Last week, I attended a fascinating talk by Dr. Megan Rose Victor at the Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay about gender non-conforming bars and meeting places in the 1700s. During Dr. Victor’s talk, I was struck not only by the fascinating cultural history of so-called molly houses (a term used to describe places in the 18th and 19th centuries where gay men and people with non-traditional gender orientations could escape a society that did not accept them), but also by how new the research on the subject is.
For much of the two centuries since the end of the Molly House era, the historical record and even the existence of such institutions has been suppressed or denied, for fear that they would “poison” society’s morals.
This got me thinking: how much history has been lost, ignored, or forgotten simply because it doesn’t fit societal norms, is offensive to people, or fits into a political narrative? It’s only in the last 20 years or so that historians and archaeologists have been able to explore so many fascinating examples of different cultures, ethnic minorities, and identities of historical figures without being held back by societal pressures and expectations of “good history.”
Because all history is good history. The more we learn about the past, the greater our understanding of how we got to where we are today and where we might be going tomorrow. And the more we learn about historically marginalized communities and the fascinating roles their members have played in world history, the more we can embrace people who are different from us.
To quote a random internet poster, “Studying history can make you feel uncomfortable. Studying history can make you feel deeply upset. Studying history can make you feel extremely angry. If studying history always makes you feel proud and happy, then maybe you aren’t studying history.”
Such scholarship is also essential to challenging patriotic, nationalistic, and downright bigoted views of history. For example, most people probably don’t know that some of America’s Founding Fathers were gender non-conforming. Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the Prussian-American military officer who built the Continental Army into a professional fighting force at Valley Forge, never married and maintained intimate relationships with male aides and secretaries throughout his life.
Alexander Hamilton, who was probably bisexual in today’s sense, and his “special friend” John Laurens were likely lovers, for their letters to each other were almost full of romantic and sexual innuendo, even taking into account the overtly flowery and dramatic language of the time. In fact, their correspondence was so provocative that when Hamilton’s son wrote his father’s biography and published the correspondence, he left entire sections blank, even writing on one letterhead, “This should not be published in its entirety.”
Beyond the gender-dysphoric community, there is also a fascinating history of Muslim Americans who fought for their country in the American War of Independence. The presence of men with Muslim names, likely of West African descent, such as Bamphet Muhammed, Yusuf Ben Ali, and Joseph Saba, on the list shows that Islam has been a proud and integral part of our cultural melting pot ever since America was founded.
Those who claim that gays should not be allowed in the military, that women’s place is only in the home, or that transgender people don’t actually exist and are an excuse for predatory behavior are not just narrow-minded, they are denying historical precedent. If gays are unsuitable for the military, then how do we explain the conquests of Alexander the Great, whose best friend Hephaestion was also his lover? If women should only belong in the home, then how do we explain the remarkable intelligence of Marie Curie? And if transgenderism is a recent phenomenon, then why are there records of transgender and gender non-conforming people in various cultures dating back to before the Vikings?
History shows us that our prejudices against these and other minorities are not only shortsighted, ugly, and frankly stupid, but also patently wrong. That’s why it’s so important that aspects of historical research that have been suppressed for centuries are brought to the light of day. To quote Captain Raymond Holt (played by the late Andre Braugher) from the Fox/NBC series “Brooklyn 99,” “The world becomes a better, more interesting place every time someone comes forward and tells us who they are.”
Will Seeline is a senior reporter covering Glen Cove, Glen Head, Oyster Bay and Sea Cliff.
