Recognizing Non-Binary and Gender Nonconforming People in Early America

This #PrideMonth, it is important to recognize non-binary and gender nonconforming people have been here from the beginning of the U.S. Here is a thread on one of the most influential such persons in early America. An abolitionist minister known as The Public Universal Friend. 1/ pic.twitter.com/2YaoROZugH

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

The Friend was a Christian preacher who lived from 1752 to 1819. Assigned female at birth and given the name Jemima Wilkinson, later in life this person eschewed gendered pronouns, preferring to be addressed as "the Friend." 2/ pic.twitter.com/0M9g3vkpqr

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

The Friend was born into a big White family of Rhode Island Quakers, the eighth of twelve children. In October 1776, they became ill with "Columbus fever," likely typhus. Captured British soldiers on a Navy vessel docked in Providence had brought the disease to the area. 3/ pic.twitter.com/TYZttBJQ6H

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

On October 11, 1776, the 23-year-old suddenly recovered. They believed they had died, and God had miraculously revived their body and imbued them with a Holy Spirit that was neither male nor female. They then began their ministry to "a lost and guilty perishing dying world." 4/ pic.twitter.com/PQ7UhTPcr4

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

For the rest of their life, the Friend refused to conform to the gender norms of the day. Their clothing blended what men and women were expected to wear. They donned the long robe of a minister and the broad hat common for Quaker men, instead of the bonnet women wore. 5/ pic.twitter.com/SMOiXKTpI2

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

Although their genderless presentation caused controversy, the Friend amassed female and male followers. This group formed their own sect, the Society of Universal Friends. The Society founded its own town about an hour drive south of Rochester, New York. Named it Jerusalem. 6/ pic.twitter.com/vAdwUnzVoG

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

Reflective of their roots in the Quaker faith, the Friend espoused a conception of God and humankind that rejected the predestination of the old Puritans. These believers promoted the idea that God had bestowed an "inner light" on all humans regardless of their gender or race. 7/ pic.twitter.com/KIIYRDR1u8

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

Notably, the Friend was no friend of slavery. They preached against slavery. They denounced enslavement as contrary to God's principle of all humans as inherently equal. Though the vast majority of Universal Friends were White, the sect had Black members. 8/ pic.twitter.com/9DwZf77ZXM

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023

The Friend urged followers to free enslaved people. In 1782, a follower freed a teenager named Chloe Towerhill in Connecticut. The enslaver had become "convinced by the spirit of truth that it is unjust for us to hold any of our fellow creatures in bondage." 9/ pic.twitter.com/T2uuaUXrF9

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 28, 2023