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Trans+ history is far older, richer, and more globally diverse than most contemporary narratives suggest. Long before modern medicine, psychology, or identity language existed, cultures around the world recognized and made space for gender-diverse people, embedding them (often in leadership positions) into spiritual, social, and artistic life.
The last 150 years have been uniquely transformative: with rising sexological, endocrinological, psychological, and surgical innovation reshaping how Westernized societies understand gender; new legal and political frameworks emerged; and trans+ people themselves built communities, clinics, advocacy networks, and cultural movements that redefined public awareness.
This deep dive traces those intertwined histories—cultural, medical, intellectual, and political—to show how trans+, Two-Spirit, and other gender identities and experiences have evolved across time. It highlights both the continuity of gender diversity throughout human history and the profound changes brought by modern science, activism, and social movements.
Identifying examples of gender diverse groups and traditions throughout known history.
A Eurocentric (or Colonizing) framing of history is a way of interpreting the past that places Europe—its people, cultures, values, institutions, and historical experiences—at the center of human history. It prioritizes cultures that developed written language over those that didn’t, and treats European developments as the norm, the standard, or the most important story, while portraying the rest of the world as peripheral, derivative, or “waiting” to encounter Europe.
Establishing and maintaining Eurocentric historical framing required dismissing and erasing pre-existing methods of recording and learning from past events that were practiced by Indigenous cultures that the Eurocentrists encountered.
Non-textual history refers to the ways human societies record, preserve, and transmit their past without relying on written documents. Instead of written texts, these cultures use a wide range of expressive, material, and performative methods to carry historical knowledge across generations.
These forms of record-keeping are not “primitive” or “less historical”; they are alternative historical technologies that have shaped complex civilizations worldwide.
Pre-textual history refers to Indigenous and Eurocentric cultures and societies that (eventually) adopted written language, and applies to all periods before the existence of written records.
Post-textual history begins the moment those cultures/societies produce written documentation—inscriptions, chronicles, letters, legal codes, medical texts, diaries, or bureaucratic records.
Identifying the different groups of gender diverse people that will be covered in this deep dive.
Preserved cultural history falls into three primary types:
Non-textual history refers to the ways human societies record, preserve, and transmit their past without relying on written documents. Instead of written texts, these cultures use a wide range of expressive, material, and performative methods to carry historical knowledge across generations.
These forms of record-keeping are not “primitive” or “less historical”; they are alternative historical technologies that have shaped complex civilizations worldwide.
For cultures and societies that (eventually) adopted written language, the term pre-textual history refers to all periods before the existence of their written records.
For those same cultures and societies, post-textual history begins the moment they produce written documentation—inscriptions, chronicles, letters, legal codes, medical texts, diaries, or bureaucratic records.