#Transgender History

[makingqueerhistory]

There are going to be some big behind-the-scenes changes in how this project is run, and to impliment all that we will want to do we will need a big upswell of support from our community here. So please, now would be a great time to become a patron of Making Queer History as we expand in new ways and try to keep the ground beneath us while we do.

[zinesbycee]

I'm reading a book named "A Guide to The Correction of Young Gentlemen Or, The Successful Administration Of Physical Discipline To Males, By Females" - essentially, a fantasy femdom BDSM book, written in 1924 by Alice Kerr-Sutherland but first published in 1991.

It has some genuinely fascinating stuff to say about gender, and I feel like it's worth looking at/thinking about in the context of Historical Gender Stuff. This 100 year old book has the following to say:

"The truth is that some young gentlemen would rather they had been born young ladies: they cannot admit this openly, because in the male world to confess as much would lead to instant ostracism if not worse; but they cannot conceal it either, and by preferring the company of girls, and soft, feminine clothing, and by flinching during the rough pursuits to which all boys, willing or no, are occasionally heirs, they attract opprobrium."

"Such boys weep too readily for their fellows' tastes - weeping is a great crime among boys unless it is generally admitted that circumstances left little choice - and are hounded for that reason."

"Just as there are girls who had rather been boys - we all know examples of the type - there are boys who, in a kinder world, would have been born into the gender more suited to their dispositions."

"Many young people of this sort are riven with a guilt they do not deserve but have been forced, by the conventions of society, to adopt; they are confused, ashamed and thoroughly unhappy."

"The ideal thing to do would be to treat these cases on their merits, send them to girls' schools, and so on. (The same thing should happen with those girls who would rather be young gentlemen.) Boys of this sort are girls in any case-in all respects save one."

"Most subjects of this sort have a secret name - a girl's name."

[elierlick]

This is one of the oldest surviving recordings of a trans person.

Masoud El Amaratly (1897-1944) was an Iraqi trans singer who became famous in 1920s Baghdad for his folk music. He worked as a farmer before transitioning in his teens. The mustarjil, a term similar to trans man, then moved to the city and sang in cafés. A music agent discovered him there and his fame spread across West Asia.

Enjoy this 1925 recording of him singing the traditional Iraqi song, "Khadri al Chai" ("Please Make Tea"). Check out Ajam's website for more.

[gayest-historian]

Creating the Transgender Flag

So today I'll be talking about the history and creation of the trans flag! This will probably be a shorter post but still equally as important of course

The transgender flag was originally created by Monica Helms, a trans woman from America, in 1999. She got the idea from Micheal Page who had created the bisexual flag a year earlier. Helms describes the meaning of each stripe in the flag as:

"The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are intersex, transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender."

- Monica Helms

The original flag (pictured below) was later donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2014 by Helms.

Later on, in 2019, Helms published a book in which she expresses shock that her flag design has been adopted so wholeheartedly by the trans community. I'd like to end off this post with that quote.

The speed with which the flag’s usage spread never fails to surprise me, and every time I see it, or a photo of it, flying above a historic town hall or building I am filled with pride.

- Monica Helms

[femmepathy]

Leslie Feinberg in Outlaw (1994) directed by Alisa Lebow

available now on archive.org!

[starnosedmoles]

Occasional Trouble Passing…

“What do you mean I can’t go in there? You can just suck my sock, buddy!”

found in “FTM Newsletter”, 1990s

[jstor]

The preservation of transgender history is essential to ensuring that the stories and experiences of trans people are not forgotten. The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) has taken on the vital task of gathering and protecting this history, bringing together documents, images, and materials that reflect the rich and diverse experiences of transgender people across time and place.

By making these resources accessible, the DTA facilitates explorations of the often-hidden or erased narratives of trans communities. From personal stories to institutional records, these materials provide a window into the challenges and triumphs faced by trans individuals, while also celebrating the resilience and diversity of these communities.

Preserving this history is also about ensuring that future generations can learn, understand, and be inspired by the stories of those who came before them.

Explore more about how these efforts are safeguarding trans history, and why it matters, on JSTOR Daily.

Image: A man in drag and a man in male clothes looking into each other’s eyes, via Digital Transgender Archive.

[halogen2]

Black and white photographs of trans man Rupert Raj (circa 1970s) posing shirtless in bed (from the digital transgender archive)

[chainmail-butch]

I started reading Roland Betancourt's Byzantine Intersectionality because it has a chapter on transwomen, but it turns out that the book is heavily focused on transmasculinity and race in the Byzantine world.

Specifically I wanted to show you this discussion on artistic representation of top surgery and the likelihood that this actually represents top surgery.

Anyway this is really fucking cool

[androgynealienfemme]

“Sex Change Just ‘Legal Correction’”, March 31. 1956.

[transsexual-menace]

excerpts from transgender warriors by leslie feinberg

[makingqueerhistory]

A Short History of Trans Misogyny

Jules Gill-Peterson

An accessible, bold new vision for the future of intersectional trans feminism, called "one of the best books in trans studies in recent years" by Susan Stryker "A beautifully written and argued book." - Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby There is no shortage of voices demanding everyone pay attention to the violence trans women suffer. But one frighteningly basic question seems never to be answered: why does it happen? If men are not inherently evil and trans women do not intrinsically invite reprisal--which would make violence unstoppable--then the psychology of that violence had to arise at a certain place and time. The trans panic had to be invented. Award-winning historian Jules Gill-Peterson takes us from the bustling port cities of New York and New Orleans to the streets of London and Paris in search of the emergence of modern trans misogyny. She connects the colonial and military districts of the British Raj, the Philippines, and Hawai'i to the lively travesti communities of Latin America, where state violence has stamped a trans label on vastly different ways of life. Weaving together the stories of historical figures in a richly detailed narrative, the book shows how trans femininity emerged under colonial governments, the sex work industry, the policing of urban public spaces, and the area between the formal and informal economy. A Short History of Trans Misogyny is the first book to explain why trans women are burdened by such a weight of injustice and hatred.

(Affiliate link above)

[omgthatdress]

Just taking a moment to remind everyone that JK Rowling is a Holocaust denier.

The looting & burning of the library of Die Institut für Sexualwissenschaft is an incredibly well-documented event that marks one of the first major events of Nazi persecution of the LGBT community.

Guess what, Jo. This definitely happened.

She has gone further to perpetuate lies about Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld that engage with the anti-semitic conspiracy theory that Jews are encouraging LGBT identities to end the reproduction of the Aryan race and take over the world.

HEY! GOOD NEWS! IF YOU DO HISTORICAL RESEARCH, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING REALLY COOL!

LGBT persecution by Nazis, especially trans persecution, is an area of the Holocaust that remains under-researched and under-documented. Historians are working hard to identify trans and queer victims and to illuminate their life stories. If you are at all interested in this, it's something you can do, too. Research for all!

[mosscaller]

[troutreznor]

Minnie Bruce Pratt with her partner, Leslie Feinberg, in the late '90s.

photo & caption by Mariette Pathy Allen [website] [instagram]

[queerasfact]

Father in heaven, who did miracles for our ancestors with fire and water, You changed the fire of Chaldees so it would not burn hot, You changed Dina in the womb of her mother to a girl, You changed the staff to a snake before a million eyes, You changed [Moses’] hand to [leprous] white and the sea to dry land. In the desert you turned rock to water, hard flint to a fountain. Who would then turn me from a man to woman? Were I only to have merited this, being so graced by your goodness.

-Qalonymos ben Qalonymos, Even Bochan, c.1322, translation from Wrestling With God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition by Rabbi Steven Greenberg, p.118-120

In late 1322 or early 1323, French Jewish poet Qalonymos ben Qalonymos completed their book Even Bochan, which features this passage, describing the author's discontent with living as a man, and desire to live as a woman.

You can read a longer version of the passage here, and listen to our podcast on Qalonymos and their place in trans Jewish history here