AllTheBoys.gay Investigates LGBTQ Political Persecution
AllTheBoys.gay is the brainchild of writer Anthony Patrick Hello, a writer and researcher who is shining light on forgotten victims of anti-LGBTQ political persecution in the mid-20th-century United States.
All The Boys began first as a podcast, launched in honor of National Coming Out Day. All The Boys starts by uncovering the story of Walter Jenkins, who was a top political aid to President Lyndon B. Johnson until his arrest in 1964 on “morals charges,” when he was discovered with another man in a Y.M.C.A. restroom.
The podcast also delves into the tragic 1977 fire at a D.C. gay adult theater in which nine men perished. However, one survivor was Republican congressman Jon Hinson of Mississippi, who eventually became a gay-rights activist after his 1981 arrest for having sex with another man.
Now, Anthony is developing All The Boys into a new play based on the podcast. In the play, set in 1982, a South Carolina senatorial candidate “chooses AIDS as his signature campaign issue.”
“My writing, whether intended as a podcast, play, or series, endeavors to encode LGBTQ+ history through art,” says Anthony. “I chose a .gay domain to give readers immediate context for the emotional journey they’re commencing.”