#urning

[lillian-darby]

When bigots say "nobody cares who you bang", I can't help but think "so being straight is also just about who you bang?"

Why be so upset specifically about us who are simply anders als die andern? That's your foible, not mine; It bothers you enough to exclaim your 'disinterest' with such conviction

[uranianrights]

In 1923, Emma Goldman wrote to Magnus Hirschfeld concerning a profile of Louise Michel in Hirschfeld's Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen in which it had been argued by a contributer that Louise Michel had been an Uranian.

Having known Louise Michel personally, Emma Goldman requests from Hirschfeld that he publish her rebuttal of the former article, as she believes it to be mistaken and reliant on a stereotypical view of women.

Of her own beliefs, she writes:

"Before I deal with von Levetzow's article, permit me to say this: It is not prejudice against homosexuality or the aversion to homosexuals which prompts me to point out the errors in the claim of the author. If Louise Michel had ever demonstrated homosexual traits to those who knew and loved her, I should be the last person to attempt to clear her from the "stigma". [...]

Years ago, when I knew nothing at all about sex psychology and when my only acquaintance with homosexuals were some of the women I had met in prison where I was incarcerated for my political opinions, I came out in defense of Oscar Wilde. As an Anarchist, my place has ever been with the persecuted. I saw in the persecution and prosecution of Oscar Wilde reflected the cruel injustice and hypocrisy of the very society which sent him to his doom. Hence my defense of him.

Later, I went to Europe, and there came upon the works of Havelock Ellis, Krafft Ebbing, Carpenter, and many others which made me see the crime against Oscar Wilde and his kind, this time, in a more glaring light. From that time on I used my pen and voice in behalf of those whom nature, herself, has destined to be different in their sex psychology and needs. Your works, Dear Doctor, have helped me much in shedding light on the very complex question of sex psychology, and in humanising the attitude of people who came to hear me.

From this, your readers will see that I have no prejudice whatever, or the least antipathy, to homosexuals. Quite to the contrary. I have among my friends men and women either complete Urnings or Bi-Sexuals. I have found them far above the average in intelligence, ability, sensitiveness and charm. I feel deeply with them, because I know that their sufferings are greater and more complex than that of most people. There is, however, one predominant tendency among homosexuals which I must oppose. It is their attempt to claim every outstanding personality for their creed, to ascribe to them traits and characteristics inherent in themselves."

After debunking the former article, she goes on to say:

"You will agree with me, I am sure, that neither the question of homosexuality or of the homosexuals can gain anything by a misstatement of facts."

The same can be said for the trans cause. This letter, which can be read in its entirety here, is the source of a quote which is often mistranslated (across time, not languages) when used in isolation. It is often claimed that where Goldman writes "I have among my friends men and women either complete Urnings or Bi-Sexuals" one should read "I have many friends who are trans."

While Uranians (and even more so Urningen, the German equivalent) most certainly referred to a group of people that included people we would call trans today, we can see from the context that that's not what Goldman is referring to.

Due to the lack of strong distinctions between (in modern terms) gay and trans people at that time, it's entirely possible that among the friends she was referring to there were trans people. It is however misleading -- both in general, but particularly in context -- to translate "Urnings" or "Uranians" as "transgender". It can of course also be misleading to translate it as "gay" without any caveats, but in the context of this letter, it is not significantly so.

By the 1920s, "bisexual" also tended to mean the same thing it does today. Had the letter been from the turn of the century, I would be inclined to believe she meant intersex people, but both the dating and the context indicates that she means "bisexual" in the modern sense.

Had Goldman meant to reference trans people specifically, the word "transsexual" would not have been available to her yet (Hirschfeld coins it later the same year), but she would likely have used the word "transvestite" (as Hirschfeld did prior to coming up with "transsexualismus").

Now do I find it likely that Emma Goldman supported the trans people of her time? Most certainly. She could hardly be as admiring of Hirschfeld as she plainly is in this letter without being pro trans. That quote is not the slam dunk some people treat it as, however.

Frankly, throwing that quote around like that is just ammo for TERFs, because it enables them to claim that trans people are "usurping" gay history or other such nonsense (as if the two can even be sensibly disentangled).

[friendshipandutopia]

Hallo from Friendship and Utopia!

This zine was created out of love for the rich creative world of early 20th century gay magazines. Although unfortunately most of historians have forgotten about them. publications like Urania, Die Freundin, Der Eigene, and dozens more flourished in gay and trans circles, especially in Germany around the first world war. These magazines were some of the first cultural centers for the fledgeling transvestite movement, and feature beautiful photography and writing. We aim to create a faithful and loving rendition of this style in English! We hope you can join us in this effort.  Apply here!

[makingqueerhistory]

I heard that the concept of attraction and action weren't always seen as that clear. So that being gay for example was more about the action than nowadays? Is that true? and if so, do you/your followers have any ideas/sources where I could learn how we came to view them as seperate nowadays?

That is accurate in certain cultures, including many European ones, queerness was seen as a thing you did and very separate from your identity. 

While there is never just one source to the changing of such ideology, scholars like Magnus Hirschfeld, and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs were large forces in Europe that campaigned for the shift. 

We actually discuss this idea a bit in our article about Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, as he created one of the earlier words used to describe men attracted to men within mainstream European circles with Urning. 

Though this word has fallen out of popularity now, scholar Hubert Kennedy wrote about it, saying: 

“Ulrichs’ goal was to free people like himself from the legal, religious, and social condemnation of homosexual acts as unnatural. For this, he invented new terminology that would refer to the nature of the individual, and not to the acts performed.”

It was around the same period that the word Homosexual came into use, and it was actually a word Ulrichs didn’t like, partly because of the mixture of Latin and Greek within the word, but also because in his opinion it pushed forward the idea that men attracted to men were inherently sexually motivated.

It is really interesting to read about, especially given the context of today's discussion around the separation between romantic, sexual, aesthetic, and other kinds of attraction. 

Though Karl Heinrich Ulrichs is far from perfect, he really is a great person to look to if you want to explore how that ideology changed and had a lot of really interesting thoughts about the queer community in general. If I was you I would really focus on his work and life if you are looking to learn more about how the European attitudes towards the queerness changed in that way. 

But if you are interested in a culture outside of Europe that had this ideology, feel free to message us again, I know there are others, but Europe by in far had the most prevalent and popularized discussion on this topic. This is mainly because many other countries/continents/territories viewed queerness as a form of identity and had this perspective stripped from them because of colonization by European nations. Not all, but most that I have learned about. 

Again though, this is based on a lot of generalizations, every country has its own history and relationship with queerness and we are more than willing to look into a specific country/continent/territory if you want a more specific and thorough discussion around it! 

[thevagueambition]

Uranian doesn't not have a direct modern equivalent because it existed in a wildly different time and described the way people existed at that time and in that context, not today.

It does not just mean gay. It does not just mean trans. It was also not an umbrella term. Third gender would be closer to an 1800s-early 1900s umbrella term.

An Urning is described as someone of male body, female mind and "female attraction" (attraction to men) who feel no attraction towards women.

An Urningin is thus someone of female body, male mind and "male attraction" (attraction to women) who feel no attraction towards men

These people existed between and throughout modern constructs of homosexuality and transness.

[ckret2]

so a long time ago i read your fic "most prized possession" and loved it... i just read it again for the first time in years, and the writing/characterization/conflict are all So Good !! would you ever consider continuing it, since it stopped at the climax ? either way, just wanted to let you know that it's been kicking around the back of my head since you wrote it :^)

Oh wow nooo, it was nowhere near the climax—it stopped at the beginning. They were gonna go on a big globetrotting adventure slash solve an international mystery, trying to figure out what the heck this punk did with Lockhart. It was Big.

And because it was so big, idk if I'd want to go back to it. Partially because of the time commitment. Partially because, since I did want it to be such a big international story, I invented a bunch of international dark lords from other nations that had been similarly targeted by the antagonist, and Totally Showed My Research by basing the dark lords on real legends and myths.

Which seemed like a really cool idea a decade and change again. In practice, it meant taking a bunch of POC cultures' folklore, religions, and spiritual beliefs (with no differentiation on my part between "stories" and "actual living beliefs"), recasting them as Fictional Magic—and not only that, but making most of them various levels of villainous, since I focused mostly on making dark lord OCs.

Which. Y'know. Ends up pretty Problematic™.

So in order for me to continue the story, I'd have to heavily revise... all of that. Do a lot more research on the cultures featured, find people from said cultures to ask what's okay to put in a story as Fictional Magic and what's part of living beliefs that shouldn't be treated that way, find ways to show members of the international wizarding communities besides just the dark lords so the cast wouldn't be "a handful of good kids who are white and English and a couple dozen villains who are largely POC"... It would be a whole lot of work, especially for a fanfic I haven't been deeply emotionally invested in for a long time, in a fandom that I've got a low probability of hyperfixating on again.

I hadn't realized it could read to others like it was coming up on a climax, though. That opens up the possibility of writing a much shorter fic—solving it really fast, cutting out the international mystery, wrapping up in a few chapters. If I could think of a shorter but still satisfactory plot that hit the emotional beats I wanted with Voldemort and Lockhart, I might write that instead someday. It's not high on my list of writing priorities, though.

All that said, though: thank you so much!! It means a lot to me that a story I feel like I'd only barely begun meant so much to you, especially for you to be thinking about it all this time later. When I do loop back around to old stories, it's because I know folks like you are still interested in them.

[lifeinpoetry]

my mother she believed my name meant pure spirit so it may be the darkest hours are when I’m purest when I am I

— Layli Long Soldier, from “Urning” published in Poem-a-Day

[chocopuddingang]

Urning for an ambigous concept