Trans Role Models and Breakthroughs

| Apr 20, 2020
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Every identifiable community, be it based on racial elements, immigration status, or familial origins and past histories have a heritage that defines who they are, what they are all about. Every distinct community has its Dr. Martin Luther King to provide a leader, who sets an example, even in death.

Our community has seemingly sprung into being in all the bars and clubs that would have us. But we are much more than that. We are doctors, lawyers, teachers, truck drivers, shopkeepers and we come from any walk of life that you can imagine. We have been around for centuries, serving as role models for the ages (for better or for worse). We are bound together by the nature of our desires to be who and what we want to be. But we are even more than that. Our community has its history, too, a history that has defined us in ways good and bad. And as our community archives more victories and gains more and more acceptance by familiarity, we will build a stronger community than what has gone before. What follows is a slice of community history and trans history yet to come.

204-222 A.D.

Statue of Emperor Elagabalus.

Emperor Elagabalus

Emperor Elagabalus was one of the lesser known Emperors perhaps because his short reign and his reputation for sexual debauchery, which offended the upper classes of Roman society. He often appeared in public dressed as a woman and on the arm of one of his consorts, whom he would refer to as his husband. He was known to dress as a woman and stand in doorways and attempt to prostitute. He was also known to have offered large fees to any physician who could change him permanently into a woman. Other emperors are claimed to express the same desires, but Emperor Elagabalus was the first to consider surgical means. He was assassinated in 222.

1431 A.D.executed

Joan of Arc

A French historical figure executed by the English for heresy in 1431, is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. Joan accompanied an army during the Hundred Years War, adopting the clothing of a soldier, which ultimately provided a pretense for her conviction and execution. Whether her crossdressing and lifestyle have implications for her sexuality or gender identity is debated.

After her capture during the siege of Compiegne while retreating from a failed attack at Margny, Joan was sold to the English, imprisoned, and subsequently put on trial for heresy. Despite the attempts by the judges to induce her to repent for her wearing of male attire, Joan repeatedly defended the wearing of this clothing as a “small matter” that was “the commandment of God and his angels.” As Pernoud and Clin note, “Other questions about her mode of dress provoked only repetitions of these answers: She had done nothing that was not by the commandment of God.”

Joan signed an authorization possibly without understanding the text, indicating that she would no longer wear men’s clothing, only to “relapse” later, giving the court justification to have her executed (“Only those who had relapsed — that is, those who having once adjured their errors returned to them — could be condemned to death by a tribunal of the Inquisition and delivered for death.”) On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

1930

Lili Elbe

Lili Elbe

Lili Elbe (the Danish Girl) began a series of surgical procedures to change her into a female. Her first surgeries were to remove her testicles and the rest of Elbe’s surgeries were carried out by Kurt Warnekros, a doctor at the Dresden Municipal Women’s Clinic. The second operation was to implant an ovary onto her abdominal musculature, the third to remove the penis and the scrotum, and the fourth to transplant a uterus and construct a vaginal canal. (And we think WE go through an ordeal to complete SRS). Unfortunately, though, the transplanted organs were rejected, and Lili died on September 13, 1931.

1952

Christine Jorgensen Becomes First American to Have a Sex Change#READLOCAL

A former Army private from the Bronx became the first American to undergo a sex change operation after traveling to Denmark for surgery and hormone treatments. Upon her return, she publicly announced her transition, and became the first public advocate for the nascent transgender community and a celebrity in her own right. She gave lectures on college campuses across America.In 1982, she estimated that she had spoken with over 200,000 students. She married a wealthy construction magnate and took efforts to stay supportive of the community. Of her stint as she said “I find on college campuses, it’s incredible. The acceptance is marvelous,” she said in a 1981 interview, adding that university students “felt that I did my own thing during a period when people were not doing their own thing.” Once the concept of being transgender was let out of the bag, there was no turning back. And there were those who didn’t like it . . . .”

May 1959

Clashes at Cooper’s Donuts

Police officers tried to arrest individuals at Cooper’s Donuts in Los Angeles, a popular hangout for transgender people, drag queens and others in the L.G.B.T. community. The patrons clashed with the officers over the treatment, throwing coffee, doughnuts and utensils.

August 1966

Riots at Compton’s Cafeteria

Like Cooper’s Donuts, Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco was one of the few places in the area where transgender people, who were not welcome at gay bars, could congregate publicly. Riots broke out there after police officers tried to kick out a transgender woman. Members of the L.G.B.T. community picketed the restaurant after it prohibited transgender people from entering.

1966

The Transsexual Phenomenon

The physician Harry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon, a groundbreaking book that outlined how transgender people could transition medically.

June 1969

The Stonewall Riots

Two who were on the frontline at Stonewall: Marsha P. Jones and Sylvia Rivera.

Police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City. The crowd, weary of the raids on gay clubs, rioted. Many in the L.G.B.T. community, including transgender people, joined in several days of demonstrations. The Stonewall Riots are widely considered to have sparked the L.G.B.T. rights movement. It is rumored that community activists Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson, were the first ones to throw rocks at the police.

1970

The Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson started Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR House, an advocacy group and shelter in New York.

1975

Transgender Protections in Minneapolis

Minneapolis became the first city to pass a law prohibiting discrimination against transgender people.

August 1977

Renée Richards

The New York Supreme Court ruled that Renée Richards, a transgender woman who played professional tennis, was eligible to play at the United States Open as a woman.

1979

Wendy Carlos in 1979.

Wendy Carlos formerly f/k/a Walter Carlos was interviewed in Playboy and revealed she had undergone gender reassignment surgery (and being a musician and accepting that I was trans) I realized that it really was something that could be done, and I set forth to strive for that life goal.)

1987

Gender Identity Disorder

In the 1987 revision of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association added “gender identity disorder” as a classification for transgender people.

August 1992

First International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy

The conference in Houston was the first of six gatherings where activists, especially lawyers, from around the country met and laid the groundwork for the transgender movement. Speakers at the conference addressed legal issues related to health care, employment and military service, among other areas.

1993

First State Protections

Minnesota became the first state to extend protections against discrimination to transgender people.

December 1993

Brandon Teena

Brandon Teena, a 21-year-old transgender man, was beaten, raped and murdered in Nebraska. His story was later shared in the film Boys Don’t Cry.
1994

The Gazebo Chat Room

Gwendolyn Anne Smith

The Gazebo, a dedicated chat room for transgender people, was started on AOL by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, providing a gathering place and a resource center with a bulletin board. By the mid-1990s, Ms. Smith said, The Gazebo had tens of thousands of unique visitors a month.

1995

Transgender Lobbying

Phyllis Frye, called the grandmother of the movement, and Riki Anne Wilchins held the first transgender lobbying day in Washington. Ms. Wilchins created GenderPAC, an advocacy group based in Washington.

1999

The Transgender Day of Remembrance

The advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith organized the first Transgender Day of Remembrance, to honor the memory of Rita Hester and other transgender people like her who were lost to bigotry and anti-transgender violence.

2001

Rhode Island Passes Law

Rhode Island became the second state to include transgender people in a nondiscrimination law. Seventeen more states now do so.

2002

Advocates for the Transgender Community

The Transgender Law Center, a civil rights organization that advocates for transgender communities, opened its first office in San Francisco.

May 29, 2003

First Transgender Person Officially Visits White House

George W. Bush became the first president to officially welcome an openly transgender person, Petra Leilani Akwai, into the White House as part of a Yale 1968 class reunion.

Most of the big transgender advocacy organizations started up during the Bush years – the equality center, the Transgender Law Center, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health.

June 2004

A March of Our Own

San Francisco’s first Trans March took place.

2005

California Bans Insurance Discrimination Against Transgender Patients

California became the first state to mandate transgender health care coverage with the Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act.

September 2008

Diane Schroer

Diane Schroer

Diane Schroer won a discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress, after it rescinded a job offer as a terrorism analyst after learning that Ms. Schroer was transgender and intended to start the job as a woman. A District Court judge concluded that the Library of Congress was in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

November 2008

A Transgender Mayor

Stu Rasmussen was elected mayor of Silverton, Oregon, becoming the first openly transgender mayor in America. ( A movie about Rasmussen is currently in pre-production.)

April 2009

Murder of Transgender Woman Labeled a Hate Crime

A jury in Colorado found Allen Andrade guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Angie Zapata. The case was among the first in which a hate crime law was applied in a murder trial where the victim was transgender.

June 2009

Chaz Bono

Chaz Bono

Formerly known as Chastity, the child of Cher and Sonny Bono came out as a transgender man, Chaz.

2009

Presidential Appointees

President Obama nominated the first openly transgender federal appointees. Dylan Orr began as an attorney at the Department of Labor in December, and a month later, Amanda Simpson became a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

Oct. 17, 2010

First Openly Transgender Judge

Phyllis R. Frye, a lawyer since 1981, was sworn in as a judge in Houston, becoming the nation’s first openly transgender judge. Victoria Kolakowski was sworn in as the first transgender trial judge a few months later.

November 2010

College Sports

Kye Allums

Kye Allums, who played basketball at George Washington University, came out as a transgender man. He is believed to be the first Division I college basketball player to compete publicly as a transgender person.

May 2011

A Memo on Transgender Employees

The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo offering guidance to federal agencies on how to support transgender employees.

2012

The Girl Scouts of Colorado Take a Stand

The Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomed all children who identify as girls. In a statement to CNN, the group said, “If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.”

2012

Title VII Applies to Transgender Employees

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal to discriminate based on sex, also protected transgender employees. The government agency took the position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied to claims of discrimination based on gender identity. The blueprint for this sea-change in policy had been set forth by this author in a Comment in the Temple Law Review in Spring 1997.

2013

A Change at the American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association updated its manual, “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” replacing the term “gender identity disorder” with one that was less stigmatizing, “gender dysphoria.”

April 2014

Transgender Studies Quarterly

Duke University Press began Transgender Studies Quarterly, the first academic publication of its kind.

May 2014

A Medicare Exclusion Reversed

The Department of Health and Human Services reversed a Medicare policy in place since 1981. Medicare must now cover sex reassignment surgery.

June and July 2014

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox, an actress in Orange Is the New Black, became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. In July, she became the first transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy.

December 2014

Changes at the Department of Justice

The government agency took the position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied to claims of discrimination based on gender identity.

Jan. 11, 2015

Transparent

Alexandra Billings

The Amazon series Transparent won a Golden Globe for best television comedy or musical. The show’s star, Jeffrey Tambor, took home the award for best actor in the category. The show also features Alexandra Billings, who was the first transgender actor to play a transgender character on television, when, in 2005, she was in Romy and Michele: In the Beginning.

Jan. 20, 2015

Obama on Transgender

President Obama mentioned transgender people in his State of the Union address, a presidential first. “That’s why we defend free speech and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” he said.

June 1, 2015

Caitlyn Jenner Introduces Herself

Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce, an Olympic gold medalist, author, actor and reality television star, discussed her transition to a woman in an article in Vanity Fair. In an acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles in July, she said she planned to use the attention to push for acceptance of transgender people across the world.

July 13, 2015

A Pentagon Shift

The Pentagon announced plans to lift a ban on military service by transgender people by early next year. This was seen as a tacit recognition that thousands of transgender people are already in uniform.

Aug. 18, 2015

White House Hires an Openly Transgender Staff Member

 

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, who was a policy adviser at the National Center for Transgender Equality, will serve as an outreach and recruitment director on President Obama’s staff.

And so there it is. Our community seems to be blending into the general population that defines who we all are as Americans. For some of us it can’t come soon enough. But for me, I’ve woodworked, and I’m not in any rush to be assimilated. Anyone who knows me knows that I still have lot of “fabulous” left in me.

Timeline sourced from: The Charlotte Observer, Wikipedia

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Category: Transgender History

kholt81936

About the Author ()

Kristine Holt hails originally from Northwest Pennsylvania, where her career as a social worker was suddenly ended in 1992 when she was fired for transitioning on the job.  Seeking greener pastures, she relocated to Philadelphia to attend Temple Law school.  A couple years after she landed in Philly, a lawsuit she had filed against her employer came due, and she ultimately settled for enough funds to take that last step in her transition.  Thus proving that what goes around, comes around.

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