Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBTs) have been a part of society, both throughout time and around

the world, for as long as humans have existed. Homosexuality is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9 of the Bible. Many scholars believe that Shakespeare was a homosexual and point to his sonnets as proof. Dr. Laurie Rozakis, professor and author of The Complete Idiots Guide to Shakespeare, points out that the sonnets are addressed to someone with the initials W.H. and there has been much debate as to who these refer to, although the most popular choice is Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton. In fact, out of a lengthy list of possibilities, not a single candidate is female. In A Queer History of the United States Michael Bronski goes further to point out that Shakespeares sonnets were filled with ambiguous gender and sexual comments. Furthermore, during Elizabethan times, only males were allowed to be on the stage, so crossdressing was a requirement. In fact, at that time, the public was fascinated by this. Nicholas Teich, a clinical social worker, gives several examples of early transgenders including some Southeast Asian communities that celebrated males who dressed in womens clothing during special ceremonies in the 15th and 16th centuries. These cross-dressers served as mediators between the spheres of humans and spirits or nature. Variations of transwomen lived in Thailand during early times. South Africa has had male-to-female spiritual leaders who have crossed gender boundaries and in the British Isles, transpeople and crossdressers existed in all classes of society. Until I read Teichs book, Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue, I was not aware that India is home to a third gender, called hijras. Interested in the idea of a third gender I learned from Naghma Rehan, et al, that this term is for males who are transgender, eunuch, transvestites, intersexed, bisexual, or homosexual. In their article Socio-sexual Behavior of Hijras of Lahore they explain that a large number of hijras are males who identify

as feminine rather than masculine, often because their sexual desire is for men. Hijras dress and behave like women, referring to themselves using feminine pronouns. They typically live together in communes of five chelas or disciples, supervised by a guru. They are trained in singing and dancing, as well as other activities and earn a living by entertaining, begging, or prostitution. Hijras have been a part of Indian culture for generations. North American native tribes, according to Teich, often included transpeople in their daily lives. The term two-spirits was coined for this group of people in 1990. This term does not translate into a strict notion of male-to-female or female-to-male. Instead, they are often a blend of gender identities, roles, and expressions that do not conform to traditional Western culture. In American Indian communities they could speak in both mens and womens ways and were the people allowed to go between the mens and womens camps to negotiate marriages, divorces, and communication between the sexes. The Navajo society includes feminine males and masculine females. Feminine males are associated with typical female gender roles, while the masculine females are associated with typical male gender roles. Although hijras and two-spirit people were new to me, I have previously read about women who fought in the wars disguised as men. Indeed, at the time of the Civil War, all soldiers were male-born and were expected to be male-identified. However, there were times when, upon a soldiers injury or illness, a full physical examination was done and they were found to be females. It will never be known how many of these women identified with the male gender and how many were simply crossdressing in order to serve their country. However, Teich gives an example of one soldier, Albert Cashier, who was a transgender. Jenny Hodgers was born in Ireland and labeled a female at birth. After immigrating to the U.S., Jenny enlisted in the Union army under the name of Albert Cashier and fought for over

three years in forty battles. After the war, Albert continued to live as a man. In 1913, a doctor discovered that Albert had a female anatomy and a number of newspaper articles began to appear about Alberts deception. A year later he was committed for dementia to an insane asylum where they forced him to dress in female clothing. Unfamiliar with how to walk in these clothes, the frail 67 year old tripped and broke his hip. He never recovered from the injury and was bedridden for the rest of his life. Peter Boag, a historian, claims in his article Go West Young Man, Go East Young Woman: Searching for the Trans in Western Gender History that there may have been more to many cases in the west than just simple crossdressing. Alberta Lucille Hart, for instance, was born in Albany, Oregon in 1890. As a child she preferred boyish pursuits and insisted on being the man of the family when driving a buggy for her mother. Furthermore, she confessed to her doctor that she had erotic dreams about other girls. Later known as Alan Hart, she began dressing as a male in college, attended medical school, and researched her condition. Harts doctor suggested that she accept that she preferred living as a male and even performed a hysterectomy on her so that she did not have to deal with menstruation. Subsequently, she made her exit from the world as a woman and entered the world as a man. Alan twice married women and lived as a man until he died in the 1960s. The lives of transgenders have not been easy throughout history. Indeed, they have been the victims of discrimination, harassment, and violence. For example, Bronski tells us that when Europeans came to this country they came with a strict sense of how gender and sexuality should be organized. When the Puritans arrived on these shores, they wanted to make sure that the temptations and errors that they had left behind in England did not become established here. Consequently, they enforced strict legal sanctions against sexual deviance or gender norms.

Many of these laws, such as a law against sodomy, affected those who preferred same sex relationships. In 1682 Pennsylvania removed the death penalty as punishment for breaking the sodomy law and reduced the sentence to whipping, six months of hard labor, and the forfeiture of a third of the accuseds estate. This, however, was only a temporary measure and 32 years later the penalty was returned to death. As time passed, specifically during the Enlightenment, same sex relationships began to grow, Bronski claims. These were deemed friendships, but may have included an erotic or sexual component. As long as these were kept private, and the traditional gender roles were displayed in public, it was acceptable. For example, abolitionist and feminist Sarah M. Grimke wrote letters to her beloved friend Mary Parker. These were signed thine in the bonds of womanhood (48). Using the word bonds implied slavery and would have indicated that Grimke and Parker were bound together and oppressed together as women. Likewise, letters between Daniel Webster and James Hervey Bingham at the turn of the 19th century stated: Yes, James, I must come; we will yoke together again; your little bed is just wide enough; we will practice at the same bar, and be as friendly a pair of single fellows as ever cracked a nut (49). I found Bronskis description of San Francisco to be very interesting. I have long heard that this city is home to many LGBTs, but did not know it has been known as a tolerant urban area since the earliest days, with few social restrictions and acceptability for illegal behavior. This included same-sex sexual activity and a deviation from gender norms. By 1850, in fact, same sex dancing was acceptable in San Francisco. Meanwhile in the East, Americas authors were openly writing about same sex relationships. Washington Irving, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Emily Dickinson were all writing homoerotic literature or poetry.

As American cities grew in the early twentieth century, so did communities of nonmarried single-gendered groups. Bronski writes that during the first four decades of the 20th century entertainments grew with the cities. Burlesque and vaudeville, film and music grew and challenged traditional ideas about gender, sexual behavior, and sexual identity. Additionally, clubs and nightspots began to cater to a homosexual clientele. One of my favorite movies is Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews and James Garner. In this movie, Andrews character pretends to be a gay man who is a female impersonator. I believe the movie does quite a good job at portraying the fascination of this time with homosexuals, crossdressers, and transgenders. Even so, distrust for these people continued. States passed sexual psychopath laws and sex panics spread across the country. In peoples minds, children were being victimized as they fused sexual deviancy with homosexuality and child molestation. The more public this group became, the more they seemed to threaten society. I have always admired President Dwight Eisenhower; however, it disappointed me to read Meaghan Nappos article, Not a Quiet Riot: Stonewall and the Creation of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Community and Identity Through Public History Techniques about the Stonewall riots and learn that, as a result of an increase in gay sub-culture after World War II, the President banned federal employment of gay men and women and purged them from the ranks of the military. It wasnt until 1969, Nappo states, that a turning point for modern gay liberation in the U.S. happened. It was at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar run by the mafia in Greenwich Village, that a radical change in homosexual rights began. It was here, and in other similar clubs, that police used possible improper liquor licenses as a justification to raid the bars. Normally, the patrons responded to these raids without incident. Bronski gives yet more details about the raids that took place on June 28th of that year, when police stormed the Stonewall Inn once again in the early

morning hours. They evicted customers and arrested staff. This time the growing crowd outside refused to leave and conflicts with the police took place. The same scene was repeated that evening. Then it occurred again a few days later. The memory of what happened that day at Stonewall Inn served to spur activism and acceptance. Yet intolerance of the transgenders has continued. In a 2005-2006 survey done by Genny Beemyn and Susan Rankin, authors of The Lives of Transgender People, it is reported that 27% of the respondents stated that they had been harassed within the past year because of their gender identity. The type of harassment varied widely from derogatory remarks to verbal threats, from denial of services to physical violence. Caiden, a transgender presenting as masculine, was attacked as he left his shift at a video store. His former classmates were lying in wait for him and beat him unconscious with a piece of wood. Similarly, Andy, a transgender woman, was attached as she walked home from work. She was harassed and punched in the face. I was shocked to read on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamations (GLAAD) website that one transgender person is murdered every month. It is unthinkable to know that the only possible reason for this could be that the transgender person was different from the murderer. I believe that many people are scared of anyone who is different from them. I try to be more tolerant than that. I have to wonder if we, indeed, have become a more refined society than in the Puritan times when people could be put to death for an act of sodomy. Is it possible that we have moved beyond the mid-20th century when police ran raids on bars looking for LGBT people to harass? I was pleased to read that, in the 21st century, we have made some strides toward acceptance of transgenders. On The International Foundation for Gender Education website I learned that the Boston City Council passed a measure adding gender identity and expression to

the citys anti-discrimination law early in the century. In Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men, I learned that by 2006 ten states, including Colorado, has included gender identity bias in their hate crime laws. A year ago, Massachusetts passed a Transgender Equal Rights bill to prevent discrimination in employment, housing, education, and credit. At that time they also updated their hate crimes law to include this population. Per the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition there state is now the 16th in the nation to outlaw discrimination against transgenders. Additionally, Washington D.C. and over 140 other cities and counties have passed similar laws.