Hi friends I'm here to glaze inform you about Public Universal Friend, in case you don't already know. Queer history is so important and I was shocked I'd never learned of the friend before now.
In the mid-1700s, a preacher came to near death from illness. Upon recovery, the preacher began explaining that they had died and been restored as someone named Public Universal Friend, a genderless being. The Friend did away with their old name, gender roles, and pronouns. Opting to be referred to as "P.U.F" or "the friend" (that's right folks, we had neopronouns in the 1700s!!), they likewise adopted an androgynous appearance and presentation, even so far as alternating their voice between masc and fem. Another cool thing about friend is they chose abstinence from both sex and marriage, although they spoke clearly that this was their personal preference rather than trying to tie it to the will of God. The term aro/ace didn't exist at the time but there stands a plausibility that friend might have identified as such if they had the words we do now.
And friend was OPEN! When asked if they were male or female their response was to quote the Bible, "I am that I am". (Iconic, honestly) And when others refused to respect this, friend would openly chastise them, right then and there. From my understanding the Christian God is real big on being the only one who makes judgements so it checks out that a preacher would readily remind judgy folks of this.
PUF was an avid preacher and over time formed a congregation who came to be known as the Society of Universal Friends, among whom a few others began to live openly as nonbinary, too. From what I can see there were people of all walks within the Society, not just nb.
BUT WAIT!! It gets better. Every time a disgruntled person tried to take issue with friend, they escaped flawlessly. One instance was when friend fled on horseback, while fellow members of the congregation fought off a group of angry men by ripping their clothes and chastising them until they ran away. Another noteable time was when Public Universal Friend was taken to court for "blasphemy" AND WON!!
I bet you thought we were done but no! The Society of Universal Friends went on to purchase some land for their church and ended up founding the town of Jerusalem, New York! It's still around today! Queer people did that!
Friend eventually passed away from illness in 1816, opting to be humbly buried in an unmarked grave with a sermon instead of a funeral. The Society continued on but did eventually fizzle out, in part due to many members practicing abstinance, as well as the group focusing more on living for God than bothering to spread their gospel or recruit new members.
So there it is friends- a summary of the life of America's first documented enby, Public Universal Friend, and their contributions to those around them.
