The Misrepresentation of Western Queer History

(CWforsexmentions,transphobia,homophobia)

How many people hold the belief that Ancient Greece and Rome were queer utopias? How many people think that being trans is a new fad? How many people think queer history started with Stonewall?

Yet, almost none of this is true.

While Queer identities did exist in Ancient Greece, the accepted context for gay relationships was within a system that enabled young boys of wealthy families to gain education and political standing. Each boy would be assigned a mentor, their erastes. The esrastes was the active partner in the exchange, and the eromenos was the passive partner. In exchange for sex and relationship, the eromenos would receive an education in the law, politics, and rhetoric. Over time, their personal political power would develop. Many Athenian politician’s and philosopher’s careers began as an eromenos to a public figure.

However, homosexuality in Ancient Greece and by extension Ancient Rome, was only acceptable for the erastes – the active lover in the relationship. The eromenos took the passive role of a woman in the sexual relationship, and this was what warranted societal distaste. When an important figure was rumoured to be in a pederastic relationship, it was important to figure out who was the active, the erastes, and who was the passive – the eromenos. It was rumoured that Alexander the Great and his general Hephaestion were in a relationship; Alexander was perceived to be the erastes, and so his reputation stayed intact. In contrast, it was rumoured that Julius Caesar had had an affair with King Nicomedes of Bithynia. The contemporary author Suetonius had a field day with this rumour, writing mocking verses about Nicomedes ‘mastering’ Caesar. The implication that Caesar was the eromenos was clear and gained him the nickname “Queen of Bithynia.” Male homosexuality in the Ancient Mediterranean was more complicated than modern sources often portray.

Queer women also existed in the ancient Mediterranean. Many of the words we use to describe women that love women come from this period. Sappho, the poet who sung of her love for women, gives us ‘sapphic,’ a descriptor for when lesbian or bisexual does not fit. The island of her birth, Lesbos, becomes ‘lesbian’ – originally meaning a resident of Lesbos, and now the popularly accepted term for women who date women.

Tracking trans people throughout western history has been fraught. The concept of transgenderism was developed in Europe in the early 20th century, and it is important to acknowledge that prior to now, people likely had different understandings of gender than we do in the 21st century. Prominent trans historical figures include Dr James Barry, a British trans man, the Public Universal Friend, an American who refused the use of gendered pronouns, and John/Eleanor Rykener, a person brought before the London courts in 1395 under the suspicion of sodomy and cross dressing. Lili Elbe was the first trans woman to receive a uterus transplant, performed by Magnus Hirschfield. Hirschfield’s Institute for the Science of Sexuality was forcibly closed by the Nazi Party upon their rise to power in 1933. Most photos of Nazi book burnings were taken during this incident – you can literally see trans history going up in smoke. We cannot also forget Marsha P Johnson, Silvia Rivera, and Miss Major – trans women involved in the Stonewall Riots and the gay rights campaigns of the 1970s. There were likely many more trans people in history. Fortunately for them but unfortunately for us, their stories have been lost to time. To exist as a trans person within history is to be outed and microscopically examined. We owe our predecessors their silence and privacy. Sadly, there has never been an era that could ever be classed as a trans utopia.

While studying queer history, there is also the issue of language and identification. We simply don’t know how people in the past identified. Today, we have hundreds of words to explain our identities. Someone in the 1770’s would not have had these words. We will never know if prominent gender nonconforming figures would have identified as trans if they had this language. For example, someone in the Middle Ages would view their sexuality as the acts they commit, not the identity that allows them to commit these acts. In Ancient Greece, only one partner of a gay male relationship would face societal distaste. There were no words for homosexual in the stone age. Queer identities have always existed, but the past is not a queer utopia, and we must look carefully to find our historical community.

When our past is presented as a queer utopia, we do ourselves a real injustice. We ignore the real struggles of our predecessors, and we lose valuable context for where we are now. It is sad and angering that queer identities have never truly been accepted throughout most of European history, but we can hold pride in our support for each other. People are actively trying to suppress us, vilify us, and even to legislate us out of existence. Trans rights are in danger in many countries throughout the world. The recent visit of a prominent TERF shows that Australia is not safe from transphobia, homophobia, and queerphobia in general. Yet, despite the slings and arrows that queerphobic societies and lawmakers throw at us, we have persisted for thousands of years. We rebel. We make the world a better place through our existence. In this age of information and the internet archive, we have the chance to make our own queer history more accessible to future generations than ever before. Let’s not misrepresent our past to our future.