The transgender woman who became the emperor of Rome.
Elagabalus came out as a trans woman in imperial Rome. The hypermasculine culture of that place and time did not accept her as the woman she was.
The SPQR historian has published a video of the Roman emperor Elagabalus, one of the most powerful transgender women in history.
Elagabalus (AKA Heliogabalus or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) was a transgender woman who became emperor of Rome. It is an amazing story, and there is much to learn from it.
She was emperor as a teenager, from 218 to 222. She often presented as a woman, and even looked for a physician who could provide her with the necessary gender confirmation surgery. This is not as farfetched as it sounds, but according to the sources we do have she never got this surgery.
The reason Elagabalus (which is not her chosen name, for sure) could come out as a woman, was most likely because she had grown up in Syria, closer to some of the goddess cults we have been talking about here, i.e. where male assigned persons became priestesses.
Face reconstruction of the Roman emperor Elagabalus (r. 218-222 AD) based on a bust made around one year before he was assassinated in 222 AD at age 18.
Here's the problem: All the sources we have are from Roman and Byzantine men and scholars who were deeply steeped in Patriarchal sexism and who, as most Roman men in Antiquity, had been raised to despise femininity in those they saw as men. They saw the people who were attracted to this experience as pathetic deviants.
There is, indeed, great similarities between the argument of, for instance, Elagabalus' contemporary Cassius Dio, and the theories of Ray Blanchard and the TERFs. Elagabalus is painted as an effeminate, degenerated, pervert.
Ancient text presenting the transgender priestesses of goddess cults, also reeks of misogyny and a deep felt fear of femininity in those they perceived as men. They are not accurate descriptions of how these trans women really were, how they felt and how they interacted with the world around them.
These women’s own writings and scriptures are lost to us. At best we get some information about important elements of their rituals, and proof of their existence.
The galli, the priestesses of Cybele, were male assigned persons who castrated themselves and lived as women.
If we accept these text as they are, we will inevitably reinforce the vicious circle of transphobia and homophobia we see today. This is also why we must be very careful to distinguish between the sexual fantasies of some trans people (who have been influenced by similar misogynistic narratives) and the nature of real trans women and gender variant people – now and in the past.
Discussion over at Crossdream Life.
More about transgender people in history: