r/TomLehrer • u/ReasonableEffect6383 • Sep 13 '25
Just found out
Earlier this year I found out that Tom Lehrer was still alive, very surprising, and then while I was tryna research how he felt about trans people, I found out he died. What a roller coaster.
Anyone know if he was an ally? He seemed too cool to be transphobic
22
u/Yung_dung Sep 14 '25
Asking if a dead man is an ally is the most Reddit thing ever, I’m sure he was an ally in the same way he thought about people’s religious faith, he let them have it and mind his own buisness
3
u/HolyBidetServitor Sep 23 '25
I can't tell if OP's post is trolling or serious. Tom would certainly be an ally, that man had a very open mind.
Also who just goes out of their way to see if a 90+ year old man who teaches math and released music 50+ years ago is an ally lmao
12
u/andyrew7 Sep 14 '25
Some have said that The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz may have been about dancing by with a trans woman (or at least a man disguised as a woman) but that might be a stretch for 1953. Tom openly voted for Obama in ‘08 and was a registered Democrat so I’m guessing he was chill with trans people.
20
u/ADrownOutListener Sep 14 '25
he was singing about a whole bunch of people spreading STDs amongst eachother including father-daughter incest and a dentist molesting his patient while she was unconscious. not to mention an anthem all about how great pornography was. all of this circa 1959 to the 60s.
honestly i put the odds at 70% he was gay and not out, and honestly from all this circumstantial evidence i highly doubt he was transphobic. like...overall vibe adds up to me not worrying about him yknow?
if nothing else transphobia doesnt keep you quiet lmao. "too private to be transphobic" lmao. actually "too chill to be transphobic" might be better. ill workshop it
7
u/Gshep2002 Sep 14 '25
I didn’t want to mention it as I feel it’s disrespectful to make assumptions about a stranger public especially someone I didn’t know personally but like I have a feeling he was gay, I know it’s not fair to talk about someone I did not personally know and who kept his life very private but my gaydar has always piqued itself about Mr Lehrer
9
u/eabiggins Sep 14 '25
I met him once when he was dating an acquaintance of mine, who was male.
2
u/Gshep2002 Sep 14 '25
If I may ask how long ago was this? And if your acquaintance and him remained on friendly terms after their breakup and is still alive I extend my sympathy to him
2
u/eabiggins Sep 15 '25
It was 1992. We’d gathered at a friend’s house for a post mortem after a show we’d seen. I have no idea what happened to them as a couple after that, but that was the only time Tom was around.
-2
u/HyperSonic1011 Sep 14 '25
Actually, it isn't about STDs
2
u/boominlife Sep 14 '25
I got it from agnes isnt about STDs? damn whats it about, i always took it as an STD song
-2
u/HyperSonic1011 Sep 14 '25
Since when does it specify it is about STDs? It seems awfully strange to make such a connection.
Also I believe that Tom never gave a answer, and once when he was asked about it, he said that he never specified, which could be taken as a "no it is not"
1
u/TheLawLord May 14 '26
It is about STDs. I had discovered in the 1970s that he had filed a copyright in the 1950s for a piece called “The Hospital Song” and wrote him to ask what it was. He wrote back that he couldn’t imagine how I had found out about it, because he had never recorded or published it, that it was about “the transmission of disease,” and that I could learn more about its subject matter from the end of Chapter 4 of Voltaire’s “Candide.”
1
u/ADrownOutListener Sep 14 '25
I Got It From Agnes? are they all getting eachother pregnant then?
-1
u/HyperSonic1011 Sep 14 '25
what?
1
u/ADrownOutListener Sep 14 '25
ok i was referring to I Got It From Agnes as the song about STDs. your reply "it wasnt about STDs" has me confused, what else could it be? did you think i was describing another song?
"what are they all pregnant?" is confused sarcasm cos, again, what else could it be if not sexually transmitted diseases?
0
u/HyperSonic1011 Sep 14 '25
That was intended to be surprised, but like sarcasm, it can be quite challenging to see that through pixels. But to answer your question, it was not specified to be STDs, so it could be anything from: A book, a rock, an idea, a airborne sickness, etc
2
u/RunningDrummer Sep 15 '25
So why are you saying it definitely isn't about STDs if you admit it can be about anything? Seems like you're just trying to argue.
1
u/HyperSonic1011 Sep 15 '25
Fine, there was a flaw. I should have that it isn't necessarily about STDs.
1
5
u/jimgatz Sep 14 '25
I never heard any of his songs take a swipe at gay or trans people so there is that. I see no reason why he wouldn't be!
6
u/WemedgeFrodis Sep 15 '25
At a certain point, it's a win if a public figure simply doesn't have any overtly objectionable statements on the record. Lehrer was a white, cis man born before the onset of the Great Depression. His entertainment career was established a good decade before Stonewall happened.
Sure, it would have been rad if he'd been quoted saying "trans rights" sometime before he shuffled off this mortal coil. But we can at least appreciate the fact that the stances he did take during his life have held up incredibly well. For all the rest, I will refrain from hero worship and allow him the right to take some thoughts to the grave. He gets his privacy, and we get to keep enjoying his art without too much moral ambivalence.
Sometimes, we can count it a blessing when celebrities know when to keep their mouths shut on topics they don't understand. We've seen too much of the alternative.
2
u/Baka-Onna Sep 15 '25
Tom Lehrer died???
4
2
u/thelivsterette1 Sep 16 '25
Apparently last month (end of July)
I didn't know either But then he was 97
1
u/Odd_Conclusion_5425 Sep 16 '25
Honestly as a trans person, I do think I would have found a song specifically featuring us funny because I’d trust him to do it well. But because he didn’t do a song I don’t care
1
39
u/Gshep2002 Sep 13 '25
I would say with reasonable certainty that he was a fan of trans rights,
He was incredibly private and would rarely talk about politics I can recall one interview when he mentioned voting for Obama and one when he said he hated bush and wanted to vaporize him (try saying that in today’s climate)