{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Off Christopher Street","title":"The Messy, Sordid Spectacle of Gay Republicans (w/ Daniel Lefferts)","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/aa6faf5d\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4740,"description":"By day Terry Dolan coordinated the fusion of free-market radicalism and evangelical fundamentalism known as the New Right. By night he cruised DC's steamrooms and gay bars. In 1982, his face appeared on the cover of Christopher Street with an article about his radical, norm-breaking politics and his hookup with a federal employee.DANIEL LEFFERTS(author of the novel Ways & Means) joins David and Blake to talk about the contradictions of right-wing gays past and present. We discuss the pleasures both of being an insider and of hating insiders, and why the right-wing homosexual stirs the gay imagination to fascination, disgust, and sympathy. FOLLOW US ON SUBSTACK to get bonus content!Chapters00:00 - Our first threesome06:27 - The important question: Was Terry Dolan hot?09:55 - The “Rich and Powerful Queens” of the Reagan right12:03 - Gay hustlers, strippers, and spies 16:25 - What type of gay was Terry Dolan?21:35 - Why it gets harder to be gay in the GOP27:04 - Who was screwing who in the New Right?32:25 - Dolan as a pioneer of norm-breaking40:54 - Why do we want to confront closeted gays?48:04 - Right-wing gays and the pleasures of power50:22 - Dolan’s hookup with a federal employee54:32 - Daniel’s descent into the world of gay MAGA57:42 - The petty-bourgeois class position of OnlyFans boys1:03:08 - The good boys who love Red Scare1:09:20 - Gay attractions to transgression and order1:13:50 - The weird homoeroticism of MAGA\nSOURCESPerry Deane Young, “God’s Bullies,” Christopher Street, August 1982.Rick Perlstein, Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980 (2021).Neil J. Young, Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (2024).James Kirchick, “The Secret Life of a Gay Political Strategist in Reagan’s Washington,” Rolling Stone, July 28, 2022.Shawn McCreesh, “Donald Trump’s Big Gay Government,” New York Times, August 26, 2025.Shawn McCreesh, “In South Dakota, Neighbors Feel Sorry for Kristi Noem’s Husband,” New York Times, March 31, 2026.Daniel Lefferts, “My...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/R1wWxw1JkSlNAvejIlr8SuSzgHmmdm76jB3GQYPdOP8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84MDJl/Zjc3MzBmYzRmNWIy/NmVhYThmYjkyMDk3/ZWJmMC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}