Making Queer History has a vague title because it has a rather vague purpose. We are not alone in our aim to tell the queer community’s history. What defines us is our focus not only on the past, but toward the future.
This week we're heading back into ancient history, to the middle of the 5th dynasty of Egypt and one of the first known same-sex couples in history. The tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum was uncovered in 1964 and has been a fierce topic of debate since. As with all translation work, bias is prevalent and it's possible to interpret things in many ways; people often see only what they want to see. What we can do is look at the evidence we have and extrapolate from there.
Content warning for suicide and murder
We move now from the first noted queer woman in ancient Greece to perhaps the most notable queer woman in modern United States history. To discuss her life, we must briefly address the history of queerness in the United States and how that history has translated into the modern day. Queer erasure continues to be an issue, but in this case, the erasure comes not from outside sources but from the queer community itself.
We thought it best to begin as close to the start as possible, though we're certain the project will jump throughout history. While there is no way to know who was the first human to experience same-gender romantic attraction, we will go back as far as recorded history allows. We begin with the origin of the word Sapphic and one of the most recognizable figures in history: Sappho.
