One British museum decided last year to change the pronouns of Emperor Elagabalus to “she/her”.
The Emperor had declared, at one point: “I am not a Lord, but a Lady!” and wanted to be called “Empress”. He also dressed up as a woman and allowed Roman citizens to have sex with him for money, him being the passive partner. All this was seen as enormously scandalous, of course. Oh, and he married a bloke. Now don’t get me wrong here — Roman society was remarkably open-minded compared to some of the historical eras that came after it, or that preceded it. But Elagabalus’ debauchery was of such an over-the-top nature that he was eventually killed, as his behavior made the very office of Emperor seem like a total sham.
By today’s standards, you could make a fairly decent case of Emperor Elagabalus having been transgender, or “gender-fluid”, maybe ‘non-binary’… but in Ancient Rome, he was merely an embarrassment. Still, had he not been Emperor, nobody would have cared much. He probably would have been laughed out of town a lot sooner, but I doubt he’d have been killed. People before weren’t militant about such matters, one way or another. They’d simply shrug their shoulders, have a laugh and… move on.
Footnotes
[1] Museum classifies Roman emperor as trans – but modern labels oversimplify ancient gender identities
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