r/lgbthistory

Hi! I'm an Australian trans lady -- hope it's ok to post here.

Would anyone be able to suggest books or articles to read about Hijra people? I've read there there's a happier period for them before British colonisation and that's more what I'm interested in. I know from Australian history quite enough about how the Brits were cruel and queerphobic. Historical fiction especially would be cool -- just as that's a format/genre I love! I have two quite well-read lesbian mates, one from Calcutta and one from Gujarat and neither of them knew of any books so I presume it's not a well-covered topic in historical literature even within India but I'm sure there's stuff out there :)

If anyone just wanted to share facts or info that'd be great too. Or if any trans women who read this want to connect and discuss directly totally keen on that!

Much love XOXO

Let me know if this is the wrong sub for this question, but I’m a queer fiction author attempting to authentically portray gay clubbing in US urban centres the 1990s. I have photographs and journalist accounts, but nothing detailing the songs or artists one might hear, rather than the most popular ones (like Madonna).

I imagine it differs from city to city, or from club to club depending on the “scene” (drag, leather, EDM, etc.), and therefore am happy to receive a variety of answers from personal experiences.

(Please let me know if you think another subreddit would better suit this question. Thank you.)

I went to this fantastic book talk about LGBTQ Jewish Holocaust history with Dr. Anna Hájková and the Museum of Jewish Heritage a few weeks ago. One of the first stories was from the founder of the [Lesbian Herstory Archives](https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org), Joan Nestle (born in 1940 and still kicking!). One evening as she was beginning the project, a group of women at her kitchen table looked around and realized that not only were they all lesbians and all middle-aged, but they were all Jewish! One of the women was not only Jewish, but a survivor of the Holocaust and then spoke about having read The Well of Loneliness back in Poland before the war, and how that book (one of the first books with a sort-of-happy ending for its queer characters) and the drive to have a relationship like that kept her going through the concentration camps. Queer love, the hope and need for it, helped save her life.

I think this was an excellent quote to start off with. Even though that specific survivor’s identity has been lost to history, it shows not only a poignant overlap between LGBTQ and Jewish people but also gives some additional background on a queer leader. Joan Nestle wasn’t just any lesbian - she was a major community anchor, an archivist whose work has helped countless lesbians and other queer people find a link to their history.

After some Googling, I’ve found that it was around this time, in the 70’s and 80’s (AIDS crisis era) where some mainstream Jewish groups were also rapidly advancing on LGBTQ rights, often spearheaded by Reform Jews - [a Jewish women’s group called for decriminalization of homosexuality in 1965 and two major Reform Jewish organizations called for human rights for homosexuals in 1977 (though it wasn’t until 2000 that “the Central Conference of American Rabbis made history by becoming the first major group of North American clergy, as an organization, to give its support to those in its ranks choosing to perform same-gender ceremonies”](https://rac.org/lgbtq-rights-and-position-reform-movement).

It’s kind of dizzying how recent all of this progress is. Though of course, queer history itself is far older. That’s starting to be recognized more now, as is [intersectionality between queer and Jewish people](https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/06/09/jewish-lgbt-pride). For years, Holocaust historians focused on Jewish victims of the Holocaust and LGBTQ victims of the Holocaust as separate groups. People who were persecuted and murdered for being Jewish were sometimes also queer, but this was largely overlooked, perhaps out of a desire to avoid attaching further stigma to Jewish people during years when there was ferocious backlash against increased queer visibility.

Several of Hájková’s sources were survivor memoirs that I now want to look up in addition to People Without History Are Dust itself. She also tried to end on as hopeful a note as possible. Obviously, a lot of the people she profiled were murdered by the Nazis for being Jewish, but she sought out their descendants and families wherever possible and was able to share some stories of connecting with them through history, senselessly violent as it was.

I definitely want to get the book now and [the talk itself is on the museum’s YouTube for anyone else who wants to check it out.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-tbXzIF2v0)