Queer History Class 100: The Public Universal Friend

When America was barely born, this non-binary preacher was already burning down society's boxes

Hey there, identity warriors and history nerds. Ever feel like the world's obsession with gender is a modern thing? Think again. While we're out here fighting cultural battles in 2025, there was someone in powdered-wig America who already had the damn courage to say "neither male nor female" when George Washington was still kicking around.

Let's talk about the Public Universal Friend – a non-binary Quaker preacher who, in the 1700s, told society to shove its gender expectations right up its colonial ass. After surviving a deadly fever in 1776 (talk about a revolutionary year), they claimed to have died and been reborn as neither man nor woman, but as a "vessel to serve God." And holy shit, did that cause a stir in a time when women couldn't even vote.

This isn't some obscure footnote – this was an influential spiritual leader who built a whole-ass reli…