What I Learned in History Class...

Always when I think I have learned something incredible and shocking about queer history, something new and even more astonishing comes along.

This is how CTZN 410: Queer Virginia went, along with every other progressive class I have taken. I think I know a decent amount about a topic. Yet I am still proven wrong and shown there is so much more to learn, comprehend, and truly dissect. 

When I did my final project for CTZN 110, I created a sample college class looking into the course of LGBTQ+ rights throughout history. I was able to explore outside sources and dive more into class annotations to see what would fit my topic best. This helped me gain more background knowledge around the topic, thus increasing the types of information I could find. 

I was able to explore the background of queer history in Colonial Williamsburg, which I had never heard about, despite the fact that I live an hour away from it and visit every year with my family. 

To teach history properly, you need to include all of it. This has been lacking in many different education plans and legislation, which historically have only included the good parts that make the United States seem like the best country. Lessons have continuously overlooked the bad in order to maintain the U.S.’s “good reputation” amongst its citizens and the outside world. 

There have been arguments about what should be in the school curriculum for years on end. Everyone wants to have a say on what their kids should be learning, yet they do not take the time to truly see what a child is doing in the classroom or what they even learn outside of school. They argue that we should not be taking away any parts of the history of the Confederate States of America because that is history. However, if we are looking at what has happened in the past that needs to stay a part of curriculum, why is LGBTQ+ history not included in that mix?

People think history needs to stay how it is written. Yet, when we look at the people that wrote the history, it is the same people who thought women were witches if they were outside the gender norm in the early 1600’s. These are the people that thought being gay was genetic, and thought that if they sterilized gay people, they would get rid of any queerness on the planet. These are the people that thought only one gender, one race, and one social class should have rights. 

We have been able to debunk plenty of the people who created modern history lessons. If they were wrong about these things, it is possible they could have been wrong on how important queer history is to the history of our country. Hiding it in public schools does not stop students from being able to explore it on their own, especially with the internet and the ability to explore new topics in college. 

Obviously, I am very passionate about this topic due to the field I am going into and my passion for creating a generation of informed citizens. The more I read about this, the more upset it makes me that we cannot include anything in school systems. It almost makes you wonder if it is not included due to the years of injustices to the queer community and wanting to maintain some of our image, or if it is solely based on beliefs. 

One other thing that has stood out to me (moving off of my educational reform rant) is how much intersectionality affects not only the identity of those in the queer community, but how it can even cause some division in the queer community. In class discussion, hearing about how trans folks are not always accepted into different communities actually shocked me. I believe intersectionality plays a huge part in your identity within the queer community. Especially when it comes to feeling how you fit into specific “gender roles of a relationship.” 

Whenever people are in a same-sex relationship, they are always asked which one acts like the guy or which one acts like the girl. If there is no specific identity from one of the partners to make it seem like a stereotypical “heterosexual-but-not” relationship, it can cause backlash and even harassment. It is weird to think that in a community that encourages people to be accepting of other identities, some are ready to reject others due to their identities not matching up or looking similar. 

Intersectionality adds to so much of what we have talked about, even looking into this Harriet Tubman reading. As they point out in the interview, a lot had to do with the fact she was a woman, but also a black woman. Because she did not always dress like a woman, she did not get the recognition she deserved. 

This is helping me realize that sometimes interpretations of queer history might not always come from the outside, but may also be people speaking out within the LGBTQ+ community to prevent any misinterpretations of sexualities being left out.