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History Theft: How Gay and Lesbian Historians Appropriate Trans History


As far back as we have history of transgender people, we have appropriation (a nice word for theft) of our history by gays and lesbians. I wrote a post about Albert Cashier, who was a veteran of the Civil War and lived as Albert most of his life. His identity stayed intact for most of his life. Only until he was admitted to Watertown State Hospital was it widely known that Cashier was born female. When he was forced to wear dresses, he would take pins and fashion pants out of them. This is not someone that identified or lived as a woman. Yet the “Out and Proud in Chicago” documentary page states:

“These include the story of Jenny Hodgers, a cross-dressing Civil War hero who lived the majority of her adult life as a Albert Cashier”

Cashier even hid his identity at the cost of his Civil War pension. When required a physical exam for the pension, Cashier declined. If he went to such great lengths to hide is birth sex, why would anyone use female pronouns and call him a crossdresser in a supposed LGBT documentary?

OutHistory sent me a link to “Earl Lind (Ralph Werther-Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921“. One of the story’s header descriptors says  “Transgender Memoir of 1921 Found’. The article itself is a pretty fascinating look at a transgender person from the turn of the century. I was captivated by it until I read:

“In his published Autobiography, also excerpted on OutHistory.org, Lind describes “Paresis Hall”, a New York City resort for “androgynes” in the 1890s, and their alleged formation in 1895 of the Cercle Hermaphroditos “for defense against the world’s bitter persecution” –- an organization which, if not apocryphal, is the earliest-known homosexual emancipation organization in the U.S. No other evidence of the Cercle has been found.”

Androgyne is a gender identity, not a sexual orientation. Calling Cercle Hermaphroditos a “homosexual organization” is an artful form of theft. Transgender people in times past didn’t have a name for themselves, but we do. According to Greek mythology, Hemaphroditos was the child of Aphrodite and Hermes. Hemaphroditos was said to have “merged bodies with a water nymph, becoming a creature of both sexes.” Does that sound gay or transgender?

When Joe Solmonese lectured John Stewart (of the Daily Show fame) on the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation, he proved he knew the difference. I wish gay and lesbian historians would acknowledge the difference as well and not try to do a smash and grab of our history when it’s convenient for them.

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Transadvocate contributor: Marti Abernathey  (1926 Posts)

Marti Abernathey is Transadvocate.com's blog editor. She's also a podcaster, activist, and radiologic technologist in Madison, Wisconsin. She's been a part of various internet radio ventures such as TSR Live!, The T-Party, and The Radical Trannies, to name a few. As an advocate she's previously been involved with the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance, Rock Indiana Campaign for Equality, and the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. She's taken vital roles as a grass roots community organizer in The Indianapolis Tax Day Protest (2003), The Indy Pride HRC Protest (2004), Transgender Day of Remembrance (2004), Indiana's Witch Hunt (2005), and the Rally At The Statehouse (the largest ever GLBT protest in Indiana - 3/2005). She was a delegate from Indiana to the Democratic National Convention and a member of Barack Obama's LGBT Steering and Policy Committee.


  • http://tuuli.info/ Suvi-Tuuli Allan

    Are you sure you’re not appropriating intersex history? Remember, intersex =/= transgender.

    • Anonymous

      That’s a good question, of which I’m not sure of the answer. As far as I know, neither has had their physical examinations made public. But I believe it’s pretty damn clear they didn’t identify the way gay and lesbian historians have.

      • Anonymous

        specifically from the second case:

        ” the author’s explicit, emphatic defense of sexual and gender non-conformists as people born with different natures and desires”

        and

        “the Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918) and The Female Impersonators (1922), provide rare, first person testimony about the early-20th-century life and times of a self-described “fairie” or “androgyne,” an individual, Lind says, “with male genitals,” but whose “psychical constitution” and sexual life “approach the female type.” In the newly discovered manuscript Lind also calls himself “bisexual,” meaning, in his usage, a person combining male and female personality traits and desires.”

    • Anonymous

      intersex may or may not t be part of transgender

      the key issue is if you see intersex and transexual  as different, they have been post 1945 when surgery on infants became possible and thus allowed the creation of intersex as a distinct group this lead benjamin to ‘discovering’ transexuals. But the actual history is far more complex and intertwined

      a quick over view of the history of surgery as it relates to hermaphrodites is that it was matter for the courts first the religious and then the civil courts until it was taken over by doctors. Hermaphrodites as a focus of study became conflated with ‘psychological hermaphrodites’ upon their ‘discovery’ via group of men practising BDSM who became subject of a psychiatric study. This new field quickly grew to include all areas of what we now call  transgender, bisexuality and homosexuality plus various other sexual practices. The treatment of these hermaphrodites or pseudo-hermaphrodites as they were increasingly called as ‘true’ hermaphroditism was very rare, increasingly became the purvue of  psychiatrists who could treat them with a variety of sexual organs and later sexual chemicals, this process evolved into the twentieth century with the initially the treatment of congenital inverts and then as I said the ‘discovery’ of intersexuality in the 1940′s due to advances in surgery on children and the recognition of homosexuality and a range of other parafilias as different disorder from standard pseudo-hermaphroditism thence the discovery of transvestism and finally that transexuality and  with the label pseudo-hermaphrodite was consigned to history.

      the key point here is how we see intersex, transgender and transexuality now is not how it was seen in the past and using current labels is highly questionable

  • Jonathan Ned Katz

    In response to Marti Abernathy’s critique I’ve changed the description of the Cercle Hermaphroditos to read:

    In his published ”Autobiography”, also excerpted on OutHistory.org, Lind describes “Paresis Hall”, a New York City resort for “androgynes” in the 1890s. Lind’s account of the Hall includes a description of a group which is, if not apocryphal, one of the earliest-known U.S. organizations for gender and sexual emancipation, the Cercle Hermaphrodites, formed by “androgynes” (in Lind’s account, men who identify as feminine or female and who desire sex with men) to “unite for defense against the world’s bitter persecution”.

    In Lind’s usage, which as a historian I respect and try to explain to present day readers, “androgyne” refers to both gender and sexual identities.

    Jonathan Ned Katz, Co-Director OutHistory.org

    • Anonymous

      Jonathan, thank you for your quick response and edit. I could have done this privately, but I think it’s important not only for the transcommunity, but the larger LGBT community as well to have a discussion on our shared history as well as our own distinct history. If left untouched, these incorrect versions of history end up being used by people who want to advance an altered version of history (Stonewall being the best example).

      It’s important in your article’s context because even though androgyne did refer to a sexual identity, it was one of bisexuality, not homosexuality, correct?

  • Agleig

    I think the photo accompanying this article is offensive; to compare LGB appropriation of trans history to a robbery and mugging is harmful and negative. Now more than ever, minority groups need to work together. Please lets correct misunderstandings in a spirit of generosity and understanding. The process of delineating between trans and LGB identity can be difficult for many trans people themselves….bashing each other over the head is only a victory for those who want to silence both communities. let’s have more generosity and solidarity, please!

    • http://translegalhistorian.wordpress.com/ Kat

      “I think the photo accompanying this article is offensive; to compare LGB appropriation of trans history to a robbery and mugging is harmful and negative”

      More harmful and negative than destroying trans history to make fake gay-pure history that is, in turn, used to justify trans-exclusion?

      Nice try.

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  • Big Kate

    wow just as I predicted 10 years ago we have trans people doing to lesbian and gay historians what lesbian and gay people historians complained about feminist historians  and feminist historians complained about of mainstream historians

    yet no one thinks to check with the historical figure themselves how they saw themselves

    oh wait you cant

    but its fine cause their dead now so we can relabel their lives anyway we can just like we like the way people relabel our lives anyway they want

    oh wait that’s different

    so its hipocracy if they do it but it recognising history if we do it?

    • Anonymous

      This isn’t a guess or an assumption. Albert Cashier lived his entire life as a man and hid the fact that he was female bodied. This isn’t a guess, it’s recorded history.  So yes, it is different. This  isn’t going out on a limb, it was his identity which you can see ON HIS TOMBSTONE.

      • Anonymous

        sorry which is it did he live his entire life as a man as you have just said or did he live some of his life as a man which you said here ” who was a veteran of the Civil War and lived as Albert most of his life”

        the point is thay are not around to discuss their lives or how they saw themselves yet you feel able to say they are  trans because….

        of what was on their grave stone? Should we evaluate your life based on what someone has put on your gravestone? or is more reasonable to suggest that we don’t know how they saw themselves within our current framework because they lived in another country (the past) and anything we or any one else says is cultural imperialism 

  • Anonymous

    intersex may or may not t be part of transgender

    the key issue is if you see intersex and transexual  as different, they have been post 1945 when surgery on infants became possible and thus allowed the creation of intersex as a distinct group this lead benjamin to ‘discovering’ transexuals. But the actual history is far more complex and intertwined

    a quick over view of the history of surgery as it relates to hermaphrodites is that it was matter for the courts first the religious and then the civil courts until it was taken over by doctors. Hermaphrodites as  a focus of study became confalted with ‘psychological hermaphrodites’ upon their ‘discovery’ via group of men practising BDSM who became subject of a psychiatric study. This new field quickly grew to include all areas of what we now call  transgender, bisexuality and homosexuality plus various other sexual practices as forms