August Update: Murder She Wrote & Drag Queens (Patreon)

Hello Patreon folks!

I hope you're having a thrilling summer -- keeping safe, having fun, and spreading plenty of queer power in your wake. As always, I want to extend a tremendous thanks to you for being a part of this Patreon and making it possible for me to keep releasing videos and podcasts and livestreams and whatnot.

Before I give you an update on what's new this month and what's coming next, I want to let you know that I'm aware of an issue that sometimes prevents videos in Patreon posts from playing. Today I got confirmation from Patreon that it's a bug on their end, and they have engineers working on it. For now, if you can't get an embedded video to play on Patreon, scroll down in the post and look for a text link to watch it on Vimeo. I know that's not a perfect solution! But it should work for now. And hopefully we'll be able to squish whatever's causing this bug (presumably a homophobic computer virus).

Okay! Here's a rundown of everything that's new as of the start of August. All of this stuff is possible because of you!

New videos in July! I released two new videos month: The first was about Star Trek's most iconic gay couple, Garak and Bashir; and the second was about Richard Hunt, the gay man who helped make the Muppets what they are today. HUGE thanks to everyone who helped me with research for those! Backers at $10+ get early ad-free access.

Bonus Videos! Patreon backers at $2+ get exclusive bonus videos with all the stories that I uncovered in my research but didn't have room for in final scripts. This month, I shared videos about David Bowie's codpiece, Gonzo's long history of wearing dresses, and the whole decades-long saga of trying to determine whether or not Bert and Ernie are gay. And there was also a bonus video about the history of Kirk/Spock slash fiction, and Alfred Hitchcock's earliest gay couple!

Sewers of Paris! We're on a podcast search for the entertainment that changed the lives of queer people. In July, I spoke with Fran Tirado, of the Food 4 Thot podcast; Stan Zimmerman, who wrote the Brady Bunch movie, and Carl Bishop, a voice actor who has been inside your ears more times than you can count.

Upcoming Videos! I've got several videos in the works right now, including one about a BONKERS episode of Murder she Wrote set at the world's weirdest gay bar. I'm also deep in some research into Buffy, Xena, and one of history's most iconic bisexual celebrities, Vincent Price.

Also! Just a quick reminder that I've got a weekly newsletter that features goofy little stories, links to my latest comic book reviews, and as always, cute animal videos. Sign up for that at mattbaume.com. And I stream videogames and queer chit-chat every Monday over on Twitch at 5pm pacific, come join us for that!

And in case you missed it: New tags! Back in June I updated the tags on Patreon so it's now easier for you to find the Bonus Videos that members get at $2+, and also the Early Ad-Free Access videos that go out to members at $10+. As of now there are 41 early access videos and 16 bonus videos to enjoy -- literally hours of viewing. (And also to long-time members who are grandfathered in from the old tiers! Thank you for being a member for so long!)

And one more thing: looking waaaay ahead to the future (which is to say, next month), if it's safe to be out in crowds in September, I'll be at PAX West in Seattle, a giant videogame convention. It's still a little uncertain whether large groups of people will be able to safely gather at that point, but if we have a green light, keep an eye out for me wandering around and say hi if you see me.

As always, a huge huge huge thanks to you all for making my work possible. I absolutely couldn't do any of this without you and I'm so tickled that we're all in this together.

Matt

PS: If you haven't already, join me over on Twitter and Instagram!