Its Always Been Queer | Urania

Born in Carlisle in 1869, gender- radical Thomas Baty was an international lawyer, writer, and editor of the genderqueer journal Urania. Under the female pseudonym Irene Clyde, Baty wrote on non-binary and queer existence, campaigning against the binaries of biological sex, and of social gender conventions. Her journal, Urania which was privately circulated to avoid prosecution, expressed pioneering ideas on gender, denouncing the “insistent differentiation” of people into a binary of two genders. Baty’s writings also include Eves Sour Apples, a collection of essays opposing sex-based distinctions and marriage. As one of Cumbria’s primary gender-critical thinkers, Thomas Baty is widely considered as a pioneer for non-binary representation and LGBTQIIA+ heritage in Cumbria.

Words Mac Benson