History buffs list their favorite facts about queerness through the ages
lit up the r/LGBT forum with “queer historical facts” after one person noted that LGBTQ+ history “can be really hard to find, and it’s not often talked about.” (Thanks, cis-het agenda!)“So maybe this’ll be fun and we can learn something about our history!” the original poster added. “You can post anything you want. … For example, a historical character whose queerness is not often talked about, or about a civilization and their traditions.”Here’s a selection of responses, along with supporting evidence from around the web. (And if you still want more, check out the “favorite conspiracy theory” one person wrote about John F.
Kennedy, his friend Lem Billings, and Marilyn Monroe as a beard.)“Well, Julie D’Aubigny [who performed under the stage name La Maupin] was a badass bi sword-fighter and opera singer who kissed women in public.”(This fact is corroborated on the Los Angeles Public Library blog, where librarian Alan Westby writes, “About 1701, La Maupin’s husband—M.
Maupin—returned to her life, though this appears not have hindered her extra-marital relationships at all. Her bisexual affairs, cross-dressing, sword fighting all continued unabated.”)Related: As a new year dawns, take a moment to reflect on a dark moment in queer history“There are Hindu temples that are thousands of years old that have carvings depicting homosexuality.
The Kama Sutra also has queer shit in it. We have queer representation in ancient texts as well. … Unfortunately, today’s society is just as homophobic because of colonization, but times are changing.”(The HRC reports that the Kama Sutra mentions same-sex experience as an activity “to be engaged in and enjoyed for its own sake as one of the arts.” According to India Today, scholars have.
