10.25.17

Although the idea of being queer is a relatively modern one, queer history actually began way back at the beginning of human history. Queer used to be used as a derogatory term, but now is used to define both sexual and gender minorities who don’t fit into the ‘norm’. Murals of half female and half male people have been found on cave walls, and queer history has been evolving ever since.

A couple weeks ago, author Sarah Prager came to speak at the Natick High school about her book Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World. The motives behind her book are to educate youth on queer history, as it doesn’t fall under the range of topics covered in school history curriculum.

Queer history, or “Quistory,” as Prager calls it, is a very important topic to her. Aside from writing a book, she made an application called Quist. This app shows events in queer history that happened on that given day. 

Aside from describing her app, Prager also read passages from her book at the event, explaining their importance to queer history. She also asked the audience about famous queer people they had heard of.

Just one of the many pieces of information that Prager shared started with an interesting question: What do high fives and the computer have in common?

It turns out that high fives and the computer were both invented by queer people. Glenn Burke, the first openly gay Major League Baseball player, invented the high five in 1977. Alan Turing laid the foundation for computers in 1936, and died while still working on these developments due to cyanide poisoning.

A couple years prior to Turing’s death, he was accused of homosexuality and given chemicals in an attempt to “cure” him. His experience is just one of the many examples of the hardships in queer history that Prager describes in her book.

Though many improvements are being made to promote queer equality, queer history is still lacking in social studies curricula. With the help of people like Sarah Prager, citizens can become more aware of growing topics, such as queer history.