Transcript of What Are Words Worth

Language is constantly evolving, words once considered acceptable, well by some, are at least, a social faux par, or are totally unacceptable, and by the same token, some words that were unacceptable, are now acceptable, even embraced.

And for this episode I will explore a number of words relevant to this Podcast, and initially I was unsure which to include, and then I thought why not adopt the same technique I used for episode two, “Take Pride in Your Flag”.

Therefore I will explain the origin, meaning, and evolution, of the letters that make up the initialism, LGBTQIA+.

Equally, the title for this episode was posing a problem, and then the hit single from “Tom Tom Club’s” eponymous first album, “Wordy Rappinghood”, came to mind, and the first line of that song seemed ideal.

Welcome to “Trans Wise Trans Strong”, I am Carolyne O’Reilly.

Episode eight, “What Are Words Worth”

Before I begin, and apologies to everyone who knows the meaning of the letters of the initialism LGBTQIA+, but what do these letters represent, well they stand for; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex and Asexual.

As well as defining the origin, meaning, and evolution of the letter LGBTQIA, I will include some historical background, I think loyal listeners will know by now, I love a tangent.

Apologies in advance for my pronunciation of non-English; names, terms, book titles, institutions, and also some details may make for uncomfortable listening.

And so starting with the first letter, “L” is for “Lesbian”, and in one sense, a case could be made for it having the oldest of origins, the word literally means a resident of the Greek island of Lesbos, and it was on the island of Lesbo that the Greek poet Sappho lived.

She was born in 620 BCE, and through her beautiful poetry, expressed her love for women, and although mocked by some, there are also those who greatly admired and celebrated her poetry.

A possible first usage is Jules Cotard’s 1870 work, “Études médicales”, where they used the word, “lesbienne”, to describe women who love women, however it wasn’t until the 1960s that women in a same gender relationship, adopted lesbian to differentiate themselves from men in a similar relationship.

Sappho herself was also the origin of another word, “sapphic”, which is an umbrella term for any women, who love women of any orientation, and according to the OED, it is from around 1553, in the writing of Gavin Douglas, poet and bishop of Dunkeld, that sapphic is first recorded.

As well as different words, attitudes towards women and men in a same gender relationship also differed, being a lesbian was never criminalised, although there was a failed attempt in the 1920s.

Frederick Macquisten, Conservative MP, proposed an amendment to the “Criminal Law Amendment Bill 1921”, to make sex between women a “gross indecency”, unfortunately, as well as that vile phrase, Macquisten is not the only homophobic MP we will encounter.

Next we come to “G” for “Gay”, this can also be used as an umbrella term.

Gay is a term for people who are attracted to the same gender as themself, however it often refers to attraction between people who are male.

Gay has replaced “homosexual”, and Psychology Today, has an interesting article that gives a detailed explanation of why the word homosexual is considered offensive.

But before even homosexual, there was another word, that I find grossly offensive, “sodomy”, which came from the tale describing the destruction of the towns of, Sodom and Gomorrah, in “The Book of Genesis”, sodomy being derived from the Latin Sodoma.

Interestingly the tale didn’t explicitly described same gender relations between men, not that that hasn’t stopped transphobes from citing it, although it did describe, Sodom and Gomorrah as depraved, sounds like they were a biblical equivalent of, 18 to 30s party towns.

The origin of the word homosexual, saw the light of day in 1869, coined by an Hungarian journalist, translator and human rights campaigner, Károli Mária Kertbeny, as, “Homosexualität“, but it’s some peoples modern biblical interpretation, along with the medical association, why it is now considered far from a neutral word.

They also coined heterosexual, as “Heterosexualität“.

Given the medical usage, where same gender attraction was in the past pathologized, as a mental illness, one can see why, homosexual is considered offensive and why a replacement was needed.

Step forward, “gay”, although it first appeared in English during the 12th century, from an Old French word, spelt, “GAI”, and most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source, it originally meaning meant, "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy".

It wasn’t until the late 19th century, that it became a term for same gender attraction, but it was from the mid-20th century that its usage became more common, and was preferred to the offensive, homosexual and homosexuality.

But whilst the word, gay, was gaining popularity from the fifties onwards, being gay if one was male, was still a criminal offence, it wasn’t until, and I still find this hard to believe, the Sexual Offences Act 1967, that consensual sex between men over 21 years of age, in England and Wales was decriminalised.

But what about Scotland and Northern Ireland, even more incredulously, in Scotland, it wasn’t until 1980, and in Northern Ireland, 1982, that being gay and male and over 21, was decriminalised.

However the age of consent was still over 21, and it wasn’t until the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, that in the whole of the United Kingdom, it was lowered to 18.

Then with the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000, the age of consent was lowered again to 16, in England, Scotland and Wales, bringing it into alignment with straight people, but in Northern Ireland it was only lowered to 17, which at first glance may seem as an anomaly.

Unless you knew that in 1950, the age of consent if straight, was actually raised to 17, therefore lowering to 17, did in fact bring it into alignment with straight people in Northern Ireland.

Finally in 2008, the age of consent in Northern Ireland was lowered from 17 to 16, for both gay and straight people.

But when was being gay made a criminal offence, the answer lies in the 19th century and, The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, but that wasn’t its primary purpose, which was in fact laudable, the protection of women and girls by increasing the age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age.

So how did this happen, well it was thanks to another homophobic Member of Parliament, Henry Labouchère, ironically a Liberal MP, who introduced a small section to the Act, Section 11, that was passed during a late night debate in the House of Commons, with only a few MPs present.

Section 11, is also known as the Labouchere Amendment, named after that same MP, which criminalised sex between men, and introduced the legal term, which we have encountered before, “Gross Indecency”, a charge that was used to convict and punish, among others, Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing.

So how long did that lovely legal term, Gross Indecency, remain on the statutes, well wait for it, it wasn’t removed as an offence until the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, I mean, give me strength.

And now the last letter for an aspect of sexuality, “B” is for “Bisexual”, whose meaning has changed over time, it was originally a biological term for organisms that possessed both male and female reproductive organs, but it was during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that it gained a psychological and sexological meaning.

In 1859, anatomist Robert Bentley Todd adopted the term “bisexuality”, to describe a body with male and female physical characteristics, which is sort of how we might describe an Intersex/DSD condition.

Bisexuality was further explored in the 19th century, by the anatomists and sexologists, Henry Havelock Ellis and Richard von Krafft-Ebing, who gave consideration about “the latent organic bi-sexuality in each sex”, and observed that “at an early stage of development, the sexes are indistinguishable”.

By the start of the 20th century, its meaning had altered again and now referred to a combination of “masculine” and “feminine” gender characteristics, such an individual might be described as “androgynous”, a term derived from the Greek word, "androgyne”, in the 17th century.

Finally, bisexual acquired its psychological meaning, in the 1910’s, as a description for sexual and/or romantic attraction for someone of the same gender and opposite gender, however for many years the different meanings of bisexuality, coexisted.

The current understanding of bisexuality, only began to be widely accepted in the 1970’s, and on into the 1980’s, when bisexual activists advocated that it should be considered alongside lesbian, gay and straight as a sexual orientation.

Gradually the term also came to mean attraction to many genders, however in the 1990’s, “pansexual” began to be used instead, when describing attraction to many genders.

Pansexual or rather "pansexualism", was originally coined by Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century, to describe their theory that all human behaviour is driven by sexual instincts.

And after three letters related to sexual orientation, we come to gender identity, and “T” for “Transgender”, which is defined as an individual whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, and transgender can also be used as an umbrella term.

However, it was not transgender, that was first coined, but “transgenderism”, by the Psychiatrist John F. Oliven, of Columbia University, who used the term in their 1965 reference work, “Sexual Hygiene and Pathology”.

Where they advocated the word transgenderism, over, “transsexualism”, however, now we will use, transgender or “trans”, for although transgenderism was for a long time a neutral word, its use has recently acquired sinister overtones.

But back to transsexualism and the related term, “transsexual”, which has its origin in a German word in the twenties, the roaring twenties of the 1920s that is, when Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, a German physician, sexologist and LGBTQIA+ advocate, and all-round wonderful man, coined the term "Transsexualismus" in 1923.

But Dr Magnus Hirschfeld has been somewhat lost to history, and I only learnt about them whilst researching this episode, which I find a great shame.

In 1919 they founded the, “Institut für Sexualwissenschaft”, “The Institute for Sexual Science”, which could rightly claim to be the world’s first gender clinic, and their understanding of gender identity and sexuality, would not seem out of place today, then it was revolutionary.

And knowledge of, The Institute for Sexual Science, and Dr Hirschfeld’s research, would counter those transphobes, who suggest being transgender is a modern identity, I mean seriously.

But why are they a forgotten figure of history, well that was due to the Nazis, who were not impress by their research, can’t think why, they also revoked Dr Hirschfeld’s German citizenship, now why does revoking citizenship still sound so familiar.

Well anyone who pissed off the Nazis, I am really liking.

However if you had googled “Transsexual”, before listening to this episode, you might have come away believing that the word had its origin 1949, in an essay by Dr David Oliver Cauldwell, “Psychopathia Transexualis”, where they used the term, “transsexual”, however although they did indeed coined the term Transsexual, it was based on the Germany word Transsexualismus, as mentioned.

However, unlike Dr Hirschfeld, Cauldwell was against gender affirming surgery, and believed being transgender was a mental disorder, due to a negative environment in childhood, I mean I just want to scream.

Moving forward to the 1960’s, it was with a medical textbook by Harry Benjamin, an American endocrinologist and sexologist, “The Transsexual Phenomenon”, published in 1966, that, “transsexual”, would gain wider awareness, and the book became the reference for transgender medical care within the medical community.

And before leaving T, there is one last word beginning with T, that I would like to mention, “Transvestite”, and we return to Dr Hirschfeld, who published a book in 1910, in English, “Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress”, I think I reached my Germany pronunciation limit with, The Institute for Sexual Science.

The book was a sympathetic and understanding exploration of what it meant to be a, transvestite, however that word, is now considered offensive, and has been replaced by “crossdressing” and “crossdresser”, when describing an individual who dresses in the clothing of the opposite gender.

Crossdressing appeared as verb around 1966, and crossdresser a noun from 1975.

But why did I say the word, transsexualism had acquired sinister overtones, well there was a speech by a far-right commentator Michael Knowle, in March 2023 at the CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was reported on by The Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times has an article on the speech, where Knowle’s advocated that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely”, and I’ll let that sink in for a moment, and then imagine instead they had said, “homosexuality” or “Judaism”.

They claimed that they weren’t advocating the eradication of transgender people, as “transgenderism” and “transgender” people are two different things, well I believe them, as well as believing in the tooth fairy and Father Christmas, although of course the latter is a real person.

That speech was in step with the anti “diversity and inclusion” movement currently infecting America at federal, state and local level, where facts are a movable feast, and discussing gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial and ethnic identity, in public schools is under attack.

According to a BBC Future article, "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to, the Nazi, Joseph Goebbels.

And one last thought on anti “diversity and inclusion” policies, it is from the “Holocaust Encyclopedia”, during the first six years of Hitler’s chancellorship, there were more than 400 anti-Jewish decrees and regulations, and although most where at national level, state, regional, and municipal officials, also acted on their own initiatives, need I say more.

Three letters back in the alphabet is, “Q” for “Queer” or “Questioning”.

I said in the introduction that some words that were unacceptable, are now acceptable, even embraced, queer, was the word I had in mind, when it entered the English language is not known, but in the early 16th century it had gained the meaning of, “strange”, “odd”, “peculiar”, “eccentric”.

So you can see how by the 19th century, it would be adopted as a derogatory insult directed against people who were lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans, but when and how did its meaning change.

It was in the 1980’s, that queer began to be taken back and used as a neutral or even positive word, and a notable use was by the organisation, “Queer Nation”, who circulated an anonymous flier at the New York Gay Pride Parade in June 1990, titled "Queers Read This".

And today queer is used by those who feel their gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, does not neatly fit into given cultural norms.

The other meaning is, questioning, and in the LGBTQIA+ context, this means just that, individuals who are evaluating their gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

For the penultimate letter, we come to “I”, for “Intersex”, there seems to be a question about when the term originated, 1915 or 1917, however the related term, “intersexuality", first appeared in a paper, “Intersexualität und der endokrine Aspekt des Geschlechts”, "Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex", in 1917 by Richard Benedict Goldschmidt, a German geneticist.

However before, intersex and intersexuality, there is a related term, "intersexual", its first use was around 1866, and was a combination of, “Inter” and “sexual”.

It was initially a description for “pertaining to both sexes” or "existing between sexes", it later came to mean, "having both male and female characteristics".

But back to Goldschmidt, it was through their research on insects, in particular the gypsy moth, that they found some animals were neither male, nor female, but represented a whole spectrum of male and female observable characteristics.

It was for these differences that they coined, “intersex”, which like intersexual, was a combination of “inter”, meaning between, and “sex”, and they would also go on to apply the term to humans.

They continued their research, but by the mid-thirties, came to realise that being

Jewish and remaining in Nazis Germany, was definitely not a healthy option, and in 1936 emigrated to the United States.

And one last thought, even before the term, intersex was created, the concept of intersex conditions dates back to before the Common Era, and prior to the adoption of “intersex”, there was a another term, that is now not only out of date, but is now considered offensive and derogatory, “hermaphrodite”, and should never be used.

The word hermaphrodite entered the English language in the late 14th century, initially to refer to animals with both sexes, then was later applied to humans, its origin was from Greek Mythology, Hermaphroditus, who was the son of the gods Hermes and Aphrodite.

It was Anne Fauto-Sterlin, who raised the awareness of Intersex, with a 1993 article, “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough”, which questioned the notion that we are a strictly binary species, and in the same year, Cheryl Chase founded the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) which was a non-profit advocacy group.

However there was a belief within the medical community that intersex, had become outdated and was a stigmatizing term, and that there should be a, replacement.

It was at the Chicago Consensus 2006, when a new term for intersex conditions was adopted, it had the acronym DSD, which stood for “Disorders of Sexual Development”.

Needless to say, many people with an intersex condition were less than impressed

with DSD, which ironically was meant to be a less stigmatising term, so being told you are a disorder, isn’t stigmatising.

On the NHS web site, DSD is now defined as, “Differences in Sex Development”, but the damage had already been done, which is why the term intersex is still in use today.

The web site, thisisintersex.org has a interesting detailed article, Intersex is not DSD, and summarises the main difference as, “the intersex community is led by intersex people and the DSD community is led by health professionals”.

And lastly we come to, “A” for “Asexual”, which is a lack of sexual attraction to others and once more we meet Dr Hirschfeld, who in 1896 published, and there is now way I going attempt the German title, “Sappho and Socrates: How does one explain the love of men and women to persons of their own sex?”.

The term, "anesthesia sexual”, for asexuality was used in this book.

And it was a fellow German sexologist Emma Trosse, who in 1897, provided a more explicit definition of, asexuality, referring to “asensuality”, even identifying as asexual herself.

Its inclusion on the Kinsey scale in the 1940s, furthered its acceptance as a defined sexual orientation.

The concept of asexuality evolved into including, the “split attraction model”, which distinguished between sexual attraction and romantic attraction allowing for a spectrum of asexual experiences.

Asexual can also be used as an umbrella term, including people who are “demisexual”, that is, having a sexual attraction to someone only after forming a deep emotional bond with them.

And one last piece of information about Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, being Jewish and gay, they also unsurprisingly saw no future remaining in Germany, and in November 1930, they embarked on a world speaking tour, and eventually settled in Nice, France.

But they never saw the full impact of the hatred that would engulf the world, orchestrated by that second rate Charlie Chaplin impersonator, as they died in their apartment on their 67th birthday, on the 14th of May 1935.

This episode was written and presented by me, Carolyne O’Reilly, thank you for listening.

Next time “Celebrating Trans Films - Part Two”