(Transcript - link for video at the bottom of page. Original production by Powered by Rainbow. Presented by Professor Pride)
Here are the top 25 most historic days in LGBTQ History. The things that straight white men have been trying to cover up for centuries.
Because telling our children that we forced millions of black people over on ships to be sold at auction, called women witches and burnt them at the stake, and slaughtered millions of people in concentration camps might make them think that their ancestors kind of dicks.
But it was once famously said that "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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And I know what you're thinking. Hold on that we know about all of these famous times in history of slavery, in the Salem witch trials, and World War Two.
So why are all of these things you just mentioned still problems in today's society? With severe racist, sexist and Neo Nazis being a prominent part of our society.
Well, kids, it's not just your ancestors that were kind of dicks. Some people today still are.
Anyway, today we thought we cover the top 25 most historic moments in LGBTQ history in honour of the United Kingdom's LGBTQ History Month.
Before we begin our episode though, please note that we are going to use the BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) as time stamps. You can think of these as the BC/AD, respectively, if you wish, but nowadays the much more accepted way to speak about history is through these Before the Common Era, and Common Era time stamps.
To begin our list, let's travel back in time to the year 9600, Before the Common Era.
In Sicily, Italy, historians found Mesolithic rock art dating back to 9600 BCE, which depicts phallic male figures in pairs. This is known as the first recorded detection of homosexual partners, or homosexual intercourse.
So to anyone who says that being gay is a new age thing, you can remind them that even the cave men were in fact gay.
They weren't alone though. Just 1600 years later, in 8000 BCE, another ancient civilization of the cave men in Zimbabwe left many depictions of homosexual partners and intercourse in their cave artwork as well.
Though few drawings exist of their partnerships, one in particular stands out. It's a drawing of three males having anal sex, another gay couple embracing the face to face, and yet another couple where the one partner is guiding the others erect penis towards his behind.
In their society homosexual partnerships were considered good, where they could have intercourse without huge population growth.
Travelling 5000 years later, we go to the Czech Republic. In the year 3000 BCE.
Scientists uncovered a grave of someone who broke the gender roles. Back then. the Corded Ware culture had strict rules for burial, where a man was buried facing West, lying on his right side, surrounded by weapons, hammers, knives, and food.
Women were buried lying on their right side facing east with necklaces made from teeth, pets, copper earrings, and surrounded by jugs and pots near their feet.
The body in the Czech Republic was discovered lying on its left side with the head pointing West. They had a food container at her feet, but they didn't include any objects like weapons or other male associated objects around the body.
But the body itself was anatomically male, which led scientists to deduce that this body is the earliest recorded transgender, or gender nonconforming case in history.
Travelling 620 years later, we travel to ancient Egypt for the year 2380 BCE. In this year, two Royal servants began working for the 6th Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty. Their names were Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum.
These were not the names they were born with, though. Khnumhotep means |Kanum is satisfied, and Niankhkhnum means life belongs to canoe. There are two is lined with artwork depicting their love, including one piece where the two are standing nose to nose, which is the most intimate pose allowed in Egyptian artwork. Another where the two are holding hands, and yet another where they are surrounded by their children.
And yes, you heard that right, this gay couple had children. Their relationship is widely known as the first same sex couple.
We mentioned a moment ago some caveman drawings, but this is the first recorded case where we know their exact names and most everything about their relationship.
And while their joint tune tells us that they were widely accepted as a gay couple in the Egyptian times, like many other rich tombs filled with expensive possessions, their tomb was also ransacked by others after they both died.
When their bodies were removed from the tomb and their where abouts are currently unknown.
Travelling another thousand years in the future, we travel to 1075 BCE to the middle as Rian Empire. This empire covered present day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
in the year 1075 BCE, the Empire introduced a law that decreed that any man caught with another man should be castrated.
This is the earliest record of an anti LGBTQ law, and the reason this law was introduced is entirely unknown.
75 years later in North America, the Native Americans had a flourishing culture. But this year is when three of their tribes named oh Shipway, Navajo and Cheyenne started having words in their language for those who identify as a gender other than their birth sex.
Though many believe transgender and gender non conforming individuals existed long before this era, this is the first recorded time in history when entire societies came up with words in their language to define genders beyond the binary.
Thus, This is why we refer to the Native Americans as the first society to really embrace the gender spectrum.
Another 500 years into the future, in the year 538 BCE, the Book of Leviticus, in the Bible, was changed to suddenly saying that the death penalty was necessary for men who sleep with other men (whereas previously the penalty was applied to men who slept with young boys).
No one knows why the text was changed, but it begins a long list of horrifying events to come that go against the original Bible.
500 more years into the future, in the year 27 BCE, we travelled to the ancient Roman Empire, under the reign of Augustus.
The Romans introduced laws to allow same sex marriage, which is the first time in human history this was done. Though it is not known which two men were the first in recorded history to be married, ancient Roman text does tell of the first recorded marriage between two men in this year.
Travelling more than 100 years into the future, we stay in the Roman Empire for the year 98 in the current era. This is when the Roman emperor Progen takes the throne. To this day, historians look at him as one of Rome's most beloved emperors.
But what brings him to our list today? It's that he was also openly gay. This means he was the first recorded gay man to hold such a powerful office.
550 years later, in 654 CE, and we travell to visit Goss Empire, which covers present day Southern France. In the year 654 they passed a law which criminalised buggery, which is the act of having either oral or anal sexual intercourse.
Though some straight people were affected by this law, the law mostly targeted homosexuals. The Visigoth Empire was the first to introduce such a buggerylaw in all of Europe.
Now we travel more than 700 years into the future, to the year 1382 CE.This is when the Catholic Bible was translated. Suddenly a verse in the Bible describing that a much older man should not be with a very young boy, and describing paedophilia as a wrongful act, suddenly was changed to describe men of the same age being wrong to no one really knows why, they said.
Barely changed the original text to now be homophobic instead of strictly's translating the text as they were hired to do. But some speculate their homophobia had a large effect on the new text, and therefore the culture over the coming centuries.
*It's because of this new text in the Bible that more than 200 years later, in 1533 King Henry VIII of England enacted the Buggery Act. Though we dived more into this law in another episode linked below, the Buggery Act was the first time a law was passed to not just call out buggery but homosexual relationships specifically, and make them illegal.
This law is responsible for the murder of thousands of people every year until it was finally recall in 1861. More than 300 years later, just seven years later, in 1540 CE, the Spanish Inquisition really took hold in society.
The Spanish Catholics were trying to maintain their faith in the Spanish colleges, and thus, they began forcing their religion on everyone.
It is estimated that over 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences, many of which had nothing to do with religion, but the tribunal of the Holy Office saw them as offences anyway.
From 1427 CE, they prosecuted over 1600 people for buggery and killed up to 5000 people for various offences, including some of these 1600 homosexuals.
A short while later, in 1632 CE in the country of Sweden, their new Queen named Christina takes the Earth round she was publicly recorded for having romantic relationships during her time as Queen with both men an women.
She often dressed in very masculine clothing, even introducing the public to Emma Soiree as her bedfellow and lady in writing, both ancient terms for our modern term Girlfriend.
Almost 200 years later, in circa 1800 CE, the SoC purity movement began. This movement was originally created to end prostitution and sexual abuse, but it soon took on a lot more roles as the Evangelical Church got involved.
As you can see from our calendar so far, being LGBTQ was widely accepted in society, except for a few rare times when religion got in the way. With the SoC purity movement brought shame to society to have homosexuals even exist.
This movement was responsible for why sexual education in schools is so rare, why adult film actors are looked down upon in our society now, why homosexuals are so persecuted, and why women are blamed for wearing inviting clothing when a man sexually assaults them.
Truly, the Social Security movement was one of the world's worst parts of history and severely affected our community for a long time to come as we travel another 130 years in the future.
We arrive in Germany in 1930, and for you history buffs in our audience, this is just nine years prior to World War Two starting in Germany. But here we meet Lily Lungtree.
Lily is one of the first people in the world to undergo gender nonconforming surgery, and she did it in Germany.
As you might expect, our next monumental date in LGBTQ history comes nine years later, on September 1st, 1939, while Nazis were famously known for killing millions of Jews, and while the war itself was responsible for the deaths of almost 85 million people worldwide, homosexual men were by far treated the worst during the war.
Gay soldiers were not allowed to fight in the war in many countries, militaries instead, they were sent h6ome, but were not allowed to return to their hometowns or ever see their families again.
For the homosexuals who lived in countries taken over by Germany and the Nazis, they were sent to concentration camps. Some of them were killed right away. The Nazis created laws to ban homosexuality. Over 50,000 gay men were luckily only sent to jail for being gay.
For 15,000 other gay men, they were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to work until they died of exhaustion.
These men were labelled with a pink triangle symbol, a symbol we have since reclaimed in our community.
But the gay prisonerss work discriminated against by both Nazi guards and by the Jewish prisoners of war.
Oddly enough, lesbian women were completely free to love whoever they want. It was only gay men who faced such horrible conditions, no matter which side of the war they were on.
Now remember how I said if you were gay, that you were at home from the military. But you weren't allowed to go to your home towns or see your family ever again. Well, because of this, LGBTQ people created towns of their own.
Nicknamed Gaybourhoods in the Escaper Hoods. LGBTQ people were able to live a bit more freely, but it was still illegal in the United States and other countries to be gay or trends.
So, in these, areas the mafia started buying up bars and other places which they promised to LGBTQ people as safer to come too.
With the promise, in the Gayborhood, the LGBTQ people paid more for everything. A glass of beer was.
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