Chronology is often a blunt and brutal tool. One of its major methodological drawbacks is the tendency to obscure messy and haphazard realities for tidy, linear fictions whose components fit neatly together. This is especially problematic for LGBTQ+ historical work. When they exist at all, queer historical records are notoriously incomplete, ephemeral, and haphazard while our queer ancestors, especially those who lived prior to the 1970s, often toiled in relative isolation, obscurity, or in small, subaltern communities. There are also issues of terminology. As queer critic Heather Love has asked, is it possible, or ethical, to speak of LGBTQ+ identities in eras or cultures for which those terms did not exist or do not apply?1 Such preoccupations fuel queer theoretical debates, but just as important, especially beyond the white-washed ramparts of the Ivory Tower, is the need to claim queer ancestry, to declare that we were here. Without...

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