http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/gay-american-history_n_1648083.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices#slide=more236320
Kevin Burra
07/04/2012 9:20 am


This Fourth of July, as you're munching on hot dogs, launching fireworks and wondering if you took it just a little too far with your flag-themed outfit, take a break to appreciate this collection of gay secrets from the Land of the Free's history.
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Slide 4 of 11: A Revolutionary Woman In Disguise
...Plymouth native Deborah Sampson Gannett...went by the name of Robert Shurtliff so she could join the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

Afterwards, as Professor Michael Bronski recounts in "A Queer History of the United States," she published a semi-fictional narrative of her time as a cross-dressed soldier that touched on the author's possible homosexuality through descriptions of titillating, affectionate interactions with women. She went on to give public performances that showed her dual public image as a brave soldier and traditional woman that helped reshape gender identity in a post-Revolutionary America.