Queer History, does not, in fact, have a beginning. There are mountains of evidence for the
existence of both homosexuality and behaviors which would be described as gender-bending.
And that’s just the stuff they know about, because it was done by aristocrats. There is, thus, an
entire world of queer history, merely hidden beneath the veil that is the expectations thrust upon
us that is done not exist. The tales themselves are too long and numerous to be spun here; but,
take my word for it: there is plenty of evidence of a long legacy of semi-visible queer figures of
all backgrounds throughout history. These spun tales, lives led, form what might be thought of as
an entire cloth of queer history.
The process of queering time and space, then, to me, does not seem to be merely a process of
taking time and space and creating new, queerness within it; although that is absolutely also what
it is. In fact, that’s a highly critical component of queering time and space. Movements towards
things such as anti-hate legislation and gay marriage. To affirm that time and space deserve to be
queered; that lives can be more openly and thus more fully queer. That that is something worth
moving for.
But I believe it also means to “queer,” in the more mundane sense. To re-appraise history in a
way that recognizes how queer it really was, already. To discombobulate things such as culture
and time, in such a way as to recognize that queer lives existed, regardless of where and when. It
is a fresh process with which to appraise time and space, to realize ourselves more fully, as
having lived and will live again.