Homophobia, the End of Pride Month

I wanted to get through all 30 of my planned posts, but I realized a few days ago that I was burning myself out on it, that my writing wasn't doing well because of the pressure I put on it, and I can skipping over things that I didn't want to, because I wanted to get the posts out fast. That isn't what I want. I also didn't like that everything seemed to be running together in my head and I didn't like how similar the posts were all getting. I'm going to go back to one post at a time, even if it means a few days between posts, though I do want to keep to every other day at least. 

Next year will bring another Pride Month, and you can wait until then to learn about Loki and albatrosses and the Hijra and Kalonymus ben Kalonymus's poem. Or maybe I'll tell you about them sometime between now and then. Or you can look into them yourself, because I trust you to be able to find interesting things online if you want them. 

Here's today:

Homophobia. 

I really hate that word, in case I haven't said it enough. 

It shouldn't be a word, and it's not a phobia. 

Phobia is defined as a FEAR of something. An intense FEAR. It's paralyzing and panic inducing and serious. It's irrational, a fear you can't avoid or control, despite logically knowing that it's not a danger. Phobias are serious and real and not something to be joked about. 

Homophobia, a word I seriously hate because of this, is a PREJUDICE. A BIGOTRY and a CHOICE. A bad one, but still. It is not a phobia. It's not a fear. It's irrational, I'll give you that, but humanity is irrational often enough without it being a phobia. It's not a phobia. 

I will say this as many times as I need to. Homophobia isn't a phobia. Don't use that word and don't let anyone else use it. It isn't right. 

Also, it should be noted that that bullshit, the word I hate, is more recent than Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuality, Transsexuality, Polyamory, and Third or Fourth genders. So, it's not someone objecting to a new thing, it's someone objecting because we're refuting new bullshit. Please keep that in mind next time you encounter a bigot, and please remember to let them know that they aren't homophobic, they're bigots and assholes because of their choice. It probably won't actually change their minds, but phobias are to be respected, bigotry is not. 

And with this Author's Note, I end Pride Month for right now. I'll try to be back tomorrow with information about something interesting. 

Pride Flags of Gender

 20th. I'm gonna catch up at some point here. 

'Yesterday' was the Pride Flags of Orientation, discussing the various forms of attraction people might have, such as bisexual and demisexual. Today, I want to talk about Genders, such as being Male, Female, Trans, or any of a dozen other things. As with orientation, I know that I'll probably have a few things that I miss because the sites I used for this don't have everything or some things are more obscure, or any of a dozen other things. I apologize if I missed anything, and I hope that no one thinks I'm trying to marginalize them. People are people, everyone is different, and labels are both important and not, because sometimes labels help us realize that we aren't alone, but they can also feel like cages. I, personally, want to learn about people, as ever-changing and unique as they can be, and I don't exactly like coming at it with a checklist of categories to fill out. 

That's not important though. I really need to work more on keeping my opinions out of things when they aren't important. Being snarky and silly is important though, so you'll still see that. 

Since I found that heterosexual flag, I decided to start by checking if there is a cisgender flag. There is. I found it on a Gender.Wiki site. It has a lot more of the subcategories than I am going to go into, so if you're not sure what label you want or you want to know more about it, I think that this site might help. They seem to have a lot of options that I didn't know exist, and they have the flags for them. 

Here's the Cisgender to start with, as my flag even if I don't like the actual flag:

So very imaginative. At least this one has color. For anyone that doesn't know, Cisgender is when the gender you identify with is also the one that matches what you were born as. 

Second up is Genderqueer. 

This lovely flag is the umbrella term for anyone that doesn't identify as cisgender. Anyone that doesn't fit in the 'regular' definitions of gender. Anyone Trans or Agender or any of a dozen different things. 

This one is for Genderflux, another umbrella term for any that have a more fluid gender identity. There are a few new options for this particular flag, but this is the most 'umbrella' like. 

In the more specific groupings, here's the most well known. The Trans Flag. This is what happens when someone isn't the same gender as what they were assigned at birth. When a woman is born in a man's body, or vice-versa. 

This one is for Non-Binary. It's for one who is neither male nor female, but somewhere in the middle, or in a different spectrum entirely. 

Similar to Non-binary, this is the Agender flag. It's for those that aren't male or female, that don't identify by either group much, if at all. These are the people that remind everyone that 'They' is an acceptable and widely used singular pronoun, and anyone that objects obviously hasn't been around English speakers for long. 

Gender-Fluid, the flag of which is right above, means those that have different gender identities at different times. Someone who feels female one day and male the next, or female for a month but male for a week, or any variation thereof. 

Intersex is more medical than the others. It's for bodies that don't fall in the male/female spectrum. It's also a bit more complicated than you might think it to be, and depends on the person that's picking their labels if they want this one. 

Bigender. When you're more than one gender identity, either at the same time or varying between the two. 

Deminonbinary. As you can probably guess, it's when you don't identify alot with the genders of male or female, but aren't quite detached enough from them to be entirely non-binary. 

Is this all of them? Not really. There are a lot of other options that people can find if that's what they feel like. That's up to everyone to pick for themselves. If I missed anything important, feel free to let me know and I'll add it in. I have no problems updating things. 

Right now though, I need to stop for a bit because one of my kittens, Squirrel, has decided my hands have better use, so I'll see you again soon, but I'm busy for a bit. If you aren't sure about things or want to investigate the flags more, use the Gender wiki link above and below. It's an interesting one, if not as well filled out as I'd like. 

Sources? The same as the previous post. 

Gender Wiki

HRC-- Pride Flags

University of British Columbia-- Equity and Inclusion Office-- Pride Flags

University of Colorado-- Cultural Connections-- Pride Flags

Bradbury Sullivan LGBT Community Center-- Pride Flags 

Pride Flags of Orientation

 19th. Yay!

So, last post, I mentioned the 'umbrella' flags, which are community wide. Today, I'm going to go into a bit more detail about the orientation flags and their colors, definitions, and so on. There are a lot and some of them are more common than others, some overlap with others, some were created but aren't often used, and some are created because the creator, or those around them, don't feel like they fit a definition of a flag that is already around. 

There are 8 'basic' flags, then I'll go into the others. I won't list them all because not all sites have all of them, so I might miss some, and I'm only looking for the sexual orientation flags, not the gender flags, which I'll cover next. 

The Lesbian flag. This particular one is referred to as a 'Sunset' Lesbian flag. There is a five stripe and a seven stripe version. This one was created in 2016 and replaces an older, less inclusive, version. It applies to any female-identifying person who is attracted to other female-identifying people. 

This is the gay flag. It applies to anyone that is attracted to another who identifies as the same gender. It technically applies to lesbians also, but is most commonly used for men. 

This is the Bi-Flag, and applies to anyone that is attracted to more than one gender. It was created in 1998 to raise the profile of bisexuality because it wasn't always a commonly known option and some people didn't like being labelled as just straight or gay. The colors don't represent gender, but rather an attraction to your gender, pink, the other gender, blue, and both, purple. 

Pansexuality flag. This flag is for anyone attracted to all genders. As with the bi-flag, pink and blue represent attraction to the same and opposite gender, while yellow is for everyone in between. 

The Asexuality flag. For those not sexually attracted to anyone. This isn't celibacy, because it's them not wanting sex, not them making a choice to ignore it. Being ace doesn't mean you have no libido at all, it just means you don't feel it for anyone else. Ace people can still masturbate or recognize that people are beautiful/hot. They just don't want to have sex with people. 

Demisexuality. Only being attracted to the package once they know the person inside. Personally, I think this one is pretty awesome and seems to be something of a religious ideal for some groups, because it's 'waiting for the right one' in some ways. That isn't to say that being demisexual automatically means you're religious or anything like that. I just really like it because it calls for a deeper connection instead of shallow lust, and it means that a relationship with them is going to always be based on something deeper instead of having to worry that it's just lust. But, that doesn't mean that the other sexualities aren't good and valid, or that I want to shame any of them for being attracted to the form before the soul. 

Polysexuality. Being attracted to more than one gender, but not all of them. Such as being attracted to women and non-binary but not men, or something like that. 

Polyamory. The last of the 8 I wanted to start with. It's for those that love more than one person at a time, such as triads, polycules, and so on. It can either be in the form of everyone loving each other, or it could be more of a bigamist/harem situation. Both are valid. This could also be a good relationship idea for those who are more Ace or Gray, that they can have a relationship where the other person is able to have their needs met without cheating, and they can have what they need in an emotional connection. 

Now for the others. This is going to be an interesting ride. 

Gray-Sexuality. A mix of those that are Demi, Ace, or somewhere near there. This is one of those umbrella flags too, for those that don't feel attracted nearly as much as society suggests they should be. For those that need a relationship to feel attracted to someone, for those that don't like sex, or only sometimes, or anything in between and around these options. Beyond being Gray-sexual, people can also be Gay, Lesbian, etc. 

Someone realized that there isn't a flag for straight people and made one. I don't know how I feel about this because it's a pretty boring flag and reminds me of old prison uniforms, suggesting they're locked in their thinking. I can't say traditional because, as I've been showing this month, traditional thinking is just as likely to be LGBT+ as it is to be the narrow-minded prejudice that passes for tradition in the minds of bigots. Anyone mind coming up with something a little bit better for them?

Abrosexual. This is for those whose sexuality is changing and fluid. The descriptions tend to describe this as something that changes quickly, making a relationship harder because they may be attracted to only a male one day and only a female the next, or they might be graysexual and not want sex at all half the time. This is a valid term, but it's also a new one that is still being described. 

When I first learned of this, the person explained that it was for those whose orientations changed over time, such as a trans person being straight for their birth gender, then getting hormone shifting medication and becoming straight for their new gender. 

My first thought was that this could be a term that people might use to describe how they spent years being straight because that's all they were taught they could be, then they figured out what they actually are, such as a catholic man with a wife and kids who realizes he's gay. It's not that he was lying all that time, but that they finally had the freedom to realize who they actually are under everything. I don't want to say that they choose to let themselves be otherwise, because I don't want anyone to think that this is a simple choice, but that might be an easier way for you to think of it.

This one made me giggle slightly because it's thought by many that Achilles was in a relationship with Patroclus, which is why he was so angry over the other man's death that he swore death on Troy, but many also say it was platonic. Knowing what I do of the Greeks, it's a coin flip which way it goes. This is the Achillean Flag, for men who love men. 

Matching that one is the Sapphic Flag, named after Sapphos, who I brought up earlier. This is for lesbians, or any female loving females. I love that it matches with the Achillean flag. 

Aromantic. This one is interesting to me in some ways because it's someone who likes sex but doesn't want/need a romantic relationship. A serial one-night-stand person, in a lot of ways. They can be entirely fulfilled by a close friendship, or several, or they might not need close relationships with anyone. 

In some ways, I can understand where they're coming from because I've never had a romantic relationship and while I'm curious, I don't think I need one to be happy. I do need friends though, and those are hard for me because I'm not good at people, but that's a different matter that you don't need to know about. 

This is the Demiromantic flag, which you can probably guess. It's the same thing to Aromantic as Demisexual is to Asexual. So, someone who might just want a relationship with someone after knowing them for a while. 

Omnisexuality. It's an attraction to all genders, but gender is to be considered in the attraction. I'm not sure how this is particularly different from Pansexuality, but it's an option people should have if that's what they think fits them better. 

This is another polyamory pride flag, different from the first one. It's fun. 

This is Pomosexuality. It's for those that don't feel like they fit any of the other labels, or don't want to fit another flag. It could also be for those that are still figuring things out, if they need one. 

So, that's all for today. Next time, I'll tell you all about a lot of gender options that are available for those that want them. I hope that at least one of these is interesting to you, and I hope that it'll help you understand someone else someday. 

Have fun, seeya soon. 

Sources:

HRC-- Pride Flags

University of British Columbia-- Equity and Inclusion Office-- Pride Flags

University of Colorado-- Cultural Connections-- Pride Flags

Bradbury Sullivan LGBT Community Center-- Pride Flags 

History of the Rainbow Flag

 June 18. I probably should have put this one earlier in the month, but there are a thousand different ideas for posts that I have been considering, and I hadn't felt like doing this one until now. But, it's here. So, history of the Pride Flag. All of the flags themselves are from the HRC link below. 

So, it probably will surprise no one that the Rainbow Flag came from San Francisco. Gilbert Baker was the one to design it, but it was either at the direction of or inspired by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the history of California. Milk asked for a symbol of Gay Pride and it was Baker that decided on a flag because he thought it was a powerful statement, then he chose the rainbow because he saw it as a natural flag.

What might surprise you is that he actually had a pink stripe on the flag too, and a turquoise alongside the darker blue. The colors weren't just random though, because he applied meaning to them, letting them represent parts of the LGBTQ+ culture. 

Pink=Sex

Red=Life

Orange=Healing

Yellow=Sunlight

Green=Serenity and Nature

Turquoise=Art

Indigo= Harmony

Violet=Spirit

Strangely, no one has a listing for what the other blue is, other than the GBLT history link below, which gave us this slightly different list:

The pink stripe got cut because of color shortages, and the turquoise got traded for a single blue stripe because the odd number of stripes somehow complicated things for some people, and the indigo/violet were combined. That's how we got the flag we all know and like. 

After the assassination of Harvey Milk a few months after the introduction of the flag in June of 1978, the flag became really popular and started spreading across the country, 

After spreading, as you know, the Pride Flag shifted to become about 30 different things including gender identities instead of just sexual orientation, and possibly even just some kinks. They try to include everyone, so when new options are presented, new flags are made for them. 

Philadelphia added black/tan to their flag to add acceptance to people of color, who haven't always felt welcome in the LGBTQ+ community. 

In 2018, Daniel Quasar from Portland, Oregon, mixed those and the trans flag colors to create a 'Progress' flag that accepted trans and colored people too. 

In 2021, that got updated to include intersex people. 

In the future, I have no doubt that there will be a bunch of new flags for a bunch of new options, or for old options that come back into our global culture. I look forward to seeing them. I like that people are becoming more accepting and less intolerant. Let's hope this trend continues.

Sources:

HRC-- Pride Flags

Flagmakers of UK-- History of the Pride Flag

Long Beach Current-- The Evolution of the Pride Flag

Austin Texas-- Pride Flag Update

GLBT History-- Rainbow Flag

LA county Department of Mental Health-- A brief history of the pride flag

Encyclopedia Britannica-- How the Pride Flag became a symbol of Pride

Tiresias

 June 17th. 

Ok, so when I made the Apollo post, I did want to put most of the Greek stuff there, but...well, they just had so much, and this story is really freaking hilarious. 

So, there are a lot of different versions of things, but I'll tell you the version I know and you'll probably see others elsewhere. As far as Greek Mythology goes, if there is only one version of the story, it's probably made up recently. Or at least that's what it seems like to me. 

The origin story of Tiresias starts with a naive, young, probably brain-damaged but don't quote me on that, man going frolicking in the woods. He cam across a pair of snakes mating and, in a fit of rage, for some reason, he decided to kill them.

This enraged Hera, who turned him into a woman. 

He then spent 7 years living as a woman. During this time, he possibly became a prostitute, possibly became a consort to a king, and possibly bore two children. That's where a lot of the debate comes in. 

After 7 years as a woman, he went into the woods again and found two snakes mating, again, and killed them...again. So Hera cursed him to be male again. 

Seriously. Idiot. 

After he'd been turned male again, Zeus and Hera had an argument about who enjoys sex more, each saying the other gender. (I'm not sure if it's an ego thing, that we're giving the other more pleasure, or justifying the other asking for sex all the time, or what, but they had an argument and we'll leave that insanity to them.) To settle this argument, they summoned one person who has had sex as both male and female. (Though, apparently Zeus turned himself into a woman to have sex once, so...) Tiresias, being an absolute idiot still, actually answered. He said that women get more pleasure, which goes against what Hera thought. So, she cursed him to be blind. 

Zeus, being unable to remove the curse but wanting to compensate him for his time and siding with Zeus, gave him a gift of foresight, prophecy, to make up for it. And according to some, he also gave Tiresias longevity to live as long as 7 generations. 

That's how Tiresias became the Blind Prophet that popped up in all sorts of stories, like Oedipus, who got a really bad wrap. He didn't mean to sleep with his mother, and when he found out he had, he clawed his eyes out. He found out because he asked Tiresias to tell him who had killed the previous king, and found out that he'd done it and the previous king was his father. 

But that's a different story. 

So, Tiresias was male and female and male again, and an idiot at least to some degree. 

And that was ok. 

Which leads me to this. Again. Can people stop being idiots about things like this? What's it matter to you what sex a person is or was born as or has chosen to be on any given day? Sheesh. 

Seeya later. 

Sources:

Olympioi-- Tiresias

Study.Com-- Tiresias

Mythopedia-- Tiresias

Encyclopedia Britannica- Tiresias

Also, I have some Greek Mythology books, but I'd suggest one called 'Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes'. It has a very irreverent take on several myths from a variety of pantheons. 

Xōchipilli

 Welcome to the 16th. Another day, another god. 

Sorry, this one is Aztec. I generally avoid them because they're a lot bloodier than I like thinking about, but this one just had to be mentioned. 

Xōchipilli's name translates to 'Flower Prince' and he has a twin who is the goddess of feminine fertility and grace, while he takes the masculine side, alongside some other stuff. 

Notably, he's also the god of homosexuals and male prostitutes. 

Let that sit in your mind for a minute. 

Now that you've thought about it, here's the thing that's weird. How could we possibly know that? 

We've got some statues of him and some descriptions of his celebrations, which involved a lot of prostitution and promiscuity. 

We've also got some accounts of him from people who encountered the culture. 

And, you know, archaeology is awesome and interesting. 

But, since he's still Aztec, I'm going to avoid him more. Have fun investigating yourself. 

Sources:

Sorcerer of Tea-- Five Gay Gods

Ancient Origins--Fun Loving God of Sex, Drugs, and Music

World History-- The god I'm not typing the name of again

Harvard-- The one that goes into the stuff that is why I avoid Aztec, so be warned.

Apollo

 June 15. At this rate, I'll catch up before the end of the month...but now that I've said that, I think that might be a taunt to Fate and I'm worried...

Either way though, this the Greek Pantheon's day to shine. I'm not going to go into them much because, if you've studied Greek history at all, you know that they have it all and don't really mind. Zeus had affairs with mortal women as a swan and a beam of light, a queen was cursed to have sex with a bull and birth a minotaur, and the gods really didn't mind sleeping with anything that moved. Zeus is a good example of it, because he's bad enough that my Greek Mythology Professor at Clark College didn't even try to object when he was deemed the Man Whore of Ancient Greece, and Theoi, a wonderful site for Greek mythology, has three separate pages set up for his affairs, not all of which are female. There were times of immaculate conception, also known as parthenogenesis, and Zeus gave birth twice. Athena came from his head after giving him a headache, and Dionysus, he killed Semele when she was pregnant, but rescued Dionysus and sewed him into his thigh so he could be carried to term. There are also a lot of times of sex with sisters, at least one case of sex with mother. 

Apollo is one of those gods that I love to rag on. His dating life has some issues. I've referred to him as the eternal, unwilling, virgin before, but that isn't quite true. He did have a lot of loves and he had children with some of them, but he also had some really bad luck. 

One part of that bad luck is Daphne, a nymph that turned herself into a plant to avoid his advances. 

Or Bolina, who jumped into the ocean to avoid him and got transformed into an immortal nymph. 

But the one that I want to tell you today is about Hyacinthus. 

He didn't turn himself into a plant to avoid Apollo. No, he loved Apollo back and they had a great relationship for a bit. 

The problem is that Zephyr, the West Wind, loved Hyacinthus too, and when Hyacinthus chose Apollo, he got mad. 

While Apollo and Hyacinthus were playing discus, Zephyr grabbed the discus and hurled it at Hyacinthus hard enough to kill him. 

Despite being the god of healing, Apollo couldn't save Hyacinthus and in his grief, he transformed the boy into a flower to immortalize him. 

That makes it interesting that in some places, the meaning of hyacinth flowers can be 'Sport and play', or 'sorrow', depending on the color and context. 

This is far, far, far, from being the only case of homosexual relationships in Ancient Greece. Very far. 

It's just one that I know and is very firm about it being three men involved, and that it happened. A lot of the other relationships tend to be 'probably' or 'maybe'. On the side of the women, there were children. Lots of children. But, not from the men, so that makes it a bit harder. This one though, it's love and it's male and it's not iffy. 

So, never doubt that humanity, when it is allowed to make it's own choices without politics involved, has a lot of LGBTQIA+ in it. 

Sources:

Theoi- Hyacinthus

Theoi-- Apollo's loves

Greek Myths-- The Myth of Apollo and Hyacinthus

Academus Education-- Apollo and Hyacinthus

Ishtar

 Now for the 14th. 

Some of you may know the name from a video game or something, because those do tend to like pulling on ancient mythology for things. For those that don't know her much, she's an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, among a lot of other things. She was one of the big names in their mythology, like how everyone knows Artemis but I doubt more than a few of you could tell me who Rhea is. 

We're talking around 5 thousand years ago, so it's not new. The choices and culture that I'm talking about here is basic and bedrock--it's where we came from, it's the most human any culture is because this is a culture that formed from the humans and hasn't been shaped by centuries of wars and politics and scorned men/women who ordered a change of culture just to suit their needs for whatever reason. Yeah, this is one of my theories on how culture shifted to not allow humans to be humans. It's the same stupidity that said that women are less than men, that dark skin makes someone less valuable, and so on. I am not fond of hating people for things like this, but baseless bigotry is something that I don't understand and can't accept. That's the reason for this entire month of posting, to help teach someone out there that just because it's the way it is now, doesn't mean it's the way it always was or should be. 

Rant over, moving on back to Ishtar. 

So, she's a really awesome. She's sometimes seen as the Queen Goddess. Her symbol is worn to bring luck and fertility and protection from bad things. It could be said that she continued into other mythologies, but I think it's more of a case of humans taking ideas from previous generations to avoid having to reinvent the wheel. 

One of the interesting things about Ishtar though, is that she is a goddess of contradictions. She was war and love, good and bad, and both sides of a lot of coins. As with a lot of the deities of the time, what she was goddess of changed depending on the time or the place, as her mythology grew and changed, or as her duties were shared with others. She showed up in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and several poems and carvings in history. 

Either way, she earned her place in Pride Month for a reason. 

While she is primarily considered a female, she is sometimes worshipped as a 'bearded goddess' and has traits from both masculine and feminine genders, leaving her somewhere in the middle. 

Enheduanna, who I am definitely going to write an entire post on later because she's considered a great poet and possibly one of the first astrologists, but that's for later. She wrote a poem that said that Ishtar, also known as Inana, had the power to turn a man to a woman and reverse. Considering the times, there are a couple things that it could mean, such as a change of jobs, making someone a warrior/not, or something like that. We also have to consider how much we don't know about the language of Mesopotamia, and that most of what we do get comes in tiny fragments. 

The following is a quote from her poem, taken from the Noches Blog link below but also on the Dirty, Sexy, History link. 

  Without your consent, no destiny is determined, the most ingenious solution finds no favour.

To run fast, to slip away, to calm, to pacify are yours, Inanna,

To dart aimlessly, to go too fast, to fall, to get up, to sustain a comrade are yours, Inanna.

To open high road and byroad, safe lodging on the way, helping the worn-out along are yours, Inanna.

To make footpath and trail go in the right direction, to make the going good are yours, Inanna.

To destroy, to create, to tear out, to establish are yours, Inanna.

To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inanna.

According to another source though, there were a 'significant portion' of trans/non-binary people in service to Ishtar, because of her androgynous/gender-fluid/non-binary nature. There were also a lot of 'cross-dressers', who were mentioned in poetry about her. One poem mentioned of one of those cross-dressers that her power turned their masculinity into femininity. 

One of the groups of people that worshipped Ishtar are the 'Pilipili', which are those born female who are given spears and male work because of Ishtar. It's unknown how much they were changed, but there are questions because of the phallic connotations of them being given spears. 

Another group are the Gala, who are priestesses that worked for Ishtar and sang songs for her. Some were male until they joined her order and were then considered female in all ways, though others were actually female. 

There are a lot of fragments that helped support these, but there still isn't a lot known, and historians tend to write history how they want it to go, biases included. They also tend to apply things to what they know, like applying the gender terms we know to their culture. But, I wanted to tell you about this anyway because no matter how to view it, it's proof that people were awesome a few millennia ago. 

See you again later today, I guess. 

Sources:

Pagan Workshop-- Ishtar

The Conversations-- An Essay on Ishtar

Syriac Press- Ishtar

Andrea Mariana-- Ishtar: A Genderfluid Goddess

Acadamus Education-- Ancient Mesopotamian Transgender and Non-binary Identities

Dirty, Sexy, History-- Trans and non-binary identities in history

Enheduana.org-- the Hymn to Inana

Classical Association.Org-- A Slideshow on Non-Binary Gender Identity in Ancient Mesopotamia

NochesBlog-- Evidence for Trans Lives in Sumer

Encyclopedia.com-- Inanna/Ishtar

Gay Flamingos

 I'm going to apologize again for being late, but I have a good reason. You can probably guess it, so I'm just going to move on. It's been suggested that repeating my murderous intent towards my internet company is not a good thing to have recorded if something ever comes up, so...just forget I said anything. 

Welcome to the 13th. I'm almost a week behind again, and I am not happy with that. Expect a flurry coming forth to try to catch up. 

Flamingoes. 

Like Penguins, these guys tend to form long-term relationships, and a lot of them are male. They also tend to adopt chicks to raise together. 

They've been observed having both gay and lesbian pairs, and triads with two of one and one of the other, but they still have lots of same-sex affection displayed between all three, so it's not just a guy having a mistress, it's all three together. 

One of the proofs of everything is that male/male pairs of flamingos make larger nests to share. While it's obvious that these have been found in zoos, they have also been found in the wild, so it's not just a captivity thing. 

Paignton Zoo recently had an interesting hatching season where a pair of male flamingoes hatched an egg, which was thriving as of a month old. It's unknown where Curtis and Arthur found the egg they hatched, but the did. And here he is, pic from the CNN link. 

Something interesting about this also is that the babies don't actually need a female mother to survive, as both male and female birds can make the 'crop milk' that feeds the babies. So, it sounds like any pair of parents works. 

This is yet another time where you have to admit that the natural world is gay, and any human objecting to that is unnatural and out of touch with both history and the animal kingdom. 

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up to my plans soon. Thanks for being here. 

Sources:

Otter Liefe-- Are Flamingos Gay

CNN-- Same Sex Flamingo Pair Hatch Egg

Them.Us-- Curtis and Arthur, gay flamingos, welcome adopted chick

Them.Us-- A Queer Planet clip about super-gay flamingoes

The Register- Gay Flamingoes Strike Long Term Relationship

Two Spirit

June 12th. I'm catching up on me. Just need to keep it up. 

I recently went to a Pride Celebration and they had an entire page of Pride flags in various forms. 

I need to start by saying that I do not object to whatever category you want to call yourself or what definition you think fits you best. I don't care in the way that means I'm good with whatever, not that I want to ignore your choices or limit your options. I feel like I needed to specify that because a lot of people assume that not caring means I'll ignore whatever they are. Please do not mistake me on this. 

One of the flags I don't recognize, which might be a different day or might just be left to whoever wants to investigate them. Especially considering how many of them there now are and how horrible I'd feel for accidentally missing one. I feel the need to apologize for that in advance suddenly. 

Moving on though, one of the flags I had not recognized is this one, taken from the list on the University of North Carolina's page, linked below. 

Bet you didn't recognize that either. It's called the 'Two Spirit' Flag. There's also one with a different background, which came from Point Of Pride. 

This is a Native American term and carried a lot of weight in the times before Europeans came to mess things up change what things had been. 

Two Spirit means that these people have both a male and female spirit inside of them. If it makes things easier to understand, they're a cultural term for something similar to gender fluidity or transexuals. It's different in the cultures and depends on the person, so don't boil it down to just that even though I did. I just wanted to get you in the right neighborhood.  

One of the interesting comments is that these people were gifted with 'double vision' because they can see through the eyes of men and women. To that end is this quote from The Legacy Project in Chicago, which I find very awesome and wanted to keep;

“Being Two Spirit is being bestowed with the gift of sight and feeling. Two Spirits have the gift of seeing from both a male and female [sic] perspective and so in many cases it is easier to see into others as we can see into ourselves.”

- Marcy Angeles (Chiricahua Apache, Guamares Indian and Aztec) artist and Indigenous Trans rights activist

Two Spirited people are sacred to their tribes. They're healers, they're medicine people, and they're visionaries. These are special and sacred people who should be respected, not scorned. 

The problem came when Europeans came and forced their culture onto everyone else like any other culture was lesser. Ethnocentricity is awful and I hate it. All cultures are awesome and interesting and I hate being part of one that tried to wipe out so many others. But, you can guess what they did. I'm not trying to wipe out history, but I am trying to keep this blog  slightly child friendly and my opinions of those people and what they did are nowhere near child free. Also, not something I want to say around the innocent ears of my poor little kittens. 

Two Spirit was treated as a third gender, of a sort, with different rules depending on where you are and the person in question. In some cases, it was just a woman or man who prefers the job of the other sex, or sometimes it meant they had a special spiritual connection that meant they were good at being shamans or medicine men. While some of them were married to their own biological gender, being gay or lesbian in these tribes wasn't always uncommon and was treated differently. 

So, I do need to point out that this term is limited to Native American, since it's their term and it would be cultural appropriation and just inappropriate to take it when it's not your culture, especially if you're from the culture that did it's best to destroy the term. 

I actually feel a bit cringy for writing this since it's not only not my culture, but I don't have enough knowledge or good sources from the cultures that actually have it. I also rather dislike that this is reminding me of how horrible my ancestors were, that not only took the land from them and enslaved whoever they could, but also destroyed cultures. Strangely, that's one of the things I hate the most. Destroying cultures and languages for no good reason. 

So, I hope that this is another interesting point that allows you to answer the question if someone asks what Two Spirits is, and so you can recognize the flag when you see it. Otherwise, I'm signing off for this one. Have fun. Read the sources below if you have questions, most of them actually have more sources in them if you're interested. 

I'll see you again soon. 

Source:

The Indigenous Foundation-- The History of Two Spirit

Indian Health Services-- Two Spirit

Arizona University-- Native American Two Spirit

University of North Carolina-- Pride Flags

Legacy Project Chicago-- Two Spirit People

Point of Pride-- What Does it Mean To Identify as Two Spirit

Virginia Commonwealth University-- Two Spirit History

Medical News Today-- Two Spirit

Penguins!

 June 11. 

Gay Penguins. 

Look, for everyone out there saying that gays are flamboyant. I'm not sure where these tuxedo clad birds fall on that spectrum, but I like that you're now going to have to think about that. You might even have to consider the various types of penguins and if any are more flamboyant than others. 

You might even find out about the Fairy Penguin, which is adorably blue and tiny, and have to consider where that one falls on the spectrum, because Fairy, but also, adorable. I am definitely going to tell you more about them later, because of the sheer number of adorable pictures you probably haven't seen yet and I need to show you. 

Back to the gay thing though. 

These guys get on the list because it's not about sex. The list of creatures that have gay sex is extensive. The list of creatures that have gay sex just as often as straight sex is also pretty long. 

The list of creatures that form gay partnerships that last for longer than the sex is shorter, in part because the list of creatures that form partnerships that last for longer than the sex is shorter. 

That's a different matter. 

Also a different matter, but I'm not being specific with species because it seems to be a thing all penguins do. (Do not think about Happy Feet right now, think about that later.)

Another interesting part of this is that male penguins and female penguins have both shown interest in their own sex, and both have found ways to be parents. In the zoo, that's sometimes with the help of kindly zookeepers. In the wild, that could be someone stealing an egg from another penguin. This might actually cause for more eggs to survive, so don't feel too bad about it. It's hard to keep eggs warm, and having another penguin take one might be good. 

One of the more famous gay penguin couples is at Sea Life London, and they actually labelled their baby with a genderless tag and name, because gender doesn't matter to penguins and they wanted to make a point about how we seem to put a lot of importance on it when it doesn't matter. 

Something that makes me happy though is that they 'court' each other, and the males/females in these same-sex couples actually choose to court each other. It's not just sex, they are partners, and they choose each other. That's awesome. 

All of this boils down to, Penguins be gay, so it's natural, and bigots need to find another argument. 

If you google it, you'll get lots of information about particular pairs of penguins that you might find adorable to investigate further. I'll leave that to you though, if you want. 

Sources:

Museum Studies Blog at Tufts-- What's With All The Gay Penguins

The Guardian-- 'Sexual Depravity' of Penguins (Warning, this is actually about some depravity of penguins beyond being gay)

Penguin International-- Penguin Pride

Hitchcock Center-- Gay Penguins, Mutual Aid, and the Survival of the Fittest

Psychology Today-- Gay Penguins, Geese Thruples, and Bi-Bonobos

CBC-- Reports on Homosexual Penguins were hidden for a Century

Dazed Digital-- Why are Penguins So gay

The Star- Why Penguins are the Perfect Gay Icon

Smithsonian Magazine-- Same Sex Penguin Couple Incubating an Egg

'They' As A Singular

 June 10. 

There are some people that have thrown fits about 'They' not being a singular. They are wrong about that. They are seriously wrong about that. 

They are so wrong about that that I'm almost ready to throw my computer at the next one that tells me that. Or, I might throw my textbooks from College English, which I went through getting a degree in. 

Singular 'They' has been in use since before 1400. That's back in the times of Middle English. So, Singular 'They' has been around since before MODERN ENGLISH. 

The Grammarians in the eighteenth century started objecting, but that was because language was changing. It didn't disappear, but it was a bit of a debate sometimes. It didn't work, but there was an attempt. 

And now we're in the middle of another attempt. It's probably not going to work, but because people are fighting it, then things got a lot more complicated. 

The objection is based on the objection to non-binary people, not the grammar of things, and that's an entirely different form of bigotry. 

Have fun, and please try not to get too mad at someone when they say something stupid about singular they. 

Sources:

Oxford English Dictionary-- A brief History of Singular They

Merriam Webster-- Singular They

The Equality Institute-- Singular They

APA Style-- Singular They

Grammarly-- Singular They

The University of Chicago-- English Language Institute-- Singular 'They' User Guide

University of Illinois-- The Web of Language-- A Brief History of Singular They

Singular They

Mental Floss-- Singular They

Academic Writing Success-- Singular They

Purdue Online Writing Center-- Singular They

Traditional Women's Roles

 And now we have June 9th. Yeah, I'm going to do this. 

So, this one doesn't really have a lot of sources because, again, this is just something that I'm going to pull from my knowledge and common sense. It also isn't entirely Pride, but I'm putting it here anyway because it seems to fit. 

By 'Traditional Women's Roles', I am referring to really old roles. Not just in the last 10 years or something. 

The first real time we can talk about Traditional Roles is with the Hunter-Gatherer societies. 

Here's the thing. Men went hunting because they were more expendable. If a man died, fine, but if a woman died, so did the babies she would have brought to the group. Considering what they knew at the time, they might not have known that men were actually involved in that at all this time. There's also that women couldn't run after prey as easily while pregnant, and they needed the job that meant they could have noisy babies with them. For those reasons, among others probably, women needed to gather the slower moving nuts, berries, fruits, and veggies, instead of the faster moving deer or something. 

Unlike what a lot of people think though, I do need to point out that those nuts and berries were the bulk of their diet. They didn't have meat every day, and for a very long time, they didn't even have a lot of meat. Unlike the whole 'bring home the bacon' suggestion, the guys weren't doing most of the providing. 

So a quick recap. Men hunted because they were more expendable. Women stayed with the kids because they had to nurse them. Women provided more of the food. 

Could men stay with the women? Sure. There were probably plenty of men that couldn't run as fast/far and stayed with their mothers and sisters to gather food and look after the children. 

Could women have hunted? Yeah, there were probably women that went out with the hunters, since they could hunt just as well as anyone else, as long as they weren't pregnant or nursing. 

When everyone started settling down to farm, women were in charge of growing the plants to gather and the kids, and the men still hunted. 

Then they had herds that had to travel with the grass, and that led to them being away from home a lot if needed. Again, not good for women that might be pregnant and have babies. 

The herds started staying in a single area, and got fenced in, and the men started taking over more of the grunt work because they tend to be better at that, and women stayed with the kids. 

At this point and following, here's what you need to focus on. Women got kept at home at least in part because those women were having kids and were the future. They were protected because they were the future. They got traded around like chattel because idiots forgot that and instead focused on them not having the same skills. 

A lot of the more simple cultures allowed for same-sex relationships, trans people, or anything else that popped up, because it wasn't a big deal to them. I say simple, but that's not a bad thing. It just means the ones that don't get bogged down in complications and rules. Things like the Samoan Fa'afafine were fine because they still had work they could do and they still did important work. It's not like they were lazy because of it, and there was a lot more important things to think about. 

So, there's a reason for tradition. 

But, there's no reason to let tradition stop you from doing anything. Most of those reasons aren't valid anymore, so don't let them get in the way. 

Culture changes slowly, but it does change. So, to quote Ghandi, 'Be the change you want to see in the world'. So, if you want the world to change, do it, but do yourself a favor and don't expect it to be immediate. 

Sorry if this is weird. Sorry if it doesn't make sense. I'm apparently ranting today.  

A Field Guide To Gay Animals

Welcome to June 8th. 

This is a short one. 

A Field Guide to Gay Animals is a podcast hosted by Owen Ever and Laine Kaplan-Levenson, discussing the more than 1,500 different species of animals that have demonstrated homosexual tendencies, or intersex/transexual/etc abilities. They talk about everything that proves those idiots who claim God doesn't like gays to be wrong. 

That definitely sounds like something to listen to for Pride Month, and something I look forward to making more of these posts from those episodes. 

Sources:

I couldn't find a website for them exactly, but this is a link to a place that has the episodes listed. 

CanadaLand-- The Field Guide to Gay Animals

Tribeca Film-- The Field Guide to Gay Animals Podcast

Fa'afafine and Fa'afatama

 June 7. I know it's not, but it is. I planned to do a month of Pride, and internet be damned, I'm going to do them. Even if it means they continue beyond June, or I'm posting twice a day for a bit. I'm going to get there. 

Today is the Fa'afafine and Fa'afatama. As much as I like the idea of these people and the culture they come from, I am going to misspell them and I hate the idea of that after all the bullshit they have to put up with from everyone else. For that, I apologize ahead of time for that, and I am going to do my best, but there are a lot of a's and I'm probably going to go cross-eyed trying to double check them. 

These terms refer to two of the four Samoan gender options. They aren't exactly trans, but that might be the easiest way to explain them. Fa'afafine, meaning 'in the manner of women', refers to boys who are more drawn to the female role in their culture, and fa'afatama, meaning 'in the manner of men', are girls that are more drawn to the male role. Depending on the individual in question, they might feel that they are female/male despite their DNA, but they also might just feel like they're in the middle, or that they are exactly what their DNA says they are and just prefer to act/dress like the other. 

One of the really interesting things about these people is that, since they move between the realms of male/female, they can actually do things that would be considered taboo for others, like talk about sex. 

They also help keep some traditions alive, like the Taupou dance, which was traditionally a woman's dance of grace, then the Christians came to apply their weird opinions to things and the dance was given to the Fa'afafine. The Christians started applying 'virginal' to the dance, and the Fa'afafine are allowed to object to that in ways women are not. 

There's a lot of culture to the Fa'afafine and the Fa'afatama, which I don't have because I'm trolling the internet and not doing a deepdive into Samoan culture, or reading the books of things. I just find it interesting because this is yet another time where humanity proves that...it's hard to define. There are more than 20 different 'Pride Flags' fitting a variety of sexual orientations or identities, and those can combine into a hundred different things for people. And even those don't cover everything that people can be, or that people are. 

Pride isn't just about the freedom to be Gay or Lesbian, it's about the freedom to be who you are, no matter what that is. The only limits I can accept people putting on that is that people shouldn't hurt other people-- so, you shouldn't be free to murder, but you are free to love whoever you want, as long as no one gets hurt from it. 

I'll be back soon to tell you about something else soon. 

Sources:

National History Museum-- Beyond Gender

The Culture Trip-- The Four Genders of Samoa

Write Inclusion-- Fa'afafine and Fa'afatama

Prevention Web-- Samoa Traditional Gender Roles Aren't Being Recognized During National Disasters

American and Samoan Alliance Against Domestic Violence-- Fa'afafine

Aesthetica Magazine-- Paradise, Gender, and Place

Reuters-- Samoa's 'Third Gender' Balances Sex and Religion

Sappho of Lesbos

 This is June 6th post. It's just running late. 

So, everyone knows the word Lesbian, and some of you probably know the word Sapphic. Both of those are because of this rather special lady. 

(Picture from Poets.org, link below)

Sappho was born around 620 BCE, which is over 2,500 years ago. I say 'around' because no one is exactly sure when she was born/died. It was a bit too long ago, and there aren't a lot of surviving records that we can use for this. 

Despite us knowing she was a poet, we don't have a lot of her work to read anymore because of time being excellent at destroying things. And what Time didn't destroy of it, it's suggested that the Catholic Church might have done just to get rid of lesbian poetry. 

We know more about her because there are comments from other authors in a similar time period who said things about her lovely and erotic poetry describing her relationships with other women. Plato, who everyone probably knows, actually drew on her works for his description of romantic love. Which makes sense since he's pretty happy with gay relationships. Greeks overall were very happy with love being whatever it is. 

As a woman born in Lesbos, it's considered likely that she got married, but there are a few conflicting reports. Depending on your source, one suggestion was that she married a guy who died quickly, and that's how she was given so much free reign. 

Another thing about her that is possible but not positive, is that she, or her protegee, started a school for girls. She might have taught the young women less formally than a school, or started a school her protegee ran, but we don't know for sure. 

This is a quote from World History Encyclopedia, link below. I wanted to include it for anyone that has any question about what the Greeks may have thought about this. 

As there was no distinction between homosexual and heterosexual relationships in ancient Greece (or elsewhere, as the terms are a modern-day invention), it is likely that Sappho addressed a wide range of topics and had no reason to exclude her characters’ sexual orientation any more than she would any aspect of an individual. 

By the time Sappho died, there were already a few comments from others that the term lesbian no longer means 'one from Lesbos', but instead means a woman who prefers women. 

Interestingly, while I'm reading about her, there are several people who want to say that she might have just been putting on a persona and not actually gay. Part of me doesn't want to assume things, because we all know that writers can write from points of view they don't hold, but this is Ancient Greece. There is no reason for her to not have felt what she wrote, and it would be weird for her to 

No one is really sure about her death. There are some who believe that she threw herself off a cliff over unrequited love for a man, but others attribute that to a man who didn't like her and wanted to destroy her reputation. 

You know what? There's a lot more about her that's interesting, including a lot of debates about her because history has shaped her in a dozen different ways, but it's a bit impossible to figure out what to believe because there is so much that has been tossed around by people who want to vilify her for being the sources of the word 'Lesbian' or are in awe of her writings or any of a dozen other positions. I think, at this point, there isn't really anything I could say about her that I can be really sure about, other than that she's now dead. 

Hopefully this is interesting for you and you can take a moment to think about the woman who gave a name to woman-to-woman love and has spent 2,000 years being treated in so many ways just because of it. 

Sources:

Poetry Foundation-- Sappho of Lesbos

World History Encyclopedia-- Sappho of Lesbos

Greeka-- Poet Sappho

Poets.Org-- Sappho

New Mexico Whiptail Lizard

 Consider this June 5. I've got plans, and I'm not going to let them be entirely destroyed by my internet provider being something I'm not allowed to say where my mother might read, and my migraines going nuts because of the summer sun. 

So, one of the big arguments is that being gay is unnatural because you can't have kids. While that's true for humans (unless they get assistance from someone outside of their relationship, which is fine and shouldn't be shamed), God didn't make that true for everyone. 

The Mexican Whiptail Lizard is an all-female species. 

This picture is from Animalia, link below. The next picture, from the same site, shows the tails they were named for also. 

Actually, they might be a Woman-Power species more than a Pride species because they're proof that women don't need men, which everyone should know anyway, but they still fit for both. 

The New Mexico Whiptail Lizard does reproduce through parthenogenesis, which is basically a natural form of cloning, or another word for virgin birth. This is pretty common among plants, single cell organisms, and some other animals. It's not particularly common among vertebrates, but not unheard of. 

Why this is a Pride species beyond their all-female ness is that they actually do 'pseudo-sex' to stimulate the production of hormones, which means that their 'pseudo-sex' leads to babies. 

What they've found more recently that is really, really, really, really cool about these guys is that they are actually different from the other species that produce asexually. One of the problems with asexual reproduction is that everyone has the same genetics, so if they get hit with a disease or their environment changes, then everyone dies. There is no diversity that might have a gene that allows them to change and adapt to a new environment or fight an illness. 

Somehow, the Whiptails don't though. I don't know the specifics because I'm not an expert on biology and I'm going to be going down a rabbit hole of it later, but National Geographic below says that the Whiptails actually come up with a second set of chromosomes somehow and that lets them give birth asexually to not-clones. Apparently this comes from hybridization with other species of lizards in their past, which gives these ladies a genetic richness that they somehow recombine to create a new set of genetics for their daughters. They're still looking into all of this, as of the articles I was looking at. 

I hope you have a great day, and you were amused by these little ladies. Sources below if you want to know more about them. 

Sources:

High Country News-- How the Whiptail became a gay icon

National Geographic-- How the Whiptail Reproduces Asexually

Scientific American-- No Sex Needed

National Library of Medicine-- A New Diploid Parthenogenetic Whiptail Lizard from Sonora, Mexico, Is the "Missing Link" in the Evolutionary Transition to Polyploidy

Knowledgeable Magazine-- The Weird Biology of Asexual Lizards

Animalia-- New Mexico Whiptail Lizard