As a cis female ally who believes #transrightsarehumanrights, I'm tempted to make a thread on trans historical figures to annoy She Who Must Not Be Named & her followers, who are being extra hateful today.
You know what? I think I will. Anyone is free to add to this thread if they want. The more the merrier, because trans folk have always existed, before what bigots call "gender ideology," & they're not going anywhere.
Thomas(ine) Hall (1603-?), AFAB intersex person & indentured servant in colonial Virginia. Mostly presented male, but occasionally wore female clothes. Subjected to legal controversy & physical inspection in 1629, & was ruled in court to be both male & female.
Chevalier d'Éon (1728-1810), trans female French soldier, diplomat, & spy. Was politically exiled to England, where she declared to be woman disguised as a man the whole time. Lived as a woman for the rest of her life, discovered to be AMAB after death.
The Public Universal Friend (1752-1819), an AFAB non-binary American Quaker preacher. After surviving a severe illness in 1776, they claimed to have died & been reborn as a genderless individual, & wore androgynous clothes went by they/them pronouns.
Jennie June (1874-1950?), AMAB writer & activist for the rights of gender-nonconforming folk. Author of The Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918) & The Female-Impersonators (1922). Created an organization for the rights of androgynes.
Joseph Lobdell (1829-1912), trans man. Married Marie Louise Perry in 1861. They spent their married life as nomads with their pet bear, wandering the Pennsylvania wilderness & surviving off hunting & gathering, before being arrested for vagrancy.
Frances Thompson (1840-1876), formerly enslaved black trans woman & anti-rape activist. Was attacked by a white mob during the Memphis Riots of 1865. Became one of five black women to testify about the riots, & the first trans woman to testify before U.S. Congress.
Charley Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879), AKA One-Eyed Charley or Six-Horse Charley, American stagecoach driver & trans man. Ran away from an orphanage at age 12 & found work as a stable hand. Developed a reputation as one of the finest stagecoach drivers on the West Coast.
We'wha (1849–1896), Zuni artist, weaver, potter, cultural ambassador, & lhamana, meaning an AMAB person who takes on social & ceremonial roles usually assigned to women. Went by both he/him & she/her pronouns. Was part of the Zuni delegation to Washington DC in 1886.
Billy Tipton (1914-1989), American jazz musician, bandleader, talent broker, adoptive father of three sons, & trans man. Transitioned around 1933. Started the Billy Tipton Trio, which opened for Liberace in 1958. Discovered to be AFAB after his death.
Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954), American socialite, chef, hostess, madam, & trans woman. Declared at an early age that she was a girl, & was supported by her parents. Revealed as trans due to a forced medical exam, & defended her identity in court.
Alan L. Hart (1890-1962), physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer, & trans man. Pioneered the use of x-ray photography in TB detection & implemented screening programs that saved thousands of lives. Published 4 novels & several short stories.
Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989), successful actress, singer, & trans woman. Transitioned in Denmark in 1952, then returned to the US, where she became the first person widely known for having gender-affirming surgery. Became a celebrity advocate for trans folk & gave lectures.
Marcia Torres (1950–2011), hair stylist, cabaret performer, & trans woman. Underwent gender-affirming surgery in Chile in 1973, becoming the first person in Latin America to have such a procedure. Was subject to extensive media coverage & cited in medical articles.
Lili Elbe (1882-1931), Danish painter & trans woman. Traveled to Germany for gender-affirming surgery in 1930, which was highly experimental at the time. Became the first known recipient of a uterus transplant. Wrote the memoir Man into Woman, published in 1933.
Michael Dillon (1915-1962), first trans man in the world to transition through hormones & surgery. Led Oxford's woman's rowing team. Began using testosterone in 1940, changed his birth certificate in 1944, & underwent surgery over a course of 9 years. Worked as a ship's surgeon.
Roberta Cowell (1918-2011), first trans woman in Britain to transition via surgery. Racing driver & decorated fighter pilot of WWII. Consulted psychiatrists in the 1940s & began living as a woman. Underwent gender-affirming surgery in 1951. Sold her story to the press in 1954.
Dora "Dorchen" Richter (1891-1933), trans woman & first known person to undergo complete gender-affirming surgery. Worked at the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, where she underwent surgeries in 1922 & 1931. Featured in a Austrian documentary with other patients in 1933.
Toni Ebel (1881-1961), German painter & trans woman. Changed her name in 1930. Worked at the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, where she underwent gender-affirming surgeries in 1929 & 1930. Became a member of the Association of Visual Artists in East Germany in the 1950s.
April Ashley (1935-2021), English model & trans woman. Socially transitioned in the late 1950s & underwent gender-affirming surgery in 1960. Outed in 1961 by a British tabloid. Subject of the biographies April Ashley's Odyssey (1982) & The First Lady (2006).
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