The North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin, England identified the Roman emperor Elagabalus as a transgender woman.
According to Time Magazine, the decision was made due to a classical text written by Roman historian Cassius Dio, which alleges Elagabalus once said, “Call me not Lord, for I am a Lady.” The museum has decided to refer to the emperor with the pronouns she/her.
This is wonderful, as it shows that transgender people have always been a part of the world, despite what many conservative-minded people would like you to believe. Transgender people and people who do not align with the gender binary have existed throughout all of history.
Additionally, many Hindus have historically seen three genders, the third gender being called hijra – people often born male, but look and dress traditionally feminine. Some are born intersex.
According to a case study by Harvard, the Hindu hero Arjuna became a hijra. Furthermore, three million people in India identified as hijras in 2014. Hijras are not only Hindu; some Muslims and Christians in India also identify as hijras.
Being transgender is not a recent development, although bigoted people will either ignore or try to erase this history. Michael Knowles, a host for The Daily Wire, gave a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference this March where he said, “Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely. The whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”
When Rolling Stone called him out for using what it claimed to be genocidal language, Knowles claimed this was libel. He claims there is a difference between transgender people and “transgenderism,” which he believes is an ideology. I agree with Rolling Stone’s claim of Knowles. This in itself is extremely stupid reasoning. Being transgender is not an ideology, and there is no separation between transgender people and “transgenderism,” just as there is no separation between homosexual people and homosexuality.
In a video defending his views from Rolling Stone’s “libel,” Knowles claimed American society only recently accepted “transgenderism.” Knowles said in the video, “Before around 2015, we did not have any acceptance of transgenderism in public life.”
This claim from Knowles shows his ignorance of history. In 1952, Christine Jorgensen became one of the first persons to go through gender reassignment surgery.
According to the Washington Post, the New York Daily News put out a story with the headline “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty; Operations Transform Bronx Youth.”
To say that the acceptance of transgender people is only as recent as 2015 would be an incredibly ignorant statement. Transgender people have always existed and it is not new to be accepting of them either.
I am very glad that the North Hertfordshire Museum recognizes Elagabalus as the empress she was. As someone who cares deeply about the rights of transgender people and is fascinated by history, it was incredibly interesting for me to learn. I hope this will let more people know transgender people have always been around and are not going anywhere. It is quite refreshing for historians to recognize the past can be just as queer as the present.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
