LGBTQ history

The Pendulum of Queer History

by Samuel Huneke

As the Republican Party embraces aggressive transphobia as a political wedge issue, there is historical reason to believe that the strategy will provoke organizing, reform, or even revolution for queer liberation. 

The Dodgers Were Right to Honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

by Lily Lucas Hodges

Catholic groups charged that the LGBTQ group mocked their faith with their appropriation of nuns' dress. But the group more importantly defied Catholic teaching to promote life-saving health care and education about sexuality at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. 

Moms For Liberty Event at Museum of American Revolution is a Betrayal of Historians and Democracy

by Jen Manion

"The Museum of the American Revolution has a responsibility to defend the history and practice of American democracy, not harbor those who seek to destroy it."

The Lesson of Germany's Most Famous Trans Woman? Freedom Requires Joy

by Samuel Huneke

As anti-trans and homophobic legislation and rhetoric pervade the political arena, this Pride month may feel less than celebratory. A historian of queer life under both Nazism and East German Communism says it's a mistake to embrace doom. 

Sports Historian Victoria Jackson: Trans Bans in Sports Part of History of Suspicion toward Women's Sports

Recent state laws regulating the participation of transgender athletes in girls' sports are part of a long history of policing gender in athletics. 

Can the Left Take Back Identity Politics?

by Umut Özkırımlı

Recovering the liberatory potential of identity politics means going back to the term's source—the Combahee River Collective—and recognizing its radical roots and embrace of coalition-building and politics.

The Right to Dress However You Want

by Kate Redburn

New anti-transgender laws should prompt a legal response, but they also require a fundamental recognition: laws prescribing gendered dress codes infringe on everyone's freedom of expression. 

Dodgers' Controversial Invite to "Drag Nuns" Group Highlights Catholics' Selective Sense of Faith

by Kaya Oakes

Catholic groups expressing outrage at the team's recognition of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence overlook the centrality of mercy in the Gospels. 

Dangerous Records: Why LGBTQ Americans Today Fear the Weaponization of Bureaucracy

by Emily Hand

Requests made by Texas's Attorney General for information about gender change requests on drivers' licenses and other documents alarmed transgender advocates because the data could support an official list of trans Texans at a moment when the group faces public vilification. History shows that innocent bureaucratic records can be used oppressively.

How to Fight Back Against the Right's "Parents' Rights" Moral Panic

by Jennifer Berkshire

Parents' fears about losing control over their children have been the raw material for potent politically-motivated moral panics for a century and more. But those panics aren't irresistible, because parents everywhere still value public schools as democratic community institutions.  

Most Book Bans Driven by Tiny Minority of Activists; LGBTQ Themes Central to Objections

Individuals who filed 10 or more challenges to books were responsible for two thirds of all complaints about books, suggesting a small group of political activists is driving the phenomenon. 

Dept. of Ed Charges Georgia Book Removal May Violate Civil Rights

A review by the department's civil rights unit concludes that Forsyth County, Georgia may have created a hostile learning environment for Black and LGBTQ students through its book removal policies. 

If it's Ineffective and Harmful, Why is Gay Conversion Therapy Still Around?

by Andrea Ens

Conversion therapies endure because their purpose is political, not therapeutic. They seek and symbolize the eradication of LGBTQ people from society and are promoted by groups who want that eradication to happen. 

Indiana U. Pres.: Legislative Attack on Kinsey Institute a Attack on Academic Freedom

Ironically, Alfred Kinsey's work was the subject of moral panics and suppression in his own lifetime. 

Indiana's Kinsey Institute will Have to Carry on Without State Funds

The pioneering research institute for the study of human sexuality has been a victim of the "groomer" moral panic; the legislator introducing the funding restrictions has called the late Alfred Kinsey a pedophile and suggested the institute was "hiding child predators." 

Let Us Now Praise R. DeSantis

by Marc Stein

"I can’t believe it’s taken this long to have a political leader take a stand against gender and sexuality!"

Shameful Echoes of the 1950s Lavender Scare

by David K. Johnson

At the height of the McCarthy era, a bipartisan congressional committee concluded that gay and lesbian personnel should be purged from government service because of the alleged "weakness of their moral fiber." Teaching this history could make students more able to recognize political moral panics today. 

A Hunt Through the Queer Past for the Anonymous "HHC" Ended in an Unexpected Place

by Aaron Lecklider

The repression of the past has meant that few early LGBTQ activists have kept detailed records of their work or their communities. But sometimes the present community of historians can collectively find those ghosts of the past. 

Jeanne Manford's Support for her Gay Son was Revolutionary

At the time Manford began publicly supporting her own gay son and organizing a group for other parents of gay children, 49 states had laws criminalizing gay sex; the scope and bravery of her activism is difficult to appreciate today. 

Gender-Affirming Care Has a Long History, and Has Affected Non-Trans People Too

by G. Samantha Rosenthal

Medical intervention to make people's bodies conform to their assigned place in the gender binary has a long history; it has been controversial principally when the same treatments have been used by transgender people.