Episode 149: Forgotten LGBTQ+ Histories
Eric Langenbacher
Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Dr. Eric Langenbacher is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture & Politics Program at AGI.
Dr. Langenbacher studied in Canada before completing his PhD in Georgetown University’s Government Department in 2002. His research interests include collective memory, political culture, and electoral politics in Germany and Europe. Recent publications include Comparative Politics: Mapping Institutions, Power, and Legitimacy (2025), Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary German Politics and Policy (edited volume, 2024), The German Polity, 12th ed. (2021), and Twilight of the Merkel Era: Power and Politics in Germany after the 2017 Bundestag Election (edited volume, 2019).
Dr. Langenbacher remains affiliated with Georgetown University as Teaching Professor and Director of the Honors Program in the Department of Government, as well as the Director of the Master in European Studies Program in the School of Foreign Service. He has also taught at George Washington University, Washington College, The University of Navarre, and the Universidad Nacional de General San Martin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has given talks across the world. He was selected Faculty Member of the Year by the School of Foreign Service in 2009 and was awarded a Fulbright grant in 1999-2000 and the Hopper Memorial Fellowship at Georgetown in 2000-2001. Since 2005, he has also been Managing Editor of German Politics and Society, which is housed in Georgetown’s BMW Center for German and European Studies. Dr. Langenbacher has also planned and run dozens of short programs for groups from abroad, as well as for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense on a variety of topics pertaining to American and comparative politics, business, culture, and public policy.
Erik Jödicke
Verband Queere Vielfalt (LSVD+)
Erik Jödicke is a Berlin-based LGBTQ+ activist and public affairs consultant passionate about strengthening queer communities through professional advocacy and intergenerational dialogue. As a Federal Board Member of LSVD+, Germany’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, he helps shape national and international queer policy, including work at the UN level. Having previously served on the board of Lambda, one of Germany’s leading LGBTQ+ youth networks, Erik is deeply committed to building bridges between generations. His activism spans Central and Eastern Europe, where he’s led campaigns against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and spotlighted queer voices in repressive contexts like Russia and Hungary.
In recent years, Erik has focused on sharing the strategic tools of lobbying, stakeholder engagement, and media relations with the broader community—aiming to professionalize activism and better equip LGBTQ+ civil society for the political arena. He believes that to defend our hard-won rights, we must become just as skilled, connected, and prepared as those who seek to roll them back.
Samantha Rosenthal
Journalist
G. Samantha Rosenthal (she/her/hers) is an independent journalist and professional historian. Over fifteen years, she has written widely about the United States, with an abiding commitment to Appalachia and the U.S. South. Samantha is the author of two books, most recently Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City. Her writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, Salon, The Advocate, The Conversation, Southern Cultures, Lilith, and Them. Samantha is co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project, an award-winning queer community history organization; Second Friday, a lesbian social monthly pop-up; and the Southwest Virginia Trans Wellness Fund, a mutual aid initiative that empowers transgender people through financial assistance. Her work has been recognized with awards and honorable mentions from the National Council on Public History, the Oral History Association, the LGBTQ+ History Association, the American Society for Environmental History, and the Working Class Studies Association.
The Stonewall Riots are known worldwide as a starting point for LGBTQ+ activism, and musicals like Cabaret have shared the story of the queer experience in Weimar Berlin. But the United States and Germany are rich with diverse LGBTQ+ stories. Erik Jödicke and Samantha Rosenthal dive into the past to explore why some histories are remembered and others are forgotten. They discuss lesser-known stories of queer activism, intersectionality in queer histories, and the cultural reciprocity of German and American queer communities.
Guest Host
Dr. Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Guests
Erik Jödicke, Federal Board Member, LSVD+
G. Samantha Rosenthal, Independent Journalist and Historian
This podcast is part of the project “Building LGBTQ+ Communities in Germany and the United States: Past, Present, and Future” and is generously funded by the Transatlantik-Programm der Bundesrepublik Deutschland aus Mitteln des European Recovery Program (ERP) des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWE) (Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany with Funds through the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)).
