Queer history milestones: From the Roman Empire to now
Peeking through the past shows how far the LGBTQIA+ movement has come, and how far it must still go
Over 2,000 years ago, the world’s first same-sex marriages reportedly occurred under the reign of Roman Emperor Augustus. Another Emperor, Elagabalus, is the first on record to have sought sex reassignment surgery.
And while it’s widely believed that legalisation of same-sex intercourse has been a recent development in the fight for equal rights, the first law banning it was in 1610 Virginia.
There’s still lots of ground to cover in that fight. But if these ancient historical stories prove anything, it’s that the progress we’ve made in recent years has been at unprecedented speed.
Drag king Lady Kitt believes art can change society’s attitudes toward queer rights: “What ties my work all together is the question of what art means to society, what it can contribute to the people who participate in it.”
PADDY MULHOLLAND
The monstrous
androgynous.
Softcore Boundaries. Photo: Antonio Branco & Riccardo T
Burning Pricks. Photo: Antonio Branco & Riccardo T
Some of the biggest milestones in queer history have occurred around art and society: the opening of the world’s first gay bar, Zanzibar, in 1895 Cannes; the first pro-gay movie, Different from the Others, in 1919 Germany. And the modern equal rights movement started with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 New York, led by queer artists like drag queen Marsha P Johnson.
“When I talk to my friends”, says performance artist Riccardo T, “it’s all ‘fuck this country, let’s have a revolution’, so inevitably those feelings find ways into my work.”
In 1972, Sweden became the first country to allow people to legally change gender. In 2009, Iceland elected the world’s first ever LGBTQIA+ head of government, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. Changes are happening, faster recently than ever before. Augustus mightn’t believe how far we’ve come. But would he believe how far we’ve still to go?