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Out News Global’s resident queer vlogger, Bradley Birholz looks through the LGBT family tree: “although queer labels are a relatively contemporary concept, queer people have of course always existed.”

Since the beginning of time until now LGBT+ people appear through books, folklore, vases, poems and political doctrines in numerous cultures and identities.

Fascinatingly, some of those cultures had words for sexual identities and practices for which there’s no equivalent in contemporary English. In the realm of sexual acceptance and understanding, there are still some areas where we’re still playing catch up with the ancients.

We should never forget that progress has long been locked in a dance with regression and while we are currently moving towards the light with greater LGBT+ acceptance in the West, there are still countries in 2017 that are encouraging and sponsoring greater oppression. Moreover, there is no guarantee our own more libertarian society is here for good.

So it’s great to see that even in darker, much more dangerous times, there were still those brave enough and just damn extraordinary enough to take pride in who they were.

I wanted to take a look at some of the stories of queer people from the pre-modern era whose lives as queer people were complicated by the attitudes towards their identities and lifestyles, and yet many still managed to live their truth and be themselves and come out with some pretty dang interesting biographies to boot!

As LGBT+ people and allies I think it’s so important to treasure our history and honour our queer predecessors.

There are loads and loads more interesting stories about queer people, however, all throughout history, and these were just some of the stories that really resonated me and that I wanted to share with you guys. Gay samurai, lesbian warriors, the gay Napoleonic aristocracy and more await you, so what are you waiting for! Give it a watch!

Watch more of Bradley’s videos and subscribe to his Youtube channel here.

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