I Don’t Know About That.

Assigning labels to history is very risky and the farther back in time the harder it is to tell.

Museum relabels Roman emperor as a trans woman with she/her pronouns
The North Hertfordshire Museum will update its display about a Roman emperor after determining that she had been a transgender woman.
Pink News
By Ali Condon
November 21, 2023

The museum will now refer to emperor Elagabalus with the pronouns she/her.

Elagabalus’s gender identity has long been a topic of debate amongst historians and academics, with historical accounts alluding to requests by the emperor to be referred to as a woman.

It was decided that the museum would reclassify Elagabalus as a transgender woman based on classical texts that report the Roman ruler as saying, “Call me not Lord, for I am a Lady.”

Chronicles of Elagabalus’s life, written by Roman historian Cassius Dio, also note that she had been married five times – four times to women and once to a former slave and chariot driver named Hiercoles.

In Elagabalus’s fifth and final marriage, Cassius Dio writes that the ruler “was bestowed in marriage and was termed wife, mistress, and queen.”

That sounds like some pretty good evidence, but still…

Museum reclassifies Roman emperor as trans woman
A museum is to relabel its display about a Roman emperor after concluding that he was in fact a trans woman.
BBC
21st November 2023
By Yasmin Rufo

[…]

It comes after classical texts claim the emperor once said "call me not Lord, for I am a Lady".

[…]

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Elagabalus, ruled the Roman empire for just four years from 218AD to his assassination, aged 18, in 222AD.

They were only 18! That makes it that they were an emperor at 14!

The debate over Elagabalus's gender identity is long-standing and often splits academics.

Dr Shushma Malik, a Cambridge university classics professor, told the BBC: "The historians we use to try and understand the life of Elagabalus are extremely hostile towards him, and therefore cannot be taken at face value. We don't have any direct evidence from Elagabalus himself of his own words.

"There are many examples in Roman literature of times where effeminate language and words were used as a a way of criticising or weakening a political figure.

As I said assigning today’s labels to someone living a thousand year ago is very risky, especially since they had strange moral values back then which today we would call it pedophilia today.

However, councillor Keith Hoskins, executive member for Enterprise and Arts at North Herts Council, said texts such as Dio's provide evidence "that Elagabalus most definitely preferred the 'she' pronoun and as such this is something we reflect when discussing her in contemporary times, as we believe is standard practice elsewhere".

"We know that Elagabalus identified as a woman and was explicit about which pronouns to use, which shows that pronouns are not a new thing," he added.

So what do you think? Was the emperor/empress trans?

online polls

This sure bursts the Republican bubble with their claim that being trans is something new.