This October, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) and the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) will host #PastPresentPride, a free two-part lecture series exploring sexual identity in literature and media, and the history of transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

The series kicks off at LCP on Monday, October 17, with a reception for Amherst College’s Jen Manion. Attendees will have a chance to meet the scholar before heading to the William Way Community Center for The T in LGBT, Manion’s talk focusing on the historical development of the social stigma surrounding transgender Americans.

On Thursday, October 20, the series concludes at HSP with Breaking the Code of Omertà: Sexual Identity in the Italian American Community, featuring Temple University’s Carmelo Galati discussing sexual identity and the concept of masculinity in the Italian American community.

Both #PastPresentPride programs are free and open to the public.

The T in LGBT

• Monday, October 17
• 5:30 - 6:15 p.m. (reception at LCP), 6:30-7:30 (program at the William Way LGBT Community Center)

People designated female at birth challenged the boundaries of gender in every sphere of life: at home and at work, at war and at play, at sea and on the road. Only on the eve of Civil War did such actions become increasingly criminalized, laying the legal foundation for the devastating psychological stigma that sexologists and criminologists would impose on transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the 20th century.

Join LCP and Dr. Jen Manion for a reception before Manion’s talk at the William Way Center. Don James McLaughlin, who collaborated with Connie King on the Library Company’s 2014 exhibition “That’s So Gay,” will be the commentator in the Q & A session after the talk.

To register, click here.

About Jen Manion
Jen Manion, Associate Professor of History at Amherst College, is currently researching transgender and gender-nonconforming people in early America for a new book tentatively titled, Born in the Wrong Time: Transgender Archives & The History of Possibility, 1770-1870. Manion has published essays in TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and Radical History Review.

Breaking the Code of Omertà: Sexual Identity in the Italian American Community

• Thursday, October 20
• 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

One of the prevalent themes found in early literature that focuses on the immigrant experience is that of assimilation and identity. Often, the reader is introduced to a main protagonist, who in his metaphorical journey from youth to adulthood, struggles with the beliefs and traditions of the old world, contradicting those of the new.  However, the struggle of identity is no longer limited to assimilation as it also highlights themes of race, gender, and sexuality.

Join HSP and Dr. Carmelo Galati for a discussion exploring sexual identity in literature and media, with a particular emphasis on the concept of masculinity in the Italian American community. Case studies will include Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Robert Ferro’s The Family of Max Desir, Felice Picano’s Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of Children, Peter Covino’s “The Poverty of Language”, David Chase’s The Sopranos, Andy Cohen’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Tina Fey’s The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

To register, click here.

About Carmelo Galati
Carmelo Galati is and Assistant Professor of Italian and Core Coordinator of the Italian program at Temple University where he has taught numerous courses on the Immigrant Experience in Literature and Cinema. His research takes an interdisciplinary approach towards Dante and Medieval Studies by focusing on their adaptation and appropriation in modern and postmodern literary and popular culture.

Located on Barbara Gittings Way in the heart of Philadelphia’s Gayborhood, HSP’s collections include materials documenting the stories of gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans. Each October during LGBT History Month, HSP will explore these stories with free document displays, public programs, and online content through its annual #PastPresentPride initiative.