All language subtitles for The Book Of Queer s01e04_English

(MAN READING)

NARRATOR: In these chapters
of the Book of Queer,

we're expanding
our queer vocabulary,

starting with sodomy.

You might think the Bible
hates butt stuff

but did you know that the man
behind the best-selling Bible

of all time was queer?

I'm a king in the streets
but more of a queen in the sheets.

And did you know
that the word lesbian

came from an island
entirely full of lesbians?

I love you, lesbians.

Oh and Hollywood got it all wrong.

Ain't no man out here
manlier than me.

The real Wild West
was the queerest place in America.

You've been posing as a man.

Full of steers, queers and beers.

At least they got
the drinking part right.

Giddy up, we're going gay to Z
in these chapters of

the Book of Queer.

# Open our book and dazzle your mind

# History is about to be redefined

# Think you know the truth
about the past

# Honey better think again

# We're shining a light
on queer lives at last

# Dishing drama now till then

# These pages are full
of many courageous stories

# Of glory that
are outright outrageous

# Baby, we've always been here

# Welcome to The Book of Queer #

Once upon a time, there was a big,
important book

that said being gay was not OK.

The big daddy of sacred texts.

The chart-topping, show stopping

best-selling book of all time.

Baby, we're talking about
the King James Bible.

It's been a guiding light
for billions of people

throughout history, a source of hope
in an uncertain world.

But recently,
some have used the good book

to justify all kinds of
queer hating, fear baiting (BLEEP),

but the joke's on them, honey,

because we've got some tea for you.

Tea on the King James Bible that is.

First, let's take a look
at the man behind the Bible.

After all, if you have
a Bible of your own,

you can probably thank
this guy for it.

Oh, hello.
King James I of England.

MICHAEL: Most people when they think
of the, uh, Christian Bible,

have in mind the King James
Version of the Bible.

Fifty-five percent still today

prefer the King James Version.

I'm Michael Young.
My pronouns are he, him and his.

I'm an Emeritus Professor of History
and I've spent 50 years

studying and writing about James I.

James had been King of Scotland
since he was one-year-old.

And when he also became king
of England in 1603,

he unified the two countries
under a single crown
after centuries of war

and basically invented
Great Britain.

Imagine if Mariah and JLO
united for eternity.

Whoa! Imagine that power.

One of his first acts as king,

commissioning a new
translation of the Bible,

the King James Version.

It's the same Bible that supposedly
says sodomy is a sin.

But if you think the Bible
is against queer folks,

girl, do we have some goss
for you.

The man behind the Bible
loved other men.

(GASPS) What a revelation.

The King James Version of the Bible

does have several
anti-queer statements in it.

That's at least ironic...
(MAN GROANS)

..in view of the fact that James
had a series of male lovers.

What? What's queer about
having bedchamber men?

Oh. But before we climb
into bed with King James,

we should probably
get to know him first.

He was a very complex man.

On the one hand,
he was a spendthrift,
who was always in debt.

I bought these for myself
because I'm rich.

He drank too much.

He had a very high opinion
of himself.

I'm the best king that's ever been.
(MAKES SOUND) Ooh.

One contemporary said he had
an ego the size of a whale.

This size queen...

ruled over a unified Great Britain.

And he also wanted to rule
over a unified Bible.

He's been described as perhaps
the most learned person
who ever sat on the British throne.

So it's appropriate that

one of the most enduring
and stellar achievements

of his reign was a book.

Conflicting translations
of the Bible

had been floating around
for decades.

So James, power hungry

and wanting one Bible
to rule them all...

You must take my word
for I'm the king.

..ordered a new translation
of the Bible in 1604.

Thank you.

It was an enormous undertaking

to translate the Bible

out of the original languages
into English.

I don't even speak this language.
What does this even say?
(BOTH LAUGHING)

What does this even say?
(LAUGHS)

It required scholars, linguists,
theologians, seven years...
Too much.

..to complete the project.
Horrible. Awful.

Now, of course, the King James
Version still today does have
several homophobic statements in it.

My name may be
on the actual Bible,

but this is more of a, um,
do what I say
and not what I do situation.

Oh, hey, Eric Cervini here,

your friendly neighbourhood
homo historian.

Welcome to The Footnotes.

Let's get a few things queer
right now.

King James did not make
the Bible homophobic.

Haters like to cite
the Book of Leviticus,

you shall not lie with a male
as with a woman

to justify their disapproval
of all things queer.

Well, scholars have found that
the original version of Leviticus
only bans same sex incest,

all other forms of queer love
for more than a century

perfectly fine in the eyes of God,

until a sneaky editor came in
and ruined all the fun.

Next time you're home
for the holidays,

tell your family you prefer
the original Old Testament,

the one that had no problem
with sodomy.

Class dismissed.

Speaking of sodomy,

that brings us to James' sexuality.

Shh. Now, to be fair,

we do know he had sex
with women. Believe it or not.

Because James had kids.

MICHAEL: James was married
to Anne of Denmark.

And their marriage lasted
30 years until her death.

And there were obvious
strains in their marriage.

Eventually, Anne did go more or less

her own way
starting around 1607.

It's no coincidence that
that's precisely when James

became more interested
in pretty young males.

WOMAN: Honey, can I get
your thoughts on these curtains?

I can't decide on a pattern.
(GLASS SHATTERS)

Ew! You just ignore her,
she goes away eventually.

Go away, dear, we're busy.

With James and his beard,

aka Queen Anne
living separate lives,

he was free to continue
overseeing his Bible project.

(HORSE NEIGHS) And also enjoy
some hot man on man entertainment,

better known as jousting.

(LAUGHS)

MICHAEL: James' first great lover
was Robert Carr.

He was about 20 years old,
a Scotsman

and he broke his leg
in a jousting tournament.

(HORSE NEIGHING)
(MAN GROANS)

Oh. I think I've broken my leg
and my name is Robert Carr.

This turned out
to be his big break.

Oh. Oh, dear.

Because James immediately,
uh, was infatuated by him.

What did you say
your name was again?

Robert Carr,
you know like vroom, vroom.

Gorgeous.

You should see me without
the armour. Oh, dear.

A contemporary said that
James pinches Carr's cheek.

I'm pretending I like this.

And he smooths his garments

and he looks at him adoringly.

Fellatio? Fell...

It's fellatio, darling. Mm.

Carr, uh, was very quickly
promoted by James.

He was made a knight.

Sir Robert Carr.
Vroom, vroom.

He was admitted
to James' Privy Council,

which was a small group
of advisors and officials

who helped the king
rule the kingdom

and he was not entirely
welcome there.

Oh, a little dribble.

So, while James was getting busy
with Robert Carr,

his commission of scholars
was also busy.

Let's go eat. All right.
Putting finishing touches
on the New King James Bible.

Congratulations.
This is the King James Bible.

MICHAEL: When it was first published
in 1611,

it was not an overnight bestseller.

But it did gradually become
the most popular Bible in English.

Now (BLEEP) off. Leave.

The common people now had the word
of God in their hands.

And that was dynamite.

Everything has its season

and soon after his Bible project
was complete,

James closed the book

on Robert Carr. (ROBERT GRUNTS)

There was a new twink in town.

And for him, James was ready
to risk it all.

2
00:10:07.480 -- 00:10:11.240 align:middle line:90% position:50%
1614 was the year
of George Villiers.

This handsome fool was turning heads
the second he entered
the king's court.

Bishop Godfrey Goodman,
a bishop for God's sakes,
is quoted saying...

"Villiers was the handsomest
bodied man in all of England.

His limbs so well compacted,
very compacted,

compacted here as well
and his conversation so pleasing,

and of so sweet a disposition."

I said this and I'm a bishop.

James immediately made Villiers
the royal cup-bearer

and honey, his cup runneth over.

By 1616,
King James had knighted him

and made him a gentleman
of the bedchamber.

For my little bedchamber boy.
(GASPS) Daddy.

I know. That's so sweet.
Of course, darling. Look at it.

It says bedchamber bitch.
Doesn't it?

Villiers helped James get dressed

and undressed, slept in his room

and provided companionship.

You're my king.
I'm your family's king, too.

That's also true. Everyone's king.

James loved Villiers,

or as historians would later
call him,

the Duke of Buckingham.

Thank you so much.
Of course, darling.

Almost as much as he loved himself.

Careful with the crown. OK.
And we have the receipts.

MICHAEL: There is one particularly
fascinating letter

that Buckingham received
from James.

And in that letter, James said
that he would rather live
with Buckingham

banished to any other part
of the Earth,

than continue to live
a widow's life

in England without Buckingham.

I live a sorrowful widow's life.

I think that's my favourite part.
It's a good line.

He also referred in this same letter
to Buckingham...

as his sweet child and wife,

and he referred to himself

as Buckingham's dad and husband.

Baby, ain't it sweet?
I can imagine it now.

James and George,
husband and wife,

picking out bed sheets,

walking the royal dogs...
(DOG BARKING)

..and even going on
vacation together.
(HORSE NEIGHING)

James couldn't help himself

showering his lover
with gifts and favours.

He made Villiers
Master of the Horse,

Knight of the Garter,
Viscount Villiers,

Baron Whaddon,
Earl of Buckingham and finally,

are we seeing a pattern here,

appointed him
to the Privy Council.

This was an unprecedented
career arc for a guy

whose only credentials
were looking fine as hell.

Soon, James' inner circle
took notice

of his preoccupation
with the Earl of Buckingham,

cos honey, the king was not subtle
with his affections. Very hot.

Suddenly, Villiers was one
of the most powerful men
in the country.

While abroad, he had the authority
to act on behalf of the king.

James made a remarkable
prescient speech

to his Privy Council in 1617.

He heard that they were grumbling
about the favours he was giving
to Buckingham.

Hey, I earned this.

And he assembled or summoned them
there to set them straight.

Would he deny the relationship

or throw Buckingham
under the biblical bus?

(CLEARS THROAT)

I, James,

am neither God nor an angel,

but a man like any other.

Therefore, I act like a man

and I confess to loving those
dear to me more than other men.

You may be sure...

that I love the Earl of Buckingham
more than anyone else,

more than all of you
who are here assembled.

I wish to speak on my own behalf

and not to have it thought
to be a defect for...

Jesus Christ did the same.

Therefore, I cannot be blamed.

Christ had his John and I...

have my George.

He was actually invoking the Bible

to justify his love of other males.

Jesus was his role model.

That's right.
The man behind the Good Book

justified his relationship
with Villiers

by comparing it to Jesus' love

for his favourite disciple John.

But this wasn't ancient Rome.

This was the 1600s.

Amen. And yeah, people gossiped.

(SIGHS) Men.

There is a mountain of evidence

about James' attraction
to these male favourites.

People witnessed him
and they wrote about this.

They recorded it.
I have a poem.

French poet, Theophile De Viau,

even wrote a poem about it
around 1623

called To The Marquis of Buckingham.

One man (BLEEP)
the Baron of Bellegarde,

another (BLEEP) the Count,

Earl of Tonnerre.

And this learned King of England,

did he not (BLEEP)
the Duke of Buckingham?

More like (BLEEP)-ham.

Now remember, James had
just finished overseeing
the translation of a text

that seemingly condemned
his own behaviour. Ow!

How did he deal with that?

Especially if sodomy
was immoral and illegal?

Well, James found a loophole, honey.

The English law was very precise
on this subject during James' reign.

But if you didn't stick
a thing into a thing,

technically, you weren't
committing sodomy.

And there is a letter
from the Duke of Buckingham

in which he strongly hints
that what he and James

did in bed was mutual masturbation,
so no problem.

So where exactly
did this term sodomy

come from?

You look like a queer
in the headlights.

Let me help you out.

Not only did James think
he was avoiding sodomy,

but sodomy itself did not
originally mean queer sex.

You might think
that in the book of Genesis,

God destroyed the homosexual city
of Sodom with sulphur and fire.

It is after all, why we call
the word sodomy, sodomy.

But for 1,500 years after the book
of Genesis was written,

nobody equated the sin of Sodom

with same sex love or attraction.

The real issue
was that the Sodomites

had tried to rape their guests.

Obviously, a very bad thing.

Then in the first century,
a philosopher reinterpreted
the text,

saying that the real problem
wasn't rape,

but instead man on man action.

That interpretation somehow
caught on. Men mounted males.

All one big mistake. What?
OK, back to the story.

Get outta here. No really, leave.

So where exactly was all this, uh,

non-sodomy
sexual activity happening?

MICHAEL: Apethorpe Hall was one
of the favourite retreats

or we might called vacation spots
for Buckingham and James.

They often went hunting together.

During his reign, James had done
a little redecorating.

You know, we queers love
a renovation.

But there may have been
another secret reason

why the king decided to do a little
homo improvement on the mansion.

In the 2000s, preservations
were restoring the building
to its former glory,

but when they were going
through James' old room,

they uncovered something

not part of the original design.

The workmen there discovered
a hidden passage

that connected the bedroom
of Buckingham

to the bedroom of King James.

A secret tunnel linking James
and Villiers bedrooms.

I think most people
would have a pretty good idea

why that secret passage connected
James' bed to Buckingham's bed.

Well, well, well,

because of those
pesky preservationists,

we know that James had direct access
to his favourite bedroom boy.

This was a major discovery.

Like when straight girls
first discovered gay bars.

WOMEN: Yay!

I would have gotten away
with it too

if it weren't for you
pesky preservationists.

How much more proof do y'all need

that James and Villiers
were getting it on, like men.com?

I believe that sex
was the ruling passion

of James' life and it had
enormous consequences.

It poisoned his relationships
with parliament,

made it much more difficult
for him to rule.

We get it, Mary. And it generated
a political backlash

that was changed by homophobia.

James died in 1625.

And because parliament
was royally pissed

with Villiers' corruption
and undeserved power...

Hey. ..they stripped him
of all his titles.

Now, honey, that's what happens
when sugar daddy dies.

Why should anyone in
the 21st century care about
King James?

I believe that it's important
to understand the reign of James

and his love for his favourites
because it makes us more tolerant

of sexual differences.

Especially because King James
is associated

with the King James version
of the Bible.

That at least should give
some pause for reflection,

especially among
the more homophobic.

Any questions? Ah!
I won't accept any.

Today, there are 69 countries
that still criminalise sodomy.

Half of these are countries
that Britain colonized,

or were once part of
the British Empire.

Isn't it ironic?
A text that some people use

to justify homophobia exists
because of a queer king.

Well, let's not give James
the last word.

There are loads of historical texts
that actually celebrate queerness,

including ancient erotic
lesbian poetry.

We're going island-hopping, honeys.

Tut-tut, chilly England.

Hello, sunny Lesbos!

2
00:21:23.200 -- 00:21:25.840 align:middle line:90% position:50%
Welcome to the Isle of Lesbos,

where everyone
is a lesbian, literally.

That's what you call people
from Lesbos.

If you're looking for a little oral,
then you've come to the right place.

Lesbos is famous for its poetry.

It's home to one of the most famous
lyrical geniuses of our time
and for centuries to come.

No, not Nicki Minaj. It's Sappho!

Lesbians, women who love women.

To understand where the word lesbian

comes from and how we know
and use it today,

we have to start with the woman
behind it all, Sappho.

One of history's most famous poets,

male or female and we're not
throwing that distinction
around lightly, honey.

Sappho was the Adele...

Oh, wait, no, the Dolly Parton...

Nope, maybe the Taylor Swift
of her time.

Probably more than
all three combined.

I mean, I practically invented
writing about your feelings,

especially your queer feelings.

I'm from ancient Greece
and we're still talking about me.

You think Taylor Swift is gonna have
all that longevity? Ah!

How did this poetess
with the moistest

become an ancient queer superstar

and turn her hometown
into a lesbian Mecca?

MIRIAM: Sappho was born
in the late 7th century BC

on the island of Lesbos
in the UGMC.

My name is Miriam Kamil.
My pronouns are she/her

and I am a PhD candidate in
Classical Philology at Harvard,

which means I study
ancient languages and literature.

Lesbos seems to have been
an interesting place
cos it was culturally separate

from mainland Greece.

Today, Lesbos is the hottest

girl-on-girl vacay spot
in the world,

a safe and sacred space

where women openly love
other women.

In ancient Greece,
the Isle of Lesbos

had a particular reputation

for being home to the most beautiful
women in the world.

The women on Lesbos
are very sexualised.

There's this kind of oversexed
association with the island.

That probably is related to Sappho
because she wrote erotic poetry.

LILIAN: Sappho was one
of the first lyric poets.

Lyric poems capture the moment

and they were very often made
to be sung.

I'm Lillian Faderman
and my pronouns are she and her

and I'm a historian of lesbian
and LGBTQ history.

# I said thongs and G-strings
and booty shows

# I love girls

# I love girls girls
girls girls I love girls #

Lyric poems are also very personal.

They talk about
the author's own feelings

in a very emotional kind of way
as opposed to epic poems

that tell these huge stories.

Long before Katy Perry sang about

kissing girls and liking it
for attention

and way, way, way before
Madonna kissed Britney
and Christina for attention,

Sappho was the original diva
of the ladies,

the world's premier
queer pop starlet.

One of the first that we know of

to write and sing passionately

about her fondness for women

and it made her crazy famous.

(CROWD CHANTING) Sappho! Sappho!
Sappho! Sappho! Sappho!

(CROWD CHEERING)

My eyes can't see a thing

and a whirring whistled thrums
at my hearing,

cold sweat covers me

and a tremble takes over
my body completely.

I'm greener than the grasses

and appear to myself
to be a little short of dying.

I'm short of dying too!

I think she's so important
for a number of reasons.

She's one of the few voices
we have of ancient Greece,

a woman speaking for herself.

She wrote love poems
to other women

and these are passionate
love poems.

Honestly, I'd like to die.
(CROWD GASPS)

She was leaving me
saying goodbye.

Her cheeks wet with tears.

She said to me, "What a cruel
unhappiness, Sappho.

I swear I leave you
against my will."

I'd never leave you, Sappho!

So then may you sleep
on some tender girl's breast.

Tender breast... (SCREAMS)

They didn't
have bras back then.

(CROWD SCREAMS)

During her time, Sappho was beloved
by both women and men.

Later she was dubbed
the female Homer

and Homer was the Justin Bieber
of his day.

STEPHANIE: Sappho, here's a woman
who is brought in

to the major poetic canon
by the Greek men.

My name is Stephanie Larson and I'm
a professor of Classics and Ancient
Mediterranean Studies.

My pronouns
are they/them/theirs.

Plato calls her the poetess.

He calls Homer the poet
and Sappho the poetess.

She's that good.
So she was already recognised

as being amazing in ancient times.

The reason Sappho isn't more widely
celebrated today
while Homer's rugged rhymes

about men and wars
are copied and translated

from century to century,
most of Sappho's poetry

is lost because scholars

didn't bother to preserve her work.

And because we know
so little about her,

there are lots of different theories
about Sappho's day job status.

I heard she was a headmistress.

I saw her wearing sandals
and a toga once,
so I'm wearing sandals and a toga.

I heard she was a sex worker,
so I became a sex worker.

Like all stars that shine so bright,

Sappho had her fair share
of uptight, humourless critics

who trolled her throughout history.

It is sometimes said
that Sappho was married.

We think she had a daughter.

There was a 10th century
encyclopaedia-dictionary

kind of combo called the SUDA.

And that says that Sappho was
married to a man named Cercylas
from a place called Andros.

People generally think that
that's probably a misunderstanding,

because the name is really silly.
It means dick, like a penis.

And then Andros, the place
that he's from just means man.

She's married to Dickman...

(ALL LAUGHING)

We know that there were comic plays

written about Sappho
well after her lifetime

and comic plays are really cruel.

I mean, they are just
making fun of people.

So it seems likely enough that
the author of the SUDA saw that

and didn't realize it was a joke,

and put it into his biography,
as fact.

If there's anything
that transcends time and place

to unite humanity, it's dick jokes.

2
00:28:37.200 -- 00:28:39.880 align:middle line:90% position:50%
Sappho's haters were relentless.

For centuries, she had to contend
with sensitive straight-ass
male historians

who didn't like that she preferred
the company of women.

So they tried to erase her queerness

with some weak-ass theories
about her work.

(READING)

(LAUGHS) OK.

They were definitely addressed
to women. (BLEEP) idiot.
Stupid (BLEEP).

The SUDA does mention that she had

"shameful" relationships
with three women

that are reflected in her poetry.

She had relationships with many more
women than three.

Ooh. (READING)

MAN: Oh. What the (BLEEP) is that?

(READING)

I would never.
I would never do that.

(READING)

It's not like a panic attack,
you idiot.

It's like an orgasm.

Oh, I swore to myself
I wasn't gonna Tweet back.

You have a big head,
a tiny ass (BLEEP).

STEPHANIE: Scholars
in Victorian England

tried to do everything they could
to explain away
Sappho's words of desire

and Sappho's seemingly
adoration of young women.

And this goes way back
to the early church fathers

in the Christian church, in
the first, second
and third centuries CE,

where they were trying
to explain Sappho away.

In fact, some scholars have claimed

that the early church
burned Sappho's works.

It's hard to say if there was
a concerted effort by the church
to destroy Sappho's works.

It kind of makes sense,
homoeroticism was suppressed
by the church.

Centuries later,
European sexologists

began referencing sapphism
or lesbianism

to refer to the disease
of women who loved women.

Their words, not mine.

Can somebody say bull (BLEEP)?

The word lesbian?

We're reclaiming
that hell out of it.

Let's talk about re-appropriation
or reclaiming.

You may be wondering why
we love the word queer, queer.

(MAN LAUGHS) Queer.

Look, I'll admit it. For many folks,
the word queer is painful,

conjuring memories
of school bullies.

Over the 20th century,
even though it started
as a broad term, the word gay

increasingly meant White, male
and cisgender.

Then the AIDS crisis
forced activists

and scholars to reconsider
their language.

Queer became
an inclusive alternative,

a sly and ironic weapon
that they could steal

from the homophobe's hands
and use against him.

And the activists were right.

A recent psychological study
proves that self-labelling

as queer increases
our feeling of power.

Now, if you'll excuse me,
get over here!

In a roundabout way,
the word lesbian comes from
the Island of Lesbos,

this island where Sappho was born
and wrote her poetry,
which is kind of

an amazing tribute to the influence

that Sappho still continues to have
on our modern terminology.

So, Sappho is a Lesbian
with a capital L,

because she's on
the Isle of Lesbos.

So everyone from that island
is a Lesbian with a capital L,

sort of like I'm an American
with a capital A.

ALL: Lesbian! In 2008,

a group of people who reside
on the Isle of Lesbos

were upset about the use
of the word lesbian

to being female homosexuals
and they sued...

Go, get it, come on!

My name is Frank,
and I'm a Lesbian.

If you ain't from Lesbos,
you ain't no Lesbian.

ALL: Yeah!
I don't know who they sued exactly,

all lesbians, I suppose.
It was a little bit silly.

As a little girl, I've always
dreamed of marrying a Lesbian.

And now, women who love women
are trying to take that away
from me.

It's not fair. Hey, hey,
we're Lesbians.

Hey, look at me.
We are Lesbians. Yeah.

If you know in an alternate universe
American meant gay,
I would love that.

I have a hard time
explaining to my daughter

that we Lesbians
are not homosexuals.

My mother, my daughter,
and my sister are all Lesbians.

ALL: Yes! Lesbian, Lesbian!

NARRATOR: Thankfully, they failed.

The court ruled against them.

And lesbians all over the world

could continue
calling themselves lesbians,

even Lesbian lesbians.

Not only did they fail,
but lesbians have reclaimed

Sappho's homeland for themselves.

The Isle of Lesbos
is now a tourist Mecca

for all my queer sisters,
the lesbians.

Only 1,500 people live here

and we have three lesbian bars.

How many bars
does your island have?

Well, that's a good question.

Today in the USA, there are over
300 million people

and only about 21 lesbian bars.

In contrast, there are that many
gay bars in San Francisco alone.

Why? Well, some lesbians
say gay boys

always parade in and take over.

Despite the historical
dragging of her reputation,

Sappho's words
and the feelings of love,

longing and passion behind them
are a source of empowerment

for lesbians all over the world.

I think for lesbians,
she wrote some gorgeous poetry
that we really appreciate,

that really resonates with
lesbian readers even to this day

and has in other eras as well.

Reading Sappho, teaching Sappho,
publishing on Sappho,

has changed me as an individual.

One of my favourite poems is Poem 16

and one of the major points
of that poem

is that you don't have
to define yourself

by the rules
that your society tells you.

Whatever is right for you
is what's right for you

and that's pretty much
the message of Sappho to me.

I love you, lesbians.

Lesbians love you, Sappho.

Thank you for being
our first queer celebrity.

Goodnight, lesbians.

Goodnight, tops.
Goodnight, bottoms.

Goodnight!

OK. So people were queer
in King James' time.

There were queers
in Ancient Greece.

So were there queers
in the Wild West?

Yes, ma'am. There sure were.

Oh, did Western movies
not include trans cowboys

and non-binary
Native Americans?

2
00:35:28.320 -- 00:35:30.600 align:middle line:90% position:50%
Out of the untamed plains
of the West,

comes a classic story.

One man's journey
to be the manliest man

that ever manned
the manly frontier.

(GUNSHOT) The cowboy.

And the girliest girl to ever depend
on him, the helpless wife.

Oh, cowboy, I'd be dead
out here without you.

Even though you never looked
me in the eyes during sex.

From all the old Western movies
that Hollywood's been serving us

for over a century,

you'd think the Wild West
was straight as an arrow.

Full of manly men...
(IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE)
..and girly girls.

Cut the tape. Huh?
What is wrong with you people?

(BELL RINGING) Sounds familiar
though, doesn't it?

This crock of (BLEEP)
is exactly what Hollywood

has been serving us
for an entire century.

But let me tell you,
the Wild West was nothing
like those old films.

It was home to more queers
than that T Swift music video,

which I am still mad
I wasn't included in.

But saddle up, it's time to queer
the frontier and bust the binary.

Starting with a troublemaking
trans cowboy.

This stud. Harry Allen.

And to help
tell this outlaw's story,

here's drag superstar
and trans pioneer Gottmik.

Howdy, partner?
Hi Gorge. It's me Gottmik.

Harry was hot
and I'm obsessed with him.

Harry was born in 1892

and raised in South Bend, Indiana.

Hey, Mayor Pete.

As a kid, Harry was breaking
in broncos,

herding cattle
and busting stampedes.

Yee-haw!

Even though he was assigned
female at birth,

Harry's mom was pretty cool.

She let him wear boys clothes
and do boy things,

but everyone else
just didn't get it.

So as a teenager, Harry
moved to the new State

of Washington where he could
live his damn life.

Hiyah! In the West,
it was common, you know,

it was just common
to play little faster

and looser with gender
and sexuality.

Particularly when people thought
it was not forever, you know.

It's like, "What happens
in Vegas stays Vegas."

Hi, I'm Susan Stryker.
I'm a historian. I'm a filmmaker,

I'm a gender studies professor.

My pronounce are, um,
she, her in the sheets,
they, them in the streets.

The Wild West was like dragcon.

Full of queens
and fabulous costumes.

There's a historian,
Peter Boag and he documents

hundreds of cases
throughout all of the West

over the 19th and then
the early 20th century

where there's just like tons of
stories of gender variant people.

And Harry Allen was one of them.

I did not like to be a girl.

Did not feel like a girl

and I never did look like a girl,

so it seemed impossible
to make myself a girl,

and sick at heart over the thought
of being an outcast of
the feminine gender, well,

I conceive of an idea
to make myself a man.

So, as soon
as Harry got to Washington,

he started making trouble.

The police arrested him constantly.

Two cuffs? Two cuffs because we
don't like you weirdos here
and you're slippery.

Once, the police arrested him
for being reckless on a bike.

(LAUGHS)

Halt! Hold up!

Are you serious?
Pfft! (BLEEP) the police.

And the police were like determined
to pin something on him.

It's like, "Because you're engaging
in this gender masquerade,
you must be up to no good."

Harry got sick of the police
being so annoying,
so he started fighting back.

This hunk was a street fighter.

He threw rocks at the cops,
even bit their hands.

Police keep arresting him
for various things.

They noticed him
as a trans-ish person.

Bring him in and then don't have
anything to charge him with.

What crimes are you trying to
get me for, huh?

That, that, that thing
around your neck is a crime.

One time, Harry got arrested
in Portland, Oregon

and the authorities didn't
yet know he was trans.

Under questioning, Harry,
gave us a jaw-dropping reveal.

And I'm not Harry Allen.
I'm Nell Pickerell.

And I have been posing as a man
for more than 12 years.

What? Son of a cactus!

God. Crazy.

You've been posing as a man?

That's illegal. That's...
I know that's illegal.

And, girl, Twitter freaked out.

He became infamous
because a Puritan,

close-minded society couldn't
handle his fabulousness.

So glad things have changed.

Harry, you know, was very open

in the press
about saying he was female.

And I use the he pronoun
while we can use the they pronoun.

But like they would often
be accused of masquerading.

It's like, "Oh, you're a woman
pretending to be a man,"
and he would be like, "No.

Like I'm just me. It's like
you can't tell that I have
a female body

just cos I'm wearing this suit.
It's like that's on you."

Newspapers were obsessed
with this trans outlaw,
even though they didn't have

the word for his identity
at the time.

"She is convinced that nature
ran off on a tangent
when she was born.

Since nature so unjustly deserted
her at that crucial moment,

she's determined
never to close that breach,

but to be a man
as nearly as possible."

Haters gonna hate.

Newspapers reported that Harry
got tired of fighting the police

and became an informant
during the Prohibition.

If you can't beat them, join them.

But we like to think
our trans cowboy

stayed an outlaw till the end.
(SCREAMS)

It's a real drag that Harry
was subjected

to a lifelong battle
with being misunderstood

during a time
when the word trans

didn't even exist yet.

If only the Wild West
had the words to describe him

and make sense of his identity.

Oh, (BLEEP)
it did have the words...

for thousands of years.

But those words weren't in English
and we definitely
didn't learn about them

from those dusty-ass
Hollywood movies.

Indigenous people
have been portrayed in a way that

continues the idea that
we are savages.

(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)

And so when you look
at Western films,

you'll see indigenous people
in no clothes,

killing people, stealing White women
in particular,

it allows us to imagine that
native people and Brownness is bad.

Long before the cowboys arrived

and even longer
before those horrible movies,

Native Americans
had been celebrating genders

beyond man and women
for thousands of years.

So why haven't we learned
about all these fabulous folks?

Because the White man cameth.

You all remember learning about
manifest destiny in high school?

Well, settlers not only thought
they had a God-given right
to steal native land,

they also brought along their own
rigged pink-and-blue rules
about gender.

In fact, Europeans started this
trend hundreds of years earlier.

Let's talk about the origins
of colonialism.

After 1492, more and more
violent explorers

or conquistadors started
showing up at the doorsteps

of native people who had been
there for thousands of years.

These colonizers brought with them
the idea that there are
only two genders,

male and female and you're born
one or the other.

But that isn't how many
indigenous populations saw it.

In fact, there were hundreds
of gender identities

in colonized places
like North America.

Identities
outside the European's
man-woman divide or binary.

And when the colonizers noticed
all these different traditions
of gender, they saw an opportunity.

If they described the natives
as sinful sodomites,

then wouldn't that justify
wiping them out?

Sodomy, another page
from the colonizers handbook.

Classic.

Let's travel to Western New Mexico

where the A'shiwi/Zuni people
and their ancestors

have been living
for about 10,000 years.

In Zuni culture, men
and women had equal status.

(BELL DINGS) And for the Zuni,

gender wasn't something
you were assigned at birth.

Individuals were born raw
and then cooked into adults.

For the Zuni, there was a third
distinct gender outside
of the man-woman binary.

An identity they called lhamana.

One of the most famous lhamana's
was the late We'wha.

Born in 1849, We'wha was a pillar
of their community,

spiritual leader, talented artisan,
and ambassador.

We'wha was a member
of the Zuni nation

as someone who portrayed masculine
and feminine traits.

But because the Zuni had a much more
expansive understanding of gender

than most Americans these days,

there was no gender reveal party.

As a young child,
when We'wha's community

saw their interest in
traditionally feminine work,

their identity became clear.

I'm a lhamana. What?

As you would say
in English, she's a man.

She's a man? (EXPLOSION)

Modern European societies

believe that like gender
resides in the body somewhere.

But in a lot of native cultures,
it was more that gender
was like in the activity.

Basket weaving
is something women do.

You're weaving a basket,
you're doing woman's work,
it doesn't matter what your body is.

No one looked at We'wha when they
were born and said, "You're a boy,"
or, "You're a girl."

They were allowed to explore
their interest and found
that they were lhamana.

And in 1879, an American researcher
named Matilda Coxe Stevenson

showed up to study the Zuni.

Hi. Oh, hi. I'm Matilda.

I brought cookies. Thanks.

Yeah, but, first, sign this release.
Yeah. Right there, OK?

People went out
to the Zuni Pueblos.

They studied Zuni gender.

They "discovered" We'wha.

We'wha was kind of like
a 19th century rock star

for cultural anthropologists.

Matilda became really good friends
with We'wha over the course

of several visits
to the Zuni Pueblo.

And in 1886, We'wha and Matilda
decided to visit Washington, DC,

where We'wha could teach
the US Capitol

about their culture and also
advocate for their people.

(GASPS) I have an idea.

We should do a road trip to DC.
We'll go shopping.

And you can meet
the president.

Are you referring to the seat
of power for the settler colonists
who killed my parents?

We'll go shopping.

For six months,
We'wha stayed with Matilda

in Washington, DC, where We'wha
had the, um, honour to pose
for large audiences

at the National Theatre.

They were treated
like a museum exhibit,
which is all kinds of messed up.

How long do I have to stand here?
Just a few more months, We'wha.

Let's take a photograph.

During their time in DC, We'wha met
President Grover Cleveland,

making them the first known
non-binary person
to meet with a US President.

So they tell me
you're a Zuni princess, huh?

No. I'm a lhamana. Ha.

That must be Zuni for princess.

Let's take a picture.

To confront a system
that has harmed your people,

We'wha is one amazing
example of leadership

and advocacy
for indigenous people.

But We'wha's goodwill trip did not
stop the government from
harassing Native Americans.

When US soldiers invaded Zuni land,
We'wha literally threw a soldier

out of a tribal leader's home.

Sashay away.

In response, We'wha was arrested

and illegally jailed for a month
without charges and without a trial.

And although the late We'wha died
soon after, their legacy lives on.

Just one example of the many
indigenous gender identities
that the colonists

and later American settlers
tried to destroy.

I would love for the queer community
to understand indigenous people.

We have always been here.

And there's trauma, but also there's
stories of liberation and beauty
within that.

Fortunately, it's not too late
for us to learn from native
understandings of gender.

Even if English can't really capture
the full spiritual meaning
of identities like lhamana.

Our language just doesn't
have the range, honey.

It's like Fergie trying
to sing the national anthem.

# Over the land of the free #

(GLASS CRACKS)

But if these stories
have taught us anything,

it's that our language,
like our identities, can grow.

Some Native American
activists came up

with the concept of Two-Spirit.

That's right. Thanks to
Native scholars and activists,

we now have a new word, Two-Spirit,

to describe all the many gender
identities that have existed
on Native land

for thousands of years.

I know for sure
I was struggling a lot

coming to terms with my identity.

And now I know my identity
as a queer person
or Two-Spirit person

has always existed
and will continue to exist.

Over time, our language has changed,

but the world is still more vibrant

and diverse than just
male-female and gay-straight.

There are thousands
of words to describe

how we're different from those
who have historically kept us down.

But what unites us

is our difference from the norm,
our queerness.

# From the start of history

# Since a million BC

# That we couldn't all be seen

# We've been here

# Even if we couldn't say

# LGBTQA

# All of us, in our own way

# We've been here

# Whether you're a Two-Spirit

# Or (INDISTINCT) who will conform

# We are all united

# In our difference from the norm

# Whether you're a king or poet

# We can stand firm

# We'll take shelter
under one umbrella, yeah

# You know we've always been there

# And we're not going away

# Well here we are

# Q-U-E-E-R

# Q-U-E-E-R

# Q-U-E-E-R

# Well here we are

# Q-U-E-E-R

# We're here and we're...

# Yeah

# One more to be clear

# We're here and we're...

# If you take another look

# Inside your history book

# You'll find it all along

# You know we've always been there

# And we're not going nowhere

# Well here we are

# Q-U-E-E-R

# Q-U-E-E-R

# We're queer

# Q-U-E-E-R

# We're queer

# Well, here we are

# Q-U-E-E-R #