Queer Erasure: The problematic sanitization of History
By Shushrut Devadiga
Whenever we read our history books, we go through pages discussing the deeds of many heterosexual men and occasionally a few women. But finding members of the LGBTQ+ community or mentions of queer history in the chronicles of antiquity is like finding a needle in a haystack. Sadly, that needle has been purposefully kept hidden, out of view of the general public, leading to the perception that queer people never really existed before the Stonewall Riots. This is because queer representation has been purposefully sanitized from the annals of history by many historians to display a heterocentric and cis-gendered worldview. This Queer Erasure has proven dangerous as it has led to the stigmatization of this often marginalized community. However, nothing can hide the fact that queer individuals were always present in history and are here to stay.
Many readers now might wonder what the term “Queer Erasure” means. ‘Queer Erasure’ is a heteronormative cultural practice where queer people are erased from cultural and historical narratives. This has been done using numerous methods such as censoring LGBTQ+ voices, destructions of records and through a process called ‘straight-washing’, where information about a historical figure is altered to comply with heteronormative protocols.
Many historical queer figures who played crucial roles in various significant events have been turned into a bunch of non-entities because of Queer Erasure. An example of this is the case of activist Bayard Rustin. He was one of the most instrumental figures in the Civil Rights movement and was the man behind the famous march in Washington. It was at this march where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I have a dream” speech. Bayard Rustin was openly and unapologetically gay. He earned the ire of many of his peers because of his sexuality and was even shunned by some civil rights leaders. He once confirmed that he has “no problem with being publically identified as a homosexual.” Yet the erasure of his identity started immediately after his death. Many news media outlets reporting his death beat around the bus with his queerness because of their visible discomfort. The New York Times, in their obituary, referred to his longtime partner Walter Naegle solely as his adopted son. Rustin had adopted his partner as his son to ensure that they enjoyed some legal rights that a normal straight couple enjoyed. However, the New York Times just passed over this fact. Today, Rustin has faded from the shortlist of well-known civil rights champions and only recently has enjoyed public recognition for his vital contribution towards the struggle for civil rights
Most of the times, Queer Erasure has been intentionally undertaken by anti-LGBTQ+ regimes in order to remove any references- hence any record of the existence of this “class of deviants”. A largely forgotten case is what happened during the European colonization of Asia and Africa. Many pre-colonial cultures like that of India were very accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. As a matter of fact, throughout Hindu texts, there are many descriptions of saints, demigods, and even the Supreme Lord transcending gender norms and manifesting in multiple combinations of sex and gender.
The Vedas, the ancient Hindu Hymns, even contains the verse “Vikruti evam Prakrati” which translates to “what seems unnatural is also natural”.
Many transgender figures were esteemed members of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s court. Unfortunately, India’s new colonial masters put an end to this era of acceptance. The Victorian British ruling class was appalled by the openness of the Indian culture and some funnily even feared that their countrymen may adopt such “deviant” practices during their long stay away from their spouses. To put an end to this “menace”, the British enacted many discriminatory laws against the queer community. The effects of this colonial queerphobia can still be seen today in India. The LGBTQ+ community still faces rampant discrimination in a nation that has forgotten its largely accepting past.
Sometimes, Queer Erasure happens even when historians have the best of intentions. This is because of the changing outlook on gender and its categorization the centuries. Many terms currently being used to refer to queer identities and issues, including most of the terms used in this article, are very modern. Therefore, it is quite onerous to describe historical figures with labels that weren’t even present during their era. This makes many historians hesitant about stamping present-day labels on individuals retroactively. Another issue is the reliability of sources. Many records, such as letters, might have been destroyed by queerphobic chroniclers or embarrassed kins. Many sources may have also embellished certain facts through the addition of antique queerphobic slander to degrade the image of a person. Let’s take the example of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus. Some historical sources state that the Emperor would often address himself as a “lady” and also attempted to change his gender. Historian Dio stated that Elagabalus “asked the physicians to contrive a woman’s vagina in his body by means of an incision, promising them large sums for doing so.” But can historians term Emperor Elagabalus as a transgender based on such unreliable sources? That is a difficult question to answer.
Yes, it is important to include LGBTQ+ history in our understanding of the past. Most school curriculum only mentions the queer community in the list of those minorities who were killed during the Nazi Genocide. A lack of inclusion in our school curriculums makes the normalization of the Queer Community much more difficult. It denies the existence of a large minority that has existed since the dawn of humanity and perpetuates the false notion that this community is just a modern perversion. Furthermore, such representation can make a huge difference for the many queer people struggling with their identity because it shows them that there is nothing wrong with them. It validates them because they know that there was someone like them who changed the course of our saga. Yes, there are hiccups in the inclusion of LGBTQ+ due to the predicament mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, luckily enough, there are workarounds. Officials in California who recently included LGBTQ+ history as a part of their school curriculum came up with an elegant solution. Instead of forcibly stamping labels on historical figures, the officials decided to emphasize the facts surrounding the lives of these figures to make it clear that they were likely queer. An example of this is Charley Parkhurst, a noted stagecoach driver who settled in California during the gold rush of the 1850s. After his death, it was discovered he was anatomically female. If he was alive, it is likely that he would have identified as a transgender. But instead of categorizing him using this modern terminology, Californian textbooks state that Parkhurst was one of many Americans who “chose to spend their lives as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth.”
Queer Erasure, intentional or not, is harmful and has negative consequences. It is essential to include the identities of LGBTQ+ people in history and it is time that we include them in the records of the human saga.
Sources Citation
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA2exwahsJQ
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bayard-Rustin
- https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/25/obituaries/bayard-rustin-is-dead-at-75-pacifist-and-a-rights-activist.html
- http://gec306india.weebly.com/
- https://samedaytours.in/blog/facts-about-transgenders-in-india-known-as-hijras/
- http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/80*.html
