In the 1800s, life for LGBTQ+ people in North America was quite different from life today. There were no publications about or organizations for the LGBTQ+ community, meaning its members had no resources for either the public or private spheres. There was not even a common language, as such terms as “homosexual,” “transgender,” and “bisexual” didn’t yet exist. Attraction to someone of the same gender was not seen as a part of a person’s identity or an involuntary expression or feeling, but rather a matter of free will.
Before the twentieth century, people generally lived at home until they were married. For somebody never to marry was somewhat unusual. As a result, it was difficult for LGBTQ+ people to have any kind of private life to explore their feelings and attractions. Many people would keep this part of their identity a secret for their entire lives and neglect their feelings for those they truly desired in order to adhere to society’s norms.
This 1955 Bible study class is learning about Moses parting the Red Sea. People have historically been taught that homosexuality is wrong in churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship.
FROM SCRIPTURE TO PRESCRIPTION
In many religious societies, homosexuality has been seen as a sin and treated as a theological and moral phenomenon that religious authorities policed. However, with the growth of secularism and the role of science in society following the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, a shift in cultural authority emerged.
Beginning in the early 1800s, doctors and medical researchers gained more and more authority as experts. Among the many changes that this brought about in the social landscape, there came a new understanding of homosexuality that shifted away from viewing it as an immoral choice freely chosen to an involuntary pathology that doctors thought could be cured.
In 1884, Dr. James Kiernan wrote in the Detroit Lancet about a twenty-two-year-old woman he had treated. The woman “liked to play boy’s games and dress in male attire” and had admitted to feeling sexually attracted to her female friends. Kiernan attempted to cure her by prescribing cold baths and what he called “a course of intellectual training.”
Nine years later, Dr. F. E. Daniel presented a paper at a medical conference titled “Should Insane Criminals or Sexual Perverts be Allowed to Procreate?” In his paper, he compared homosexuality to alcoholism and insanity, both of which he argued were hereditary. While he did say that “sexual perversity” should not be punishable by death, as some cultures believed, he did suggest that homosexuals and the mentally ill should be medically prevented from having children so as not to pass on their conditions. As with other medical problems, doctors soon suggested “cures” for homosexuality. Surgery to remove the uterus, hormone injections, drug treatment, hypnosis, and electroshock therapy were some of the “treatments” used.
This illustration shows a person being put through electroconvulsive, or electroshock, therapy. Electroconvulsive therapy used to be a common form of conversion therapy, but it is now denounced as a form of abuse.
NO THANKS, I'LL PASS
Some members of the LGBTQ+ community decided to try a new way to hide their identities. This approach, called passing, involves LGBTQ+ individuals attempting to hide their identities, typically by giving
the false presentation of being heterosexual or cisgender. As early as the 1850s, gay men used immersion in bohemian culture as a method of passing. For women, whom society still expected to be defined by their relationships to men, adopting radical roles such as suffragettes and social reformers offered a form of cover—and, of course, there was always the nunnery.
During this time, life for women—regardless of their sexual identity—was very strictly regulated by social standards. Publicly, women could only engage in activities and behaviors that were considered appropriate for their gender, and they were economically dependent on men through marriage. While the Industrial Revolution and US expansion westward allowed men more freedom to find work and choose partners based on personal preference, women still had to marry based on their financial needs.
FOR THE LOVE OF COMRADES
One of the most important figures in American LGBTQ+ history was the poet Walt Whitman. Born in 1819, he has been called the most influential American poet and the father of free verse poetry. Whitman’s best-known work is the book Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems he self-published in 1855. The book was considered scandalous at the time for its vivid sensory descriptions. But what was even more scandalous was his writings on the “love of comrades,” which is how Whitman chose to talk about the love between two men.
NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE BORDERS
Like the United States, Canada and Mexico began as colonies of European powers. Canada was a colony of England, and Mexico was under the control of Spain.
At the start of the 1800s, Canada was an enemy of the recently independent United States. Mexico lost territory after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848.) This land was in the current states of California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.
Canada did not achieve complete independence from Britan until 1982. Canada’s laws about homosexuality were thus the same as England’s. The first two men charged with sodomy, a term often used to refer to gay sex, were found guilty in 1841. Sex between men was punishable by death until 1869, although these sentences were commuted to imprisonment in Canada. In 1961, the penalty was changed to ten years of imprisonment. Persecution of homosexuals became stronger over the century, and the laws were worded in ways that gave local authorities almost complete freedom to press criminal charges.
After winning its independence from Spain, Mexico was occupied by France, from 1862 until 1867. During this period, the new government adopted the system of law known as the Napoleonic Code, under which homosexuals were not considered guilty of a criminal offense. However, after the French lost power, Mexican states imposed laws against “attacks on morals and good customs,” which were loosely worded so that gay men and lesbians, as well as other populations, could be charged with criminal behavior.
For many years, Whitman was in a relationship with Peter Doyle, a streetcar driver he met in 1865, when the poet was in his forties. Doyle was more than twenty years younger, and Whitman was the only passenger that night. Doyle chose to strike up a conversation, even stopping the streetcar to talk with him. In his own words, Doyle said of their first meeting, “We were familiar at once—I put my hand on his knee—we understood.” Whitman rode the streetcar all the way to the end of the line and back that night, and the two were then inseparable until Whitman died of complications from pneumonia in 1892.
This daguerreotype shows poet Walt Whitman posing for a portrait. This is thought to be the earliest surviving photo of him, although exactly when in the 1840s it was taken is uncertain.
AT THE INTERSECTION
Many diverse identities form part of the LGBTQ+ community, and often, individuals identify with more than one term or subgroup. Members of the LGBTQ+ community may identify with terms related to gender identity (including “transgender,” “agender,” or “gender-fluid”) or terms related to sexual orientation (such as “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “pansexual,” or “asexual”). However, sexual orientation and gender identity are completely unrelated, and because of that, some people identify with multiple terms or identities. The overlapping of multiple minority identities is often referred to as intersectionality.
While the LGBTQ+ community has made great strides in achieving equal rights and respect, it is important to acknowledge that some subgroups within the community do not always receive the same respect and protection of their rights as others. Even within the LGBTQ+ community, there are diverse perspectives, and discrimination between subgroups exists.
However, unity with and advocacy for all members of the LGBTQ+ community is the best path toward full rights and safety. Those who are LGBTQ+ and allies alike should acknowledge and respect the many diverse identities that form the community. Together, LGBTQ+ community members are stronger.
The circumstance of Whitman and Doyle’s first meeting was how many gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people had to find others like them— by taking a risk. There was always the chance that a signal could be misread or that potential consequences would overshadow romance or friendship. As the nineteenth century rolled into the twentieth, more spaces for same-sex socializing began to appear, creating places where more people felt safe being out and able to make friends and pursue romantic relationships.
Whitman’s gift to the future was the effect his book had on readers. The state of Massachusetts declared Leaves of Grass obscene because of its content in 1882, but the outcry boosted the book’s popularity. Sales of the book increased, and it gained a lot of praise from critics, many of whom read the book just to find out what was so unsettling. Most importantly, there were countless gay men and lesbians who read Whitman’s verse and found out that not only were they not alone, but also that their love could be something beautiful, rather than an ugly secret that should be hidden. The importance of publishing and distributing LGBTQ+ writing didn’t end there.