Thanks so much for having me @blackwellbooks and to those following along! #BlackwellsVF The transgender rights movement has achieved widespread recognition in the past decade but history shows that trans people have been living & thriving for a long time #TransDayOfVisibility

There is no singular transgender past, but by exploring the varied & beautiful branches, we can get a richer understanding of trans lives and communities. The particular branch that caught my eye as I began researching this topic years ago was a group called “female husbands”

A Female husband was someone who was assigned female at birth, transed genders, lived as a man, and married a woman. They assumed a legal, social, and economic position reserved for Anglo-American men in the UK and US, from 1746 until before WWI #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

In their ability to flirt, charm & attract queer wives, female husbands threatened the stability of heterosexual marriage. They lived lives that in contemporary terms might be described as transgender, nonbinary, butch, lesbian, queer, bi or asexual #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

I wanted to write a book that trans & nonbinary people could see themselves in. I refer to the husbands using singular “they” to make space for a nuanced view of people who never fit neatly into the box of “man” or “woman” #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-12-15/they-singular-grammar-transgender-history

“Female Husband” was first used by Henry Fielding in 1746 in his short story “The Female Husband” – a highly fictionalized account of the life of Charles Hamilton who married Mary Price in Wells England. #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

Mary testified “the pretended Charles Hamilton / who had married her aforesaid / entered her Body several times, which made [her] believe. . . Hamilton was a real Man, but soon had reason to Judge that the said Hamilton was not a Man but a Woman.” #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

Some queer wives knew exactly what they were getting into when they married female husbands. Such was the case with James & Mary Howe who ran the White Horse Tavern in Poplar for decades until 1766 when Mary died. [this horse still marks the corner] #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

All types of British & US newspapers reported on female husbands. The continuous reprinting of accounts signaled fascination & concern about sexual difference, gender roles & marriage. Stories of the Howes were reprinted for over a century! #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

Abigail Naylor & James Allen married in 1807 at St. Giles Church in London. James was bashed in the head and killed by a falling piece of timber while working for a shipwright in Dockhead England in 1829. #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

The state of James’ legal sex remained in limbo - suspended between competing claims by a medical student who examined James' body and found female anatomy and their wife, coworkers, and friends who knew James was a man #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks @HMSCountway

The coroner held a copy of James & Abigail's marriage certificate in his hand declaring, “I call the deceased “he,” because I considered it impossible for him to be a woman, as he had a wife.” Legal authority & social truth trumped medical knowledge #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

By mid-19th century, women’s rights movements took off. Critics of women’s political advocacy, autonomy, & equality used the language of gender to undermine their efforts by calling them “masculine,” “manly,” or at the very least, not “womanly” #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

This critique that women who were too well-read might develop masculine minds gained renewed potency as more women rejected conventional expectations by wearing bloomers and refusing marriage. #Femalehusbands seemed to further undermine their cause. #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

For those assigned female at birth, living as a man was never without risk. For some, it was filled with strife, hardship, and danger. Such was the case for Joseph Lobdell, a hardworking and resourceful person who grew up in Westerlo New York. #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

Lobdell's gender was challenged repeatedly for decades in the court of law, the court of public opinion & finally at the behest of their birth family who had them declared insane & institutionalized. Lobdell’s treatment was tragic & cruel #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

By the 1880s-1900s when “female husband” took off in the US press, it no longer had a clear meaning. It was also used in reference to cisgender men who weren’t manly enough or women involved in same-sex relationships. #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks https://publicseminar.org/essays/female-husbands/

Few recognized the manhood of female husbands & more people equated them to their assigned sex. Female husbands & their queer wives were seen as the same as women who were involved in relationships with other women. Their gender-transing was erased #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

In the 20th c. there was an explosion of gender variance that was judged in different ways. So called “masculine women” were deemed typical homosexuals. Those who transed gender more fully to live as men were pathologized & often institutionalized #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

Stories of female husbands & queer wives are marked not only by resilience, love & joy but also vulnerability, loneliness & conflict. They lived extraordinary lives. This history is true and it belongs to all of us. #TransDayOfVisibility #LGBTQ #BlackwellsVF @blackwellbooks

Thanks so much for having me @blackwellbooks! I'm happy to take questions on this feed forever. #BlackwellsVF #TransDayOfVisibility