PROLOGUE
Ancient Echoes: Traces of Queerness in Early Civilizations 

As we celebrate Pride Month and envision more inclusive futures, it is essential to remember that queerness is not new – regardless of what many would like to believe. Far from being a “modern invention”, diverse expressions of gender and sexuality have existed for millennia – coloring the intricate histories of ancient societies across the world. By looking back, we challenge the myth that LGBTQ+ identities are a recent “trend” and instead uncover a rich history of diversity, rituals, love, and complexity. 

The Fluid Gods and Lovers of Antiquity 

In ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerian goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar) was associated with transformation, sexuality, and power. The galla priests who served her were male but performed lamentations in the feminine form and often adopted female names and dress.(1)  As activist and scholar Will Roscoe notes, “the worship of Inanna involved crossdressing, gender ambiguity, and ritual lamentation – suggesting a sacred space for gender variance.”(2)  

One Sumerian hymn goes,  
“To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inanna.” 
– Hymn to Inanna, c. 1900 BCE(3) 

Ancient Egypt offers one of the oldest known depictions of a same-sex couple: Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, royal manicurists entombed together around 2400 BCE. Their tomb depicts the men in intimate poses typically reserved for married heterosexual couples. Egyptologist Greg Reeder argues that their representation “exceeds standard depictions of close friendship and likely paints a romantic relationship.”(4) 
 

In classical Greece and Rome, same-sex relationships were visible and, in many cases, valorised – particularly amongst men of status. Plato’s Symposium presents male-male love as a pathway to philosophical enlightenment.(6) The Roman emperor Hadrian’s love for Antinous was so intense that after Antinous’s death, Hadrian deified him, establishing cities and temples in his name. “The love of Hadrian for Antinous is one of the most remarkable stories of antiquity,” wrote Margeurite Yourcenar, “precisely because it was public, powerful, and tragic.”(7) 

 
Beyond the West: Global Histories of Gender and Sexual Diversity 

While the West often frames queerness as a modern idea, many non-Western cultures have long histories of gender and sexual diversity.

In ancient India, texts such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata reference same-sex love and gender transformation; the deity Ardhanarishvara, half-male and half-female, symbolizes gender unity. “Ardhanarishvara shows that the divine transcends binary gender – an ancient Hindu vision of wholeness.”(8) In modern day India, the Hijra – a recognized third gender community (dating back thousands of years) has held ceremonial roles in weddings and childbirth. Scholar Ruth Vanita notes, “Pre-modern India had a complex and tolerant vies of same-sex love, woven into mythology, religion, and literature.”(9)  

In Southeast Asia, Thailand offers its own deep-rooted history of gender fluidity and queer expression. Historical records from the Ayutthaya period (14th–18th centuries) mention court entertainers and performers who dressed in clothing associated with the opposite gender. Some royal chronicles and temple murals depict male couples and kathoey (a Thai term often translated as “ladyboy,” though its cultural meaning is more nuanced) figures in stylized roles. As historian Peter A. Jackson writes, “Thailand has long had indigenous cultural spaces for gender and sexual diversity, though they have been reshaped by Western influence and modern nationalism.”(10) More importantly, the modern visibility of the broader LGBTQ+ communities in Thailand is not a novelty. It draws from a layered cultural past where identities beyond the binary were known and, in some contexts, accepted. 

In many indigenous cultures, gender and sexuality were also not binary. Among numerous Native American tribes, Two-spirit individuals – people embodying both feminine and masculine spirits held important spiritual and social positions. Historian Sabine Lang writes, “Two-spirit roles were integral to tribal life before colonization, not marginal.”(11) 

Polynesian culture similarly reflects longstanding acceptance of gender diversity. The fa'afafine of Samoa and māhū of Hawaii’ were often embraced as caretakers, educators, and artists. According to cultural historian Niko Besnier, “Gender variance in the Pacific was traditionally normalized – not stigmatized – until colonial and missionary influence.”(12) 
 

Why This History Matters for Our Futures 

Queerness is not a recent phenomenon – it is deeply human and deeply historical. The attempt to erase these histories was often intentional, part of larger colonial and religious projects that sought to standardise identity, morality, and power; but these histories are being recovered and celebrated. 

When we reclaim these histories, we don’t just honour those who came before – we widen the horizon for what is possible. Queerness has always existed; it will always exist. The question is, how will we build futures that embrace that truth? 

As scholar José Esteban Muñoz wrote (paraphrased) in his work on queer futurity,(13) 
“The future belongs to those who can imagine it. And queerness has always imagined beyond the boundaries of what is expected.” 

Source:
1 Asher-Greve, J. M., & Westenholz, J. G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources. Zurich Open Repository and Archive. www.zora.uzh.ch. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-135436 
2 Roscoe, W. (2000). Changing ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. In Internet Archive. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin. https://archive.org/details/changingonesthir0000rosc 
3 du Toit, H. (Ed.). (2009). Pageants and Processions: Images and Idiom as Spectacle. In www.cambridgescholars.com. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-4438-1249-8-sample.pdf 
4 Reeder, G. (2000). Same-sex desire, conjugal constructs, and the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. World Archaeology, 32(2), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240050131180 
5 By Jon Bodsworth - http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/saqqara_tombs/saqqara_tombs_39.html, Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4977603 
6 Zhao, M. (2024). The Evolution of Love: The Concept of True Beauty in Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus. In www.claremont.edu. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4815&context=cmc_theses 
7 Yourcenar, M. (2015). Memoirs Of Hadrian. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125737 
8 Koolwal, A. (2019). Devdutt Pattanaik, Shikhandi and Other Queer Tales They Don’t Tell You. Journal of Psychosexual Health, 1(1), 90–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631831818824457 

9 Vanita, R. (2000). Same Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History (S. Kidwai, Ed.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/ruth-vanita-saleem-kidwai-eds.-same-sex-love-in-india-readings-from-literature-a 
10 Jackson, P. A. (2011). Queer Bangkok: 21st Century Markets, Media, and Rights. Hong Kong University Press; JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1xwdfx 
11 Lang, S. (1998). Men as women, women as men: Changing Gender in Native American Cultures. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/menaswomenwomena0000lang 
12 Besnier, N., & Alexeyeff, K. (Eds.). (2014). Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders. University of Hawai’i Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqhsc 
13 Muñoz, J. E. (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. NYU Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg4nr