#historian

[ezekiel13]

Historians are actually the funniest people ever

[gayest-historian]

Creating the Transgender Flag

So today I'll be talking about the history and creation of the trans flag! This will probably be a shorter post but still equally as important of course

The transgender flag was originally created by Monica Helms, a trans woman from America, in 1999. She got the idea from Micheal Page who had created the bisexual flag a year earlier. Helms describes the meaning of each stripe in the flag as:

"The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are intersex, transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender."

- Monica Helms

The original flag (pictured below) was later donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2014 by Helms.

Later on, in 2019, Helms published a book in which she expresses shock that her flag design has been adopted so wholeheartedly by the trans community. I'd like to end off this post with that quote.

The speed with which the flag’s usage spread never fails to surprise me, and every time I see it, or a photo of it, flying above a historic town hall or building I am filled with pride.

- Monica Helms

[thesecrethistori-an]

Very slow day today. Unexpected surge of focus at night

[itsmythang]

“I don’t think I’ll be remembered as a park ranger. I want to be remembered as Betty.” What a woman and what an accomplished life she lived — author, WWII veteran, Civil Rights activist, singer, etc. She’s an ICON.

Betty Reid Soskin, the National Park Service’s oldest ranger, has died. She was 104.

Betty Reid Soskin, Oldest U.S. Park Ranger and Trailblazing Historian, Dies at 104 | KQED

Betty Reid Soskin, the nation’s oldest National Park Service ranger and a pioneering historian at Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National

[professor-winter]

ᴀ ʜɪꜱᴛᴏʀɪᴀɴ'ꜱ ᴏꜰꜰɪᴄᴇ

[pythiaswine]

i really do believe that heterosexual historians who never did any critical gender/sex studies in their lives could never, ever understand that people WILL be gay regardless of risk. having intimate relationships with people of the same gender is an imperative to happiness for people who cannot love the opposite sex. people everywhere in history had sexual relations that would potentially ruin their lives (eg extramarital/premarital) but often we don't know about it because people don't normally leave damning evidence of their actions — they do, however, leave evidence that implies intimacy (leave evidence of their very existence) with plausible deniability.

but why when it's a gay person, all of a sudden it's unrealistic that two people could have been intimate because it would have been dangerous or like, some other bullshit excuse (Ronald "too cold in valley forge" "no time for it" Chernow, i'm looking at you).

because why is physical intimacy only extraneous, a time-waster, an unnecessary and implausible dalliance only when it's gay?

thinking about this a lot lately as I'm establishing myself more as a queer historian, and realizing through my undergrad that queer history remains under-studied because it is not taken seriously, and implications of queerness throughout history have been brushed off by historians (and whatever chernow is) who seem to have authority on a topic/person but do not make an honest effort to understand queer experiences in history, often because they simply do not SEE it.

anyway, realizing it's valid to want to focus on queer history and write about queer people during my master's is healing. also, realizing i do have authority to critique historians and other academics. not only is it a part of discourse and learning, but it is right to question traditional ways of thinking and interacting with people in history that are outdated and harmful.

[occultesotericart]

A Book of Hours - 1497