80 Gays Around the World: Part 6) Greek Beauties

Last time on “80 Gays”: 15) Father Markus Furhman (b.1971) became the first openly gay Franciscan “bishop” after ministering in Cologne, home of the alleged relics of the Three Kings, 16) Caspar, 17) Melchior, and 18) Balthazar, the latter’s gift to the Baby Jesus traditionally being myrrh, an aromatic resin from a plant named after the mother of 18) Adonis.

The name of 18) Adonis has become a byword for male physical beauty. With the ancient Greeks putting so much emphasis on same-sex activity in the training of athletes and soldiers, it comes as no surprise that Adonis was the sexual partner of both male and female deities.

As a young teenager Adonis was the lover of two Greek gods with many gay connections of their own – Apollo (who features many times on this blog), and Dionysos (also featured several times).

Perhaps Adonis’s most well-known lover was the goddess 19) Aphrodite. It may seem strange that the goddess of love and feminine beauty should have some queer connections, but in this other “Star-Gayzing” entry I point out the dual nature of Aphrodite’s sexuality. There I explain how her birth from the severed genitals of Uranus led her to become a kind of patron goddess of same-sex couples.

At the beginning of this series of “80 Gays” I commented that a lot of botanical connections cropped up. Last time I mentioned how Adonis’s mother Myrrha gave her name to the plant myrrh. Another plant connection comes in one of the annual festivals in Athens called Adonia, which was named after him. This was a female-only festival. Women would go up onto their rooves, singing and dancing, mourning the death of Adonis. On the roof they planted lettuce and fennel seeds into pottery sherds (both plants were considered to be aphrodisiacs – there’s Aphrodite’s name again), which they called Gardens of Adonis. The women then went down into the streets and formed a procession which went to the sea shore (or a stream, it varied depending on how far away they lived from the sea), and buried, or planted, the “gardens” along with little effigies of Adonis.

Aphrodite’s floral connection also involves a garden. This time it comes in the form of one of her patronages. Aphrodite was the patron god of vegetation and fertility, and thus she was known as Aphrodite of the Gardens. There was a shrine and sanctuary to her under this name near the Acropolis in Athens. There were two statues of her, one of which was a herm.

Herm is the term given to a tall square or rectangular column with a carved head (and sometimes a torso) at the top, with a carved penis at the proportional height sticking out of the square column. The Aphrodite herm had her head at the top and a penis further down. There’s a herm statue of Aphrodite in the national museum in Stockholm, Sweden, which depicts her as fully female from the waist upwards. She is holding her dress up to reveal a square column underneath with a penis.

It is from herm statues like this that Aphrodite evolved into a separate deity – 21) Aphroditus.

Historically, Aphroditus was probably based on an earlier deity in Cyprus. Once the cult of Aphroditus made it to Greece it was assimilated into that of Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of spiritual love. What makes things more complicated is that some modern websites confuse Aphroditus with the more familiar 22) Hermaphroditus,

The more I read about both Aphroditus and Hermaphroditus the more I realise that they are not the same. I think that the confusion comes from “herm” in Hermaphrodite, and the fact that the name Aphroditus was first used in reference to herm statues of Aphrodite. Hermaphroditus seems to be a later addition to the pantheon of Greek deities. I wrote about both Aphroditus and Hermaphroditus several years ago (see here), so I won’t go into it in detail here. Suffice it to say that in the later Roman period the image of Hermaphroditus as intersex developed from Greek myths about him being the son of Aphrodite and Hermes, a god not really “invented” until a century or two after the first herm statues of Aphrodite were made. If you’re not already confused, Hermes got his name from originally being a herm statue.

But let’s get back to Aphrodite. As well as two statues of her near the Acropolis as Aphrodite of the Gardens (one of which had male genitalia, remember), the goddess had another temple and shrine in Athens dedicated to her as Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of spiritual love.

The temple was in the agora, the inner-city public square and meeting place. In the sanctuary was a statue of her made by a famous sculptor called Phidias (no. 8 in the 2020 “80 Gays” series). I’ll return to Phidias in a later entry in this current series.

Whenever ancient Athens is mentioned Adonis and Aphrodite are not the first names that spring to mind, Athena is, of course. Another thing that springs to mind is the founding of Greek democracy. So it is not surprising that on the other side of the agora there were once statues of the couple who are regarded as being the people who inspired the creation of Athenian democracy. They were 23) Harmodius and 24) Aristogeiton.

Next time: We carry a torch against tyranny, untangle a gay “incestuous” dynasty, and remove a few statues.

Two Olympic Transitions

NOTE: The information in this article is accurate on the date of publication. New information discovered after this date may alter or replace some of the details.

Today we learn about the third “Olympic first” associated with the lgbt community. The previous were Prince George of Greece and Denmark and George Poage. Today I feature two Olympians who possess other “firsts”, each of those firsts differing in their specific details but significant in their own way. Both can be regarded as the first transgender Olympian. They are Leonard Chalmers (1911-1990) and Léon Caurla (1926-2002). Both competed an identified as females before undergoing transgender surgery.

First of all, let’s differentiate their respective “firsts”. Leonard Chalmers is the first Olympian to compete (Berlin 1936) who became transgender (c.1961), while Léon Caurla is the first Olympian (London 1948) to have surgery (1950). I hope that makes sense.

Another thing they have in common is that they did not actually compete in the games they attended. Both were listed as members of their respective National Olympic Committees, and both were listed as entrants in their events, but are recorded as non-starters. This may be for several reasons. Those early Olympics may not have been so formal with regards to entries and starters. There are many athletes listed who also did not start their listed event, though their names appear in official Olympic records (Léon was one of 6 non-starters recorded in his event). Another reason is that they were what we now refer to as “alternates”, athletes who are designated to fill in for another in cases of illness. Until 1992 all alternates were listed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and were regarded as full Olympians. Since 1992, however, the IOC have not regarded alternates as Olympians. This is where I and many Olympic historians chose to differ. In my lists of lgbt+ Olympians I include all lgbt+ alternate athletes.

Let’s look more closely first at Leonard Chalmers. He was born biological female and baptised Lilian Florence Elizabeth Chalmers. Confusion about his actual date of birth is resolved on his birth certificate and the 1939 Register of England and Wales (a national census taken to assist in the distribution of ID cards during the war) which give his birthdate as 5th December 1911. Wikipedia (as of today) gives the wrong date. I will use the female pronoun as used by both Lilian and Léon during their athletic careers.

Lilian Chalmers’ prowess on the track seems to have begun in 1932. The first real record of Lilian as a member of an international English team is at the 2nd British Empire Games (retrospectively referred to as the 2nd Commonwealth Games) in London in 1934. Lilian won the bronze medal in the women’s 100 metres sprint.

Lilian’s next major event was the 1936 Berlin Olympics, being listed as an entrant in the women’s 4x100 metres relay. As mentioned above she was a non-starter in this event. The team won the silver medal. The claim that I have seen online that Lilian’s non-start was due to criticism from other female athletes about her gender is not substantiated.

In 1937 Lilian became the British women’s 200 metres champion. This was repeated in the 1939 championship, to which she added the 400 metres title. Also in 1939 she competed at the Internationale Stadionfest (ISTAF Berlin) in the stadium that had hosted the 1936 Olympics. A few weeks later war was declared in Germany.

During Lilian’s athletic career she worked as a machinist in Coomer’s Cardboard Box factory in Portsmouth. Her last known race was in 1951. Sometime after that she moved to London, and in 1961 Lilian underwent gender surgery and adopted the name Leonard on 21st December of that year. Leonard Chalmers died from a stroke in 1990.

Although Leonard was the first transgender athlete known to attend the Olympics he was not the first to undergo reassignment surgery. As mentioned, that distinction currently belongs to Léon Caurla. It should be pointed out that, in all probability, Léon Caurla was intersex.

Léon was born in the French town of Etain and was assigned female at birth. He was baptised Léa. Her first major competition was the 1946 European Athletics Championships in Oslo. She won a bronze medal in the 200 metres. In the first heat she was racing against the Polish sprinter Stanisława Walasiewicz (later known as Stella Walsh), a fellow intersex athlete.

On the same day as winning her bonze medal Léa won a silver medal as part of the 4x100 metres relay team. Stanisława Walasiewicz also competed in this event (her team came last). On Léa’s team was Claire Brésolles. Shortly after the Oslo championships Claire transitioned and adopted the name Pierre. He does not appear in any Olympic records. It is claimed on Wikipedia that Léa and Claire were lovers. This is not true.

In 1948 Lea was listed as an entrant in the women’s 200 metres at the London Olympics. As with Lilian Chalmers in 1936, Lea may have been an alternate athlete. But there could be another reason.

Gender verification in sport has a long and complicated evolution and history. In 1946 the International Amateur Athletics Federation (now known as World Athletics) introduced regulations requiring all athletes competing in female categories to provide a medical certificate before each competition verifying their female gender before being allowed to compete. Léa must have provided one in 1946 in order to compete at the European Championships. However, moving two years on to the Olympics and a physical examination had become mandatory. It is recorded that Léa refused to take this physical examination. The outcome was certain. Léa was barred from the French athletics federation and from the Olympics. I’m still trying to ascertain the date this happened. This must have been after the Olympics or Léa would have been disqualified from entering, and her name would never have appeared in official records.

It was at this time that Lea decided to live as a man and undergo surgery. In late 1950 the surgery took place, and Léa emerged as Léon, revealing his transition to the press in March 1952.

Details of Léon Caurla’s life after this are scarce. We know that he joined the French Air Force at some stage, and that he married and had children. By the 1980s he had returned to his hometown of Etain, where he had several jobs – a travelling salesman, owner of a florist shop, and he also rented out property.

While we cannot say with certainty that Léon Caurla was the first transgender Olympian, bearing in mind he was probably intersex, we can say that Leonard Chalmers was the first Olympian who definitely was, even though he wasn’t the first to have surgery.

With transgender issues being even more of an issue in sport than ever before we wait to see if and when transgender athletes will ever compete at the Olympics in the future.

My opinion doesn’t count for anything, but I think it is time for sport to drop its current method of scoring results. Athletic results already take into account wind speed and altitude, so, if transgender athletes have an alleged unfair advantage, why can’t someone come up with a formula that takes this into account. Let transgender athletes compete in whatever gender category they wish. Applying the formula would ensure a fairer result, even if it means finishing first and being declared third, or whatever. In the future, if it is decided that transgender athletes should never have been subjected to the formula, that formula can be removed retrospectively. The athletes not subject to the application of the formula retain their positions and medals, but if that then means there are two gold medallists, fine. Its an idea that needs a lot more work put into it.

We can only hope that sports organising bodies, transgender athletes, and transgender critics can work together for once and come up with a solution that pleases everyone.

Pardon His Sexuality

Last December I mentioned that I studied Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” at college. I still dip into it now and again, always reading it in its original Middle English. Chaucer is often called the father of English Poetry. He was one of the first poets to write in English rather than in French which was the written language of the English court at the time, or Latin, the written language of the Church. Even further back in this blog I revealed that it was Chaucer and a gay friend, the poet Sir John de Clanvowe, who created St. Valentine’s Day.

“The Canterbury Tales” consist of a series of tall tales and allegorical stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury. The characters were all caricatures of familiar stereotypes of Chaucer’s time, though some of their occupations are obscure to say the least. The Knight, the Miller and the Friar present no problem (because Chaucer doesn’t give them personal names I’ll use a capital first letter when referring to the pilgrim and a lower-case first letter when referring to their profession). But what did the Franklin, Manciple, or Reeve do? Today we’ll look at two of the pilgrims and discover how Chaucer presented their sexuality and gender.

First, the Pardoner. In the medieval Church bishops appointed men to go from church to church issuing pardons or indulgencies. These were documents recording a person’s admission and repentance of sin. By the time of “The Canterbury Tales” many pardoners were selling fake indulgencies and keeping the money for themselves. Some also sold fake religious relics, such as a chicken bone they claimed was a saint’s finger. Another duty of the pardoners was to collect alms and money for charity. Chaucer tells us that his Pardoner money for the Hospital of Blessed Mary of Rounceval at Charing Cross in London (long since demolished to widen the road at one end of Northumberland Avenue at Trafalgar Square). This hospital was at the centre of a scandal involving the theft of alms money by the hospital proctors. Chaucer is making it clear that the Pardoner is not to be trusted.

Chaucer introduces his pilgrims in the General Prologue. After mentioning that the Pardoner is a friend of the Summoner (more about him later) Chaucer describes the Pardoner as follows (in my translation):

“This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax,
But smooth it hung like a clump of flax;

Hanging in small strands these locks he had,

And over his shoulders they over-spread,

But in long, thin strands one by one.

As for a hood, to look more attractive, he wore none,

For it was packed in his knapsack all the while.

He thought he rode wearing the latest style

With flowing hair, except for a cap his head was bare,

Such staring eyes he had, like a hare.

A pilgrim badge was sewn into his cap.

He carried a small pouch in a large pocket

Full of pardons from Rome.

He had a voice as high-pitched as a goat.

He had no beard, nor will he ever have,

As smooth as he had just have a shave.

I believe he was gelding or a mare.”

To medieval readers this physical description gave them no reason to question the Pardoner’s gender or sexual identity. His hair, voice and beardless chin all indicated to them that this pilgrim was a eunuch or an effeminate man, what we might describe in our modern labels as intersex or homosexual.Over the past hundred years scholars have analysed the Pardoner’s gender and sexuality. The biggest clue given by Chaucer is the final line, “I believe he was a gelding or a mare”. A gelding is a castrated horse, and a mare is a female horse, of course, clearly indicating a eunuch and effeminate man. The popular medical opinions at that time suggested eunuchs were cunning and devious which when added to the corruption attributed to his profession makes the Pardoner come across as a very unpleasant character.

Once scholars had looked at the Pardoner’s gender and sexuality they began looking at his relationship with another pilgrim, the Summoner, also a church official. As the name suggests a summoner issues summons to people called to appear before church courts (usually for things like adultery or heresy). Like pardoners, summoners often took bribes and had a very corrupt image. As far as Chaucer’s Summoner is concerned there couldn’t be a character of a more opposite physical appearance to the Pardoner. It seems strange that these two characters could ever become friends.

he Summoner is described in the General Prologue immediately before the Pardoner as follows (again my own translation):

A Summoner was with us in that place

Who had a fiery-red and cherubic face,

All pimpled he was, and his eyes were narrow,

As horny and lecherous as is a sparrow.

With black scabby eyebrows and straggly beard

His face was one that children feared.

There was no mercury, lead compound or sulphur,

Borax, white lead tincture or cream of tartar,

No ointment that could cleanse or bite

To rid him of his pustules white,

Nor of the boils on his cheeks.”

Not a man pleasing to look at. Chaucer also says that he ate a lot of garlic, onions and leeks washed down with red wine. It is in this inebriated state that the Summoner seems to spend all of this time on the road to Canterbury. I should explain here the brief reference to a sparrow. The idea that sparrows were lecherous is centuries old and no-one really knows why the birds have gained this reputation. Thankfully this reputation has disappeared since Chaucer’s time.

So, why would an academic think that the unpleasant, smelly Summoner would be the sexual partner of the Pardoner, for that is what they have suggested? The answer lies in the lines which come a little afterwards when the Pardoner is introduced. Again, here’s my translation of the Middle English text:

“With him rode a gentle Pardoner

Of Rouncival, his friend and companion,

Who had come straight from Rome.

Very loudly he sang “Come hither, my love, to me!”

The Summoner provided him with a strong bass line,

There wasn’t a trumpet that can make half the sound.”

These two pilgrims are singing a love song, and that’s what prompts some scholars to think they are partners. Added to this are the words “stif burdoun” in the original text which I, following others, have translated as “strong bass line”.

One theory put forward is that “stif burdoun” (“stif” is the same as “stiff”) is slang for a sexual act based purely, it seems to me, on the interpretation of “stif” and how you interpret the Summoner giving it to the Pardoner. Modern usage of “stiff” in relation to sexual acts is commonplace, and this presents an obvious interpretation. This theory is tenuous in my view.

Added to this tenuous interpretation is the meaning of the word “burdoun”. This was indeed an old word for a bass accompaniment to a song in medieval times. But it was also one of the medieval variant spellings of “burden”, meaning a donkey or ass. Donkeys, asses and horses have always been popularly regarded as being particularly well-endowed, so the interpretation of “stif burdoun” as “stiff donkey” could be seen by some to imply a sexual act.

Whether it is medieval double entendre or a modern misinterpretation there’s nothing else to link the Pardoner and the Summoner sexually. As for the idea that they are singing a love song to each other, all I can say is that I have lived in a city centre from over 20 years and have often been out and about in the pubs and clubs on a Friday and Saturday night. Without exception there has been groups or couples of men staggering around the streets singing popular modern love songs. They are singing together, not to each other. This is also my interpretation of the song of the Pardoner and the Summoner.

To end this rather lengthy entry, here’s a video of the Pardoner’s Tale from the animated series of “The Canterbury Tales” produced a couple of decades ago. It’s in modern English, though I can’t say it’s a completely accurate translation. What is accurate is the visual portrayals of the Pardoner and the Summoner.

A Ghostly Warning of Doom

On previous Hallowe’ens I’ve written about vampires, Frankenstien’s monster and mummies, but not about ghosts. So, how about an lgbt ghost story from ancient Greece today. The story is a sort of companion article to one I wrote a few days ago – you’ll see why when you read on.

In the city-state of Aetolia on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth there lived a man called Polykritos. He was a man of good standing, of noble blood, and well-like by all the citizens. One year the people (i.e. the men) of Aetolia voted him their leader. During his term of office he married a girl from the neighbouring Locrian community, but after just three nights Polykritos died leaving his young bride pregnant.

Nine months later the young widow gave birth to a healthy baby. However, the birth caused a good deal of fear in the Aetolians for the baby was born with both female and male genitalia, the baby was intersex. In ancient Greek societies an intersex baby, or hermaphrodite, as they would say, was a sign of bad luck.

Polykritos’s family took the baby to the agora, the city square, where they had called for a meeting of all the citizens and priests. The assembly debated and argued about what to do about the baby. Some people were worried that taking the baby away from its Locrian mother might cause a deterioration of the friendly relations between the Locrians and Aetolians. The priests said that both the mother and baby should be taken far away and burnt to death like an animal sacrifice.

As they were still debating a dark phantom appeared. It was the ghost of Polykritos.

The crown recoiled in terror and began to run away, but the ghost called out to them, “Don’t be afraid.” It took a little while for the crown to settle down but they were still a bit frightened. The apparition spoke again:

“Citizens. Although I am dead, because of the goodwill I feel towards you I have appealed to the masters of the underworld to let me come and help you. I beg you, hand over my child to me so that no violence will come to it. I won’t let you harm my child as the priests demand. I can understand that my appearance has frightened you and caused some confusion, but if you do as I ask all fears will be removed and you’ll be saved from any disaster as a result. If you come to another decision your distrust of me will only result in disaster. I’m telling you this for your own good. So, don’t wait, make the right decision and give me my child now, because the masters of the underworld won’t let me stay here much longer.”

After a stunned silence the crowd began discussing Polykritos’s plea. Some suggested that they hand over the baby straight away. Others thought that they needed more time to think about it, but Polykritos’s ghost could wait not longer. “Okay, don’t blame me for what happens next”, it said, and with that the ghost picked up the baby and without waring began tearing the child’s arms and legs out of their sockets and ripping at its body. The ghost then ate the bleeding flesh.

The crowd stared in horror and tried to stop the ghost by throwing stones at it, but they went straight through it. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the ghost vanished. All that was left of the baby was its head, lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

The crowd didn’t know what to do next. Perhaps they should go to consult the oracle at Delphi. Before they could discuss it further the baby’s head began to speak.

“You cannot go to the oracle because your hands are steeped in blood” the head said. “I will tell you what the oracle will foretell. One year from today death will come to everyone in this place. The offspring of Aetolians and Locrians will live together, but there will be no escape from the evil to come. A rain of blood will fall upon you and the gods will render your descendants inglorious.” The head told the crowd to leave the city if they wanted to live. The women, children and elderly were sent away leaving the men behind to await their fate.

One year later the remaining Aetolians fought a battle against their rivals to the west, the Akarnanians. Very few Aetolians survived.

I’m not much of a storyteller, I know, but I hope you found this tale nice and spooky enough for Hallowe’en. But what are we to make of it? Was it real?

The story comes from a 2nd century work by Phlegon of Tralles called “The Book of Marvels” (“Rebus Mirabilus”). Books about marvels, trivia and lists were all the rage in Phlegon’s lifetime. Phlegon himself wrote three – his Book of Marvels, a history of ancient Olympians, and a book on the longest lived humans in history. Modern scholars have given this sort of ancient trivia mania a name – paradoxography.

Modern popular culture still has a fascination for unusual and trivial facts and there are many books, and especially YouTube channels, on the subject. They are all copying what the ancient writers did a couple of thousand years ago.

So, who was Phlegon of Thralles anyway? He wasn’t a historian. He was a freedman, a former slave of the gay Roman Emperor Hadrian. He must have been fairly intelligent and literate to be able to read and write several books. But that doesn’t tell us if the story of Polykritos and the talking baby’s head was true. Phlegon said he got the story from an earlier writer called Hieron of Ephesus. A later account of the story adds that Hieron wrote about the ghostly encounter in a letter to King Antigonus of Macedonia, a contemporary of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.

Scholars aren’t even sure where Hieron of Ephesus got the story from in the first place, and in the later account which mentioned the letter it is claimed that Hieron was even an eye-witness to the grisly affair. In the end it may all have been ancient urban legend or folk tale which Phlegon believed to have been true, something else which is also a feature of modern popular culture. What ever it’s ultimate origin the two surviving accounts serve as a gruesome and ghostly tale for any Hallowe’en party.

The Two-Formed One

Can anyone ever be sure of the identity of the first real-life intersex individual in recorded history? Someone who wasn’t a legend, myth or deity? It may be possible by referring to a manuscript that was written over 2,000 years ago called “Bibliotheca Historia” by Diodorus Siculus (c.80 BC-c.20 BC). Diodorus is a reasonably reliable historian.

Diodorus writes an account of the reign of King Alexander I Balas of the Seleucid Empire, the region corresponding roughly to modern Iran, Iraq and Syria. After chronicling Balas’s life, reign and death Diodorus gives an anecdotal tale which may or may nor be true.

Alexander Balas gained his throne by overthrowing King Demetrius I Soter. Balas wasn’t a particularly competent ruler and he lost his throne to Demetrius’s son five years later. Diodorus writes that Balas consulted the oracle at Apollo’s sanctuary in Cicilia in southern Turkey. The oracle issued a grave warning – to beware of the place that bore the “two-formed one”. Balas was puzzled and didn’t understand what it meant (oracles were always a bit vague).

Balas had done little of significance during his reign, apart from making a marriage alliance with Egypt. It wasn’t long before his predecessor’s son, Demetrius II, fought to regain the throne. The big show-down came after Egypt switched sides to Demetrius. The decisive battle came in August 145 BC. Balas met Demetrius and the Egyptians near what is now called the Afrin River in northeast Syria. Balas’s forces were overwhelmed and he fled south to Abae, a city on the northern edge of the Syrian desert. There he was killed, possibly by some of his own generals who decided it was better to support Demetrius.

So, who was this “two-formed one” that the oracle had warned Balas about? The tale recounted by Diodorus Siculus names him as a soldier in Balas’s army called Diophantes. According to a study of ancient literature by Dr. Lutz Alexander Graumann, Diophantes is the first historical intersex person whose name is recorded, or at least Dr. Graumann believed he was.

Diophantes was raised as girl, the only child of another Diophantes and an Arabian mother. He was originally named Heraïs. Diophantes senior was Macedonian and lived in Abae, which appears to have had a large Greek military presence.

Diophantes senior also had a son, Diophantes junior, who died young, so Diophantes senior was able to provide a large dowry for his daughter Heraïs on her marriage to a man called Samiades. One year into the marriage Samiades had to go away on a journey.

Not long after he departed Heraïs became ill. A swelling developed on the bottom of the abdomen and she developed high fevers. The physicians diagnosed it as an ulcer on her uterus and treated as such.

A week later, when Heraïs was visiting her mother, the swelling burst and out of it emerged a full set of male genitalia. The mother and her servants tended Heraïs as best they could but all of them were too shocked and didn’t understand what was going on. They all agreed that no-one, including her physician, must know of it. Heraïs gradually recovered.

Eventually, Samiades returned home. Heraïs was too afraid to meet him and this made Samiades angry. Time and time again he demanded that his wife should meet him. By now Heraïs’s father had learnt the truth and he too was afraid to reveal the truth to Samiades. In the end Samiades took Diophantes senior to court, claiming he was deliberately preventing Heraïs from performing her lawful duties as a wife.

The jury agreed and Heraïs was summoned to the court. Feeling there was no other choice but to reveal the truth Heraïs undid her dress and revealed her new gender status to the whole court. At the same time she insisted that no man should cohabit with another man.

There was nothing Samiades or the court could do to force her into going back to her husband when she appeared to be a man. From then on Heraïs lived and dressed as a man and adopted the name of his father and dead brother, Diophantes. Physicians examined him and decided to surgically stabilize his genitals to prevent any internal pain.

Diophantes enrolled into the Greek army and fought at Abae where King Alexander I Balas was killed. Thus the oracle’s prophecy was fulfilled.

But is it a true story? Did Diophantes really? We’ll never know for sure. But is it possible for male genitalia to suddenly appear like that? There are known cases of intersex females not showing any visible signs of male genitalia. There are also cases of females whose male genitalia don’t become apparent until puberty. Some intersexuals enter puberty later than the usual age, and putting these all together we can understand how the female Heraïs became the intersex Diodorus.

The age at which a female could marry in ancient Greece was 12. In his written account Diodorus Siculus states that Diophantes senior provided a dowry as soon as Heraïs came of age. A year after the marriage her husband goes off on a journey and Heraïs undergoes her changes. This could have been during a late puberty, so Heraïs-Diophantes may have been 15 or 16. This is also a reasonable age for a Greek youth like Diophantes to join the army. So, on the medical evidence alone, it is very possible that the story could have been based on fact.

So, there we have it. Probably the earliest recorded name of an intersex person, the “two-formed one” mentioned by an oracle in a warning to King Alexander I Balas between 150 and 145 BC – Diophantes of Abae.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 19) Military Colours

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 50) Jared Polis (b.1975), Governor of Colorado, only lives in the governor’s residence during legislative sessions, unlike 51) William Hart McNichols (b.1949) who spent much of his childhood there before becoming a priest and icon painter, an art-form that caused a conflict within the Orthodox Church which saw 52) St. Methodios I of Constantinople (d.847) imprisoned before becoming Patriarch, one of many intersex officers of state in the Byzantine Empire like 53) Narses (c.478-c.568).

53) Narses was probably Armenian by birth. The dates of his birth and death are also uncertain. Although generally referred to as a eunuch in English translations of the Byzantine and Greek texts Narses could have been one of several gender types. 52) St. Methodios was a “spadone”, a person born with undeveloped or malformed sexual organs. We would called him intersex today. Then there were the “ektomiai” or “castrati” who were rendered incapable of sex by accidental or deliberate castration. Narses is thought to have been an ektomiai.

Narses career began very much as it did for other eunuchs at the imperial court. He became a cubicularius, a chamberlain of the palace. Despite being an impressive-sounding position there could have been hundreds, even thousands, of cubicularia at any one time. Narses rose to become a spatharios, a member of the Emperor Justinian’s personal guard.

Justinian was unpopular. His high taxes were the cause of many riots, which were often fuelled by which chariot team people supported.

You probably know that the Romans loved chariot races. So did their eastern survivors the Byzantines and Greeks. By Justinian’s time in the 6th century there were two chariot teams, the Blues and Greens. Supporters would dress in their team colours and chant just like supporters do today. But these teams were also political. There were no organised political parties and the emperor would appeal to team loyalty to support his laws.

By 536 circumstances came to a head. At the races the crowds weren’t chanting and hurling insults at their opponents. They were chanting united against the emperor – “Nika! Nika!”, which means “Victory! Victory!” Hence what developed became known as the Nika Riots. The spectators were angry at yet more taxes and were unified in their animosity towards Justinian. Blue and Green supporters began rioting though the stadium and out into the palace grounds and the city. For five days nothing could stop them and hundreds of people were killed and much of the city destroyed.

The stadium served as the rioters meeting place. Justinian, a Blue, ordered Narses to go there and bribe the Blue leaders into abandoning their Green allies. It worked and most of the Blues walked out. The Greens were stunned. When Narses left the stadium two of Byzantium’s greatest generals, Belisarius and Mundus, stormed into the stadium at the head of 3,000 soldiers and slaughtered everyone, some 30,000 people. Narses led another division of soldiers stationed at every exit making sure that no-one trying to escape was left alive.

As a reward for his part in ending the riot Narses was given command of a division of 7,000 soldiers. Many years later, when Narses was well into his 70s, Justinian sent him to Italy to help General Belisarius control rebel groups. Narses’ military ability was lauded by his contemporaries and by historians.

Narses’ last years were spent mainly in Italy where he rebuilt many Roman structures. He probably died in Naples at what many historians believe to have been in his 90s.

Both Narses and St. Methodios were open about their eunuch and intersex status. In more recent centuries people have had to keep their status secret. In some cases the secret is not revealed until much later. Last October I mentioned one individual who was very recently revealed to have been intersex, 54) Casimir Pulaski (1945-1779).

A nobleman and military commander of the independence struggles in his native Poland Pulaski fled Europe to fight against the British in the American War of Independence. George Washington recognised his abilities, especially after the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, and gave Pulaski his own command within the Continental Army and he donned the uniform of blue and buff, influenced by the political colours of the British pro-independence Whig party.

In these times of revisionist history it is unsettling that a man who fought against slavery in his native Poland chose to fight for pro-slavery America.

Casimir was killed in action at the young age of 34. His remains were eventually placed in a specially built monument in Savannah, Georgia. By 1996 this monument was crumbling and in need of repair. A local coroner led a campaign to discover if the remains inside the monument really were those of Pulaski – and that’s when a mystery developed.

Forensic anthropologists studied the bones and at first they identified them as belonging to a woman. The coroner recalled seeing references to a condition called congenital hydrenal hypasia, commonly referred to at that time as hermaphroditism. Today we place the condition in the intersex spectrum. Was Casimir Pulaski a woman or intersex?

Ten years of research failed to solve the mystery. Then a new team decided to test the DNA of the bones with that of Pulaski’s great-niece who was buried in Poland. The result was a match. This and other evidence have led anthropologists to suggest that Pulaski was indeed intersex.

Back to that article I wrote last October. That article was about his coat of arms and where they originated. I explained that he was a descendant of the medieval noble family of Korwin who used the crow (“corvus” in Latin) as a pun on their name. Puns were common in medieval times when most people couldn’t read and needed a visual clue (puns are still popular in heraldry today). Descendants who used the Korwin name or its variants used the crow, sometimes on a different colour background, known as a field, like the Pulaskis who used blue instead of the original red.

My article mentioned another Korwin descendant who inherited the early version of the family coat of arms, 55) Sofya Kovalevksaya (1850-1891).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: Things add up in Sweden.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 18) Fighting Against AIDS and Art

Last time on “80 More Gays”: Geophysicist 47) Allan Cox (1926-1987) provided proof of continental drift which had been suggested in studies of plants and lichens by 48) Elke Mackenzie (1911-1990), a member of the secret Operation Tarabin sent to the Falkland Islands, where the long-running Anglo-Argentine dispute over them is continued by 49) Gustavo Mellela (b.1970), the most recent openly gay provincial governor since 50) Jared Polis (b.1975).

50) Jared Polis was elected Governor of Colorado on 6th November 2018. Even though 49) Gustavo Mellela is the most recent openly gay governor to take office (as the Argentine Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the Southern Atlantic Islands) Jared is still the most recent who was openly gay when running for office. Before becoming governor Jared was a member of the US House of Representatives.

Jared Polis is Colorado born and bred. Though he is entitled to live in the governor’s mansion in Denver he has chosen to live there only during legislative sessions. The mansion was built in 1908 as the home of a tycoon’s widow. In 1957 it came into the possession of the Boetcher Foundation and they offered it to the state of Colorado. On New Year’s Eve 1959 the then Governor, Stephen McNichols, accepted the gift and it has been the governor’s official residence ever since.

The Governor's Mansion, Denver, Colorado.

Jared Polis is not the mansion’s first gay residence. The son of Governor McNichols spent some of his childhood there. His name is 51) William Hart McNichols (b.1949). Although his immediate family background is in politics, William chose to study art and religion. His dream was to illustrate religious books for children. Since 1982 he has illustrated many books for the Paulist Press and other Christian publishers.

William was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1979. When AIDS began its devastating effect on the gay community Father William volunteered at the St. Vincent Medical Centre in New York as a chaplain in the AIDS hospice team.

In 1986 he came out publicly. Two factors influenced his decision which, in those days, could easily have meant being fired, both as a chaplain and as a priest. The first influence was his desire to minister to AIDS patients who had a deep-seated suspicion against the church and felt uneasy talking to a priest. He felt that as an openly gay priest he could help to overcome the unease. The second influence was publicity at that time around sexual abuse by priests. By coming out Father William wanted to present a positive gay Christian figure. Both the hospice and the church agreed to let him continue his ministry.

During his AIDS hospice ministry Father William created many religious images, in particular in the style of traditional icons for which his is now famous. In 1990 he went to study icon writing (the official term for icon painting) from Robert Lentz, a renowned icon writer another openly gay Catholic. The result was a series of commissions for Father William to produce icons for churches and clergy. Some of his work, and that of Robert Lentz, has depicted aspects of gay life and gay role models. Many examples of their work can be found online.

Although a Catholic, Father William has excelled in an art-form synonymous with the Eastern Orthodox Churches. But icons were not always popular. In the 9th century the Orthodox Church was split in a controversy that had been going on for some time. Some priests believed icons were idolatrous, forcing their way into churches and smashing every icon they saw (recent attacks on statues of people with links to slavery illustrates the same degree of passion). Other priests supported the use of icons as a means of obtaining a closer communication with Christ. The icon destroyers were called iconoclasts, and the supporters were called iconodules. Eventually, icons were banned and iconodules such as 52) St. Methodios I of Constantinople (d.847) were persecuted.

Methodios was arrested in 821. He was tortured and his jaw and teeth were smashed and after that he wore a cloth bandage abound his jaw for the rest of his life, as depicted in the icon below. He was then banished to solitary confinement on an island.

St. Methodios I of Constantinople

When the infant emperor Mikhael III succeeded to the throne in 842 the tide turned. Mikhael, by the way, was number 39 in my first “80 Gays” series. The regent, Mikhael’s mother Theodora, re-introduced icons and Methodios soon found himself being appointed Patriarch of Byzantium, the highest religious office in the Orthodox Church. His appointment and the return of the icons was marked with a magnificent procession through Byzantium on 11th March 843. This day is still commemorated as the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Methodios still had his opponents who tried to discredit him. He was accused of sexual assault by the mother of one of his iconoclast enemies. At a tribunal Methodios stripped in front of the judges revealing himself to be intersex. His male sexual organs were not developed enough for him to perform any sexual activity and he was exonerated. Methodios claimed that he had been miraculously transformed by divine intervention during his solitary confinement. This is recalled in his medieval biography which, like most lives of saints from that period, was highly apocryphal to emphasise the saints’ holy character. It is more likely that Methodios was born intersex.

Methodios’s term of office ended with his death in 847. He is venerated as a saint in both the Orthodox and Catholic churches. His successor as Patriarch was a eunuch called Ignatius. The Orthodox Church didn’t reject gender variations from high office of state, church or army.

The Byzantine military had several intersex, third gender or eunuch commanders. One of the greatest of these was 53) Narses (c.478-c.573).

Next time “80 More Gays”:  The blues and greens riot, the blues and buffs go to war, and we get buried on a field of puns.

The Thousand Arms of Compassion

There’s a story in Mahayana Buddhist belief of a deity who vowed never to rest until all humanity and sentient life was free of suffering. Struggling to hear and distinguish all the cries of the world his head split into eleven pieces. Amitabha, the King of Buddhas, saw the deity’s dilemma and gave him eleven heads to hear the cries more clearly. When the deity heard the cries he reached out to comfort them all, but there were too many and his arms shattered. Amitabha came to his aid again and gave him a thousands arms. With these the deity found he could at last comfort any who call his name for help.

The deity’s name is Avalokitesvara (the pronunciation is given in the video below), the most important deity after Buddha. If you’re a Buddhist yourself you’ll know all about him, so I apologise in advance (being a Methodist) if I misunderstand him. Avalokitesvara’s name evolved from a Sanskrit phrase meaning “the lord who looks down on to the sounds of the world”, the sounds being the cries of the suffering.

Avalokitesvara is a bodhisattva, a deity who is on a path to becoming a Buddha, is venerated across the whole of south-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent and has many, many different names and attributes, including a female form named Kuan-yin or Guanyin.

Because of the dual gender representations of Avalokitesvara many transgender communities in the West have begun to use the female Kuan-yin as an icon of transgender identity. Whether this will become more generally accepted is a matter of time, but it is somewhat inappropriate because Kuan-yin and Avalokitesvara, female and male, are the same deity and exist simultaneously.

But let’s look at how this deity came to exist in two genders.

The earliest written reference to him is in the 1st century in the “Lotus Sutra”. It describes Avalokitesvara as an attendant of Amitabha. The 25th chapter of the sutra describes him as compassionate and kind and among the highest deities in Buddhist cosmology. The chapter contains descriptions of 33 manifestations that Avalokitesvara can take, male and female, young or old, or any form, depending on the needs and context of the help that is required.

The 4th century “Karandavyuha Sutra” is devoted entirely to Avalokitesvara. This sutra is also the origin of the well-known mantra “Om mani padme um”.

Historians are not sure how old the veneration of Avalokitesvara is. It may have begun in northern India, perhaps in Kashmir. From there Avalokitesvara spread with Buddhist belief eastward across Tibet and into China, and south to cover the rest of India and east to the rest of Asia.

As Buddhism spread its scriptural texts were translated, and in 1st century China the name Avalokitesvara was translated as Guanyin, more popularly Kuan-yin in the West. The translated name means the same as Avalokitesvara - “the lord who looks down on to the sounds of the world”.

The world’s largest statue of Kuan-yin, the Sendai Daikannon in Japan. It represents Kannon, the Japanese name for Kuan-yin. It is 100 metres high. Between 1991 and 1993 it was the tallest statue in the world. Currently it is the 5th tallest. In the top 30 tallest statues in the world 11 are of Kuan-yin.

There are several theories why Kuan-yin became a predominantly female manifestation. One is that her worshippers in Tibet integrated her into another female deity called Tara. Another is that she somehow became associated with the legendary Chinese princess called Miao Shan. Perhaps Chinese culture in the early centuries saw compassion as a more feminine trait and depicted Kuan-yin accordingly.

Before the Song dynasty (960-1279) images of Kuan-yin in China show her as either male or female, illustrating the variations of forms Avalokitesvara can take, as described in the “Lotus Sutra”. Gradually the female image began to predominate.

There are thousands, possibly millions, of images and statues of Avalokitesvara in all his manifestations around the world where Buddhist belief exists. Each Asian nation and regional branch of Buddhism has a different name and preferred gender identity for the deity. The thousand-armed manifestation I mentioned at the start is one of many. In other countries Avalokitesvara has fewer arms, and usually just two.

Kuan-yin’s growing popularity among the transgender community began at the end of the last century in the USA. Just why the manifestation of Kuan-yin was preferred is not fully explained. Avalokitesvara did not change gender to become Kuan-yin because he still exists as a male deity. There are also some male images of Kuan-yin still being produced. If anything Kuan-yin could be described as intersex or agender. I don’t claim to provide any answers to what gender identity best describes Avalokitesvara, Kuan-yin, and the hundreds of other names and manifestations this deity exhibits.

There is a lot we still have to learn and understand about the world’s spiritual deities and their meaning before we impose Western-defined gender identities upon them, especially by people of a different faith, belief or culture. Cultural appropriation is a tricky area.

Every role model in any community fulfils a specific purpose and perhaps Kuan-yin gives a new insight into gender and transgender identity that others have yet to realise. Above all the deity is a compassionate one. Perhaps that is what should be brought forward for Kuan-yin as a transgender role model. The transgender community goes through so much pain and abuse that compassion may be what it needs more than anything else, and Kuan-yin provides just that.

Below is a video that explains Avalokitesvara is more detail.