Protesters in Florida campaigning against the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” (Image source: HRC)
(3 min read)
It’s October 3rd, which means Mean Girls memes are so fucking fetch today aaaaaand … it’s been LGBTQ+ History Month in America for two. whole. days.
As some of you may know, a few weeks ago a school board in Florida decided that the Don’t Say Gay bill legally entitles them to bar any recognition of LGBTQ+ History Month for all grades K-12.
And I am … pissed.
I’m pissed that queer people’s right to their own history is still up for debate.
I’m pissed that queer history is seen as disposable.
I’m pissed that children are once again being used as bargaining chips in political battles that distract us from MUCH MORE PRESSING ISSUES IN THIS WORLD LIKE THE IMPENDING HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE.
Ahem.
For those who don’t know, LGBT History Month was founded in 1994 by a Missouri high school teacher. The point of it has always been to increase visibility and alert students to the role of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in history.
This is a history that has been intentionally suppressed or bowdlerized for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
2,000 or so years ago, Christian bigots were busy burning the lesbian and bisexual poetry of Sappho, one of the greatest poets (female or otherwise) of the ancient world.
When the sonnets of Michelangelo were originally published in the 1600s, his grand-nephew changed the pronouns to prevent a gay reading of the text.
When you read Shakespeare’s considerably more famous (and better) Sonnets in high school, nobody mentions the fact that a good portion of the sauciest ones about love, beauty and sex are addressed to a young man. Many scholars now believe that Shakespeare was in fact bisexual.
Alexander the Great, Emperor Nero, King James I, Queen Anne, Emperor Ai of Han, Frederick the Great, Queen Christina, a handful of POPES – all of these stuck-up royals were queer in one way or another and presided over major kingdoms at pivotal moments in history.
Nobody mentioned that either in the 8 years of college-level history courses I took. (I apologize for that insanely uncool brag.)
All this is to say: we’ve had plenty of time to be silenced. In the literature we create, the culture we contribute to, and the history we make. We can’t let that continue.
Personally, I barely remember registering LGBTQ+ History Month in my high school years. There are of course many other important things that teenagers have to worry about these days, like getting into college, successfully rolling a joint, and building social media empires.
I GET IT.
But I also believe we all, as queer people and as allies, have a responsibility to present this month in engaging ways so that the 2% of queer kids who are paying attention have a chance of accessing their own history.
Here is a picture of me as a young, smiling, very beautiful history student circa 2014.
It’s taken me the 8 years since I left university to appreciate the extent of humanity’s queer old past and what it means for me as a gay man. Which I might summarize thusly:
Queer people have existed in their own queer ways since the beginning of civilization. The past is a strange place, but meeting strangers is good for you. Try it.
Modern, Western ideals of queerness are not the only valid ones. Human sexuality and gender have been explored, transgressed, and policed for all of history – there isn’t one way to understand either correctly. And we are kidding ourselves if we think we’ve figured it all out for all eternity.
Gender non-conforming identities and same-sex desire are fundamental to society and culture: they have informed politics, law, religion, mythology, social class, psychology, art, sport, music, film, literature, economics, and biology in one way or another over the past 5,000 years. Challenging what is considered normal in sex or gender is a fundamentally human (and civilized) act.
Remembering queer people from history – whether they’re famous or not – allows queer people today to see themselves as part of the human story, and not just as modern inventions. Our sexualities are constructed by the societies we live in to some extent, but the essence of what we feel, how we fuck, how we love – that is eternal.
These are my running thoughts, as I continue to learn about the queer origins of mankind. And I’m proud of the insights I’ve gleaned so far. It’s important we help all young people on their own journeys of self-discovery in any way we can.
So this month, please consider how you’re contributing to the queer historical effort. Whether that’s creating content, amplifying other voices, educating yourself, donating, supporting artists with cold hard cash or WHATEVER.
Do something. Because it may provide a lifeline to a kid in Florida who actually really needs it.
For my part, I’ll be working on some more youth-friendly content that I hope to share with the audience that needs to hear about this stuff most.
Tell your friends and families, and make sure we don’t let Florida schools dictate what our children can and can’t learn.