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by Earl Lind (Author), Mint Editions (Contribution by)
Earl Lind's 1918 autobiography has been recognized as a pioneering work in the history of transgender literature. Throughout his life, Lind was forced to justify and defend his existence from puritanical authorities. In the first of his trilogy of autobiographical works, he not only demands recognition, but exposes the denial of his existence as nothing but hatred and fear.
"Androgynes have of course existed in all ages of history and among all races. In Greek and Latin authors there are many references to them, but these references are not always understood except by the few scholars who are themselves androgynes or at least passive sexual inverts. [...] [T]hese men-women, because misunderstood, have been held in great abomination both in the middle ages and in modern times, but the prejudice against them was not so extreme in antiquity, and a cultured citizen having this nature did not then lose caste on this account."
Situating his own identity within this history of oppression, Lind makes the case for recognizing the presence of androgynes in all human societies. Ever since he was a child, Lind identified as feminine and was keenly aware of his homosexual desires, gaining a reputation among the local boys and soon turning to girls for friendship and understanding. In a world that saw androgynes as both corrupt and willfully different, Lind sought to increase understanding and to explain through scientific, historical, and personal evidence why his identity was congenital, and therefore natural.
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Despite existing throughout recorded history, despite being recognized in the ancient world as a common part of humanity, androgynes had undergone centuries of repression by church and state alike by the time Earl Lind was born. An androgyne himself, Lind was a lifelong advocate whose Autobiography of an Androgyne remains an essential work of transgender literature.
