Being Trans Is Not New

We know that trans people have been around since the beginning.

Here in the U.S. one of our founding “fathers” was lawyer for a trans woman who was attacked…

John Adams's notes on the case indicate that the cause of the scuffle was an earlier incident in which young Pitts had been "gallanting" (flirting with) a person he assumed to be a young woman. Only later did Pitts learn that this individual's feminine clothes covered a male body -- apparently, either Gray's or that of another male closely associated with Gray. Learning of the deception, young Pitts, after unsuccessfully demanding an apology from Gray, opened Gray's scalp with a walking stick -- the injury for which Gray brought legal charges.

Now over in Iran they are finding evidence that we were around 3000 years ago much to the chagrin of the Revolutionary Guard.

Ancient Civilization in Iran Recognized Transgender People 3,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests
Analysis of funerary artifacts in Iron Age burials at Hasanlu, Iran indicates there were three different sets of offerings: for males, females and a 'third gender'
Haaretz
By Ariel David
December 30, 2018

Well “ain't that a kick in the teeth” I was just getting ready to write about the above headline when I got kicked out by a pay firewall but the internet being the internet I found the article on another website.

Ancient civilization in Iran recognized transgender people 3,000 years ago, study suggests – 
Trend Daily News
ArchaeologyPublished 21 hours ago on December 30, 2018
By mohali

As 2018 came to its end, the Trump administration was busying itself with stripping transgender people of official status in U.S. law. It may come as a shock to the White House, but it’s trying to erase something that has been recognized by many human societies for thousands of years. Apparently, an enigmatic civilization in Persia may have embraced this diversity by recognizing the existence of a third gender besides “male” and “female” already 3,000 years ago.

That is the theory based on the statistical study of artifacts found in the burials at Hasanlu, an ancient site thousands of years old located in what is today northwestern Iran.

The study rattles the assumptions archaeologists make about sex and gender in ancient civilizations, and also highlights that many non-western societies – past or present – have a non-binary view of gender.
[…]
But the algorithm also showed that around 20 percent of the burials in Hasanlu featured a third cluster of co-occurring objects: unusual combinations of artifacts, of types that accompanied skeletons of both sexes.
[…]
In any case, Cifarelli tells Haaretz, there are clearly more than two categories of funerary artifacts in Hasanlu: one can be clearly mapped to women, one to men, and then there’s a middle category.

The art historian theorizes that these three groupings of ritual funerary objects signal that the local culture recognized the existence of at least three different genders.

But how can we know that the artifacts were indeed markers of gender rather than indicators of some other social role, or even just random offerings left by grieving relatives?

We cannot be sure, the researcher concedes, but the fact that the two more polarized clusters correlate closely with the biological sex of the deceased suggests that indeed gender identity played a role in the selection of mortuary accouterments.
[…]
However, Cifarelli believes that traces of this third gender can be discerned in Hasanlu’s art, particularly in a golden bowl uncovered there by archaeologists.

Among the figures depicted on the bowl is a bearded man wearing female clothing shown sitting on the floor, a position that local iconography usually reserved for women, Cifarelli says. She thinks this may be a representation of a non-binary person.

Hmm… very interesting!

And the gays and lesbians were also appears to be accepted.

The most famous of these remains are the so-called Hasanlu Lovers, two people who appear locked in a tender embrace. Since both the skeletons are believed to be male, this discovery has long fueled a debate over love and sexuality in this ancient culture.

This kind of shows that transphobia and homophobia is the result of Christianity and it offshoot religions. It we looking at the North America indigenous peoples they seemed to okay with trans and lesbians and gays, it was when the Europeans came here and forced Christianity on them that they changed.

Note: Sunday’s morning post “It’s In Our Bones” is related to this post; the article cited appears to be written by a student in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania that studied the artifacts from Hasanlu.