LGBT+ History

11-10-2024

LGBT+ History Month is celebrated at different times in different countries, as it is connected to local anniversaries and events.

This year, Archives Portal Europe takes the occasion of the Oslo Pride in Norway, which starts today 21st June, to showcase some archival collections related to LGBT+ History by country, in the occasion of each anniversary

NORWAY (19 June)

Gro Lindstad, one of the most important figures in the of the Norwegian LGBT+ movement: she was head of the prominent LGBT+ Norwegian organisation LLH, now FRI, and she worked internationally through the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA). She donated her private archives to our content provider the Universitetsbiblioteket i Bergen, which are now available here

From the The rainbow flag was first introduced in San Francisco in 1978, by designer and activist Gilbert Baker - from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, part of Gro Lindstad's collection

The word "queer" first came into use in the English language in the 16th century. Originally, it meant "strange," "odd," or "peculiar." It wasn't until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that "queer" began to be used as a derogatory term for people who were perceived to be homosexual or non-heteronormative. In the late 20th century, particularly from the 1980s onward, the term was reclaimed by members of the LGBTQ+ community with a positive connotation: "queer" became an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual and/or not cisgender, embracing its connotations of difference and defiance against normativity. It also became a universal term, used in many languages.

SPAIN (28 June)

In Spain, this document sparked a debate about whether the LGBT+ communities could all identify as “queer”, or if the term only covered specific case. Dated 1587/89, this is the Trial of Faith by the notorious Spanish Inquisition Tribunal in Toledo, of Elena de Céspedes, also known as Eleno de Céspedes, a native of Alama and resident of Ocaña (Toledo), a slave and later freed, by profession “a weaver, tailor, knitter, soldier, and surgeon.” The trial was due to the fact that Eleno dressed as a man and married María del Caño, a native of Ciempozuelos (Madrid) and resident of Yepes (Toledo)."

Archivo Histórico Nacional, Trial of Faith of Elena de Céspedes by the Spanish Inquisition Tribunal in Toledo, 1587-9, available here

Other processes against homosexuality (or queerness!) in 16th Century Spain: the Judgment of the lawsuit litigated by Fernando de la Tovilla, a resident of Baeza (Jaén), against María Alfón, a resident of Baeza, regarding the accusation by María Alfón against Leonor Méndez, Fernando de Tovilla's wife, for homosexuality (1491)

Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid, Judgment regarding the accusation against Leonor Méndez for homosexuality (1491) , available here

and the case against Martín Prieto, a cleric of the Salamanca diocese, for homosexuality, investigated by the Archbishop of Santiago (1500)

Archivo General de Simancas, Judgment against Martin Prieto (1500), available here

THE NETHERLANDS (2-4 August)

In the occasion of the 2024 LGBT+ Pride in Amsterdam, which starts on the 2nd August and ends on the 4th, we present:

- The Archief International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)

- The Archive of the Amsterdam Homostudies Working Group

- The Archief of the International Queer liberation Tour

- The papers of the 2016 Queer Forever Film Fest

All held at by our mighty Content Provider the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis

UNITED STATES, CANADA, ARMENIA, ROMANIA, THE NETHERLANDS, AUSTRALIA, IRELAND (11 October)

In all these countries, the annual official gay pride occurs on the 11th October, to celebrate National Coming Out Day. This special day was introduced in 1988 in the US, by LGBT activists Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary, but it soon expanded to other countries around the world. It encourages people to talk about publicly about their sexuality, in order to normalise same-sex preferences.

From the APE archives, we celebrate today with the story of "Matieu", an hermaphrodite boy born in 1837 in the Cantal area in France (the documents are indeed from the Archives départementales du Cantal. Here is his story (click on the pic for original link):

The civil registry of the commune of Saint-Georges records the birth of a "boy," Matieu (sic) B., on September 12, 1837. This otherwise ordinary birth certificate contains a less common marginal note: "By a judgment of the civil court of Saint-Flour on November 18, 1872, the birth record opposite has been corrected to state that the newborn child is to be designated in said record by the name Marie and of the female sex." Upon consulting the court's judgment (file number 157 U 203), it becomes clear that this change in civil status occurred on the eve of Marie B.'s marriage: "designated by the name Mathieu and recognized as male, whereas her true name is Marie and she is of the female sex." Ravoux, the lawyer drafting the petition, struggled to hide his discomfort, initially writing "male" and overwriting it with "female." The petitioner supported her request with an act of notoriety from the justice of the peace of the Saint-Flour-north district, dated November 15, 1872. The public prosecutor raised no objections, and the court ordered the correction to the civil registry in the margin of the birth certificate.

The act of notoriety is usually used to fill gaps in civil records. The justice of the peace, consulted by the civil court that had "expressed the desire to see the evidence invoked in support of her request," did not call upon any medical experts, merely recording the statements and oaths of the seven witnesses provided by the petitioner: her aunt Agnès B. and six residents of Saint-Flour, all men aged between 44 and 62. Agnès B. "declared that she knew the B. family well, as the father was her brother, and that she knew that the marriage of Pierre B. and Catherine M. produced three children, one of whom was Marie B. (...) that it was by mistake that the birth certificate of this child states that the child is male and named Mathieu, while it should indicate that the child is female and named Marie." The six other witnesses made the same statement.

Marie B. married Baptiste S. in Saint-Flour on November 20, just a week after the error, which had prevented the marriage, was resolved. It is likely that Marie B. had not needed her birth certificate for administrative purposes earlier and that the mention of male sex had not troubled her until the preparation of her marriage documents; Mathieu B. was not drafted in 1857 and thus escaped conscription, which would have naturally required clarification. Her relatively late marriage at the age of 35, unusual for the time, may reflect discomfort with the sex recorded in the civil registry. The couple had offspring.

One might still be surprised at how easily the justice of the peace, prosecutor, and president of the civil court approved this sex change as a mere correction of a "material error," carefully avoiding any medical involvement. In 1872, it must have been as obvious that Marie B. was female as it was in 1837 that Mathieu B. was a "boy." Mathieu became Marie; the child changed sex.

Perhaps the parents of the baby born in 1837 so strongly desired a boy that they declared the child male despite physiological evidence to the contrary. Or perhaps this seemingly innocuous mention conceals a case of hermaphroditism.

As Gabrielle Houbre, a historian specializing in the subject, explains, "hermaphrodites (or intersex individuals) are those whose sexual identity is unclassifiable or difficult to define." Since the 16th century, the issue has been studied from both medical and legal perspectives. The leading expert on hermaphroditism in the 1870s was Ambroise Tardieu (1818-1879), a doctor who published the autobiographical testimony of Herculine Barbin in 1874. Born female in 1838, she adopted male attire in 1860 and committed suicide in 1868, unable to endure society’s gaze. The 19th century saw several high-profile cases of marriage annulment brought by husbands who felt deceived. Marginal corrections to civil records, while not commonplace, were not unheard of.

As for Marie B., she was eager to marry, and the judges of Saint-Flour were probably eager to avoid addressing a question that unsettled their certainties about sexual dimorphism.

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