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Reviews tagging 'Outing'
No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Queer History Project) by Lee Wind
1 review
james1star's review
informative
medium-paced
4.5
I did really enjoy this book and would totally recommend it. The writing is slightly plain, leaving something to be desired, but is very readable, clear, concise and informative. I would say it’s written to a more YA audience but anyone could read it, from children to the elderly.
It starts with an introduction into and with an aim to ‘reclaim the queer history’ of our ancestors. Wind sets out how and why LGBTQIA2+ people and their stories were hidden from view of the general public out of a fear of ‘otherness’ from the ‘norm’ by historians and why teaching queer history is vital to showing the youth of today (well practically everyone) that we have always been here and here to stay. A book like this would never have been published not that many years ago and I so hope these and all the stories of other queer people will be in our history books for many years to come. Wind also provides information about the community, who and what type of people is contained within and the different acronyms - nothing was new to me personally but appreciative nonetheless.
After the introduction, the book is split into three parts detailing four main people from history and one snippet (fifteen + all together). These are men who love men, women who love women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. All the sections were interesting, written well, contained nuanced ways of looking at the evidence that we are encouraged to make our own meanings from but generally ‘prove’ these people were queer. This was very intriguing and well put together (albeit slightly plainly, a little bit repetitive in the evidence used that in some parts broke up the reading of this book but nothing major) and make you think a lot. These span many years, continents, cultures, religions, languages, sexualities and gender identities. Not comprehensive but a great overlook of different points, places and types of queer history.
I won’t go into detail about each of the people mentioned but my favourite chapter was on Bayard Rustin I would say, he was such an amazing incredible human being. Doing so much for the civil rights movement in the USA but was denied notoriety (until rather recently) because of his gayness, threatened with being outed and internal homophobia from his equally important Black community. In the 1980s Rustin said this in an interview: ‘When one is attacked for being gay, it sensitizes you to a greater understanding and sympathy for others who face bigotry, and one realizes the damage that being misunderstood can do to people… to attack anyone because he's Jewish, black, a homosexual, a woman, or any other reason over which that person has no control is quite terrible.’ - this is a great introspection and an integral way of looking at injustices, not to see otherness in people but the fact that so many things make us other is what makes us alike (did I just come up with that? Wow I’m impressed but back to the review) and this is something we shouldn’t take for granted. Just before he died, he added ‘… if we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all.’
Other points that spoke out to me were:
The impact of Sappho’s poems on todays society and how we view the power of love. The certain poem follows:
"There are those who say
an array of horsemen,
and others of marching men,
and others of ships, is
the most beautiful thing on the dark earth.
But I say it is whatever one loves.
[…]
Now, far away, Anactoria
comes to my mind.
For I would rather watch her
moving in her lovely way,
and see her face, Nashing radiant,
than all the force of Lydian chariots
and their infantry in full display of arms." - usually military power was seen as upmost but Sappho is clearing stating that it is love and she would rather see her love Anactoria then a display of arms.
Eleanor and Lorena’s love letters to each other which were just so sweet
The impact of colonialism and spreading ‘western’ ideas damaged the traditions of both African cultures and Native American - including public women-loving-women relationships which were hidden away in ‘the closet’, Kendall (who wrote M’e Mpho’s autobiography) ‘concluded that love between women is as native to Southern Africa as the soil itself, but that homophobia, like Mugabe’s Christianity, is a Western import.’ Similar destruction of cultural ideals were present in how third gender (or Two Spirits) people were seen by white Americans and later ‘neutralised Indians’
Christine Jorgensen’s letter and cablegram from her parents sent shivers down my spine - I had goosebumps to the gods from this but wow the response from her partners was just so amazing and for 1952! Nearing her death, Jorgensen wrote ‘I found the oldest gift of heaven - to be myself.’
Finally, Rumi (a 13th C Sufi (mystical form of Islam) poet) wrote of his love for another man. His poem could easily be written today as these words are still true:
“I saw you last night in the gathering,
but could not take you openly in my arms,
so I put my lips next to your cheek,
pretending to talk privately”
The book finishes with a detailed and comprehensive list of sources and additional reading to explore more of our world’s queer historical figures, something I am likely to do.
Overall, I would totally recommend this book, it’s super informative and substantive, diverse, varied and in parts entertaining too. I am so happy this is available to teach the queer history which has for so long been hidden. Every school and library should have a copy.
It starts with an introduction into and with an aim to ‘reclaim the queer history’ of our ancestors. Wind sets out how and why LGBTQIA2+ people and their stories were hidden from view of the general public out of a fear of ‘otherness’ from the ‘norm’ by historians and why teaching queer history is vital to showing the youth of today (well practically everyone) that we have always been here and here to stay. A book like this would never have been published not that many years ago and I so hope these and all the stories of other queer people will be in our history books for many years to come. Wind also provides information about the community, who and what type of people is contained within and the different acronyms - nothing was new to me personally but appreciative nonetheless.
After the introduction, the book is split into three parts detailing four main people from history and one snippet (fifteen + all together). These are men who love men, women who love women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. All the sections were interesting, written well, contained nuanced ways of looking at the evidence that we are encouraged to make our own meanings from but generally ‘prove’ these people were queer. This was very intriguing and well put together (albeit slightly plainly, a little bit repetitive in the evidence used that in some parts broke up the reading of this book but nothing major) and make you think a lot. These span many years, continents, cultures, religions, languages, sexualities and gender identities. Not comprehensive but a great overlook of different points, places and types of queer history.
I won’t go into detail about each of the people mentioned but my favourite chapter was on Bayard Rustin I would say, he was such an amazing incredible human being. Doing so much for the civil rights movement in the USA but was denied notoriety (until rather recently) because of his gayness, threatened with being outed and internal homophobia from his equally important Black community. In the 1980s Rustin said this in an interview: ‘When one is attacked for being gay, it sensitizes you to a greater understanding and sympathy for others who face bigotry, and one realizes the damage that being misunderstood can do to people… to attack anyone because he's Jewish, black, a homosexual, a woman, or any other reason over which that person has no control is quite terrible.’ - this is a great introspection and an integral way of looking at injustices, not to see otherness in people but the fact that so many things make us other is what makes us alike (did I just come up with that? Wow I’m impressed but back to the review) and this is something we shouldn’t take for granted. Just before he died, he added ‘… if we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all.’
Other points that spoke out to me were:
The impact of Sappho’s poems on todays society and how we view the power of love. The certain poem follows:
"There are those who say
an array of horsemen,
and others of marching men,
and others of ships, is
the most beautiful thing on the dark earth.
But I say it is whatever one loves.
[…]
Now, far away, Anactoria
comes to my mind.
For I would rather watch her
moving in her lovely way,
and see her face, Nashing radiant,
than all the force of Lydian chariots
and their infantry in full display of arms." - usually military power was seen as upmost but Sappho is clearing stating that it is love and she would rather see her love Anactoria then a display of arms.
Eleanor and Lorena’s love letters to each other which were just so sweet
The impact of colonialism and spreading ‘western’ ideas damaged the traditions of both African cultures and Native American - including public women-loving-women relationships which were hidden away in ‘the closet’, Kendall (who wrote M’e Mpho’s autobiography) ‘concluded that love between women is as native to Southern Africa as the soil itself, but that homophobia, like Mugabe’s Christianity, is a Western import.’ Similar destruction of cultural ideals were present in how third gender (or Two Spirits) people were seen by white Americans and later ‘neutralised Indians’
Christine Jorgensen’s letter and cablegram from her parents sent shivers down my spine - I had goosebumps to the gods from this but wow the response from her partners was just so amazing and for 1952! Nearing her death, Jorgensen wrote ‘I found the oldest gift of heaven - to be myself.’
Finally, Rumi (a 13th C Sufi (mystical form of Islam) poet) wrote of his love for another man. His poem could easily be written today as these words are still true:
“I saw you last night in the gathering,
but could not take you openly in my arms,
so I put my lips next to your cheek,
pretending to talk privately”
The book finishes with a detailed and comprehensive list of sources and additional reading to explore more of our world’s queer historical figures, something I am likely to do.
Overall, I would totally recommend this book, it’s super informative and substantive, diverse, varied and in parts entertaining too. I am so happy this is available to teach the queer history which has for so long been hidden. Every school and library should have a copy.
Content Warnings
Minor: Outing, Racism, Sexism, Genocide, Homophobia, Incest, Violence, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Murder, and Child death
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