A Queer Search for Ancestral Legitimacy

The practice among queer people of compiling lists famous historical figures that modern eyes may comfortably identify as and/or trans* persists, and has persisted, a form communal transmission memory for over century half. These collections names, described in this article ‘gay lists’ the spirit their frequently casual deployment, acted key element history well before Stonewall Uprising rooted itself popular consciousness beginning history. This explores English-language primary texts published US, UK, Italy between mid-nineteenth mid-twentieth centuries including personal statements homophile magazines Edward Prime-Stevenson’s book Intersexes. purpose examining these is to discuss how gay were deployed create sense collective, claim history, an imagination ancestry wider consciousness. distinguishes naming recognizable from evocations Greco-Roman mythology or Biblical antiquity. It also summarizes brief selection literature describing phenomenon so far makes case exploring study revisionist memory.