Review by emleemay - Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

A review by emleemay
Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

4.0

“I understand you. I know how much you have suffered.” More beautiful words were never spoken.

Try and read this without becoming an emotional wreck. Just try.

[b:Queer, There, and Everywhere|31706527|Queer, There, and Everywhere 23 People Who Changed the World|Sarah Prager|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476240256s/31706527.jpg|50463455] is an interesting, accessible, wonderful history book. It offers short biographies on twenty-three queer people throughout history, and serves as a reminder that gay, bi, trans, genderqueer, nonconforming, intersex, asexual and others all have long, beautiful, difficult histories. From Ancient Rome to modern day San Francisco, a single resounding cry echoes through the millennia: You are not alone.

I love that the author has remembered all these people so beautifully. She offers many of them in death what they were often denied in life - the correct gender pronouns - and, where possible, Prager has included direct quotes from them, capturing their humanity so that they become more than long-gone figures of history. They become painfully real.

Some of these chapters are heartwarming true romances, others about a lifelong fight for identity and rights, and a few are educational tales about the darkest times of history. I now really want to read Josef Kohout's (Heinz Heger) account of his time as a gay prisoner during the Second World War: [b:The Men with the Pink Triangle|391661|The Men with the Pink Triangle The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps|Heinz Heger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328758764s/391661.jpg|381267]. I have read many memoirs from Jewish holocaust survivors, but none from gay survivors, and I plan to remedy that.

Though I did know this, it was great to get a reminder that the history of LGBTQIA+ people is not all about hatred and intolerance. I'm sure many teens will be interested in learning about how early societies often accepted non-het and trans people, and it was common for rulers to take both husbands and wives. Contrary to popular belief, the persecution of queer people rose with Christianity, particularly in the fifteenth to twentieth centuries.

If anything, I just wish that the book had contained people from outside Europe and North America as well. The intro talked about queerness all across the globe, and yet none of the twenty-three people were from Asia, Africa or South America. Though many were POC. I would love to see more books on queer history from the author, and to see them expand to include other people around the world.

That being said, it was still wonderful. The relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Joshua had me in tears, as did the love between Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. I cannot explain the happiness I felt upon learning that Albert Cashier (transgender Civil War soldier) was not misgendered in death, and was allowed to have his true name on his headstone. And, oh shit, this from Glenn Burke (gay baseball player):

“As I reach my final days, I’d like to be remembered as just a down-to-earth good person. A man that tried to never have a bad thought in his mind. A man who really tried to get along with everybody at all times, no matter what the situation. A man who will always love his friends and family. Despite what people are going to say or write about me after I die, I want it to be known that I have no regrets about how I lived my life. I did the best I could.”

A review by emleemay Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

A review by emleemay
Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager