Introduction: Queer Figures and Sources in ‘LGBT History.’

Abstract

It is with great pleasure that we introduce Leidschrift’s first special issue devoted to ‘LGBT History’. Or to phrase it in less of an anachronistic way—as the term ‘LGBT’ only gained prominence since the 1990s—this special issue historicizes today’s LGBT identities, communities, and movements via four new studies of homosexuality and gender non-conformity in history. Two of the articles focus on late-medieval and early-modern Europe (roughly 1400-1700); and two look at the twentieth century, with a focus on the radical changes of the 1960s-70s. In situating their studies within larger histories—of religion, medicine, literature—the authors not only provide ‘queer’ histories of sexual and gender deviations, but they also demonstrate how ‘to queer’ more established areas of history.