Bodily Autonomy: Thomas/Thomasine Hall Compared to the Modern Day
Reviews the case of Thomas/Thomasine Hall and relates it to struggled within the LBGTQ+ community today regarding health care and bodily autonomy.
When thinking about bodily autonomy in the early seventeenth century, the first case that comes to mind is that of Thomas/Thomasine Hall. They were an individual who was able to move between presenting as male and female rather seamlessly for the time and seemed to garner no real retaliation. That was until they moved from England to Colonial Virginia where they would face fornication charges, and would repeatedly be violated and put to trial by Puritan men and women alike. Their story is still applicable today when looking at the rights of LGBTQ+ people in America.
The Hall court records describe Hall’s early life as being christened by the name Thomasine and dressing as a woman until the age of twelve. They would then change their apparel into that of a man and would reportedly remain this way throughout their time as a soldier until they again presented themselves in women’s attire. When they arrived in Virginia however, they would easily transition from male to female garb and vice versa. While this confused many of the residents of the town at first they did not receive any formal inquiry until many questions were asked by their master John Atkins regarding their sexual identity as well as the reported illicit sexual behavior. Once this news reached the ears of the married women in town, Hall’s body was examined and violated four times. The first time their body was examined three women, Alice Long, Dorothy Rodes, and Barabra Hall came to the conclusion that “hee was a man” (Kathleen Brown). After their master still insisted that they were female, Hall's plantation commander asked them if they were a man or a woman, and they answered they were both, although they had what seemed to be a small male part, they had no use for it. As a result, the commander insisted they wear women's clothing. But this did not stop the women from their morbid curiosity and continued to violate Hall’s body to satisfy their own confusion. This was rather the most violating act as they snuck into their bedroom and attempted to look at their body while they slept. After this was not successful they adjoined for a third to take a closer look. This time they stripped Hall and tried to search for some kind of female anatomy but failed to find such things and concluded that they were a man and must be dressed in men’s clothing as well as punished for this so-called “abuse”. During a fourth search Hall was assaulted again as men forcefully viewed their genitals. In the end, Hall was tried in Jamestown and would be examined in court, and contrary to the examinations beforehand, Hall was classified as both a man and a woman. However, they were forced to wear men’s attire while also wearing a coyfe (a bonnet) and an apron. This was so possibly to help the townspeople understand Hall better and make their own separate category for them, but Hall never wore men’s and women’s garb at the same time and rather than justice it seems more like a mockery of their identity. In order to make themselves comfortable the townspeople continuously stripped Hall of their autonomy, as well as violated and humiliated them to the public.
Hall is a symbol of queer people constantly being stereotyped, categorized, and violated for the sake of cis people’s comfort and confusion. Non-gender conforming individual’s rights to bodily autonomy are still ignored or threatened today. The Times examines a Supreme Court case that will “allow the U.S. Supreme Court Justices to decide whether gender-affirming-care bans for minors are unconstitutional under the basis of sex discrimination” (Burga, 2024). While this is the Supreme Court's first case on trans-based issues, it is not the first law to discriminate against queer people. The same article states that laws have already gone into effect that limit transgender Americans from using bathrooms not of their identity, as well as limiting their participation in sports and access to health care. These laws are a huge loss for the LGBTQ+ community because as Chase Strangio, co-director of Transgender Justice says, “The central arguments are about not just the legitimacy of trans healthcare, but about, in some sense, the legitimacy of trans people as members of civic life and public life” (Burga, 2024). Just like in 17th century Colonial Virginia, queer people are still fighting for the right to exist as they are. Bodily autonomy is not just health care either; it supports a person’s social and psychological needs. Thomas/Thomasine Hall should serve as a reminder that queer people have always existed, and will continue to exist and deserve the right to exist and make decisions over their own bodies just like anyone else.
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