The Public Universal Friend was an American Preacher born in 1752 who was known to the world after they suffered a serious illness at the age of 24, and later claimed to have died and been reanimated by God as “The Public Universal Friend.” They refused to answer to their birth name, or gendered pronouns after that illness and they were referred to with the pronouns they/them/their or as their name, The Public(k) Universal Friend, or as P.U.F.  The Public Universal friend was known as a gender neutral individual and rejected societal and religious gender norms of their time, dressing in an androgynous or masculine form, which was unheard of to be done by people “assigned female at birth” at the time, let alone within the society of the Quakers. Quaker religion largely is a pacifist religious organization which, at the time, opposed slavery and preached sexual abstinence. How the Public Universal Friend’s preaching differed, is they did not stop at simply opposing slavery but also encouraged members who participated in slavery, to free the people whom they wrongfully enslaved. Their organization, “The Society Of Universal Friends,” itself included Black people- which, for the 1700s, was considered very progressive. 

They preached the belief in free will determining their spiritual path, despite gender norms or race, which was very different from other Quaker beliefs of the time as well. The Universal Friend was the first known American to establish a religious following. They also were known to not take a bible to preach and could quote numerous and vast stories from the Bible and Quaker writings from memory which was remarkable by many. Many people have been skeptical of their death claim and say that it is false that they had died, however their very serious illness is well documented that family members sat at a death watch at their ‘typhus’ like fever which was very gravely serious for many days. The Public Universal Friend is known as the very first white American to openly and publicly identify as non-binary.