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• @internet_ryan@lgbtqia.space 2026-03-31 23:25

  Visionaries: Transgender people as Agents of History *** This article is the full text of a speech I gave to my Unitarian Universalist congregation during Pride Month. It is a brief overview of some of the agentic trans and non-binary people who have affected the course of history. Too often, trans people are seen as passive victims or sidenotes of history, if we are considered to have existed at all. In fact, we are frequently the vanguard of historical events, fully active in the creation of our societies: from technology to cinema to civil rights and revolutions. *** “Good morning, everyone. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is James Baldwin. I’m a transgendered man who has been transitioned for a little over eighteen years. The prelude to today’s service was from the album Switched-on Bach, one of the first albums of popular electronic music to ever be released. This revolutionary work was composed on the Moog synthesizer by Wendy Carlos: a transgender woman and a pioneer of cinematic and electronic music. Wendy Carlos also composed the scores for Tron, The Shining and A Clockwork Orange. In fact, every piece of synthesized orchestra you ever heard in the 1980s—music that for me has always evoked that decade and its energy—at least partially owes its existence to Wendy. We have always been here: as artists, composers, musicians, and authors. Hatshepsut, Pharaoh of Egypt, was assigned female but ruled as king in the 15th century B.C.E. When they came to power, they donned the traditional masculine regalia of the Pharoah and publicly emphasized the qualities of both sexes in themselves to convey the idea that they were both a mother and father to the realm. Hatshepsut’s 22-year reign was a period of great prosperity and general peace for Egypt. They built several major monuments, including the famous Karnak Temple complex. We have always been here, as kings and queens and chiefs, and as their advisors. The Public Universal Friend, born Jemima Wilkinson, identified as neither male nor female. A Quaker, they founded the Society of Universal Friends, practicing egalitarianism, pacifism, and religious universalism. The Public Universal Friend rejected the ideas of predestination and election, and held that anyone, regardless of gender, could gain access to God’s light and universal salvation. (Is this all starting to sound familiar, yet?) The Public Universal Friend was also a passionate abolitionist and persuaded followers who held people in slavery to free them. They could be considered one of the ancestors-in-spirit of modern universalism. We have always been here. As priests and popes, as shamans and seidr, and as hijra, māhū, and bissu. Doctor James Barry was a transgender man who served as a military surgeon in the British Army in the mid-1800s, eventually rising to the rank of Inspector General. He was given command of Britain’s military hospitals, the second-highest medical office in the British Army. He was a pioneer in the development of hospital hygiene long before Florence Nightingale. Barry performed one of the first known successful Caesarean sections in which both mother and child survived. The child was christened James Barry Munnik in Barry’s honor, and his name was passed down through the family, leading to Barry’s name (for better or worse) being borne by a later Prime Minister of South Africa, J. B. M. Hertzog. We have always been here. As doctors and surgeons, and as people pushing the limits of medical innovation. Albert Cashier, an Irish immigrant to Illinois, served as a soldier in the American Civil War. Cashier fought against the Confederacy in 26 separate battles and lived his entire life as a man. When he was outed in his old age, his surviving comrades fought to prevent him being forcibly feminized and charged with military pension fraud. Thanks to their efforts, Cashier retained his pension, and was buried with full military honors, under his male name, at Sunny Slope Cemetery in Saunemin, Illinois. Colonel Amelio Robles Ávila, a transgender man, fought with the Zapatistas from 1913 to 1918 during the Mexican Revolution and fought to support the fledgling government that came after. In 1970, the Mexican Secretary of National Defense recognized Robles as a Veteran of the Revolution. Robles’s male identity was largely accepted by family, society, and the Mexican government, and Robles lived as a man from the age of 24 until his death in 1984. We have always been here. As soldiers, revolutionaries, and war heroes.

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