Well that seemed to go well. I got several very kind comments about my paper on trans people in ancient Mesopotamia and Rome. For those asking, I have a bit of work to do on it, and may get some feedback from my trip to Canada. Once that’s all done I will post it on Academia.edu, probably around the end of March.

The Michael Dillon talk also went well, and most importantly I was able to grab 10 seconds with Tom Robinson to say thank you for all of the great music.

There were lots of other great papers at the conference today. Here are a few highlights.

Jonathan Shipe telling us abut same-sex relationships in the British Army in the Victorian Era. “The soldier was inebriated, m’lud, and as a good Christian I was kneeling down beside him to see if I could help.”

Chuck Upchurch on Byron, the Duke of Wellington and more military queerness. Apparently Wellington did have a soft side. Two of his friends got arrested (separately) on sodomy charges and he stood as a character witness for both.

Kit Heyam explaining how our views of famous LGBT people in history are critically shaped by how they are portrayed in fiction. Marlow has a lot to answer for.

Fiona McGregor on lesbian gangsters in mid 20th Century Sydney (who got away with murder because Aussie men would not admit that a woman could get the better of one of their mates).

In the evening I finally got to sample Manchester’s famous curry district, more than 20 year after reading about it in Vurt. I may have had a celebratory beer or two.