Different from the Others (Anders Als Die Andern) was the first film to portray queer people positively and explicitly and was released in 1919. Made by queer activists in Berlin, it remains an artifact of queer resistance.
History is shaped by those who tell it, and nowhere is there such an enormous gap than in the history of trans people. Continual erasure and suppression of trans lives and stories throughout time has left few figures to survive censorship. Those who were brave enough to live authentically often were forced to do so in a manner of “stealth”, their identity as a trans person not discussed or documented. This is especially true of American history before the mid-nineteen hundreds. Even among the few surviving figures, their identities have often been misinterpreted and altered through the lenses of hetero/cisnormative historians. One prominent example is the life of Albert Cashier, Civil War soldier and trans man.
After a long stretch of Grace stepping up and saving the day by writing the articles, Laura is back and excited to talk about Golden Orchid Society. The Golden Orchid Society was a collection of organizations in South China that began during the Qing dynasty and existed from approximately 1644 to 1949 when they were banned because they were associated with an attempt to overthrow the Manchu Emperor. Over the course of 300 years, however, they created an order of women who stood in solidarity with other women against heterosexual marriages that were oppressive at best and far too often abusive. While some of the women may have been heterosexual and avoiding marriage for reasons unrelated to their sexuality, it was common for members of the association to be lesbians or bisexual. They found the safety and family in the Golden Orchid Society that their biological relatives had never provided them.
Laura is out again this week, and while I miss them dearly, I now have the honor of addressing one of Queer History’s September Wish List articles. Today we’ll be discussing the life and work of Rituparno Ghosh, filmmaker, and actor of Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Frida Kahlo's life seems best encompassed by three themes: her art, her politics, and her love. To explore these themes properly, however, we must look at where she came from. Frida herself states that she was born in La Casa Azul, just outside of Mexico City. Her parents were Matilde Calderon y Gonzalez and Guillermo Kahlo. Guillermo was a photographer who had spent part of his life in Germany, but who emigrated to Mexico due to Jewish ancestry.
Gianni Versace was a well-known man, and the details of his life and death are readily available, so it’s easy to imagine that there isn’t much to say about him that hasn’t already been said. However, there is much still left unsaid about the man who had his life entangled with Versace’s for fifteen years. His name is one that rarely shares a headline with Versace's, but it does not lack importance: Antonio D'Amico.
Taking a cursory glance over the lives of lesbians throughout history.
A man who was integral in the formation of Portuguese music and queer culture: António Variações. Variações was a man who had an impressively eclectic musical career alongside influence on his country's political side. As he was becoming popular shortly after the Carnation Revolution, he was at the forefront of a huge social and political shift, pushing his country towards acceptance through his music.
Anderson Bigode Herzer was a transgender poet from Brazil who never reached the level of fame he deserved. Herzer was a young poet who was deeply traumatized throughout his youth and died far too young. Though he did not have a long life, he did have an eventful one.
There are times when a tactical retreat is necessary for a battle. Those fighting against the queer community were fighting with fire, while the queer community was fighting with flowers. Even though it was not intended, a rainbow was seen as an attack against a homophobic government. It incited anger in politicians and the general populous alike. Not only does this speak to the power of art, but it speaks to the nature of the queer community. Though not passive folk; while some may fight with flowers, they fight. Finding a symbol where one was not intended, and using it, to stand up against those who find not only queer symbols but queer existence incendiary.
Sir Ewan Forbes was born into a noble family, and later in life gained the title of baronet. From a young age, Ewan was not interested in conforming to gender norms. Through most of his childhood, Ewan was able to avoid acting and dressing as Scottish society expected him to and was only seen in traditionally female clothing on special occasions. Most of his life, that easiness followed him as it did for most people who were born into a privileged family like his.
While a rebellious aristocrat is not a rare narrative, one who was jailed and exiled for her political efforts, and married her female secretary and partner of twenty years on her deathbed, is less commonplace. The phenomenon of a privileged person using their privilege for the good of others isn't unheard of, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 21st Duchess of Medina Sidonia approached it with a fervent strength that is rare.
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is best known as a pioneer in his home country in the fight for the decriminalization of gay relationships. This week, we move to Norway to look at his relationships with men and his stance in society for gay people’s rights.
A warrior, artist, and incredibly valued person in the Crow nation, Osh-Tisch was a baté person and is remembered as one of the last baté people to have existed before colonizers committed genocide against this part of Crow culture. A baté person is a person who is born with a body that many European cultures of the time designated as male, and later is discovered to be a woman and is accepted as a woman in Crow culture.
Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet, and novelist, was a well-known author when he was alive and thrived in the artistic society of his time. He is remembered for his incredibly influential work even now. Many of his works are still taught in school, though they are often edited in an attempt to minimize the heavy queer themes (among them is the green carnation, which is theorized to symbolize a queer character). He is a well-known and well-liked historical figure even in the heterosexual community, but let’s look at what the heterosexual community did to him while still alive.
