Sep 27, 2018
One of the most annoying ideas in our public discourse about queer and trans folks is that we are a new phenomenon. I’ve seen enough conservative pearl clutching about this new trans things to last my entire lifetime. Its insidious. You see it in the subtext of every breathless conservative thinkpiece. This new phenomenon, this new trend, this new fad. My friends, this is not only just factually incorrect, its also dangerous. Pretending like queer and trans people only exist recently in history robs us of significant pieces of our existence. Our history is in fact the history of humanity itself. You find people from all parts of the world, in all cultures, of all backgrounds who don’t fit cisgender or heterosexual norms. We have ALWAYS existed.
The fact that the conversation about us has reached a new level of awareness does not, in fact, mean that we somehow just showed up on the world stage. We have always been here, and always will be. Its this context that makes illustrating and preserving queer and trans history so very very important. There are lots of people doing this important work, and today we’re going to be talking to one such person. His name is Josh Burford, and Josh is one of the founders of the Invisible Histories Project.
https://www.invisiblehistory.org/
A video of Birmingham's first pride celebration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeA1rBfrkng