thinking about dr james barry and other historical trans men who were outed against their will and like
not all the trans men could have gotten outed, right?
like im willing to bet that there are quite a few men out there who were buried as men
im glad not to know them
the archive, when it comes to trans people, records violence.
ohhh but also, how much space is there in that silence for real trans joy! because we’ve always been here – we know we’ve always been here. and we only know a tiny handful of names.
it stands to reason that there were so so so so SO so many of us who lived quiet, headline-free lives. we lived our lives and had our careers and fell in love and went quietly on, under the radar.
yes, the archive records violence. but not only violence. james barry was outed after his death – after, in other words, a long and successful life as exactly who he wanted to be. alan hart was outed during his lifetime and that’s awful, but he also maintained a career as a pioneering scientist.
the only records we have for most homosexual activity in history are court transcripts and arrests, but we know better than to believe no man ever fucked another man without it being paraded through a court room.
absence of proof is not proof of absence. we are more than the historical record tells us, and even then, the historical record shows more than just the worst other people could inflict on us.
