay pedophile sex revelations. I’m plugging my nose and diving in. It started in a ‘Twitter Space’ on April 7th, when right-activists were getting together to strategize for Trump’s re-election. Two hours in, during the Q&A, a right-wing journalist named Tony Ortiz directed a question to the activist Ali Alexander.