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Zachary Quinto has announced that he is to produce and star in a new podcast exploring a little-known episode of queer history.
Secret Court will be a scripted podcast looking at events at Harvard University 100 years ago. In 1920, an undergraduate called Cyril Wilcox died by suicide. Wilcox was gay, and following his death, the university launched a witch hunt against fellow gay students and faculty members.
Related: Zachary Quinto reveals what prompted his decision to come out
It set up a secret court to root out and expel anyone it believed to be gay. Led by the then-President, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, and Deans, the court condemned eight students, four “accomplices” and a handful of Cambridge locals. The students were expelled from the university and any official record of them ever attending Harvard was expunged.
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One young man, a 23-year-old dentistry student, killed himself before he could be expelled from the famed Massachusetts institution.
The entire incident was kept a Harvard secret for over 80 years and was only publicly revealed in 2002.
Secret Court will be scripted by The Artist’s Wife writer Abdi Nazemian.
In a statement, Quinto, who starred as Spock in the re-booted Star Trek movies and recently featured in Netflix’s The Boys In The Band, said, “I’m honored to lend my voice and help amplify the story of these promising young members of the LGBTQ+ community, who were marginalized and sidelined due to the social intolerance of their day. A hundred years later, I am grateful to their contributions and sacrifices, and recognize that I stand on their shoulders today.”
Related: Zachary Quinto splits with his boyfriend of six years, model Miles McMillan
The podcast will be co-produced by Quinto’s Before The Door Pictures, Spoke Media, Topic Studios, Vespucci Group, and writer Rafael Moraes. Spoke Media’s co-founder, Alia Tavakolian, said, “This is an important story that needs to be told. Brigham Mosley, the creative lead, has done a brilliant job of drawing out a beautiful narrative.
“Yes, there is tragedy and pain here, but there is also joy, happiness, and inspiration. And we’re thrilled to create a piece that showcases all the bravery and vitality of these tremendous young men who chose to pursue community and understanding despite living in a world that attempted to wipe out their existence.”
Kangol2
Harvard might sue, but someone could create a miniseries or movie based on this story. In addition to being the President of Harvard, A. Lawrence Lowell was a very wealthy, powerful person who incidentally had a lesbian sister (the modernist poet Amy Lowell), and was, no surprise to anyone, a racist and an anti-Semite. The story has everything Hollywood loves: rich people, New England, Harvard and the Ivy League, young men, sex, scandal, and a historical distance from what’s happening today.
If Quinto’s reading, I hope he or Nazemian draws up a spec script for a feature film or fictional miniseries and submits it. Also, there’s an excellent book, The Crimson Letter, on this story by the late gay historian Douglass Shand-Tucci, who wrote the definitive study on this Harvard scandal as well as other books on Boston LGBTQ history and architecture.
blackhook
Harvard is crrreepy!
smartguyd
Zachary Quinto, a snobby ahole obsessed with his own grandeur clawing at the opportunity to wallow in historic tortured gay drama in hopes of getting noticed during awards season. Who could have imagined?
KyleMichelSullivan
Wow…Christmas Eve and a condescending queen comes sniping. How sad.
yendor808
smartguyd:
Yeah, seriously dude. I guess your stocking was empty this year. Not even a lump of coal, huh? Obviously, bad stuff is happening with you these days. What a miserable and terrible thing to say about one of our talented gay brothers that is attempting to do something productive and good to contribute. Have you even cleaned your toilet recently? Get a life, please.
JB
Well, historically there have been a lot of tortured gays to wallow about and I am glad that Quinto has at least partially made it his mission to bravely share the drama behind those stories. I hope he does indeed win a few awards for doing so, and I hope you find something (anything!) to be positive about in the coming year.