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
 

ACT 1
Erased and Resilient: Suppression and Survival Through the Ages 

Queer histories are as old as civilization, but they have not always been told. If queerness has always existed, why has so much of it been erased? To look forward with clarity and context, we must understand how systems of power sought to suppress gender and sexual diversity, and how LGBTQ+ communities respond(ed) with resilience, dignity, and empathy. 

This is a story not of silence, but of survival.

 
Colonization: The Global Machinery of Erasure 

Across much of the world, colonial empires did more than just claim land, they imposed new moral codes and legal systems that criminalized what they did not understand (not that they attempted to) – such as gender variance. British colonial rule, for instance, exported discriminatory laws to over 40 countries, many of which still enforce these laws to this day.(1) 

“Homophobia was not indigenous to many societies – it was imported.” 
----- Dr Sylvia Tamale, Ugandan feminist and legal scholar(2) 

In Thailand and much of Southeast Asia, pre-colonial fluidity in gender roles and sexual expression was gradually reshaped by the influence of Victorian-era Western norms, often internalized by the elites.(3) Even in nations never formally colonized, like Thailand, coloniality still operated through education, religion, and international diplomacy.(4)

Religious Doctrines and the Policing of Bodies 

Organized religion played a major role in narrowing expressions of love and identity. As Christianity spread through Europe and beyond, earlier cultural permissiveness gave way to doctrinal restrictions.(5) In medieval Europe, same-sex intimacy was condemned and harshly punished.(6) Islamic jurisprudence, though diverse in its interpretations also contributed to the silencing of queer existence in many Muslim-majority societies.(7) 

Buddhism, while less prescriptive on sexuality, was often co-opted with moralizing frameworks in Asia.(8) Many institutions absorbed heteronormative ideals over time, even as folk beliefs and popular media continued to reflect gender diversity.(9)

Medicine and the Making of Deviance 

The 19th and 20th centuries marked a shift from sin to sickness. LGBTQ+ identities were pathologized by Western science, labelled as disorders to be treated or cured. From electroshock therapies to lobotomies, the “scientific” response to queerness became a new form of control. Even well into the 1970’s, homosexuality remained classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association.(10)

 
As historian Susan Stryker says, 
“The idea that queerness was something to diagnose gave legitimacy to discrimination – and built institutions around it.”(11) (paraphrased) 

Codes, Subcultures, and Survival Strategies  

Despite this suppression, LGBTQ+ communities never disappeared. They adapted, creating coded languages (Polari in the UK,(12) Swardspeak in the Philippines(13), underground spaces, and cultural symbols to survive and connect.(14) In Thailand, the visibility of kathoey in entertainment and temple art quietly preserved gender variance even when public discourse could be hostile.(15) 

The ballroom scene in 20th century Harlem,(16) the emergence of drag as political art,(17) and queer zines of the 1980’s(18) all reflect a profound truth: when the world silences you, you find new ways to speak.  

Resilience as a Foresight Strategy 

Today, the study and practice of Foresight is not just about signals, trends, and technological innovations – it is about societal and cultural nuances. LGBTQ+ communities offer some of the world’s most compelling examples of resilience – not just bouncing back, but reimagining systems, challenging norms, and building alternative futures. 

By recognizing these historical patterns or suppression and resistance, we better equip ourselves to anticipate future challenges – whether it is digital erasure, algorithmic bias, or the resurgence of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.  Resilience is not just a theme of the past – it is a foundation of what comes next. 

Looking Ahead 

As we move into the 3rd part of this series, we will explore how queer visibility emerged in the modern world and how movements for justice have reshaped not only laws, but the language of identity and belonging. From Stonewall(19) to social media, visibility has been both a battleground and a beacon. 

Sources:
1 Wong, T. (2021, June 28). 377: The British colonial law that left an anti-LGBTQ legacy in Asia. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57606847 
2 Tamale, S. (2013). Confronting the Politics of Nonconforming Sexualities in Africa. African Studies Review, 56(2), 31–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43904926 
3 Ojanen, T., & Boonmongkon, P. (2014). Mobile Sexualities: Transformations of Gender and Sexuality in Southeast Asia. Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/11497712/Mobile_Sexualities_Transformations_of_Gender_and_Sexuality_in_Southeast_Asia 
4 Jackson, P. A. (2010). The Ambiguities of Semicolonial Power in Thailand. The Ambiguous Allure of the West, 37–56. https://doi.org/10.5790/hongkong/9789622091214.003.0002 
5 Human Dignity Trust. (2025, February 11). A history of LGBT criminalisation. https://www.humandignitytrust.org/lgbt-the-law/a-history-of-criminalisation/ 
6 Halsall, P. (1996, January 26). The Experience of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages. Fordham.edu. https://origin.web.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/gaymidages.asp 
7 Zaharin, A. A. M. (2022). Reconsidering Homosexual Unification in Islam: A Revisionist Analysis of Post-Colonialism, Constructivism and Essentialism. Religions, 13(8), 702. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080702 
8 Jackson, P. A. (1995). Thai Buddhist Accounts of Male Homosexuality and AIDS in the 1980s. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 6(1-2), 140–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1995.tb00133.x 
9 Jackson, P. A. (2011). 21st Century Markets, Media, and Rights. Hong Kong University Press; JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1xwdfx 
10 Drescher, J. (2015). Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality. Behavioral Sciences, 5(4), 565–575. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs5040565 
11 Stryker, S. (2017). Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution (2nd Edition). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/transgender-history-the-roots-of-todays-revolution-2nd-edition-by-susan-stryker-2017-z-lib.org 
12 BBC. (2018, February 13). Polari: The code language gay men used to survive. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180212-polari-the-code-language-gay-men-used-to-survive 
13 Catacutan, S. (2013). Swardspeak: A Queer Perspective. ResearchGate; University of the Philippines Open University. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338677861_Swardspeak_A_Queer_Perspective 
14 Boellstorff, T. (2007). A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia. Duke University Press; JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv125jthx 
15 Sinnott, M. J. (2004). Transgender Identity and Female Same-Sex Relationships in Thailand. University of Hawai’i Press; JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt6wqw5m 
16 Morgan, T. (2021, June 28). How 19th-Century Drag Balls Evolved into House Balls, Birthplace of Voguing. History.com. https://www.history.com/articles/drag-balls-house-ballroom-voguing 
17 CBS News. (2022, October 29). The history of drag, and how drag queens got pulled into politics. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/the-history-of-drag-and-how-drag-queens-got-pulled-into-politics/ 
18 Andersonian Library. (2025, February 20). The Queer History of Zines. https://guides.lib.strath.ac.uk/blogs/library-blog/the-queer-history-of-zines 
19 Library of Congress. (2019). 1969: The Stonewall Uprising. Library of Congress. https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/stonewall-era