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Gender identity studies has unsurprisingly become a booming enterprise in academia, which in the modern world is home to some of the most inane ideas in human history. To justify the existence of these departments, academics focused on sexual orientation and gender have found it useful to stir up a little controversy here and there. The most recent such provocation is the notion that the semi-mythical warlord/king Arthur, a central figure of the founding of Britain, the epitome of knightly valor and prowess, and arguably the most legendary hero in all of Western literature, may have been LGBTQ, according to a Welsh county council.
The UK Telegraph reports that the county council of Denbighshire in the northeast of Wales has created educational resources which include a timeline of LGBTQ+ history telling “stories of sexual orientation and gender identity.” It was devised, the Telegraph notes, so that “local people, allies and events can be celebrated” instead of material “replicating mainstream narratives and celebrities.”
How very exciting. In any case, the legendary Arthur has been included on that timeline because according to a Welsh legend, as an entry on the timeline states, “On a subsequent occasion Arthur dressed himself in woman’s clothes in order to visit a girl at Rhuthun.” Rhuthun (modern-day Ruthin) in Denbighshire was said in the tale to be the site where Arthur slayed a rival named Hueil mab Caw. In this tale, Hueil sees Arthur disguising himself in women’s attire to sneak into a dance in order to get closer to a girl in whom he was interested (this was pre-Guinevere, apparently).
That’s it. That’s the sole instance in all Arthurian lore for justifying lumping Arthur in with LGBTQ history.
The Telegraph states that the basis for the timeline is the work of LGBT-focused historian Norena Shopland, described by Wales Online as “the woman who has dedicated her life to uncovering Wales’ LGBTQ+ history.” The timeline emerged from a 2021 training in “LGBTQ+ Language and History” for local museums and libraries to “encourage the celebration of local stories of sexual orientation and gender identity,” as the council states.
In 2023 the Welsh government launched the LGBT Action Plan for Wales, which declared, “Welsh LGBTQ+ history, culture, and heritage in Wales has contributed to our legacy and experiences as a nation and these stories need to be told.” Even if they need to be fabricated, apparently.
As an amateur medievalist (in the original sense of the word amateur – someone engaged in a pursuit for the sheer love of it) with a ridiculously extensive library related to King Arthur, British legends and lore, and chivalric literature, I feel confident in stating that this cultural appropriation of Arthur by activists desperate to subvert “heteronormativity” is complete and utter bollocks.
I have never read anything which suggests that King Arthur was homosexual, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit or any other non-binary identity, nor that he was a closeted cross-dresser. Indeed, the legend referred to in the Welsh timeline itself makes it clear that Arthur wore women’s clothing on a single occasion as a disguise in order to get close to a woman he was interested in. Sounds a little desperate on Arthur’s part, but I’ve done more embarrassing things to get close to a girl I was interested in. The point is that it is clear from the context that he is heterosexual. This brief episode can only be interpreted as a “story of sexual orientation and gender identity” if you are determined to make a link between the legendary hero and your own obsession with transgressive sexual behavior.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, nailed it when she said, “We’ve reached a new level of desperation when a legend about King Arthur dressing in women’s clothes qualifies for entry on a local government’s “LGBTQ history timeline.
She continued (and I can’t put it any better than this),
Whether it’s Joan of Arc or King Arthur, it makes no sense to apply today’s baffling ideologies to historical or legendary figures who wore clothes typical of the opposite sex for whatever reason. British councils have no business trying to rewrite or reframe history to validate very recent ideas about sex and gender. To claim that a person in “opposite sex” clothes is part of the LGBTQ is confusing nonsense.
Well said, and this applies to all other historical figures whose legacies are being similarly targeted by gender ideologues in order to deconstruct the heterosexual norm and subvert the West’s heroes.
To cite one other example (apart from the aforementioned Joan of Arc, who is often claimed by the LGBTQ community): American icon Abraham Lincoln is the subject of a documentary that recently hit theaters titled Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln, alleging that the Great Emancipator’s close friendships with men prove he was gay. This is a theory that has long titillated gender ideologues who cannot fathom that straight men are capable of bonding closely without being sexually attracted to each other.
Of course, there is more to this than the LGBTQ community trying to appropriate straight icons. This is all part of the queering of the West. “Queer” doesn’t mean simply “homosexual.” As Logan Lancing and James Lindsey explain in their book The Queering Of The American Child, queer theory is a radical ideology that seeks to convince people that nothing – nothing – is normal or natural, that everything including gender and sexuality is a social or political construct imposed upon people by the “dominant” classes. Queer theory’s purpose is not to simply normalize deviant sexual practices and identities but to deconstruct the very concept of normalcy. The goal is to make people conscious of the prison society has locked us all into and to inspire us to break out of its repressive conventions and to free our authentic selves. As Lancing and Lindsey put it, queer theory is a vehicle for a complete and perpetual cultural and personal revolution.
That’s what propaganda like the inclusion of King Arthur in an LGBTQ exhibit and a documentary about a gay Lincoln is really all about: waging revolution against all of our cultural values and traditions, our understanding of the natural order and our own humanity, the role of sexuality in our lives, our religious faith and the nuclear family — Western civilization in its entirety.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior
The Left rewrite History to suit themselves and their Agendas and their false claims they will say anything
The left wants to queer everything so no one will know how to address anyone else. The woke crowd will urge those who address “correctly” by the new standards, to be cheered, and those who don’t, to be sued. The left wants monetary inflation so no one will ever know just how much wealth you have. It’ll drive you nuts. That’s just how the lefties want it.
I remember when the word “gay” meant happy. Must be getting old 🤷♂️
It is easier to queer the past what with the censorship being applied to favor the queers.
I just now searched for a clip of the classic Joe Piscopo SNL send-up of the old Dr. Pepper television commercials in which he sang and danced and professed to be a “homo”. Piscopo replaced “I’m a Pepper you’re a Pepper” with “I’m a homo you’re a homo”.
The millions who saw it surely remember it. It would have been perfect to post here.
Gone down the memory hole I guess. sigh ~
A baby boomer moment which cannot be shared with slackers, millennials or gen z.
“There’s nowt so queer as folk” is an old saying in England to describe people behaving in a very strange way….and there is a lot of those these days.
I’m right on the border between Denbighshire and Flintshire as I type this.
The Welsh Government has faaar to much of the English resources. Tony Bliar setup the Welsh Government along with the Scottish and northern Irish governments he didn’t setup an English government and we are subsidising them constantly.
There are lots of bitter and twisted Welsh people who revel in this nonsense.
I can tell them that they are losing, losing badly with the kids of the next generation.
The kids are laughing at them and in some cases they’re angry with having homosexuality rammed down their throats (hopefully not literally but so many of them are pedos)
The Welsh need vowels desperately, but with their consonant shifts they would reply that they have bowels aplenty.
You know what? I hate this generation of everyone who wants to make everyone gay or queer or everything and everyone needs to be seen through the lens of gay or queer. How stupid! It is all about identity and I even have a few in my family and it is all about identifying with some group or another, as if being just part of humanity’s family is not enough. Just be a good human. How hard is that. God make it stop!
If dressing like a woman is LGBTQ then almost every comedian in the past 75 years is guilty. Look at Milton Berle, Red Skelton, or Tom Hanks to name a few. This type of revisionist history is crazier than most.
My thoughts exactly. Vaudeville, the Three Stooges, Jack Lemmon, and the weird guy I used to know who owned a record store.
The revision of history, folklore and the figures therein to make them homosexual, etc is all aimed at the recruitment of children into the LGBTQ+ community in order to fulfill their deviant sexual fantasies. Women push this onto their children so they, themselves can feel special while weak, emasculated men stand by and let it happen. One loon like Shopland makes up a story about King Arthur being homosexual and the next day tens of thousands of schoolteachers across 3 continents are teaching it to schoolchildren. There, see, it’s a completely normal lifestyle and in fact better than all the others.
” … aimed at the recruitment of children into the LGBTQ+ community …”
The end goal is to normalize pedophilia … the alphabet people will be dumped at the curb as soon as molesting/grooming/raping children is acceptable mainstreamed behavior … watch and see
Now that homosexuality has been “normalized” the normalization of bestiality won’t be far behind and behind that will be necrophilia. When it comes to liberals there are no limits to the kinds and types of moral turpitude and depravity they’re willing to tolerate. It’s the abyss of hedonism.
I imagine that in their sick & distorted perception of reality, robbers have the right to rob, murderers have the right to murder, rapists have the right to rape and politicians are to be believed no matter if you know for a fact that they’re contemptible liars (The media does this 24/7/365 and most people passively accept and believe their lies and bullsh*t with literally no questions asked.)
Oh well, I’m a professed cynic so what do I care?
What on is an LGBTQ? What does such a person look like.
If you must know, an LGBTQ is a tatted up shaved monkey with nipple & nose rings and wearing skintight rainbow colored yoga pants!!
And, in the service of satan, together with his minions: traitor obama, the chinese power elite in bejing and the world economic forum in basil, switzerland! All of whom seek to destroy this great nation!
Such a person would look like a five headed freak because it’s impossible to be all five at once.
It’s so easy to “reimagine” those in the past. Sometimes it’s to advance a corrupt agenda (claiming Lincoln was gay), sometimes it’s just for fun. Consider the movie ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’. I don’t give any more credence to the former portrayal than I do the latter.
The whole alphabet movement is simply a case of arrested development. Six-year olds need to play dress-up in order to explore their future place in the world.
Adults only play dress-up at Halloween or specifically themed parties, as a remembrance of earlier, more innocent days.
As women have taken over society, citizens becomes less and less able to mature. Everyone in the alphabet movement are perpetual children, mentally unable to cope with the adult world. It’s a form of emotional Ludditism.
You are SPOT ON, CARDANO CRUSADER!
As a kid , I walked around in my Moms high heels. It made her laugh. That’s why I did it, So, now, some gender historian can interpret the rest of my life as an alphabet person. Despite nothing but heterosexual activity for 70 years? I want to see them call Mohammed a MAP. His attraction to little girls is historical fact. That should go over well with their new population. Go ahead, I dare you Welsh clowns, call Mohammed a pedophile. Western icons are easier targets of this nonsense. .
” … queer theory is a radical ideology that seeks to convince people that nothing – nothing – is normal or natural, that everything including gender and sexuality is a social or political construct imposed upon people by the “dominant” classes.”
It all boils down to communism/Marxism doesn’t it …. if it’s not white/black they switch over to gay/straight … no telling what will be next.
Um, not for nothing but there is no proof that King Arthur ever existed.
I have read a great deal of the Matter of Britain and other Arthurian legends in addition to commentaries on the 6th century British scene by French writers, and of one thing I am certain: There is absolutely nothing in all of that material that would make me think that Arthur might have been of ambivalent sexuality.
The important thing that I have discovered in my reading is that there is no real evidence that Arthur ever existed. So we might be speaking of a real 6th century warlord who successfully kept the Germanic tribes away from Britain for a short while, or we might be speaking of a total myth created in the late Middle Ages by some very gifted poets, or we might be speaking of a mythology that grew around the warlord. Take your pick, but none of those Arthurs are queer.
The alphabet people activists demean all real achievements by homosexuals when they push stupid nonsense like this.