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Colonial Williamsburg goes woke to push reenactments about ‘LGBTQ history’ and ‘equity’

August 27, 2021 | | Print Article

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia is promoting LGBTQ history in the American colonies through reenactments that are pushing woke “diversity and equity” via a “Gender Diversity Committee.”

The foundation runs a monument to 1700s history in Virginia. To be more inclusive and to educate the public, they are now depicting the history of the gay community during that time period. Williamsburg is a colonial-era town in Virginia that is famous for being a living historical museum.

The venture began when “Aubrey Moog-Ayers, an apprentice weaver at the museum who identifies as queer, was approached by a gay male couple asking what life was like for queer individuals in colonial America.” She had no idea. The question prompted her to find out, TheBlaze reported. She spoke to other staff members about uncovering Williamsburg’s secret queer history and founded the “Colonial Williamsburg Gender and Sexual Diversity Research Committee.”

According to the Virginia Gazette, their goal is “piecing together a more complete history of LGBTQ people in colonial times” and that “they have made strides in answering their research question: What is the Western population’s view on sexuality and gender and how did they determine who was a man and who was a woman?”

Ron Tolson, who is a researcher for the committee, asserts that LGBTQ individuals were more accepted in the colonies than anyone would have thought. He gave an example of an affluent landowning Virginian woman who asked for a marriage license to marry anoth0er woman. That request was denied. The woman proceeded to cut her hair short and dress like a man. The request was then allegedly granted.

Tolson has been researching the history of LGBTQ in the colonies for two years. “It’s not that the information isn’t there, it’s that it hasn’t been properly researched and a lot of other groups are overrepresented in the historic record,” he posited. “We just assumed that people had similar ideas as current day and moved on but that’s not entirely the case.”

Dressing as a man seemed to be a common way for lesbians and those confused about their gender to connect in colonial times according to Tolson. A colonist who was born Thomasine joined the Army as Thomas. She wore both men’s and women’s clothing in Virginia which outraged residents at the time. “A trial ensued and the court ruled Hall was both a man and a woman,” the paper reported.

Surprisingly, colonists were also said to have read a book entitled “Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,” about the “multiple romantic relationships of two women.”

A play called “Ladies of Llangollen,” a “true account of a love story between two 18th century women whose relationship garnered the attention of Queen Charlotte” will run at the history museum.

“For a lot of people, it’s very hard to know yourself when you don’t know your history and you feel an incomplete form of your own identity. So, by doing this research, it helps people realize their identity and gives a lot of people strength and solace,” Tolson remarked.

Diversity and equity are now becoming prevalent in the museum and history industries.

According to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture’s Vice President of Collections and Exhibitions, Adam Scher, institutions across the state and country are moving to tell a wider variety of diverse stories.

“It’s not just in Virginia, it’s happening all over the country because the demographics of our country are changing dramatically and we’re all trying to connect with an audience that traditionally has not been represented in museums,” Scher said.

Another example comes from the Latta Plantation, which is a museum in North Carolina. It was shuttered indefinitely in June following intense criticism concerning a program that highlighted stories recounted from the perspective of a former slavemaster who was “on the run” from Yankee troops and living in the woods. “Confederate soldiers who will be heading home express their feelings about the downfall of the Confederacy,” a flyer stated, according to WSOC-TV.

The manager of the museum, Ian Campbell, is black. He bluntly declared he would never glorify the confederacy. Campbell blamed the media for unfairly coming to a conclusion over the program.

“To the masses on social media and politicians, no apology will be given for bringing a unique program to educate the public about former slaves becoming free,” he announced.

Even concerning is a consultant to the state of Virginia who said during the summer that the early colony’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday in 2026 should not be labeled a celebration, “For those who had significant concerns about how inclusive events will be, or that the U.S. hasn’t lived up to its values, the word ‘celebration’ can appear to be tone-deaf (or worse).”

She ridiculously cited a survey that claimed the celebration would not have enough “Latinx voices.”

People mocked the enactment and the revisionist history underlying it:

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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