Join us for Circa’s Opening Plenary, an evening of celebrating queer histories as we kick off the fourth annual Circa: Queer Histories Festival! Don’t miss opening remarks from One Institute and distinguished guest lecturer Jules Gill-Peterson as a part of The Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Lectures on LGBTQ+ History.
Gill-Peterson’s lecture is titled: “Who Invented Transgender Identity? A California History”
Who created transgender identity—and why? This lecture winds the clock back to the 1930s, when people who crossdressed as women forged a group identity out of shared secrets. Their core proposition—that you could achieve the feeling of being a woman through clothing while remaining male—became a keystone of what they later called transgender identity. It also put crossdressers on a collision course with the first American transsexuals, who risked everything for surgery to become female and suffered dearly for it. By the 1950s, Los Angeles was the site of a pivotal class conflict between transgender and transsexual responses to dysphoria, one that simmers even today.
Please arrive early to enjoy light refreshments out on the patio.