makingqueerhistory

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer history fact: FannyAnn Viola Eddy founded SLLGA (Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association), the first organization of its kind in Sierra Leone. She worked to fight homophobic and transphobic laws, focusing on the difference between the treatment of queer and cis/hetero incarcerated people. She spoke at the UN about how such inequality would lead to the belief that crimes against queer people were acceptable.

[makingqueerhistory]

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture

By Sherronda J. Brown

Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong.

The notion that everyone wants sex–and that we all have to have it–is false. It’s intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that’s not queer enough, seen through a lens of perceived lack: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.

In this exploration of what it means to be Black and asexual in America today, Sherronda J. Brown offers new perspectives on asexuality. She takes an incisive look at how anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and capitalism enact harm against asexual people, contextualizing acephobia within a racial framework in the first book of its kind. Brown advocates for the “A” in LGBTQIA+, affirming that to be asexual is to be queer–despite the gatekeeping and denial that often says otherwise.

With chapters on desire, f*ckability, utility, refusal, and possibilities, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality discusses topics of deep relevance to ace and a-spec communities. It centers the Black asexual experience–and demands visibility in a world that pathologizes and denies asexuality, denigrates queerness, and specifically sexualizes Black people.

A necessary and unapologetic reclamation, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality is smart, timely, and an essential read for asexuals, aromantics, queer readers, and anyone looking to better understand sexual politics in America.

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer history fact: Zimri-Lim, a man who ruled Mari from 1775 B.C. until 1761 B.C. and led Mari through what is regarded as its most prosperous and peaceful years, had male lovers throughout his life.

[makingqueerhistory]

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Alison Bechdel

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

(Affiliate link above)

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer poetry? Both modern and historical please!!

Queer poets from history to look into:

Yona Wallach

Ifti Nasim 

Langston Hughes

Assotto Saint

Anderson Bigode Herzer

Yosano Akiko

Sappho

tatiana de la tierra 

Walt Whitman 

Sophia Parnok

György Faludy 

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

Modern poetry books to check out:

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World Kai Cheng Thom

God Themselves Jae Nichelle

IRL Tommy Pico

Homie: Poems Danez Smith

Sacrament of Bodies Romeo Oriogun

Disintegrate/Dissociate Arielle Twist

I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry Halsey

Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color Christopher Soto

[makingqueerhistory]

I am fighting to get some more ace/aro books in my local library, but it is a bit difficult at the moment. If anyone has nonfiction books about ace/aro identities in history, please recommend them!

#queer history

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer history fact: Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) performed the first successful modern gender confirmation surgery, pioneering the surgeries used today. He was nicknamed "the Einstein of sex" for his work.

[makingqueerhistory]

Recently read the article(?) on Claude Cahun, a personal hero of mine + of course a part of jérriais/jersey queer history (celebrated island-wide as a part of our history and culture). Thank you to all involved who handled their identity with respect and connected it to the modern nonbinary community, especially as many nonbinary people on island admire them and I know some who have even named themselves in honour 😊!

Thank you so much! (For those interested, here is the article in question: https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/articles/2019/8/31/claude-cahun-part-i ) I am happy you felt that this article handled the nonbinary part well! I know that was a goal when writing it, and I am so glad it came through. Also, I am delighted to hear that some people are naming themselves after Claude on the island! What a fantastic way to honour them!

[makingqueerhistory]

In the middle of the 5th dynasty of Egypt, the tomb of two men who would become one of the most famous same-sex couples in ancient history was built. The tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum was uncovered in 1964 and has been a fierce debate topic ever since. They have been said to be twins, lovers, brothers, and close friends. These two men and their relationship with each other became most controversial long after their deaths.

[makingqueerhistory]

Kapaemahu

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (Author) Dean Hamer (Author) Joe Wilson (Author) Daniel Sousa (Illustrator)

In the 15th century, four Mahu sail from Tahiti to Hawaii and share their gifts of science and healing with the people of Waikiki. The islanders return this gift with a monument of four boulders in their honor, which the Mahu imbue with healing powers before disappearing. As time passes, foreigners inhabit the island and the once-sacred stones are forgotten until the 1960s. Though the true story of these stones was not fully recovered, the power of the Mahu still calls out to those who pass by them at Waikiki Beach today. With illuminating words and stunning illustrations by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, and Daniel Sousa, KAPAEMAHU is a monument to an Indigenous Hawaiian legend and a classic in the making.

(Affiliate link above)

[makingqueerhistory]

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower

Erica Ridley

As a master of disguise, Thomasina Wynchester can be a polite young lady--or a bawdy old man. She'll do whatever it takes to solve the cases her family takes on. But when Tommy's beautiful new client turns out to be the highborn lady she's secretly smitten with, more than her mission is at stake . . . Bluestocking Miss Philippa York doesn't believe in love. Her heart didn't pitter-patter when she was betrothed to a duke, nor did it break when he married someone else. All Philippa desires is to decode a centuries-old manuscript to keep a modern-day villain from claiming credit for work that wasn't his. She hates that she needs a man's help to do it--so she's delighted to discover the clever, charming baron at her side is in fact a woman. But as she and Tommy grow closer and the stakes of their discovery higher, more than just their hearts are at risk.

(Affiliate link above)

[makingqueerhistory]

Reading Updates!

For the next three days, our Patreon will be filled with reading and book updates! Most of it is also available for our free members, so now is a great time to join for those interested in the book side of things! It will include a number of short reviews, some statistics, and a poll!

[makingqueerhistory]

Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals

William Wright

In 2002, a researcher for The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled Secret Court Files, 1920. The mystery he uncovered involved a tragic scandal in which Harvard University secretly put a dozen students on trial for homosexuality and then systematically and persistently tried to ruin their lives. In May of 1920, Cyril Wilcox, a freshman suspended from Harvard, was found sprawled dead on his bed, his room filled with gas--a suicide. The note he left behind revealed his secret life as part of a circle of (cut young) homosexual students. The resulting witch hunt and the lives it cost remains one of the most shameful episodes in the history of America's premiere university. Supported by legendary Harvard President Lawrence Lowell, Harvard conducted its investigation in secrecy. Several students committed suicide; others had their lives destroyed by an ongoing effort on the part of Harvard to destroy their reputations. Harvard's Secret Court is a deeply moving indictment of the human toll of intolerance and the horrors of injustice that can result when a powerful institution loses its balance.

(Affiliate link above)

[makingqueerhistory]

Do you have any advice/ stories for people that don’t feel like they belong in the community?

I actually do. I think there is a bit of a healthy split to have in your interactions with the queer community. Because there is the queer community, and then there are queer people who are a part of your community. The queer community you have to take as a whole, messy as it is. But you are also allowed to make a smaller, separate community of queerness for yourself.

For me, the split looks like this: I talk about my gender journey, unpack hurt, share joy, and call in my community. As for the wider queer community, I put out resources, I volunteer, and I support financially and socially when I can. This split can look different for you. I don't engage, and I don't let people engage with a certain side of me unless they are in MY community. Sometimes, it's for comfort; sometimes, it is for safety.

If you feel removed from the queer community, ask yourself which version of the queer community you're feeling isolated from. Is it that you don't have a community that feels personal and close, or does it feel like you don't have your roots in the wider community? Each issue requires different work.

If you feel disconnected from the wider community, my first prompt would be to see if that is caused by a feeling of imposter syndrome that may have been pushed forward by gatekeepers. If so, it's not uncommon, and it's worth seeing if you can unpick that. Then the next step (or first if imposter syndrome is not the issue) is volunteering at a local queer org or finding a way to share your voice through creation.

If it is a feeling of disconnect from having a personal queer community, it's the same advice to anyone looking to build a community. Be the person you want to find. Nurture yourself and reach out to others.

A book that I would recommend picking up for a very in-depth look at the queer community and its complications is:

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World

Kai Cheng Thom

(Affiliate link above)

I hope this helps, and I hope you find both forms of community soon!

[makingqueerhistory]

After reading this book, I wanted to add it to the list! It's not perfect, but I was glad to have read it!

Hello! I was wondering if you have any recommended reading for kink/fetishes (histories of, queer intersections, discussions of safe sane and consensual, etc) or generally kink positive books/media?

Yes, I do!

Transland: Consent, Kink, and Pleasure

MX Sly

Melissa Febos

(Affiliate link above)

[makingqueerhistory]

Passing Strange

Ellen Klages

San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World's Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer "authentic" experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet. Six women find their lives as tangled with each other's as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where magic, science, and art intersect.

(Affiliate link above)

#queer history #queer #lgbt #lgbt history #gay history #lesbian history #making queer history #queer books #lgbt books

[makingqueerhistory]

Hello! I was wondering if you have any recommended reading for kink/fetishes (histories of, queer intersections, discussions of safe sane and consensual, etc) or generally kink positive books/media?

Yes, I do!

Transland: Consent, Kink, and Pleasure

MX Sly

Melissa Febos

(Affiliate link above)