Native American LGBTQ+ People, 1528-1976, by Jonathan Ned Katz

These documents about LGBTQ+ Native Americans present years of testimony from a wide variety of observers: military men, missionaries, explorers, trappers, traders, settlers, and later, medical doctors, anthropologists, homosexual emancipationists, and LGBTQ+ activists.

In a few rare instances, the voices of LGBTQ+ Native Americans are heard.

This is adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976). The notes to these documents contain numbers of additional sources.

Published originally on OutHistory in 2011; last edited June 21, 2024.

Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere: "Many hermaphrodites," 1562-67

Captain Laudonniere's account of four French expeditions into Florida during the years 1562-67 observes:

There are in all this country many hermaphrodites, which take all the greatest paine and beare the victuals when they goe to warre.[1]

References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976) pg. 285.

Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, A Notable Historie Containing Faure Voyages Made by Certayne French Captaynes unto Florida. . . . trans. Richard Hakluyt (London: Thomas Dawson, 1587), p. 3 (i.e., 5).