Join the James Monroe Museum and the Fredericksburg Area Museum for this joint book talk event!

Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands and the women who loved them. Female husbands – people assigned females who transcend gender, lived as men, and married women – were true queer pioneers. This talk will explore the riveting and very personal stories of ordinary female husbands of the 18th and 19th centuries who faced tremendous risk, danger, violence, and threat of punishment. How does knowledge of transgender history help us make sense of transgender rights and politics in the present?