Tyne O'Connell LGBTQ HISTORIES

Despite the rising visibility of LGBTQIA Torchbearers in Britain over the past forty years many people are unaware of the LGBTQIA Torchbearers who shaped British history from 1603 onwards. History remains stuck in the revisionist narrative of Victorian historians like Sir Thomas Carlyle, ‘The Father of Modern History’ who stated  “The history of the world is but the biography of Great (straight white) Men”.

These Victorian historians used a heteronormative Calvinist historiography to glorify the deeds of straight white men whilst deliberately ghosting the once famous Queer Torchbearers of history, including the transgender actor and court authorised dandy sleuth, Mall Frith (b. Mary 1584-1659). Those who weren’t ghosted were heteronormalised like William Shakespeare (1564-1616), (Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)  Aphra Behn (1640-1689) et al, so as to conform to a heteronormative calvinist narrative. It’s time to breath life back into the ghosted LGBTQIA Torchbearers of history.