english project

The LGBTimes

Lost In history

PAGE 2

So, what is LGBTQ erasure in history?
By Anna Todd-Sweezey

PAGE 3-4

Indigenous cultures, androgyny, and the influence of colonialism on
the world’s perception of gender and the gender ‘’binary’’
By Anna Todd-Sweezey
Cover art by mcpoato

Top: “Sunken” by mcpoato
Right: “True Colors” by mcpoato

So, what is LGBTQ erasure in history?

LGBTQ erasure is the act of
knowingly erasing the evidence
of queer individuals throughout
history. A recountment of history
with severe tunnel vision.

One of the most well-known examples of erasure is the
classic “they were just very close friends” trope, often used
on lesbian or bisexual women in history. Frida Kahlo, Virginia
Wolf, Emily Dickinson, just to name a few. Another example
is the Duchess of Devonshire from the Georgian era. Known
for being very close to female acquaintances. In a letter
addressing Lady Elizabeth Foster she says quote:

“My dear Bess, do you hear the voice of my heart crying to
you? Do you feel what it is for me to be separated from
you? … Oh Bess, every sensation I feel but heightens my
adoration of you.”

Although it’s less common the physical destruction of
documents relating to queer history is also an example of
erasure. For example, the destruction of Institut für
Sexualwissenschaft (institute for science of sexuality). It
was a research library and housed a large archive of
documents, many of them on queer topics and issues,
the Institute also included medical, psychological, and
ethnological divisions that opened in 1913. But sadly, it
was pillaged and destroyed by Nazis in the 1930s as
part of a censorship program run by the government.

Indigenous cultures, gender
fluidity, and the influence of
colonialism on the world’s
perception of gender and

the gender ‘’binary’’

The idea that gender identity is fluid and not rigidly binary may seem like a new
thought process caused by modern day wokeness to some. When in actuality it
is quite the opposite. Indigenous peoples form North America, Africa, and
southeast Asia who have been around for 100s of years, all have fluid gender
identities deeply embedded into their spirituality and culture. It was the rapid
propulsion of European ideologies through wide-spread colonization that have
pushed this narrative that non-binary identities are “not normal”.

Our first example of pre-colonial gender fluidity is two spirited people from
indigenous nations across North America. Two spirit is a non-binary gender identity
that is exclusive to indigenous individuals. It is believed that two spirited people
possess both a male spirit and a female spirit and may therefore present
themselves accordingly. Two spirited people where highly revered in their
communities, they were artists, shamans, matchmakers, hunters, and warriors. And
were believed to be intelligent, compassionate, and artistically gifted. Every
nation has their own term used to describe this gender identity; the Navajo use
the term Nádleehí, for the Lakota it’s Winkté, the Cheyenne use Niizh
Manidoowag.

The term two spirited
is an umbrella term
coined by
indigenous LGBTQ
people in Winnipeg
during the 1980s, it is
a direct translation
from the Ojibwe
word Niizh
Manidoowag.

We'wha (left), Osh-Tisch (center) and Dahteste (right).

European settlers viewed people outside of this gender binary as lesser. Two
spirited people would be violently incarcerated and subsequently forced to
present themselves as what (in the Europeans minds) gender correlated with
their biological sex. Being forced back into a binary they were never even
aware of. Some were even be attacked and murdered by the early colonizers.
Like Christopher Columbus, who would commit such atrocities as throwing two
spirited people into pits with wild dogs.

Although in deep contrast with many laws today, many African tribes in
countries like Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of
Congo also had normalized gender fluidity in their culture and communities.
For example, children in the Igbo and Mbuti tribes (Nigeria) would not have
their gender assigned to them at birth, it would be decided in a ceremony later
in their lives. Fluidity in gender is also very prevalent in the spirituality of these
tribes, with many spirits and deities being pictured as androgynous or intersex in
legends. And transgender priests being a fundamental part of spirituality in
tribes located in central Africa like the Lugbara people of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, who’s male-to-female priests are called okule and
female-to-male priests are called agule. The Zulu (South Africa) have similar
shamans, calling them insangoma. And transgender women often took on the
role of diviners in the Ambo tribe (southern Angola).

A group of Hijra in Bangladesh

An Igbo family in traditional attire

Another example of the colonialist influence on gender identity is in Nepal,
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh with the criminalization of Hijra people. Hijras are
identified as neither male nor female but have elements of both. They had been
widely expected as a third gender in India, respected in their society and found
in holy texts like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The British considered all hijras hereditary criminals in 1871. They described hijras
as cross-dressers, beggars, and unnatural prostitutes. One judge said the
community was an "opprobrium upon colonial rule". Another claimed that their
existence was a "reproach to the British government”.