NIH VideoCast - “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it”: Struggles and Stories to Be Heard for Today and Tomorrow

Skip Navigation

“We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it”: Struggles and Stories to Be Heard for Today and Tomorrow

Loading... Loading video...

206 Views

Air date:	Thursday, June 8, 2023, 2:00:00 PM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Views:	Total views: 206 (131 Live, 75 On-demand)
Category:	History
Runtime:	01:02:18
Closed captioning:	Check box to display CC outside of the video Note: You can drag the captioning window around and resize it
Description:	Starting with two documents in the archival collections of the NLM, Dr. Sell will examine how early sexual and gender minority (SGM) Americans worked to normalize the presence of SGMs in society. Ralph Werther (1874-?) hoped that his writings might render “nature’s step-children” lives more tolerable and he “offered no apology” for their publication. Specifically, he hoped to repeal laws under which SGMs were incarcerated, put a stop to a continuous string of murders of these stepchildren, and save “hundreds” of these “melancholy sexual intermediates from suicide.” In addition to these objectives, Allen Bernstein (1913-2008) gives further justification for his writings stating that “travelers returning from strange adventure in far ends of the world owe civilization a report.” But Werther and Bernstein struggled, often unsuccessfully, to get their writings published and into libraries such as the Army Medical Library, the predecessor institution of the NLM. In this talk, Dr. Sell will examine their struggles and stories, and those of other SGM writers, including those working today.

NLM Title:	"We"re here, we"re queer, get used to it" : struggles and stories to be heard for today and tomorrow / Randall Sell.
Author:	Sell, Randall. National Library of Medicine (U.S.). History of Medicine Division,
Publisher:
Abstract:	(CIT): Starting with two documents in the archival collections of the NLM, Dr. Sell will examine how early sexual and gender minority (SGM) Americans worked to normalize the presence of SGMs in society. Ralph Werther (1874-?) hoped that his writings might render "nature"s step-children" lives more tolerable and he "offered no apology" for their publication. Specifically, he hoped to repeal laws under which SGMs were incarcerated, put a stop to a continuous string of murders of these stepchildren, and save "hundreds" of these "melancholy sexual intermediates from suicide." In addition to these objectives, Allen Bernstein (1913-2008) gives further justification for his writings stating that "travelers returning from strange adventure in far ends of the world owe civilization a report." But Werther and Bernstein struggled, often unsuccessfully, to get their writings published and into libraries such as the Army Medical Library, the predecessor institution of the NLM. In this talk, Dr. Sell will examine their struggles and stories, and those of other SGM writers, including those working today.
Subjects:	Authorship--history Civil Rights Homophobia--history Literature, Modern--history Sexual and Gender Minorities--history Social Justice United States
Publication Types:	Lecture Webcast

NLM Classification:	WZ 80.5.S4
NLM ID:	9918663186306676
CIT Live ID:	48680
Permanent link:	https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=48680

Related Videos...