I used to really enjoy history as a kid, and I might well have taken it up as a career had my parents not so badly wanted me to be a scientist. Running role-playing campaigns allowed me to indulge my passion for a while, but that was a long time ago. It hasn’t really been until I got involved with Out Stories Bristol that I have been able to get back to it again.

Over the past few weeks I have been researching my main talk for this year’s LGBT History Month. It has been a lot of fun, and I have learned a lot about some interesting people, and the way in which different cultures around the world have been accepting or otherwise of gender-variant people. Those of you who can get to Bristol can see the talk on February 7th at the M-Shed.

It has been quite heartwarming to discover just how many different cultures all over the world have been accepting of people like me, and a bit scary to realize that our modern Western culture is one of the least accepting. Probably the least fun bit, however, was seeing how hard cis people work to deny the validity and even the reality of trans people. The accounts I have been reading have been full of amateur psychoanalysis purporting to explain away why trans people are the way they are (none of it flattering). Texts on gender history tend to be written by feminist academics who are particular hostile to trans women. LGB historians insist that all gender variance is evidence of same-sex attraction. And I have found myself wishing I had more language skills because English translations of original sources have a habit of changing or editing out eye witness accounts to as to remove any taint of “immorality” from the text.

Overall, however, it has been a positive experience. I look forward to seeing some of you in Bristol next month, and will try to find other ways to make the talk available. At least, unlike the LGBT Superheroes talk, this one does not rely heavily on copyrighted art.