A community for transfeminine people and experiences.
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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?
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.