#for example it was a group of texas activists who made gayness not-illegal for the entire US

[mycroftrh]

If you are angry that you were not taught in school about some historical person or other being queer, or that you have seen a screenshot of an academic work doing something like calling two people who were clearly fuckin 'close brotherly friends'; and you are considering expressing that anger by declaring all historians/ archaeologists/ history teachers homophobic/transphobic

I would like you first to ponder a few things.

Most generally - how do you know now that this person was queer? Is it... perhaps because that was mentioned in a more recent academic work or a college class? Academic fields have moved on since the 50s bruh. That screenshot you're angry at, have you checked when the text was written?

But past that:

High School (and Similar)

At the most basic level, if your teacher had one semester to teach you all of world history before 1500AD, possibly their priority was 'here is the name of this civilization' not 'here are the names of all the gay people in it'. (I would have prioritized the gays personally tbh but that's me.)

But much more importantly:

Hello today we will be talking about "No Promo Homo" laws!

I'm gonna use the ones in the US to explain, because I know the most about them, but they are around in many many other places.

No Promo Homo laws vary in their details. I'll use Texas's as an example.

"Course materials... should include: emphasis, provided in a factual manner and from a public health perspective, that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense."

In general, your average NPH law says either 'you cannot mention homosexuality' or 'any mention of homosexuality must be negative'.

(Note: if you're going 'wait hang on it's not a criminal offense tho? Why are you trying to pass off this clearly outdated law on us?' ...the law referenced, criminalizing 'homosexual conduct', IS still on the books in Texas. They're just not allowed to enforce it bc of the Supreme Court ruling in 2003. The NPH law above is fully current; in fact, in November 2020 Texas's Board of Education considered repealing but voted 9-6 to keep it.)

In 2019 there were seven states with NPH laws. There are still four. Also, there's this "Texas effect" with school textbooks where the state of Texas is the largest buyer of textbooks in the US, and it's easier to print one textbook for everyone than different textbooks for each state, so... textbooks for the whole US generally follow whatever the Texas Board of Education wants to teach.

...when your history teacher was failing to teach you about someone being gay... was that in a time/place where it was/is literally illegal to teach you that? Was it in a time/place where they can only tell you someone was gay if they immediately follow it with "and that's bad, this historical figure was leading an unacceptable and criminal lifestyle"? If not, was your teacher working off a textbook written for places where that's the case?

...Because if you're in the US in 2021 then the answer is very very likely 'yes' to at least one of those. If you're elsewhere there's also a pretty decent chance. (And even if there weren't actual laws directly affecting you - the Indignant Parents get their say about Corrupting The Youth, too.)

Again, how do you know now that the person was queer? Was it... perhaps because it was mentioned to you or someone else in a college class (or a book), which isn't under the domain of NPH laws?

Museums

While to the best of my knowledge there are no explicit NPH laws regulating museums, museums in many areas must in effect follow similar restrictions. One of my professors did a study on evolution education in museums which basically boiled down to 'because of the way funding works, a lot of museums have to dance around the existence of human evolution to the point that they have plausible deniability'. Same goes for queer-ness.

Yes, everyone working there knows the mummy is gay. The issue isn't the scientists, it's that museums need money to pay the rent preserve the artifacts build the exhibits etc, and therefore have to be careful what topics they focus on.

[Taking this moment for a sidenote: there will be sources linked in a reblog of this post.]

Academia, My Original Point

I need y'all to understand that being gay, just the fact of being gay, only stopped being actively illegal in the US in 2003. I need you to understand that there are more than 70 countries right now, today, as of July 2021, that have laws criminalizing homosexuality, including 11 where it's punishable with execution. I need you to understand that people could be arrested in the United States for "cross-dressing" within the last decade and still can right now today as we speak for things like "being trans and using the bathroom".

Do you think, possibly, that academics in some of those times and places had reasons for not explicitly saying 'this person was homosexual'? Do you further think maybe it could be possible that when all of the evidence that a historical figure was queer is laid out for you, very clearly, so it's obvious, so you can't miss it; and then the author tacks on at the end "...but uh @CIA no homo here definitely! @FBI just gal pals!" ...do you think maybe they had a reason for writing it that way?

Finally:

Look. Historians and archaeologists who are gay, and trans, and queer, we exist! Hello, hi! 👋 Right here! 👋 There are a lot of us actually!

Declaring all historians/archaeologists homophobic and transphobic is, guess what? ERASING US. The people who are alive, right here, right now.

Don't erase me.