Princess Vera Gedroitz

Princess Vera Gedroitz

Harper-Hugo Darling

The impact that queer people have had on the history and continued growth of art cannot be overstated. Most people are quick to offer examples in the fields of fashion, fine art, even literature when discussing how queer people have shaped our culture. Less often noted are the contributions in the fields of science, mathematics, and medicine. People like Alan Turing, Magnus Hirschfeld, Florence Nightingale, Anna Freud, Alan Hart, and Jane Addams all had huge impacts on their respective fields. Vera Gedroitz joins that list as a doctor, professor, and the first female surgeon in Russia.

Zdeněk Koubek

Zdeněk Koubek

Will Darling

The relationship between gender and sports has always been a complicated one, made even more so by modern gender roles. After the 1930s, it was increasingly common for athletes in international circles to be put through what was called “sex tests,” aimed at removing “gender frauds.” This was particularly true for women’s sports. These tests, lacking in scientific reasoning, tended to be invasive and humiliating. The goal was to ensure that no men were competing in the women’s Olympics, and so athletes were measured against white cishetero standards of femininity.

[…]

One of the men who started and fortunately escaped from these discussions was Zdeněk Koubek. He was a transgender man who, after some years of participating in the Women’s Olympics and breaking several world records, withdrew from competitive sports and prioritized his own happiness.

David Paynter

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings

Internationally renowned David Paynter was a Sri Lankan artist raised in a Christian mission; his religious upbringing would influence him and his work throughout his life. His paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy for nearly twenty years, from 1923 to 1940. Though now remembered primarily for his Biblical scenes, he also painted portraits, focusing on labourers and people outside of the Sri Lankan upper class. He is remembered equally for his work and for a scandal surrounding it.

tatiana de la tierra

Harper-Hugo Darling

In the age of the internet, recording queer history has never been easier; not only in sharing stories as we do at Making Queer History but in preserving stories that may otherwise be lost. Blogs, social media, videos, newsletters, and more have become the means by which we commemorate and celebrate one another and ourselves. Researching someone’s life is much easier when they’ve recorded it on their own blog, as is the case for tatiana de la tierra.

Lesley Gore

Dean Strauss
Happy Endings

In honour of Lesbian Day of Visibility recently, we wanted to look at a woman whose music is incredibly well-known, but whose queerness is often erased. Her music has been used in PSAs and presidential campaigns alike, and she worked hard to become a prolific singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBTQ+ activist. Lesley Gore was a vibrant and proud Jewish lesbian. Unlike many of the people we write about, she was fortunate enough to have the language to talk about her identity—and did. It’s an unfortunate truth that one of the rare people we’ve written about who used clear terms to describe their experiences still had her experiences erased.

Nandi Women-to-Women Marriages

Harper-Hugo Darling

It’s easy to view history as a single continuous line of progress, especially when looking at it through a queer lens. This, however, ignores the complexity of real cultures and beliefs. This approach to history often exists as a comfort from the harms of modern society, highlighting the growth and change for marginalized people today.

Reality continues to be much more complex and beautiful. Though some may take comfort in the idea of a steady uphill climb, neither the caverns and dips nor the steep spikes of our past and future are without precedent. Sometimes these changes come from the embrace of tradition and cultural values that have been forgotten or erased from popularity. One well-maintained tradition, though it does not fit into the modern narrative of queerness and growth within the country, is Kenya’s custom of women-to-women marriages.

Florence Nightingale

Harper-Hugo Darling

The memory of Florence Nightingale still ripples throughout Europe and North America. Documents about her life still exist and uphold her legacy; in many ways she has become something of a mythological figure. Even in life there was merchandise relating to her, but it’s taken on a new life in books, valentines, and even colouring pages. She’s remembered as a no-nonsense feminist icon, a tender motherly figure, the founding of modern day nursing, and even the hero of nursery rhymes. Less discussed in the possibility that she was a lesbian and/or asexual.

Simon Tseko Nkoli

Harper-Hugo Darling

Any person who stands on the intersection of multiple marginalized identities can recognize this struggle. It's not an easy one to manage, but it is that balancing act that Nkoli the leader he was. He was the first in many regards, and he made the room for the seconds, thirds, and fourths who came after him.

Joël Gustave Nana Ngongang

Harper-Hugo Darling

The internet has been enveloped in a lovely celebration of Black History Month (US) and LGBTQIA+ History Month (UK). Black queer history not only in the US and the UK but throughout the world is rich and boundless. We will take this opportunity to look at one of Cameroon's fiercest advocates: Joël Gustave Nana Ngongang.

Grupo Chaclacayo

Arielle Burgdorf
Guest Author

Grupo Chaclacayo was a queer art collective from Lima, Peru active from 1982-1994. Through their subversive happenings, processions, photography, drawings, artifacts, and sculptures, they used their bodies as a site to critique issues within Catholicism, military violence, the mistreatment of indigenous communities, and homophobia. Grupo Chaclacayo was comprised of three central members: Helmut Psotta, Sergio Zevallos, and Raul Avellaneda, although they occasionally collaborated with others including Jorge Angeles, Sixto Paniora, Frido Martin, Klaus Wittkamp, Cesar Guerra, and Piero Pereira.

Salim Halali

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings

— Tom Cohen

The life story of Salim Halali is one with countless branches. His experiences as a gay Jewish man in Paris in the 1930’s are as eventful as one would imagine, and his music career is not only well known but well remembered, what with being crowned the “King of Shaabi” at the height of his popularity. He lived just as extravagantly behind closed doors, often throwing lavish parties with his two pet tigers. There's much to be said of his storied life.

Anna Freud

Harper-Hugo Darling

Anna Freud is not the most well-known name in the Freud family. Intentional or not, there is a heavy shadow hanging over her story. Sigmund Freud is a well-known man, but he is not well-loved in the queer community. His homophobic and transphobic ideas taint his already largely disproven theories. Worship him or despise him, he is remembered and still discussed in most psychology circles. The same cannot be said for his youngest daughter. One of the founders of child psychology and an open lesbian, Anna Freud was not always in line with her father’s teachings. Despite all of the conflict one would expect between them, one fact is clear: Anna Freud loved her father.

Queer Mythology in the Philippines

Harriette Chan
Guest Author

The Philippines is one of the most LGBT friendly countries in Asia. A 2014 poll found that 73% of Filipinos said that gay and lesbian people should be accepted by society—a shockingly different opinion from other nearby Asian countries with Malaysia coming in at 9% and Indonesia at 3%. This is surprising in a majority Roman Catholic country like the Philippines. There is a long history of acceptance for queer people in the Philippines, dating all the way back to pre-Spanish colonization and conversion to Catholicism. In Filipino mythology, there was always a queer presence.

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