LGBT Cliffnotes

Amelio Robles Ávila was a trans man who fought in the Mexican Revolution who lived as himself for over seventy years and was a total badass!

Doing history can be tough, especially when it comes to addressing LGBTQIA+ topics! In this episode, we talk about some of the challenges we face, how we overcome them, and how our perspectives can color our view of history. Also we have a spirited discussion on technical jargon, and why we hate it with a passion!

"The New Unhistoricism in Queer Studies" by Valerie Traub

Examples of erotic murals in Pompeii (NSFW...obviously)

In this episode we talk about how gender influences the way people speak and communicate. We start with a study on the differences between men and women using signed languages like ASL, then talk about a few studies examining the differences in word choice between cis-men and cis-women, and end with an article on trans men and what people perceive as “gay sounding” speech in men.

Sources:

Turn-Taking, Fingerspelling, and Contact in Signed Languages edited by Ceil Lucas

Women, Men, and Language by Jennifer Coates

Hegemonic masculinity and the variability of gay-sounding speech: The perceived sexuality of transgender men by Lal Zimman

Cyberpunk 2077 is out and it sure is a video game! In this episode, Maria takes off her historian hat, puts on the gamer socks, and talks about what the game did right, what the game did wrong, and why QA teams are highly undervalued in video game development! All without any meaningful spoilers!

Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel

Bella Blondeau’s article at The Gamer

Interview with Kasia Redesuik at Eurogamer

Charlie Hall’s interview with Redesuik at Polygon

Anthony Gramuglia’s article at CBR

Riley MacLeod’s piece at Kotaku

We’ve had two episodes about gay animals, now it’s time for an episode about animals that have more than two genders. These animals move beyond the gender binary that so many people think is set in stone and easily defined.

1980 paper about female mimicry in bluegill sunfish

2003 paper about hormones and behavior in tree lizards

Evolution’s Rainbow (link to book on Goodreads)

We are going on a brief hiatus until January 7th! Happy holidays!

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Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel

"One-Eyed" Charlie Parkhurst was a stagecoach driver and (probably) a trans man who led an awesome, cool life in the early days of California's statehood. Locally famous during his life, and then nationally afterwards, Charley's story is one very familiar to many: moving out to California and living your best life as your true self.

Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel

Sources

Reggie Sigal. ”the old west.” Karen lindsey, et al. Women: A Journal of Liberation, vol. 1, no. 3, 1970.

Hafen, LeRoy R. “Reviewed Work: Via Western Express & Stagecoach by Oscar Osburn Winther.” Western Folklore 6, no. 1 (1947).

Kathi Bristow, "Those Daring Stage Drivers", California Dept. of Parks and Recreation, 2008.

Charlie’s Obituary and story in the New York Times, January 9, 1880.

California State Parks map of Stagecoach lines in 1850s-1860s.

This episode discusses Edward Carpenter and his book The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women. Edward Carpenter was a pretty cool guy overall, although (as you’ll learn) not quite as progressive as Alyssa first thought when she found this book.

Links:

Edward and George’s gravestone

Wikipedia article with pictures of Edward being stylish

Wikipedia article on Ulrichs’ classification of sexual preferences

More gay animals! This time we talk about genetic mutations that cause same-sex attraction in fruit flies as well as two examples of gayness in birds that might be even cooler than gayness in penguins. 

Sources:

1996 study with fruitless mutations in male flies

2005 study with fruitless mutations in female flies

Courtship Behavior in Flies

Female-Female Pairing in Western Gulls in Southern California

News article with more context on the lesbian seagulls and conservative Christian responses

Actual photo of bird insides with testes and other organs labelled, as well as more information than you’ll ever need about bird reproduction

NYT article about gay albatross

2008 Laysan albatross paper, unfortunately not open-access

Photos of Laysan albatross and their gorgeous smoky eye

Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel

An intersex person, born in England, moves to America and finds out how shitty people can be. Includes a ridiculous court case that ruled T Hall had to dress as both a man and a woman at all times.

Trigger warning: Really shitty behavior by colonial Virginians. 

Sources:

"Minutes of the Council and General Court, 1622-1629 (Continued)." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 31, no. 3 (1923): 207-14. 

Music: Cabaret by Kai Engel