Questions of gender identity and sexuality are nothing new. Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands — people assigned female at birth who transed gender, lived as men, and entered into legal marriages with women.
Early America is filled with histories of queer pioneers, from female husbands to sailors, children, and prisoners. During the early republic and antebellum period, these stories were featured in newspapers, magazines, and children’s literature. In this talk, historian Jen Manion examined these queer and trans stories that appeared in print. They explored questions like:
- How were queer and trans people represented in print media at the time?
- What can these stories tell us about the lives of queer and trans people?
- What were their experiences like prior to medicalization and the invention of modern categories such as homosexual and transgender?
