Life Through a Queer Lens
Welcome to the Life Through a Queer Lens Podcast, where anyone with an open mind and heart can learn about the LGBTQIA+ Community from the people within it! We're your hosts, Jenene (she/her, they/them) and Kit (they/them).
Life Through a Queer Lens
EP71: Queerness Before Gravity, Sir Francis Bacon's Hidden Story
Sir Francis Bacon, born in 1561, was the Lord Chancellor of England, a philosopher, author, statesman, and proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community who developed what we now call the scientific method. His story demonstrates that queerness isn't new but has existed throughout human history, even before we had the terminology to describe it.
• Bacon served as Lord Chancellor from 1608 to 1621 and spoke in Parliament
• He conceptualized the Baconian method (scientific method) based on observation and classification
• Contemporary accounts clearly document his homosexuality, though most biographers ignore this
• His relationships with men were known, including connections to the Marquis of Buckingham
• Both his brother Anthony and brother-in-law Mervyn were charged with homosexuality
• Mervyn was found guilty and beheaded in 1631, while Anthony was acquitted
• Bacon died of bronchitis after catching a chill while experimenting with refrigeration
• For his complete life story, read "Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon" (1999)
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I made a new protest sign last night that says prison without due process is kidnapping. So my partner is excited to carry it at our next protest, which I think is very cute. My other protest sign is the trans pride flag and it says you will never kill us all, which is a vibe. But my partner is not trans, my partner is a cis man. So he's like that's your sign and I'm like that's so fair. And I'm like that's so fair and he's like but if you want someone to carry that side, I got you. I'm so here for that. It was really cute. He makes my heart happy.
Speaker 1:We've got a fun one for today. I think Not necessarily, you know, like super duper fun, but it's interesting and it's looking more into the past than at the present state of things, which I feel like maybe we could all use a little bit of a break from the present state of things and a look into where we have come from as a community. So today we're going to be talking about one person in particular, and their name was Sir Francis Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon was born on January 22nd 1561, and died April 9th 1626. So we're looking way back. We're looking way back today, and one of the reasons I personally really like doing episodes like this, where we're talking about people who were literally born before Isaac Newton, is because I feel like it's a very firm, solid, good slap in the face to the idea that queerness is new, like it's not. It's just not. There have been queer figures throughout human history, again before Isaac Newton even. You know, like before we knew gravity, queer people existed. Gravity existed before we knew what it was. Gravity existed before we had a word for it. The same thing goes for queerness.
Speaker 1:All of these things existed way before we had the terminology to describe them. We just didn't have the words yet. Just like gravity existed for forever, it has existed for forever. I mean, I'm not a scientist. I don't know. I don't know how long gravity has existed. If anyone knows, fucking let me know. You know, like these things didn't have terms, that doesn't mean they didn't exist. That's like saying that gravity didn't exist before we knew the word gravity. That's dumb. You sound dumb. What do you mean? Like these things have always existed way before we had the terminology to describe them. Same thing goes for every identity under the LGBTQIA plus umbrella They've always existed. It's just up until recently, we did not have the words, it was all one word. For a while, every identity was described with one word, which was homophile. That was every identity. And then you know, slowly but surely we can go into that in a different episode Things have existed long before they had words and definitions.
Speaker 1:Even like in the mutual aid episode, we discussed the fact that mutual aid has existed for millenniums, discussed the fact that mutual aid has existed for millenniums, but the word was only invented in the late 19th or early, or coined. The word was only coined in the late 19th or early 20th century. The practice itself existed way before that, but the coining of the term didn't happen until the late 19th, early 20th centuries, with a very specific Russian philosopher's essays. I can't remember his name. Go back and check out the Mitchell Aid episode if you haven't heard it. It's a fun time. We go into coining of the word. You know, like, where did this term actually come from? Where did it go from there? Yeah, some cool shit. Anyway, I'm getting distracted already. I'm getting distracted already. That is not a good sign, guys, I hope you are ready for the ride. We're about to go on. Buckle the fuck up, all right, because I am getting distracted already, so let's jump back in to Francis Bacon before I keep getting distracted.
Speaker 1:Francis Bacon was the Lord Chancellor of England from 1608 to 1621. He was a philosopher, an author, statesman and a proud member of the LGBTQIA plus community. Even though just about every college graduate in the sciences knows his name, hardly any information about his work and life mentions his homosexuality. Because obviously, you know, look, they were roommates. They might have been buried together, but they were just best friends. Everyone gets buried with their BFF, right? Right, doesn't everyone do that? We all know the game. We all know the game that history likes to play with our stories, right? That's why we did the episode about making sure you're buried and remembered by the right name by filling out advanced directives and living wills, all that stuff. That was in the Love and Stone episode.
Speaker 1:Please, guys, if you haven't listened to that, go check that one out and go into our link tree where you will find a tab called Dying Queer where all of the information that you have noticed. No one's clicked on those yet. Guys, y'all were begging for us for this information. It is literally right there. Go do it. Go feel it's free, it doesn't cost a dime.
Speaker 1:I have done everything I can Okay us correctly, so we have to do the best we can in life to ensure we are remembered correctly. So, 50 fucking years down the line, queer kids aren't dealing with the same bullshit of oh, this is all brand new, we haven't heard of this before, so it hasn't existed. Like, come on, let's get our shit in shape, let's save some ire for the next generation by making sure we're remembered right. You might not think your life matters, but the queer person 50 years down the line who thinks that they're alone, I promise you they think your life matters. So yeah, fucking, I'm getting distracted again. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. I'm getting distracted again. Help me See. His life. Work would go on to inspire many, including isaac newton I mentioned earlier with the whole gravity spiel. But I don't know, I like my spiels. I hope you all do too, because if you're listening to this, that's like 90 of what this is it's information and then me going on spiels. So it's like following me on a descent into madness. It's. We can all have fun together. It's fine.
Speaker 1:Um, he was born to a lord keeper named Nicholas Bacon. However, francis would be considered financially embarrassed for most of his life. He was not married until 48 years old. Which is another big hallmark for a lot of historic queer figures is they do end up getting married to women, but it doesn't end up happening until much later in life than what you see from their compatriots, from other people in their life around their age. They end up getting married at a much older age. He was 48 years old and he never ended up having kids. He was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge and spent from 1576 to 1579 in France as a member of the English Ambassador's Suite, only returning to England due to the sudden death of his father. So yeah, this was a powerful guy in his time. He was rubbing shoulders with some big people. He was doing his old thing.
Speaker 1:He is most well-remembered for his work conceptualizing the Baconian method, which is known today as the scientific method. Remember, I'm not a scientist. I failed biology. I'm going to be so real. I almost failed it a second time. I think I passed it the second time, but barely. But a gay guy invented the scientific method.
Speaker 1:We have always been here. They are fundamental, just like every minority figure, just like people of color, just like Black people. We have always been here and our contributions to society have been fundamental to the functionings of society. Black people's inventions have changed the world, same thing with queer people's inventions. We just are never. Neither of it's you're never remembered properly.
Speaker 1:History doesn't like to remember the people that history has. History doesn't like to remember the people that imperialism and capitalism have victimized. Does that? I hope that, I hope I'm, I hope I'm making sense and I hope I'm not stepping on any toes, because I'm really not trying to.
Speaker 1:But like, history does not like to remember that which comes from a people whose just very essences, whose very life is, by nature, anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism and and anti the structure set in place. You know the whole idea like, black bodies built this country, but none of them are remembered properly. We don't even like to discuss slavery as the abhorrent travesty to human decency and our very souls and consciences. To this day we all need to still reckon with that and we just don't want to. White people used to make cookbooks about how to best cook and serve. Black bodies sustain on our souls, sustain on our bloodlines forever, and the longer we go refusing to look at it, even even acknowledge that, the bigger the stain becomes. It doesn't just go away. It in fact only gets deeper in the fabric and becomes bigger and more tarnishing. So, like I don't know man, learn your history and understand that a lot of the things that we actively rely on constantly came from people who history has decided are not worthy of remembering properly. That was intentional. I think that's the sentence that that whole spiel was trying to get to. But you know when, like, your brain has to go 37 different directions before you get to the point that you've been trying to make the whole time. I think that's what just happened to me, so I hope y'all enjoyed following me down that thought process. See the scientific method, bro. He is also remembered for speaking in Parliament in 1584 in famous trials, as King James I's Lord Chancellor, king James the-. He was rubbing elbows with some powerful people, powerful people, people at the top, like I don't know. Pretty fucking cool. I like that. That's a vibe.
Speaker 1:According to the encyclopedia britannica, the baconian method is quote. After first dismissing all prejudices and preconceptions, bacon's method, as explained in Novum Organium 1620, also known as New Instrument, consisted of three main steps First, a description of facts. Second, a tabulation or classification of those facts into three categories Instances of presence of the characteristics under the investigation, instances of its absence or instances of its presence in varying degrees. Third, the rejection of whatever appears in the light of these tables not to be connected with the phenomenon under investigation and the determination of what is connected with it. Holy, wow, quote guys, I feel like I, oh, my brain is smoothening, my brain is getting smaller and smoother by the second. What the fuck? Okay, so yeah, that's the scientific method. It's, it's the steps of the scientific method. Yeah, you describe your facts, you get your classification of those facts into three categories and then you map out what is the classification of the results, what happened a lot, what is like an outlier? You know, like the graphs that you see with all those like pinpoints on a line and then you see like one off to the side and like that's the outlier data and the rest of this is like the class. Yeah, that is bacon's method at work. It is a, a process used to this day for the steps of hypothesis to result, you know so. So, yeah, and that was invented, that was created, coined by someone who was queer, which is really cool, and he was pretty open about it. He was open enough about it that it caused some issues. You know what I mean. Bacon developed this method as a substitute for scientific thought at the time which, to him, relied on guessing and the citing of authorities to establish truth. So, rather than actually testing things, people were just guessing and citing someone who guessed before them, whereas he was like no, we actually need to look at the results and figure this out, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:When it comes to Bacon's homosexuality, as quoted from Gay History and Literature's page about Francis Bacon written and published by Richter Norton, quote John Aubrey and his work Brief Lives, says quite bluntly that Bacon was a pederast, which hold on, I'll get to that was a pederast and had ganmeds and favorites. Pederast in Renaissance diction meant generally homosexual rather than specifically a groomer or a pedophile. So, like again, prior to these words that we use nowadays existing, they only had, like homophile and pedophile to describe gay people, especially in the 1500s. They didn't have the language we now have. That's why we had to create language, because it didn't exist. So this is a old term for homosexual that in this context very much meant homosexual rather than its colloquial meaning, which was usually either someone who groomed or a pedophile and Gainmed G-A-N-I-M-E-D. Do with that. What you will, of course, derives from the mythical prince abducted by Zeus to be his cupbearer and bedwarmer, end quote. That whole quote was from that website I had mentioned above.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I broke a lot in between because things are hard to pronounce. I'm going to be real honest with y'all. Actually, hold up Speaking of pronunciations. I got a phone call three weeks ago at this point maybe, from hi, david, from a friend of mine who is a frequent listener of the podcast. Hello, a friend of mine who is a frequent listener of the podcast. Hello. He had to call me immediately to yell at me because I am so bad at pronouncing things. It was specifically oh, but here's the thing. I'm going to mispronounce it again, david, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm about to do it again immediately. It was Achilles' lover, I could Google it, but instead I'm going to sit here and struggle. Instead. I'm about to do it again immediately. It was Achilles' lover, I could Google it, but instead I'm going to sit here and struggle. Instead I'm going to sit here and struggle and probably piss you off. Patroclus is how you actually pronounce it, and I kept pronouncing it, patrick-lise. So good luck, godspeed. I really hope you enjoy. We do have a good time, but listen, at least I'm consistentes.
Speaker 1:So there's that puritan moralist, sir simon dewees d apostrophe e w e s, a fellow member of parliament. Would discuss in his autobiography and correspondences bacon's love for his welsh serving men the same date that francis bacon was censored by parliament date use would write a diary entry truly outing Francis as gay. Again, quoted from the gay literature website that I had mentioned earlier Gay History and Literature that's the name of the website. Please go check them out. This entry is worth quoting extensively, if only because it has been suppressed and the only printed edition of Des Ues' autobiography, not published until 1845, and has been studiously ignored by most of Bacon's modern biographers. So, like this is like a whole huge quote from this Puritan guy. It's a massive quote, it's big, but it's worth reading in its entirety because this quote only exists in this book and it's basically been, like the gay literature quote said, has been basically ignored by every biographer who has chosen to write about Francis Bacon. They just, they just, they read this and they go oh, that's not important, just don't fucking talk about it, which is insane to me. So, yeah, it's worth reading in its entirety, if not just to finally give a gay man his flowers, you know, if not to finally give him the recognition as a member of our community that so many have robbed from him.
Speaker 1:So many historians have claimed to be going into telling his story with the idea of wanting to do it justice, and then they just omit this massive fact about his life. That's not doing a man justice. That's not doing a life story justice. That's letting your own biases get in the way of someone else's life story. You don't have the right to do that. That's not your life story. If you don't like that, don't write about gay people. If you don't like that, pick a different scientist to write about. Include it all, or leave us the fuck alone and let us write about ourselves and each other and we'll take it from here. Thank you, because clearly y'all can't be trusted not to just completely negate a massive part of someone's life. I said what I said and I don't regret it.
Speaker 1:This is the massive, insane long quote that is probably going to make me want to cry, but we're going to get through it together. Janine, pray for me. The favor he had. And also, when he's referencing he Deuz is referencing Francis Bacon when talking in like third person. He just so you know, there's a bit before this quote that was cut off. That includes naming Francis Bacon, so I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.
Speaker 1:The favor he had with the beloved Marquis of Buckingham emboldened him, as I learned in discourse from a gentleman of his bedchamber who told me he was sure his lord should never fall as long as the said Mare continued in favor. His most abominable and darling sin, I should rather bury in silence than mention it, were it not a most admirable instance how men are enslaved by wickedness and held captive by the devil. For, whereas prehensile upon his censure at this time, his ambition was moderated, his pride humbled and the means of his former injustice and corruption removed. Yet would he not relinquish the practice of catamite and bedfellow discharged the most of his other household servants, which was the more to be admired because men generally, after his fall, began to discourse of that his unnatural crime which he had practiced many years, deserting the bed of his lady, which he accounted, as the Italians and the Turks do, a poor this is in Old English, guys, please, I'm so sorry, thank God, okay.
Speaker 1:A poor and meany pleasure in respect of the other, and it was thought by some that he should have tried, at the bear of justice for it, justice for it, and have satisfied the law most severe against that horrible villain with the price of his blood, which caused some bold and forward man to write these verses following in a whole sheet of paper and to cast it down in some part of York house, in the strand wherein this count, st Alban. Yet lay within this sty a hog doth lie that must be hanged for sodomy. Hog doth lie alludes to both his surname of Bacon and to the swinish nature of what would be considered abominable sin, which would be a man lying with another man at that time. That would be the abominable sin that this Protestant man is referring to, continuing the quote. But he never came to any public trial for this crime, nor did he ever that I could hear forbear his old custom of making his servants his bedfellows. So, to avoid the scandal was raised of him, though, he lived many years after his fall in his lodgings and graze in in holborn in great want and penure. So yeah, like. This guy literally just just says like yeah, he's gay, he, he sleeps with his servants, he slept with the marquee and everyone found out and I think he should have been brought to trial and hung, but instead he was just like told to fuck off. Basically, in as layman's terms as I can whittle that down to with my stick and rock, he wrote that the same day that Bacon was censored by Parliament. So yeah, after Francis Bacon passed away, after he died, he bequeathed 100 pounds to Henry Percy. He also wrote Percy a letter of recommendation to the Secretary of State, recommending his services to the king. Francis Bacon's mother would write about Percy, calling him that damned Percy. So this is a person who Bacon's close family members knew of his connection to, understood why he bequeathed him money in his will and were not happy Were not happy about this person being in Francis's life and stuff like that. Francis Bacon died of bronchitis after catching a chill, experimenting with refrigeration by stuffing snow into a gutted chicken. That's how he died. It wasn't, it was just kind of weird. That's a weird way to go.
Speaker 1:I think of all the ways that queer people of that time, of that era, if they were outed, they were very rarely allowed a. I don't know if I even want to call it peaceful end, because bronchitis doesn't sound very peaceful, but you know what I mean A more natural end, sickness or like. Usually their end comes with some form of violence state violence, hate crimes, familial violence, like. It's something that we see pretty frequently throughout queer history is instances of queer people being outed or having their sexualities known to those in their lives and, by proxy, they end up having a very grisly end. I feel a lot of that. History is where you can find a lot of like the bury your gays tropes, you know is because, yes, it's a trope in media. But also this is a very real history that our community has gone through, where we were outed and we were killed. So it's just kind of I don't know.
Speaker 1:He was alive in the 1500s, this was in the 1600s and he was outed and shunned from his life and censored. And he was outed and shunned from his life and censored and then he got to die of bronchitis because he was stuffing snow in a dead bird. Something about that tickles me. Oh, it's really. I love that, to learn more about Francis Bacon and learn his complex life in its entirety, without the heteronormative habits of history that I've been discussing throughout this episode. I cannot help but recommend the book Hostage to Fortune the Troubled Life of Francis Bacon, by Lisa Jarden and Alan Stewart, which was published in 1999. It is one of the only biographies of Francis Bacon's life that does not shy away from discussing his queerness and the ways in which his queerness interacted with his life, which is important. Check that out Again. It's called Hostage to Fortune the Troubled Life of Francis Bacon, by Lisa Jordan and Alan Stewart. It was published in 1999.
Speaker 1:Check out your local library, see if they have it. Our libraries need us right now. So go get a library card. Check out your local library, see if they have it. Our libraries need us right now. So go get a library card. Check out your local library and see if they have hostage to fortune. And also, please check out the article cited in our description. I spoke about it earlier. It's the gay literature article. They go into way more detail than I could in this episode, with way more old English than I can handle reading out loud, and they also dive into other LGBTQIA plus historical figures, specifically in the world of literature. And yeah, I just I really recommend that that link will be in our description along with their copyright information. And now we jump to our interesting fact. Hooray. Today's interesting fact is definitely a little more somber than the tone of the rest of this episode. I would say.
Speaker 1:Not only was Francis Bacon's brother, anthony Bacon, gay and charged with homosexuality, the punishment for which was death, though thankfully he was acquitted His brother-in-law was also gay. His brother-in-law was charged with homosexuality, like his brother. However, unlike his brother, mervyn Touche was found guilty and executed via beheading on May 14th 1631. So Francis Bacon was gay, his brother was gay and his brother-in-law His brother-in-law and his brother were both arrested and charged with homosexuality. However, only his brother-in-law was convicted and was executed, because that was the thing back then. That's why I said before finding out that he died of bronchitis by shoving snow into a dead bird was a little like oh, that's kind of silly. That's a little silly. Funny, I must say, because that was not frequently the case for gay men of that period of time. It didn't usually end pretty. It usually ended like Mervyn Touché charged with homosexuality, tried, convicted, found guilty and executed.
Speaker 1:Our history is necessary. It's not pleasant to hear about the ways in which our community were treated for so many years. But again, touching back on earlier in this episode when I was talking about giving Francis Bacon his flowers. It's about giving these men their flowers. It's about giving these people their flowers, these women, these men, these non-binary people, these all of them, all of these people, they deserve their flowers. Even if it takes, I don't fucking know They've earned their flowers. At this point. I mentioned in the Love and Stone episode about queer burials, venus Extravaganza. She is only just now truly getting her flowers via her biological and ballroom families coming together to get her name posthumously legally changed so that it can be changed on her tombstone. That matters. So, yeah, go check out the Dying Queer tab in our link tree and get together with your friends and make living wills. Please Stay safe, stay queer. I love you all so much, thank you.