March is Women’s History Month and March 31st happens to be this years’ Transgender Day of Visibility, so what better way to celebrate than with a list.
Tall Lady Pictures writes:
Elbe was a Danish artist and illustrator and one of the first trans women to undergo gender confirmation surgery. […]
Her case became a sensation in both Germany and Denmark and a Danish court invalidated her marriage to Gottlieb. She was able to get her sex and name legally changed.
Elbe began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune, with whom she wanted to marry and have children, and was looking forward to her final surgery involving a uterus transplant, so that they could one day have children.
With no medication to prevent organ rejection, she did not recover from her final operation and died September 13, 1931 […] Elbe’s life is the subject of the 2015 Oscar nominated film “The Danish Girl”.
Wendy Carlos is an Americn Composer and keyboardist best known her electronic music and film scores. Carlos help oversee the development of the Moog synthesizer, and help to popularize the instrument by recording an album of music by Johann Sebastian Bach called Switched-On Bach which won her three Grammy Awards. She also composed the scores for both, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining as well as Disney’s Tron.
Tracey “Africa” Norman was the first black trans fashion model, though she hid the secret of her gender identity as she rose through the industry in the 1970s. Norman was recruited for the Italian version of Vogue and quickly became a model, appearing in magazines and advertisements for such brands as Avon and Clairol. Norman said that she only went into modeling to avoid sex work, which she thought of as the only other outlet for a black trans woman from Newark, New Jersey, who had just begun taking hormones.
Around 1980, an assistant on an Essence magazine photo shoot who recognized her from Newark exposed her secret, and Norman stopped getting modeling work after that. She worked abroad in Paris and Milan before moving back to Newark, and only decided this year to tell her true story.
In 1988, Egyptian Sally Mursi sent a shockwave through the Muslim World when she changed her sex from male to female in Egypt. The case led to such a crisis in the country that the Grand Mufti was asked to decide on it. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, the Grand Mufti, released a fatwa, making it spiritually legal for a transgendered individual to change to his or her appropriate gender.
Martine Rothblatt is a lawyer, author and entrepreneur. She also happens to be the highest paid female executive in the US, and for good reason. She was a leading proponent of satellite communications, as well as former CEO of the Geostar Corporation and founder of Sirius Satellite Radio.
In 2006 Iwamoto was elected to a position on Hawaii’s state Board of Education and became (at the time) the highest-elected openly transgender official in the United States. She ran for re-election in 2010 and won. See a video of Iwamoto discussing her support of an anti-bullying bill in Hawaii by clicking here.
Fallon Fox is the only out trans mixed martial arts fighter and the subject of the documentary Game Face. She has used her influence outside of the ring to bring attention to issues affecting trans youth, like ending conversion therapy.
Sadie Switchblade of G.L.O.S.S.
Sadie is the badass frontwoman of G.L.O.S.S. (Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit), a hardcore punk band out of Olympia, Washington. G.L.O.S.S. is crucial listening for punks who are hungry for music that vocalizes queer and trans experiences with brutal honesty Check out their bandcamp here: (https://girlslivingoutsidesocietysshit.bandcamp.com/releases)
Landa Lakes is a Native American two-spirit individual from the Chicasaw Tribal Community in Oklahoma, and an activist and drag performer. Regarding their self-chosen name, Landa said, “It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference for the famous butter mascot because I like to point out that even in today’s world we’re still using native people as mascots.”
Find even more trans women you should know here!
