Comments on: A Same-Sex Marriage In 1877

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:49:29 +0000

Reading the linked image of the article makes it rather clear that the person described was a trans man, e.g. used the name “Samuel” and “stoutly asserted that he belonged to the male sex.”

By: DC Benson

DC Benson — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:29:49 +0000

@ TED I also had an uncle that the family never really spoke about ar visited with. Mine lived in NYC. I made it a point to seek him out and we enjoyed a great relationship wit his being gay as well as myself. He was able to relate to most problems I had, was always avaialble to listen when I needed a shoulder to cry on among many, many other things. Take the time to try and locate yours and see what you might be missing.

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:37:14 +0000

That sort of cover-up is still going on today. I’m 21 and I have an Uncle (whom I have never met) who has always been a bachelor and who lives in San Francisco. I’m next to certain that he is gay, but my family never talks about him. All I can really gather is that he’s some sort of black sheep.

By: TJ Davis

TJ Davis — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:15:26 +0000

Yes, before he died my dad told me of two, “uncles” that never married. They lived in the hayloft of the barn on grandma’s farm.
That statement of and in itself says nothing about the sexual identity of those two old men, but the implications are all too clear.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:45:12 +0000

History is full of gay people if we knew how to look. Sadly, the records – usually consisting primarily of marriage, birth and death – don’t tell us much.

But sometimes a relative will. In college, before I was comfortable in my own skin, I lived with my grandmother. At one point she mentioned – with just the slightest inflection – that she had two “bachelor uncles”.

It’s hard to be certain.

Women were genuinely scarce in the northeast corner of California at the turn of the 20th Century (one of her uncles ordered a bride out of a catalog and traveled by train to New Orleans to collect the French-speaking girl from an orphanage/convent).

But my grandmother certainly was implying something when she mentioned these uncles. And if I had been able to be open with her, maybe that part of my family’s history would not now be gone forever.

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:15:56 +0000

I know plenty of lesbian women who identify just as that- lesbian women, who dress in male attire and have very masculine physical features. Sometimes women choose to wear masculine clothes because they have masculine frames to begin with and girly clothes kind of don’t look right on them. Also, male clothing is just generally more comfortable. They figure, they already look masculine, so why not be comfortable in men’s clothes? Wearing clothing of the opposite gender doesn’t always mean one is transgender. Of course it’s possible Sarah was transgender as well. It’s certainly not a new thing that was invented by the “Gay Agenda” as some may assert. It is something someone knows about them self and feels inside of them.

By: Timothy (TRiG)

Timothy (TRiG) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:29:11 +0000

Like JCF, I’m uncertain from this story whether Sarah/Sam Pollard was a lesbian woman or a trans man. (Or indeed whether, in that culture, the distinction existed as clearly as it does in modern Western culture.)

TRiG.

By: Raven Biker

Raven Biker — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:27:54 +0000

It happened so-o long ago and the sky hasn’t fallen yet and nor has God smited us. H-mmm.

By: JCF

JCF — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:13:35 +0000

Her first relationship failed, large because she took on a masculine role, a major taboo of the time.

I think that’s waaaaaaay too simplistic an assessment. I’m not sure anyone can look back and say why “Her first relationship failed” . . . but the thing that stands out to me is that she (or he: it’s not clear which was Pollard’s preferred gender ID) married a 16 year-old, 15 years her junior. A different gender and/or sexuality ID may not be something that someone that young, in that (sexist/heterosexist) context, could really deal with. [But that, too, is just a guess.]