EX-GI BECOMES BLONDE BEAUTY: Operations Transform Bronx Youth,” New York Daily News (@nydailynews), New York City, December 1, 1952.
After serving in the United States Army and attending college, Christine Jorgensen made a series of trips to Copenhagen in the early 1950s to undergo gender affirming surgery. And, on December 1, 1952, sixty-four years ago today, when the New York Daily News announced with the front-page headline, “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty,” Jorgensen became America’s first widely-known trans individual, thus starting a career of activism that lasted until her death.
While Jorgensen enjoyed a great deal of celebrity, and some success in entertainment, as a result of the publicity surrounding her coming out, she nonetheless faced the backlash and discrimination that one would expect; for example, Jorgensen was unable to marry John Traub, as planned, because her birth certificate listed her biological sex as male, and, as word of the engagement spread, Traub lost his job. Nonetheless, Jorgensen used her fame to encourage increased trans visibility, and to push medical professionals into discussions about gender, sex, and sexuality.
In 1989, Jorgensen said that she had given the sexual revolution “a good swift kick in the pants.”
Christine Jorgensen died of cancer of the bladder and lung on May 3, 1989; she was sixty-two. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #ChristineJorgensen (at New York, New York)
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
origamiaround
areudirty
blakekathryn
