Finding queer people to write about for this project is an interesting task. We have gone through online lists, other projects, books, footnotes, and sometimes have just surfed the internet until we found someone interesting. This month I was working on expanding our master list and picked up a book from my shelf: Lesbian Lists: A Look at Lesbian, Culture, History, and Personalities by Dell Richards. In the introduction of the book, I found a sentiment that was extremely interesting considering the current discussions within the queer community around our history.
The life and legacy of Fidel Castro is a hotly debated topic even now years after his death. With a controversial man like that, it is hardly surprising. Loved for his revolutionary policies and how he changed and shaped a country, he is equally hated for his attacks on different groups within Cuba, including the queer community. While many queer people supported his rise to power, some being among the fiercest revolutionaries, Castro responded with violent homophobia. He jailed queer people, and his influence made Cuba an overall more hostile place for queer people. In the story of Reinaldo Arenas, the damage left on a queer person who was able to escape is clear. José Lezama Lima’s story is one of someone who stayed.
Eleno de Céspedes was born into slavery in Grenada in 1545. Due to his mother being a slave, he was not given a name at birth and a brand was burned onto his face when he was still young. While he never had a relationship with his father, who most likely was the slave owner, he was able to stay with his mother for their time in slavery. It was after the death of one of their slave owners that Eleno was released from slavery and given the name of the dead slave owner.
Content warning for antisemitism, Holocaust, concentration camps
Maria Dąbrowska is one of the most well-known authors in Polish history, writing incredible novels about class and family dynamics within Poland. Throughout her life, she was defined as being a moral authority for her country and time and is admired to this day. This is particularly interesting considering one-third of Poland recently announced they will become LGBT+ free. Dąbrowska, one of their most famous figures, had numerous relationships with women and men during her life. That just leaves the question: what does one lose when they denounce an entire segment of their country? Dąbrowska may have benefitted from asking herself the same question.
When looking at history through a queer lens, it can be easy to generalize. It's a defense mechanism; with so many queer lives defined by pain, it's easier to narrow down our history to “it sucked then got sort of better.” When we do this, the stories that don't fit the mold can be passed over. When the story begins with a black transgender woman born in the American South during the 1940s, we can assume a lot about the ending, but Jackie Shane’s life is one that does not fit those expectations.
Covering the small stories of the queer community is a difficult thing to do. With continuous active suppression of queer voices past and present, our stories are rare enough. The little stories—not famous writers, geniuses, or revolutionaries, but average queer people living their lives—are difficult not just because they are hidden, but forgotten. The ones remembered are remembered for a reason. In some cases, it is because the queer person, while fairly normal, was also very privileged. Most often the stories of normal queer people are remembered because they end in tragedy. Tragedy is recorded.
One of the nineteen first women to be elected into the Finnish parliament, and a lesbian with multiple relationships with multiple different women, Hilda Käkikoski was a groundbreaker in many ways. Working for equal pay for women, improving education, and free food for children at school she can easily be mistaken for a progressive politician, but that was not the case. Anti-sex worker, very religious, and a part conservative party of Finland, Käkikoski was not what one might automatically think of when they hear of a lesbian, feminist, activist.
To look at the story of Erick Martinez Avila it is important to first look at the history of Honduras. Similar to our discussion on Jamaica, Honduras is a country often overlooked in discussions of global queer rights because it has been written off. While the reasoning behind this oversight is often a completely justifiable case of empathy exhaustion, Honduras deserves our attention.
Jemma Redmond was an intersex person who innovated 3D printing technology and was poised to change the medical world with her work. Driven by the desire to get this technology into as many hands as possible, she worked to make 3D printers cheaper and more universally useful.
Tove Jansson is well-known as the author and artist behind the universe of the Moomins, a phenomenon that has slowly grown in popularity throughout the world. Lesser-known, however, is her queerness, her love for women as well as men, and how her various partners inspired the characters of her life-works. She spent her life loving her people and her world fiercely, and she translated that love into beautiful works that convey strong themes of chosen family and the importance of self-acceptance.
The connections between generations have become a difficult subject for the community. With the idea that queer people are inherently predatory still circulating, and an entire generation of queer people lost to the AIDs epidemic, the connection of mentor and mentee is a rare one within our community. Though Erik Bruhn, unfortunately, didn't have an older queer person to look up to, he became a mentor in every way possible.
When talking about iconic transgender women in contemporary history, one of the most well known in America is Holly Woodlawn. Her name was in popular songs. She starred in queer cult classics. For a time she was even paid to go to parties. She was an openly transgender woman and the first many Americans knew of. With such an important place in so many people’s memories, the Puerto Rican actress was well-loved by famous and ordinary alike.
Within the history of the queer community, is the history of scandal. Queerness in and of itself is still widely viewed as a juicy source of gossip. Whether that be people speculating and publicly discussing theories about celebrities’ sexual orientation or gender identity, or revealing private aspects of queer peoples’ sexual lives, or asking questions about their genitals. Once a person comes out as queer, the people in their lives often feel entitled to a level of disclosure they would never ask for from someone who isn’t queer. Another community that often experiences the complete disregard for their privacy is that of celebrities. Because of this, the intersection of queerness and celebrity is one where little respect and cautious benefit of the doubt is seen.
We’ve covered many different kinds of rule-breakers before. From art forgers, regular forgers, and of course the ever-present reality that any expression of queerness has in and of itself been banned in many different spaces and times. Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești was a thief, a political agitator, con artist, and kept close company with others who broke social conventions as well as laws. Throughout all of these parts of his life, Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești still somehow remained a man with a steady moral compass, though it was slightly hard to understand at times.
Xulhaz Mannan
American voices are some of the most represented in queer discussions; this allows for little diversity in the experiences of queer people from other countries. In countries where queerness is illegal, the most prominent voices come from those who immigrated from those counties or are refugees. Leaving their countries by choice or not, their stories are important. Just as important are the stories of those people who stayed; Xulhaz Mannan is one of those people.