Transsexed History: OUR history

[Linus]

After reading a variety of things recently, I thought it would be nice to have a thread that documents our history of transsexed individuals.

Lynn Conway has kept a decent list of MTFs and FTMs and the variety of careers/backgrounds.

MTFs: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TSsuccesses.html

FTMs: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TransMen.html


Additionally, I was reading this Bilerico article today: http://www.bilerico.com/2010/05/vintage_trans_book_man_into_woman.php

One of the commentors mentioned Dr. Alan Hart so I looked him up and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_L._Hart

So who else makes up our history?

[Liam]

National Transgender Library & Archives: http://www.gender.org/ntgla/index.html

Pioneer & Philanthropist, Reed Erickson: http://web.uvic.ca/~erick123/

Some Current Movers & Shakers: http://www.ftmi.org/

Billy Tipton: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=7456

[DapperButch]

National Transgender Library & Archives: http://www.gender.org/ntgla/index.html

Pioneer & Philanthropist, Reed Erickson: http://web.uvic.ca/~erick123/

Some Current Movers & Shakers: http://www.ftmi.org/

Billy Tipton: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=7456

The Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, is a really good read.

It has been quite a long time since I read the book, but if I recall correctly, there may have been some transphobia present...like his ex-wife denied ever knowing he was born a female (and some stuff indicating that really the only reason that he presented as male was to be succesful as a musician)? Something like that? Or maybe I am thinking of another situation....I remember reading about a case from the 1800's where a wife claimed to not know, so maybe I am mixing it up with that...

(not that it isn't possible that partners wouldn't know...just sayin')

Regardless, a good book to pick up.

[Andrew, Jr.]

I love Lynn Conway. Calpernia Addams is another wonderful woman to investigate. She is just awesome. And Andrea James. The three of them are very close friends.

[firie]

I found this when quickly searching, here (http://www.squidoo.com/transhistory).

This is a great thread.

[firie]

More T, LGB? A brief history of trans inclusion post-Stonewall

The trans sector of the LGBT community continues to be seen as disposable by campaigns seeking mainstream acceptance.
Posted by Alma Cork, Mon 01 Dec 2008
The modern LGBT rights movement harks back to one pivotal event in Greenwich Village, New York, where a group of Latina and African-American street queens, queer kids, leathermen, dykes, and transgender people, with nothing to lose in the face of constant police oppression, decided enough was enough and fought back. The ever increasing shockwaves filtered through a slowly emerging underground gay press until the riot became a symbol in the fight for queer equality.

A month after the Stonewall riots, a group of activists formed the Gay Liberation Front, members of whom left later that year to form the Gay Activists' Alliance. Included among these activists were Sylvia Rivera, a trans woman who threw the first bottle at Stonewall, and Brenda Howard, a bisexual member of the BDSM community who was responsible for the first annual remembrance of the event – what we now call Pride. However, there seems to be continuing resentment between both trans and bi people and the mainstream lesbian and gay movement. How, after a riot that involved transgender people and bisexuals, did we end up in this situation? I did some digging, and picked the brains of an activist and writer who was involved with the early GLF in the UK: Roz Kaveney.

The early days post-Stonewall were beset with anti-transgender sentiments. The GAA dropped trans concerns from its civil rights agenda, as they were considered too ‘extreme’, despite Sylvia Rivera's work to get a gay rights bill passed. Then, in 1975 a Democratic senator opposed trans inclusion in a gay rights bill as he felt it would cause the bill's defeat. As lesbian and gay groups began to find their own voice they seemingly denied the chance for trans people to have theirs. As Roz Kaveney says, "Trans people were thrown off the bus so long ago; what they are trying to do is to stop us getting back on it."

Anti-trans sentiments came from the lesbian separatist movement, most notably with Janice Raymond's The Transsexual Empire in 1979, which argued that transsexuality is a patriarchal plot to infiltrate women's space. This text, according to Roz, "gave a lot of people a sense of entitlement about being horrible to trans people in public". Lesbian-identified trans women came under verbal and printed attack, as did their friends and lovers; if one accepted a trans woman as female then "you are guilty yourself". Lesbian clubs, spurred on by anti-trans rhetoric from radical feminists such as Shelia Jeffreys, started to exclude trans people. Other groups were also facing exclusion, such as the banning of BDSM practitioners and bi people from the London Lesbian and Gay Centre in 1985. All the while, the face of gay liberation was becoming increasingly conservative and mainstream in an effort to appear 'respectable' to the prevailing culture, thereby excluding 'undesirable' elements.

Trans attacks continued into the 1990s, especially with Germaine Greer's vicious outing of Rachel Padman. The same period saw the beginnings of organised trans visibility: Press For Change, a trans lobbying organisation, was founded in 1993, and in the later part of the decade the internet enabled a disparate 'trans community' to start connecting with each other. Debates amongst trans people also gained pace, including whether or not the T should be in the LGB at all, given that trans is about gender, not sexuality. However, advances were happening, such as the 1999 employment protections for trans people and the repeal of Section 28 in 2000. Lesbian and gay media representation seemed to become less hateful, although they did not advance greatly for trans people. The LG community even contributed to misrepresentations of trans people, such as the suggestion that Calpernia Addams, whose lover was beaten to death, was actually a gay man rather than a trans woman. Jim Fouratt, who was present at the Stonewall riots, also asserted that transsexuals were "confused, crazy queens" and transition a forced "cure of homosexuality". Around the same time Germaine Greer published The Whole Woman, calling genital reassignment surgery "mutilation".

In 2003 another academic attack came from J. Michael Bailey's The Man Who Would Be Queen, which argued that trans women are either extremely effeminate gay men or simply men who are aroused by the idea of being a woman. The uproar this caused was only intensified when the LGBT Lambda Literary Foundation nominated the book as a finalist for its transgender award. Protests were made, and the nomination was eventually dropped. Then, in 2004, Julie Bindel published the Guardian article Gender Benders, Beware, where she trotted out similar tired old clichés, and in a moment of paranoid delusion suggested that "Kwik-fit sex changes are on offer to all and sundry".

Further rifts occurred in both the US and UK over 2007-2008. With echoes of 1975, The Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the US dropped its cover of trans people as a means to try and get the bill passed, and similar arguments also arose in the UK over trans inclusion in the Equality Bill. On Radio 4 Julie Bindel asserted her belief that sex change is unnecessary mutilation and that trans people should instead be offered "talking therapies". And, in the last few months, Stonewall England nominated her for Journalist of The Year.

The waters broke, and the largest known trans protest in UK history was staged outside Stonewall's annual awards ceremony. Trans people and allies attended to show their frustration at being left out in the cold for so long.

Of course, not all is sour between the LGB and T. Organisations are becoming increasingly inclusive, with Stonewall Scotland, unlike its Welsh and English counterparts, representing all LGBT people. Younger queer-identified campaigners and activists, who don't share the strict identity politics of their forebears, are also finding their voices. Thanks to easier and quicker methods of communication, increasing visibility, a common goal of equal rights and an understanding of intersectionality, the movement is becoming more cohesive. Hopefully, very soon the issue of T inclusion will be relegated to the past and trans people can work on including others, rather than just trying to get their own voices heard. After all, when we've got every letter of the alphabet working together for equal rights, then surely we've succeeded.

[The_Lady_Snow]

Susan Stanton!!!

[Daryn]

One of the commentors mentioned Dr. Alan Hart so I looked him up and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_L._Hart

So who else makes up our history?

Alan Hart is local to my world. One of the local queer rights groups (name has changed a couple of times and mission has morphed a bit) used to call its big annual fund raising dinner the Lucille Hart Ball. Eventually, that stopped as trans activists pointed out that Alan lived most of his adult life as a man and that using a name he'd quit using was disrespectful.

There is a bit of history about women becoming men to fight in wars:

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets2.html

http://americancivilwar.com/women/

There is history about Deborah Samson enlisted as Robert Shirtliffe in the revolutionary war.

I suspect that this goes back well in time when it would be unlikely to be recorded.

[The_Lady_Snow]

Johnny Vera

Prom Queen!


http://danielhernandez.typepad.com/daniel_hernandez/2007/05/johnny_vera_of_.html

[betenoire]

The Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, is a really good read.

It has been quite a long time since I read the book, but if I recall correctly, there may have been some transphobia present...like his ex-wife denied ever knowing he was born a female (and some stuff indicating that really the only reason that he presented as male was to be succesful as a musician)? Something like that? Or maybe I am thinking of another situation....I remember reading about a case from the 1800's where a wife claimed to not know, so maybe I am mixing it up with that...

(not that it isn't possible that partners wouldn't know...just sayin')

Regardless, a good book to pick up.

At least one of Billy's ex wives claimed to not know. His children didn't know either, in fact one of his sons went apeshit and alerted the media to his Father's being ftm after he died. (what a jackass!)

And yeah, that book was -very- much written from the perspective that Billy only presented as male to be successful as a musician. Hurtful.

[Queerasfck]

Kate Bornstein, activist, author, all around cool lady.

http://www.katebornstein.com/KatePages/kate_bornstein.htm

[firie]

The Well of Loneliness
September 5, 2009 by transactivist
I finished reading The Well of Loneliness last night.

As a novel it’s not fantastic. The plot plods along in a relatively predictable fashion, following Stephen – the protagonist – as they grow up, get a job, and meet people. The writing is mediocre and occasionally quite dull.

As a giant “fuck you” to the world, it’s very powerful and still disturbingly relevant. The story follows Stephen, a female-assigned “invert”. Invert is a late nineteenth century/early twentieth century term that’s often said to refer to homosexuality, but there’s a whole body of literature out there discussing whether or not it’s more to do with gender identity than sexuality. It’s now considered somewhat backward to associate lesbianism with necessary masculinity, which has led to a great deal of criticism by latter-day activists. However, if Stephen – and other female-assigned inverts such as Jamie – are seen as trans men, everything begins to make a whole lot more sense. Certainly Stephen’s story often reads more like that of a trans man than a lesbian.

I’ve come across several pieces that describe The Well of Loneliness as a plea for tolerance. It strikes me more as a demand for tolerance, and one that’s still disturbingly relevant. The condemnation of those “good people” who oppress others for differing from society’s norms still holds true. The demand to accept the very existence of those who transcend sexual and gender stereotypes still holds true.

Italics are the blog article, not me.

[The_Lady_Snow]

S. Bear Bergman

[Liam]

Stonewall vets:

http://www.stonewallvets.org/

[firie]

An interesting write up on Stonewall Vet Miss Major, including links on her current work, here (http://destrantalk.blogspot.com/2009/11/transgender-activist-miss-major.html).

[Alpha Dog]

From Female to Male - The Life of Jack Bee Garland by Louis Sullivan

The story, aside from being penned by a great Trans activist (Lou Sullivan) is based on the life of Jack Bee Garland - Jack finally gets the recognition he deserves as a pioneer explorer who ventured across gender boundaries to invent his own life. Jack Bee Garland b 1869 d 1936 in San Francisco.

[EnderD_503]

I was wondering if anyone knew of any FtM athletes who competed on mens teams or as men. The only one I've heard of is the aforementioned pioneer Michael Dillon who competed on a men's rowing team after his transition, and lately I've been wondering if there have been more. Or even if there's anyone around these parts who has competed on mens teams beyond house leagues. If anyone has any info that'd be great.

[Linus]

I was wondering if anyone knew of any FtM athletes who competed on mens teams or as men. The only one I've heard of is the aforementioned pioneer Michael Dillon who competed on a men's rowing team after his transition, and lately I've been wondering if there have been more. Or even if there's anyone around these parts who has competed on mens teams beyond house leagues. If anyone has any info that'd be great.

http://bitchmagazine.org/article/out-bounds

[EnderD_503]

Not a person, but a bill. The passing of this bill will certainly make history causing Canada to join only a very few European nations (namely the Netherlands) in protecting transexual and transgender rights within the Canadian Charter and Criminal Code. Currently only the Northwest Territories and major cities like Toronto and Vancouver have anything official in place.

The bill proposes to add gender identity and gender expression to the prohibited grounds for discrimination. For example:

"2. Subsection 3(1) of the Act is replaced by the following:
3. (1) For all purposes of this Act, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, disability and conviction for which a pardon has been granted."

The bill passed its second reading last month.

The full bill:

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2&Mode=1&Pub=Bill&Doc=C-389_1&File=27#1

[weatherboi]

http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Earl_Lind_%28Ralph_Werther-Jennie_June%29:_The_Riddle_of_the_Underworld%2C_19 21

[weatherboi]

this is a really great set of articles!

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/transgender_history_trans_expression_in.php

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/transgender_history_the_rise_of_hatred_t.php


http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/transgender_history_into_the_modern_age.php

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/03/transgender_history_from_germany_to_ston.php

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/03/transgender_history_stonewall_and_its_fi.php

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/03/transgender_history_toward_the_future_19.php

[Linus]

http://transguys.com/features/ftm-trans-history

[Nadeest]

The Houston Transgender Center has an archive of transgender history. I believe that it is quite extensive.