History of nonbinary gender: Difference between revisions
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==Nineteenth century== | ==Nineteenth century== | ||
[[File:We-Wa, a Zuni berdache, weaving - NARA - 523796.jpg|thumb|We'Wha, a Zuni Two-Spirit (''Lhamana'') person who lived 1849-1896.]] | |||
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27wha We'wha] (1849–1896) was a Zuni Native American from New Mexico, and the most famous ''lhamana'' on record. In traditional Zuni culture, the ''lhamana'' take on roles and duties associated with both men and women, and they wear a mixture of women's and men's clothing. They work as mediators. As a notable fiber artist, weaver, and potter, We'wha was a prominent cultural ambassador for Native Americans in general, and the Zuni in particular. In 1886, We'wha was part of the Zuni delegation to Washington D.C.. They were hosted by anthropologist Matilda Coxe Stevenson and, during that visit, We'wha met President Grover Cleveland. Friends and relatives alternated masculine and feminine pronouns for We'Wha. We'wha was described as being highly intelligent, having a strong character, and always being kind to children.<ref name=Stevenson37>Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, (BiblioBazaar, 2010) p. 37</ref><ref name=Bost139>Suzanne Bost, Mulattas and Mestizas: Representing Mixed Identities in the Americas, 1850-2000, (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2003, pg.139</ref> | |||
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=== 1870s === | |||
[[File:Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (from Kennedy).jpg|thumb|150px|Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), who described "a neutral sex" that was not physically intersex.]] | [[File:Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (from Kennedy).jpg|thumb|150px|Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), who described "a neutral sex" that was not physically intersex.]] | ||
* Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) developed a theory in which men who are attracted to men and women who are attracted to women are thus because they are members of a third sex, a mixture of both male and female, and with the psyche or essence of the "opposite" sex, even though their bodies look like cis-gender male and female bodies. The terms "homosexual," "bisexual," and "heterosexual" didn't exist yet, so he coined terms for them all. The overall phenomenon he called [[Uranismus]] (in the original German, ''Urningtum''), gay men were uranians (German ''urnings''), lesbians were uraniads (German ''urningin'', as ''-in'' is the feminine suffix), whereas heterosexuals were ''Dionings'', so bisexual men were ''uranodionings,'' and so on, all of which were distinct from ''zwitter'' (intersex). Ulrichs based this naming system on "Plato's ''Symposium'', where two different kinds of love [...are] ruled by two different goddesses of love-- Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus, and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and Dione. The second Aphrodite rules those who love the opposite sex." <ref>''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 61. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref> Ulrichs argued that their condition was as natural and healthy as that of what we now call heterosexual people, and he started the movement fighting for their equal legal rights to express their love "between consenting adults, with the free consent of both parties," in his words from 1870, and that they should not be pathologized nor criminalized for doing so.<ref name="UlrichsAraxes">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Araxes: Appeal for the liberation of the urning's nature from penal law." 1870. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 63-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref>. Although Uranismus was generally addressed in terms of orientation, Ulrichs specifically described various categories of uranians in terms of their gender nonconformity and gender variance. For example, in regard to feminine gay men or queens (who he called ''Weiblings''), Ulrichs wrote in 1879, <blockquote>"The Weibling is a total mixture of male and female, in which the female element is even predominant, a thoroughly hermaphroditically organized being. Despite his male sexual organs, he is more woman than man. He is a woman with male sexual organs. He is a neutral sex. He is a neuter. He is the hermaphrodite of the ancients."<ref name="UlrichsArrow">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Critical arrow." 1879. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 64-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref></blockquote> | * Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) developed a theory in which men who are attracted to men and women who are attracted to women are thus because they are members of a third sex, a mixture of both male and female, and with the psyche or essence of the "opposite" sex, even though their bodies look like cis-gender male and female bodies. The terms "homosexual," "bisexual," and "heterosexual" didn't exist yet, so he coined terms for them all. The overall phenomenon he called [[Uranismus]] (in the original German, ''Urningtum''), gay men were uranians (German ''urnings''), lesbians were uraniads (German ''urningin'', as ''-in'' is the feminine suffix), whereas heterosexuals were ''Dionings'', so bisexual men were ''uranodionings,'' and so on, all of which were distinct from ''zwitter'' (intersex). Ulrichs based this naming system on "Plato's ''Symposium'', where two different kinds of love [...are] ruled by two different goddesses of love-- Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus, and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and Dione. The second Aphrodite rules those who love the opposite sex." <ref>''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 61. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref> Ulrichs argued that their condition was as natural and healthy as that of what we now call heterosexual people, and he started the movement fighting for their equal legal rights to express their love "between consenting adults, with the free consent of both parties," in his words from 1870, and that they should not be pathologized nor criminalized for doing so.<ref name="UlrichsAraxes">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Araxes: Appeal for the liberation of the urning's nature from penal law." 1870. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 63-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref>. Although Uranismus was generally addressed in terms of orientation, Ulrichs specifically described various categories of uranians in terms of their gender nonconformity and gender variance. For example, in regard to feminine gay men or queens (who he called ''Weiblings''), Ulrichs wrote in 1879, <blockquote>"The Weibling is a total mixture of male and female, in which the female element is even predominant, a thoroughly hermaphroditically organized being. Despite his male sexual organs, he is more woman than man. He is a woman with male sexual organs. He is a neutral sex. He is a neuter. He is the hermaphrodite of the ancients."<ref name="UlrichsArrow">Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Critical arrow." 1879. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 64-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false</ref></blockquote> | ||
: Ulrichs goes on to say the direct counterpart of the Weibling among those were were assigned female at birth is "the masculine-inspired, woman-loving Mannlingin," who is equally gender-variant.<ref name="UlrichsArrow" /> Ulrichs emphasizes that Uranismus includes gender-variant people, distinct from those who conform from their gender, and also distinct from people born with physical intersex characteristics. As such, Uranismus included people who might today identify as nonbinary. | : Ulrichs goes on to say the direct counterpart of the Weibling among those were were assigned female at birth is "the masculine-inspired, woman-loving Mannlingin," who is equally gender-variant.<ref name="UlrichsArrow" /> Ulrichs emphasizes that Uranismus includes gender-variant people, distinct from those who conform from their gender, and also distinct from people born with physical intersex characteristics. As such, Uranismus included people who might today identify as nonbinary. | ||
* Based on Ulrich's work, which were the foundation of Western notions of LGBT people for the next several decades, clinical beliefs around the time of the 1890s "conflat[ed] sex, sexual orientation, and gender expression," thinking of (to use modern words for them) gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming people as all having some kind of intersex condition. Such people were said to have "sexual inversion," and were called "inverts."<ref>"What's the history behind the intersex rights movement?" ''Intersex Society of North America.'' http://www.isna.org/faq/history </ref>. Another name used for the same category through the 1890s and 1910s was "the intermediate sex," or the "intermediates," which was not physically intersex, and was understood to be often (though not always) gender nonconforming.<ref>Edward Carpenter. "The intermediate sex." ''Love's Coming-of-Age.'' 1906. Accessed via the archive in ''Sacred Texts'' at http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm</ref> | |||
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=== 1880s === | |||
* The earliest known true [[transsexual]] genital conversion [[surgery]] of any kind was performed in 1882 on a [[Binary genders#Transgender men|trans man]] named Herman Karl.<ref>James Sears, ''Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Issues in Education.'' p. 109. [http://books.google.com/books?id=w7365W7rQKQC&lpg=PA109&ots=gSa98lwR0v&dq=sophia%20hedwig%20transgender%20herman%20karl&pg=PA109#v=onepage&q=sophia%20hedwig%20transgender%20herman%20karl&f=false Google Books link]</ref> However, "earliest transsexual genital conversion surgery" depends on one's definition. [[Eunuch]]s have been around for all of human history, and while many eunuchs consider themselves [[Binary genders#Cisgender men|cisgender men]], many others consider themselves another gender that isn't female or male, such as [[hijra]]. Some sources credit the first trans male genital conversion surgery as, instead, the one performed on a trans man named Michael Dillon in the 1930s, perhaps depending on how one defines that surgery. | |||
=== 1890s === | |||
* Based on Ulrich's work in the 1870s, which were the foundation of Western notions of LGBT people for the next several decades, clinical beliefs around the time of the 1890s "conflat[ed] sex, sexual orientation, and gender expression," thinking of (to use modern words for them) gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming people as all having some kind of intersex condition. Such people were said to have "sexual inversion," and were called "inverts."<ref>"What's the history behind the intersex rights movement?" ''Intersex Society of North America.'' http://www.isna.org/faq/history </ref>. Another name used for the same category through the 1890s and 1910s was "the intermediate sex," or the "intermediates," which was not physically intersex, and was understood to be often (though not always) gender nonconforming.<ref>Edward Carpenter. "The intermediate sex." ''Love's Coming-of-Age.'' 1906. Accessed via the archive in ''Sacred Texts'' at http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm</ref> | |||
* "In 1895, a group of self-described '[[androgyne|androgynes]]' in New York organized a 'little club called the Cercle Hermaphroditos, based on their self-perceived need 'to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution.'" This group included people who, in today's words, may have called themselves cross-dressers and transgender people.<ref>Susan Stryker, "Why the T in LGBT is here to stay." ''Salon.'' October 11, 2007. [http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/ http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/] </ref> The group included a nonbinary autobiographer, [[Notable nonbinary people#Jennie June|Jennie June]]. | * "In 1895, a group of self-described '[[androgyne|androgynes]]' in New York organized a 'little club called the Cercle Hermaphroditos, based on their self-perceived need 'to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution.'" This group included people who, in today's words, may have called themselves cross-dressers and transgender people.<ref>Susan Stryker, "Why the T in LGBT is here to stay." ''Salon.'' October 11, 2007. [http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/ http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/] </ref> The group included a nonbinary autobiographer, [[Notable nonbinary people#Jennie June|Jennie June]]. | ||
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