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Source: https://xcancel.com/EliErlick/status/2025973174454870071
In 1967, a 22-year-old trans woman won a rural Wyoming beauty pageant. She entered the contest just a year after transitioning. Unfortunately, the judges disqualified her when she came out to a competitor. I guess trans women have an unfair advantage in beauty pageants?
Transcript:
Judge Disqualify Results Because ... Winner of Beauty Contest Is a Sex-Change!
by Walt Bradley
When there's a scandal after a beauty contest, it's usually because one of the judges has been bribed.
But the scandal that followed the beauty contest in Atlantic City, Wyoming, wasn't about bribery.
It happened because the winner, Miss Stephanie Germain, 22, isn't a miss at all!
Stephanie won the contest after having a sex-change operation in Sweden!
The scandal occurred when Stephanie admitted to one of the other contestants that she'd had the operation.
"I don't know why," Stephanie told Bulletin, "but I just couldn't keep it to myself.
"I just had to tell somebody that I used to be a man."
When Stephanie told the other girl, Marjorie Sharp, 21, Marjorie rushed out of the dressing room and told the judges about what Stephanie had said.
The judges came to the dressing room and demanded to know whether Stephanie really had had a sex-change operation.
"I told them it was true," Stephanie continued, "because I didn't really think it made any difference.
"I mean, the contest is supposed to be about beauty and whether I used to be a man or not hasn't got anything to do with it."
But the judges didn't quite see it eye to eye with Stephanie.
As a matter of fact, they disqualified her and had to have the contest all over again.
"I didn't really care," Stephanie said, "because I just entered the contest as a joke anyway.
"It made me laugh to think just a year earlier I used to be a man. And there I was, winning a beauty contest!"
Stephanie used to be Stephen Germain until he decided that he ought to be a woman.
"Actually, I decided that a long time ago," Stephanie told Bulletin. "When I was a boy I'd never fit in with the other kids.
"I don't know why, but I just never got a big bang out of playing football and things like that.
"And then, when I got to be about 16, I was really out of it. I mean, I just didn't like women.
"But you've got to understand, it wasn't that I like men. I mean, I wasn't queer or anything."
Stephanie described how he saved up $2,000 by the time he was 21, just to be able to have a sex-change operation.
"The operations are illegal in the States but you can get them in Sweden if a doctor says you're more a woman than a man.
"So I flew to Sweden and I had the operation."
The operation involved actually cutting off Stephan's genitals. A hole was made between his legs and plastic surgery provided him with a vagina.
"After that they gave me hormone treatments. I started developing breasts and my voice got higher.
"Pretty soon I started rounding out just like a woman and the next thing I knew I had a perfect 36-24-36 figure."
Stephanie described how she had all her body hair removed in a special operation using electrolysis later the same year.
"Then I changed my name legally and I registered myself as a female.
"I sort of felt silly living back East where all my friends know I used to be a man, so I moved out to Wyoming.
"And then I heard about this beauty contest and I thought it would be a real joke if I won it."
It was a real joke all right, but the judges aren't laughing.
After all, they must feel kind of stupid if they couldn't even tell the difference between a man and a woman.
October 2, 1967, National Bulletin
Caption to the left image:
Stephanie German, 22, won a beauty contest and then heard that her win was disqualified because she told a fellow competitor she was a sex-change
Caption to the right image:
Stephanie always wanted to be a woman, but she had to go all the way to Sweden before she could find a doc who'd do the operation for her
It's kind of interesting how she describes herself as "(not) queer or anything.". Really amazing how language shifts.
yes, trans people in the 1960s didn't necessarily think of themselves as connected or related to "queers" (gay, lesbian, bi, etc.), the association is basically entirely political - and there are plenty of trans people who don't want to be associated with the political LGBT+ alliance (and tbf there are also TERF lesbians who don't identify as queer or want to be associated with LGBT+ alliance, etc. - it's not like it's just a minority of trans people who are unhappy about the alliance).
That said, I think it's undeniable that the LGBT+ alliance has been fruitful for trans rights (esp. once trans folks were finally included and recognized for our participation in the gay rights movement, etc.).
Sounds like Sweden used to be a lot laxer...
might just be relative to the US at the time tbh, Sweden today is probably far more trans friendly than in the 1960s all things considered
unfortunately not true. or well, it's probably not so easy to compare actually. technically any doctor can prescribe hrt, and any doctor can give you a diagnosis and sign off on surgery. an issue we face in scandinavia is that few doctors actually do this and you're forced to go to certain transmedicalist hospitals that do all they can to do as little as possible for as few as possible. Unless you find an alternative ofc
yes, and I assume in the 1960s there were even fewer doctors and a less permissive / supportive healthcare culture
gender transition is the gold standard of care for gender dysphoria across the world where evidence based medicine is practiced, and that just wasn't true in the 1960s - I still think Sweden in the 1960s was a worse place for trans patients than the (admittedly dismal) situation now
Something I feel many don't realise, is that while being trans and having gender dysphoria/euphoria is something that has occurred across cultures and times, the medical means to treat dysphoria and/or give euphoria are pretty new.
We have the Indian hijra, the Roman gallī priests, heathen tale of crossdressing and masculine pregnancy, as well Hawai'i mahu. But before the 1920s, if you wanted HRT, your best bet would bet castration through removal of your ovaries, and consuming filtered pregnant horse piss (estrogen) or bull/dog testes extract (testosterone). Or food with higher natural rates of those hormones, but that's nowhere near as effective.
It's only by the 1920s that modern HRT became a thing. People often think of Stonewall as being the cataclyst for modern sexual liberation, and they wouldn't be wrong, but there was a lot of progress even before that, and people who fought for our rights.
There are earlier queer examples and activists, like Rolandina Roncaglia, a Venetian woman who was murdered in 1354. She was likely a transgender woman, and was largely accepted in Venice, but got ratted out on after 7 years. Or take Katherina Hetzeldorfer, murdered 1477, for being a crossdressing lesbian. And Jan Egberts, in 1731, who together with like a dozen people, was murdered at 19 for sodomy. He corrected his age when the judge incorrectly listed it in the sentence, and bowed saying, "It's all right, sir", before leaving. Madlad. Queer activists are awesome.
And yes, by 1831, there was Heinrich Hössli, who spoke out favourably for consensual same-sex love, while Karl Heinrich Ulrichs spoke out for his own gayness in the 1860s. He managed to convince some people for his cause.
But I feel that Hirschfield had affected the world for the better the most. Thanks to him, people like Karl M. Baer, got the first modern gender-affirming change surgery in 1906(!), and Alan L. Hart, could be the first to undergo masculinising HRT by the 1920s. Or take Toni Ebel, Charlotte Charlaque and Dora Richter. They were the first to undergo feminising surgery, and Christine Jorgensen, although not the first, is the most widely early example of feminising HRT, in 1950.
His incredible work for queers began in 1896. He'd visited Chicago in 1892, and noticed how their homosexual subculture was similar to that of Berlin. He got reading about those. In 1894, he had established a naturopathic practice, and was struck by how many gay patients were depressed due to the repression, and wanted to give them a reason to live. He was affected by Oscar Wilde's trial, and in 1896, a gay lieutenant he was treating for depression, took his life and wrote an extensive note to him. That kickstarted his activism.
He introduced transvestite passes so people wouldn't get punished for crossdressing, started research for HRT, fought for intersex rights and everything. If I could travel back into time and speak to anyone, I would choose Hirschfield everytime and tell him how advanced society has become for us, and thank him. Such a great man. I know he would be tearful with joy.
There should be a statue for this man. The archives should be restored.