The Lie Became the Truth: Locating Trans Narratives in Queer History
Channel: AskHistorians
Date: 2021-10-18

How do we write histories of individuals and communities whose existence is ignored or unacknowledged? When it comes to trans people, not only is the historical record itself full of silences, many historians and laypeople alike would prefer that they stay erased. Even queer histories shy away from acknowledging non-gender-conforming historical figures, for both methodological and political reasons. In a contemporary climate where the backlash against trans people’s right to exist only seems to grow in strength, this panel confronts the erasure of non-gender-conforming lives both within and beyond the academy.

Learn more about this panel at https://www.askhistorians.com/trans-narratives

This panel includes a live Q+A with the panelists 19 October 2021, 1-3 PM EDT, on https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians

Featured in this panel are:

"The Question of Queerness and Soft Erasure" by Matthew Schilling 
"Warrior Women: The Chevalier d’Eon and Trans Narratives in the 18th Century Atlantic World" by Caitlin Hartweave

Moderated by Dr. Christopher Rose

This panel is part of the AskHistorians 2021 Digital Conference. For more Conference content, please go to: https://www.askhistorians.com/2021-digital-conference

Land Acknowledgment: 

The AskHistorians Digital Conference (AHDC) Organizing and Diversity and Inclusion Committees acknowledge that the AHDC 2021 is being produced in and viewed from various locations across the world. Many of these locations include lands that are the ancestral, unceded, and treaty territories of Indigenous Peoples from Turtle Island, Abya Yala  [ab-EE-ah ee-AH-lah], and the Americas in their entirety to the traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples in Sweden, Australia, and across the globe. We acknowledge that these lands have been stewarded by these Indigenous communities and nations since time immemorial and we offer our gratitude to these Peoples. We, moreover, recognize that, five hundred years later, settler colonial nations continue to benefit from the brutal realities of genocide and forced removal that enabled the original settler colonizers and conquistadores to seize these lands.

The AHDC organizers acknowledge both the land upon which we are virtually hosting this conference, those lands from which the conference is being viewed, and the deep-rooted and long-lasting wounds caused by white imperialism and settler colonialism. The harmful effects of these actions continue to hurt Indigenous communities across the world. We recognize the responsibility we have as historians to amplify Indigenous Voices and speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves. We also acknowledge that while we pursue this goal, academia itself has often been at the forefront of colonial domination and must therefore reckon with its own injustices. Understanding this, we have chosen to make a donation to the Indigenous organization, Forest Peoples Programme, in an effort to give back to Indigenous communities around the world. While we appreciate that Indigenous political, trade, and kinship relationships extend beyond the geographic boundaries that we commonly assign to distinct communities and nations, we would like to particularly acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples upon whose ancestral lands the AHDC 2021 has been produced or hosted as follows:

Coahuiltecan
Doeg
Jumanos
Manahoac
Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache) 
Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche)
Piscataway
Sana
Tonkawa