History of nonbinary gender/ru

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==Eighteenth century==

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[[File:Public Universal Friend portrait.jpg|thumb|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">A portrait of the Public Universal Friend, from the Friend's biography written by David Hudson in 1821.</span>]]

* "[[Singular they]]" had already been the standard [[English neutral pronouns|gender-neutral pronoun in English]] for hundreds of years. However, in 1745, prescriptive grammarians began to say that it was no longer acceptable. Their reasoning was that neutral pronouns don't exist in Latin, which was thought to be a better language, so English shouldn't use them, either. They instead began to recommend using "[[English neutral pronouns#He|he]]" as a gender-neutral pronoun.<ref>Maria Bustillos, "Our desperate, 250-year-long search for a gender-neutral pronoun." January 6, 2011. [http://www.theawl.com/2011/01/our-desperate-250-year-long-search-for-a-gender-neutral-pronoun http://www.theawl.com/2011/01/our-desperate-250-year-long-search-for-a-gender-neutral-pronoun]</ref> This started the dispute over the problem of acceptable gender-neutral pronouns in English, which has carried on for centuries now.

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* [[Māhū]] ("in the middle") in Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) and Maohi (Tahitian) cultures are [[third gender]] persons with traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture. The māhū gender category existed in their cultures during pre-contact times, and still exists today.<ref>Kaua'i Iki, quoted by Andrew Matzner in 'Transgender, queens, mahu, whatever': An Oral History from Hawai'i. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context Issue 6, August 2001</ref> In the pre-colonial history of Hawai'i, māhū were notable priests and healers, although much of this history was elided through the intervention of missionaries. The first written Western description of māhū occurs in 1789, in Captain William Bligh's logbook of the Bounty, which stopped in Tahiti where he was introduced to a member of a "class of people very common in Otaheitie called Mahoo... who although I was certain was a man, had great marks of effeminacy about him."<ref>William Bligh. Bounty Logbook. Thursday, January 15, 1789.</ref>

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* The [[Public Universal Friend]] (1752 - 1819) was a genderless evangelist who traveled throughout the eastern United States to preach a theology based on that of the Quakers, which was actively against slavery. The Friend believed that God had reanimated them from a severe illness at age 24 with a new spirit, which was genderless. The Friend refused to be called by the birth name,<ref name="Moyer-12 Winiarski-430 Juster-MacFarlane-27-28">Moyer, p. 12; Winiarski, p. 430; and Susan Juster, Lisa MacFarlane, ''A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism'' (1996), p. 27, and p. 28.</ref> even on legal documents,<ref name="Brekus-85">Catherine A. Brekus, ''Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845'' (2000), p. 85</ref> and insisted on being called by no pronouns. Followers respected these wishes, avoiding gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries, and referring only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F."<ref name="Juster-MacFarlane-27-28 Brekus-85 etc">Juster & MacFarlane, ''A Mighty Baptism'', pp. 27-28; Brekus, p. 85</ref> The Friend wore clothing that contemporaries described as androgynous, which were usually black robes. The Friend's followers came to be known as the Society of Universal Friends, and included people who were black, and many unmarried women who took on masculine roles in their communities.<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331">Peg A. Lamphier, Rosanne Welch, ''Women in American History'' (2017), p. 331.</ref>

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* [[Jens Andersson]] was a nonbinary person in Norway, who married a woman in 1781. It was soon discovered that Andersson had a female body, and the marriage was annulled, while Andersson was accused of sodomy. In the trial, Andersson was asked: "Are you a man or a woman?" It was recorded that the answer was that "he thinks he may be both".[https://skeivtarkiv.no/skeivopedia/et-besynderligt-givtermaal-mellem-tvende-fruentimmer]

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* [[Romaine-la-Prophétesse]] was a leader of a slave uprising in 1791-92, early in the Haitian Revolution, that for a time governed much of southern Haiti, including two major cities. Romaine identified as a prophetess, dressed like a woman, and spoke of being possessed by a female spirit, but also reportedly identified as a godson of the Virgin Mary and used masculine pronouns in self-references in dictated letters; Romaine has therefore been interpreted by modern scholars as perhaps [[genderfluid]]<ref name="R52">Terry Rey, ''The Priest and the Prophetess'' (2017), pp. 52-53</ref> or [[transgender]],<ref name="R52"/><ref name="Albanese">Mary Grace Albanese, "Unraveling the Blood Line: Pauline Hopkins's Haitian Genealogies", in ''J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists'', volume 7, number 2, Fall 2019, p. 234</ref> or might have been [[bigender]].

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