6 trans women and non-binary activists you should have learned about in history class. Part 1
March is Women’s History Month, and so, here are some wonderful trans women the history books often don’t include. Many of these figures existed before the word “transgender” even did.
1. Chevalier d’Eon (1728-1810)
The Chevalier d’Eonthis link opens in a new tab was many things, but most of all she remains a mystery. Here are a few things we do know: First of all, she served in Louis XV’s network of spies, le Secret du Roi (translation: “the King’s Secret”). As secretary to the ambassador of France, she helped negotiate an end to the Seven Years War between France and Britain. And in 1763, she was named minister plenipotentiary, with the status of ambassador, to the British court. Then, in an epic double-cross, she published a scandalous book detailing all of her diplomatic correspondence as minister, and threatened to reveal even more.
d’Eon lived as a woman for 33 years and died in London in 1810 at 81. It’s difficult to know for sure if she would identify, today, as transgender, but given her desire to live full-time as a woman despite how disempowering that was in patriarchal Europe, she is undeniably a part of trans history and worth remembering.
2. Mary Jones (1784-1864)
One of the earliest recorded stories of a trans womanthis link opens in a new tab in America, Mary Jones was a black sex worker in New York. One night in 1836, Robert Haslem, a white mason worker, found her in an alley and decided to pay her for sex. But on his way back home, he discovered he was missing $99.
Jones was brought to court for theft, and despite the constant jeers, she arrived in elegant women’s clothing each day. She testified that she always dressed that way in New Orleans and amongst other people of color. After days of insults and jokes at her expense, the court sentenced Jones to five years in prison.
Adding insult to injury, Jones’ sentence was celebrated in a crude illustration that dubbed her “the man-monster.” Despite the discrimination she faced as a queer sex worker of color, though, Jones refused to give up her identity.
One of the most iconic and tragic names in early trans history, Lili Elbe serves as a reminder of both how far we have come and how much we have failed to move forward. A Danish painter married to another painter, Elbe’s story began, according to her own accountthis link opens in a new tab, when one of her wife Gerda’s models failed to show. So Gerda asked Elbe to sit for her instead. The moment was astonishing to Elbe: it just felt right to dress in women’s clothes, to be depicted as one. She continued to do so in private at Gerda’s encouragement. But she was also confused by these feelings.
The dysphoria was overwhelming and inexplicable for her. Doctors shook their heads at her, and Elbe became despairingly convinced that “my case has never been known in the history of medical art.” In 1930, she planned to kill herselfthis link opens in a new tab. The legendary doctor Magnus Hirschfield—who was working on determining how sex, sexual orientation, and gender were connected—briefly saved her, claiming he could implant a womb into Elbe using new experimental procedures. Elbe, who was divorced by then, took the risk, undergoing multiple surgeries. She began living in society as a woman, despite rejection from many who had known her before, and said she wanted to give birth, though tragically she died the yearthis link opens in a new tab after Hirschfield’s uterus implantation.
4. Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954)
A true unsung pioneer, Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in 1886 in Kentucky. From a young age, she wanted to present as female and said she wished to be called Lucy rather than her birth name, Tobias, which worried her mother. Astonishingly for the time, a physician advised that Lucy be raised a girlthis link opens in a new tab.
Anderson married two men in her lifetime, fighting for her marriages to be accepted as legal and for her to be accepted as a woman—making her an early fighter for both marriage equality and transgender acceptance.
However, she was accused of having “lied” under oath during her marriages by not disclosing that she was assigned “male” at birth. Her response, while not accepted, was powerful. “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman,” she told reporters.this link opens in a new tab “I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.”
5. Coccinelle (1931- 2006)
Born in Paris in 1931, the actress and showgirl Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy (best known by her stage name Coccinelle, French for “ladybug”) was one of the earliest trans women to undergo sex reassignment surgery. She began hormone therapy in 1952, the year Christine Jorgensen became America’s most visible trans woman, and seven years later underwent a vaginoplasty.
The entertainer quickly became a star, enjoying features in films and performances (like this one)this link opens in a new tab. Italian singer Ghigo Agosti even dedicated a song to her, called “Coccinellathis link opens in a new tab.”
Her surgery and subsequent marriage in France led to the country amending its lawsthis link opens in a new tab so that the gender on one’s birth certificate could be amended after a similar surgery. It also led to France allowing trans citizens to legally marry. Coccinelle went on to found a number of organizationsthis link opens in a new tab devoted to helping trans and gender-nonconforming individuals.
6. Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989)
Before Caitlyn Jenner, there was a trans woman with the same initials: Christine Jorgensen. She was a singer and performer from the Bronx, and in 1952, after taking her first steps toward sex reassignment surgery, she catapulted to national attentionthis link opens in a new tab. Jorgensen’s transformation was often treated as evidence of scientific advances (she was compared to rockets and bombs, for example) rather than an affirmation of trans identity. She was called “America’s First Transsexual”this link opens in a new tab — inaccurate, but indicative of how iconic she was at the time. She was glitzy and glamorous and performed for $12,500 a week in Hollywood.
Despite Jorgensen’s fame, she also attracted fury and fear, especially when the American public began to learn more about what transitioning entailed. For example, many Americans initially thought Jorgensen could menstruate and give birth and reacted negatively when they learned she could not. Jorgensen died in 1989 with both fame and infamy, with many cisgender Americans still clueless about what it might mean to be trans. But they were, at least, aware that trans people existed.
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