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Article by Billy Lane, the first trans man to win Seattle Mr. Leather - FTM Newsletter (1998)

I don’t usually post about acquisitions from the NYC Trans Archives, but this one is too cool not to share. We recently obtained 1 of the 2 known remaining copies of the censored 1933 German booklet “Wie erlange ich eine vollendete Büste?” (“How do I achieve a perfect bust?”). It advertises an early estrogen compound using a patient who was assigned male at birth.

The text shows that not only were hormones readily available to trans people in the 1930s, but actively advertised to them. Nazis targeted this specific book in the 1930s, leaving only a few copies left in existence. This text, along with hundreds of other rare trans books, zines, and ephemera, will be available for viewing next year when NYCTA opens to the public.

franznsfwreposts

transsexual summer

homoidiotic

San Francisco Trans March 2008 (source)

keposhka

thinking

genderkoolaid

hey boy don't kill yourself. green's dictionary of slang is available online and allows you to explore 500 years of english vulgarity. you can search by part of speech, source, time period, etymology, and usage. there's a whole category for gay slang. they even have specific citations listed so you can see the exact context for yourself. boy did you know that in 1927 "to kneel at the altar" was slang for "to sodomize"

genderkoolaid

some other hits:

Princess: an effeminate and relatively youthful male homosexual or lesbian (1931-4)

Daffodil: effeminate young man (1925)

To throw a fuck into: to have sex with (1919)

Top sergeant: a masculine lesbian (1939) [‘she takes command of the girls’ privates’]

Lily: penis (1919)

Wolf: sexually aggressive man (1847); a homosexual top (1918)

Soul kiss: a deep kiss, involving putting one’s tongue into one’s partner’s mouth (1907)

Tom: a lesbian (1909); [in 'old tom'] prostitute catering to lesbians (1966)

Church mouse: a male homosexual who frequents crowded churches in order to fondle any potential sex partners. (1941)

Discover one's gender: to accept or acknowledge one’s homosexuality (1941) / Lose one's gender: To return to living as a heterosexual

Minty: a masculine lesbian (1941)

Also a lot of early 20th century vulgarity is recorded in Letter from My Father, which is a collection of letters published by a man who's dad was, in short, a major slut and human disaster who wrote about his sex life for his son. It's insane. You can find copies of it online & it's a wild fucking read (literally!) and I think a really interesting look at the life of a person who goes against our stereotypes of what people in the past were "supposed" to be like.

Anyways feel free to add y'all's favs to this post. & if you use this for gay historical fanfic please share with the class

genderkoolaid

#OH THIS IS EXTREMELY EXTREMELY HELPFUL#writing#resources#saving for later#maybe i should move my 1920s story from '25 to '27 because..... bro..........

note for writers: these are dated to the first time they were recorded, not necessarily to their first use. I imagine for many of these, they came about naturally through spoken language before they were written down anywhere. This is especially true of more underground slang because it's probably being recorded (in ways we still have) the least. So if you wanna use a term but it's a little off date-wise, give yourself some wiggle room.

also gonna take this moment to highlight two more i found recently:

Best boy: a sweetheart, a boyfriend, a husband. (1893) [w the obvious equivalent term 'best girl']

Honeydripper or honeydrips: a sexual partner (1917)

Like. Honeydripper?????? That's so horny I can't stop thinking about it. We need to bring THAT back

sweatermuppet

illustrations for the legalization of marijuana in the state of california published in a 1974 issue of The Tide magazine, formerly The Lesbian Tide

homoidiotic

Max and Corissa Anderson, t4t couple photographed by Mariette Pathy Allen in the late 1990s and early 2000s (source) (watch them in Southern Comfort 2001)

funkpunkandroll84-deactivated20

An anti-war gay protester at the first Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade in NYC, June 28, 1970, photographer unknown

gaytanic-panic

Dyke March NYC

elierlick

This is the only known photo of the first trans woman to have her gender legally recognized in Switzerland.

In 1914, Adine T. sent a letter to her local police to grant her a pass to dress as she pleased. She petitioned that "I be granted permission to live as a woman, to wear female clothing and to pursue female occupations, and to be considered a woman before the world in all and every respect, since my emotional feelings are totally feminine and I feel unspeakably unhappy in male clothing."

Her gender was so clear that even the conservative Swiss government had to recognize it. Obtaining permission to live as a woman "is a matter of life and death for me," Adine added.

111 years ago, it was the first pass of its kind in her nation (although not the first in Europe). When interviewed, Adine described herself similarly to other trans lesbians in the 20th century: "a homosexual woman in a male body.” Source: Matthias Ruoss, "Arnold, Arnoldine, Adine."