Hello and welcome to Queer is Fact, the podcast bringing you queer history from around the world and throughout time.

My name is Eli.

I'm Alice.

And today we're continuing our discussion about the 19th century British military surgeon, Dr. James Barry.

I'd like to acknowledge the Wawandry war on people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional

owners of the land on which we record this podcast and pay respects to their elders past and

present. We recognize them as the custodians of an oral history tradition far older than this

podcast. We have some content warnings before we start this episode. The episode

will contain periodical discussion of misogyny, transphobia, racism and colonialism, as well as

brief mentions of war, infectious disease and epidemics, and the rape of a minor. It will also

include outdated language for intersex people and misgendering in quotes. If any of that sounds

like something that you don't want to listen to, feel free to skip this episode and try out

one of our other episodes instead. This is the second of two episodes on James's life that

we're doing, as I've already alluded to. I would obviously encourage you to listen to the first

one if you haven't already before we listen to this one, but I'll give a little recap of what we talked about in the first one.

Anyway, James was born in 1789 in Cork Island and moved to London when he was a teenager

with his mother.

While in London, a plan was hatched for James to begin presenting as male and to go to medical

school in Edinburgh.

This plan was carried out,

possibly with the help of some of his late uncle's close friends who were taking an interest

in James and his mother and who we know were aware of the plan, but that's all quite complicated.

...