All tagged Ireland

Eva Gore-Booth

Harper-Hugo Darling

Coining the term “Sex is an accident”, Eva Gore-Booth was faced with an uphill climb in her lifetime in the early 20th century. A poet, suffragist, and lifelong activist, her story is sometimes forgotten in the shadow of her more famous sister Countess Markievicz who had many of the same aims of gender and class equality. Eva found her path through her partnership with Esther Roper, her lover and lifelong companion.

Kate O'Brien

Harper-Hugo Darling

There are more ways to affect change than most will credit. For any queer person living in a society that villainizes and stigmatizes their very existence, simply living and finding moments of happiness can be enough to shift public discourse. Openness about one’s identity has never been a qualifier for this type of life, neither historically nor contemporarily. There have been, and still are, queer people who had a deep and lasting impact on their communities without ever being explicit about their identity and desires. While there is some part of this reality that is a tragedy, a life unlived, a possibility for radical acceptance never experienced, the whole of the situation is not bleak. Public knowledge of someone's sexuality or gender identity does not equate to happiness, and the reverse is just as true.

Charlotte Payne-Townshend

Harper-Hugo Darling

Described by her friend Beatrice Webb, Charlotte Payne-Townshend was “an anarchist – feeling any regulation or rule is intolerable – a tendency which has been exaggerated by her intolerable wealth. She is romantic but thinks herself cynical. She is a socialist and a radical, but not because she understands collectivist standpoint, but because she is by nature a rebel. She has no snobbishness and no convention. She has ‘swallowed all formulas’ but has not worked out principles of her own. She is fond of men and impatient of most women – bitterly resents her enforced celibacy but thinks she could not tolerate the matter of fact side of marriage. Sweet tempered, sympathetic and genuinely anxious to increase the world’s enjoyment and diminish the world’s pain.”

Jemma Redmond

Harper-Hugo Darling

Jemma Redmond was an intersex person who innovated 3D printing technology and was poised to change the medical world with her work. Driven by the desire to get this technology into as many hands as possible, she worked to make 3D printers cheaper and more universally useful.

Edward De Lacy Evans

Harper-Hugo Darling

The legacy of many trans people is complicated. That’s not an inherently bad thing, either; being transgender can be complex. Treating one’s relationship to gender with care and room for contradictions is healthy. Sometimes, though, a spade is just a spade. In the case of Edward De Lacy Evans, a man is just a man.

The Ladies of Llangollen

The Ladies of Llangollen

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings

This week, we find ourselves again surrounded by political turmoil. In moments like these, we always have to consider if our voice is needed in the dialogue. If we could say anything that hasn’t already been said. This week we found there is nothing we need to add, so instead we will take this time we have with our dearest readers and tell you all a love story. The story of the Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler, and Sarah Ponsonby, two Irish women who fell in love, and lived happily ever after. A type of story that is all too uncommon in our history, but we are happy to share with you now.

Albert D.J. Cashier

Albert D.J. Cashier

Kristoff Smith
Guest Author

History is shaped by those who tell it, and nowhere is there such an enormous gap than in the history of trans people. Continual erasure and suppression of trans lives and stories throughout time has left few figures to survive censorship. Those who were brave enough to live authentically often were forced to do so in a manner of “stealth”, their identity as a trans person not discussed or documented. This is especially true of American history before the mid-nineteen hundreds. Even among the few surviving figures, their identities have often been misinterpreted and altered through the lenses of hetero/cisnormative historians. One prominent example is the life of Albert Cashier, Civil War soldier and trans man.