We have always been here. Transgender people have always been here. We are part of what it means to be human. We are as old as humanity itself. If every last one of us were erased from this earth, we would be born anew to every generation.

I’m going to take you back 4,500 years ago to Enheduanna. Enheduanna is the earliest human author in history. She wrote about the priesthood of Inana, which was a priesthood made up of transgender, gender variant, or third gender people – people whose assigned sex at birth did not match their gender identity or presentation. The very first time that symbols were pressed into clay tablets and someone decided to sign their name, they were speaking about transgender people. We have always been here, and we are part of what it means to be human, as much as writing itself.

Now, I’m going to take you 2,500 years into the future and yet still 2,000 years ago. There was a transgender empress of Rome. You never really hear about her in the books and in the history classes you likely took, but her name was Elagabalus. Accounts from the life of Ellagabalus state that she wore makeup and wigs. She once stated to a potential lover, “call me not a lord, for I am a lady.” She even offered vast sums of wealth to any physician in Rome who could give her gender reassignment surgery, and boy is that a mood. We have always been here.

If we travel another 1,000 years into the future, in 1300AD, we meet Kalonymus Ben Kalonymus. A Jewish poet, we have Kalonymus Ben Kalonymus to thank for the very first description of gender dysphoria. Now we don’t know how Kalonymus would identify today, but in their works, they wrote a poem lamenting to god that they were not born a woman, and wishing they had been. They describe the horrible feelings and realizations at the loss of that potential. And god I wish I could travel back in time and give Kalonymus estrogen, but I can’t. I can, though, give them thanks for showing that we have always been here.

Keep Reading Keynote Speech From “Transcendence: Legal Efforts To Protect And Advance LGBTQIA Youth Rights”