Historic�Trans Masc Representation

By Matt -@Verbalmoonwalking

DISCLAIMERS

1. This is largely western with incredible focus on European (especially Christian) history and American individuals in the near modern era

I have some institutional access through my current job but am still limited to the literature that I can read (which is functionally just in English). I’m also not a historian and the few historians I have loose connections to are in classics, hagiography, and early American history. I did my best to find other individuals among other areas, but alas

• We only have information on people who were out(ed)

If someone managed to go their whole life stealth, and remained undiscovered in death, there’s nothing in the record to indicate a transition took place. For most of these individuals, it’s against their wishes that any of this is known in the first place. That doesn’t even take into account how much of the historical record is lost, especially in regards to queerness.

• Language, antiquated and otherwise

Outdated terms will come up throughout this PowerPoint in specific cases of self identity, quotes, and in reference to contemporaneous sources. It’s part of looking into history, but it is minimized and often replaced for this purpose.

• I got lazy with citing sources because this is for fun and not for profit

Dm me if you want papers or something and I can give them to you.

Notes on Names, Pronouns, and Identity

There is an inherent choice that is made when you decide which name and which pronouns to use for individuals who transed gender

I have specifically made choices in the portrayal of individuals which may seem like saying which are trans and which are not, but I’m doing my best with emergent categories of individuals, and while all these people transgress gender lines, I am making my best call as to how they would want to be referred to.

1. People who reverted to female dress and/or name and pronouns willingly
• There are tons of reasons one might have done so, notably there were economic and social reasons (same sex attraction especially) for passing as a man. These individuals will be referred to with they/them pronouns.
2. People who were forcibly outed
• Including coming out under duress or those who were insistent on male presentation despite known sex
• These people will be primarily referred to by their chosen name and he/him pronouns (except for chosen gender neutral individuals who will be referred to with they/them)
• I will include other names for individuals who are most often noted by another name to allow ease of access for if people wish to look further into anyone
• Exception for saints who have a canonized name and will have their non-canonical name in parenthesis regardless of preference due to it being nearly impossible to research them under their chosen names

Background on Identity Production

Identity changes and is a cultural production

Identity has changed greatly since the time of most of these individuals. It’s impossible to declare that these are “Trans* men” because transness how we think of it is modern.

While impossible to tell how they’d identify in the modern day, it’s also a disservice to them to simply write them off as women pushing gender boundaries (and/or lesbians)

Often I will use the wording of “transed” gender or “cross-gender” [more used in indigenous studies than anywhere else] to indicate action over identity for earlier sources

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1890

1870-Introduction of “invert” in medical literature

1910

1910-Hirschfeld, transvestites published

1919-1933 Institute for sexuality studies

1970

1950

1930

1990

1870

1850

1966-Compton cafeteria riots

1969-stonewall

1966-Harry Benjamin, transexual phenomenon

1965- transgender coined

1979- Harry Benjamin international gender dysphoria association (WPATH)

1906-first GRS

1941- first record of “transsexuality” (still kinda syn for homosexuality)

1986- FTM international founded

1868- homosexual first coined

Very little is identity based, it’s about actions and deviance

1994- cisgender coined

Category I: �Female Husbands

Taken from the term used contemporaneously to describe when these individuals lived. They took up men’s clothes to work and live as a man while married to women who helped them pass.

Loose category. These historical figures are largely inseparable from many historic lesbians, but identity shifts make it impossible to tease out many of them to categorize as lesbian or trans.

Shout out to Jen Manion, this section is almost just this book!

*Charles (Mary) Hamilton (1721-unknown)

• Hamilton was a traveling doctor in the UK, he married a young woman who several months later outed him.
• Much of the backlash against him was surrounding the fact his ex-wife said they’d been intimate. Received a relatively harsh punishment including public whipping and six months in prison
• Showed up again later on, being outed again in Pennsylvania in 1752 where he was arrested, a call was put out for any complaints against him, no valid ones were received and they let him go. (no mention of attempts to re-gender him at the time of his release, unusual in such stories)

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pg17

James Howe (1714-1780)

• Transitioned at 16 to marry his wife, Mary, with whom he successfully ran a Tavern.
• Active member of the community, churchgoing, “pillar of the community”- performing gender in an idealized fashion
• Was blackmailed by someone who recognized him from childhood- paid three times over ~15 years (25 pounds total) before the blackmailer hired two men to impersonate police and try to collect 100 pounds saying otherwise they would arrest him for pretending to be a man and a set of highway robberies years earlier

• At the time of the 100 pound extortion, Mary had died already. Howe came out, saying he was afab but did not commit the robberies.
• Told the public that he and Mary had decided to live together as man and wife instead of spinsters after being unsuccessful in pursuing men, claimed who transed their gender was decided on a coin flip
• Was cleared, though went to live as a woman and became solitary.
• Blackmailers each received four years in prison

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pg44

James Gray (Hannah Snell) (1723-1792)

• Took brother-in-law’s name and clothes to serve in British army
• Came out after service was finished when applying for military pension
• Continued to wear a mixture of men’s and women’s clothing
• Was awarded pension despite being female and the “deception” being an established punishable offense
• Once received a whipping while in service- maintained secret despite being shirtless for them
• Removed a bullet from her own thigh to avoid being discovered
• Homophobic nicknamed due to lack of beard “Miss Molly Gray”

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pg59

William Chandler (Mary Lacy) (1740-unknown)

• Never the target of criminal investigation but outed when they wrote autobiography
• Left home to pursue life in the British navy. Changed into one set of clothes they had procured, leaving dress behind, and received more upon joining the crew and through trading with other sailors.
• Autobiography sexualized (they had a relationship with captain’s wife) and diminished strength, despite Chandler taking on some of the most physically demanding jobs later as a shipwright
• Petitioned the crown for a pension once they were unable to work, did so as a woman

pg 68

Samuel Bundy (Sarah Paul)

• Arrested and charged with “defraud” for their marriage to a woman
• Wife didn’t wish to press charges, led to release as it was a “crime against an individual” that was being provoked, marriage dissolved
• Didn’t only wear men’s clothing, “occasionally in women’s apparel and some times in a neat sailor’s habit”
• Married a man 9 months after marriage was dissolved with Mary Bundy (papers addressed it only in context to how Sarah had previously married a woman as Samuel)

pg 81

Robert Shurtliff (Deborah Sampson) (1760-1827)

• Served in revolutionary war
• Was described as a model soldier during the war, was revealed during the war but was only addressed by male name
• Worked for a time as a man but resumed women’s dress less than a year after returning from war
• Later agreed to a biography which ended up being largely exaggerated and pornographic

pg 69

Henry Stoake

• Wife sought separation from them after 22 years and wished to claim a portion of their shared wealth due to her time spent working on the bookkeeping of their bricklaying business, her lawyer outed Stoake and eventually Ann was granted a share of the wealth as though she had been an employee since they were both female
• Everything points to him being awful to her, withholding “housekeeping expenses” and “treated her very ill” when intoxicated

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pg 102

*James Allen

• Died in a workplace accident- outed thereafter
• The death was already a large spectacle with a lot of interest as workplace safety was a rising topic of the time and there was vested interest in if the owner would be found liable
• Dressers discovered him to be female- the coroner at the time, Shelton, prevented further examination which would turn him into a medical oddity, continued to refer to him with male pronouns: “I call the deceased ‘he’, because I consider it impossible for him to be a woman, as he had a wife”, and had his body interred in a cemetery where it would not be subject to body snatchers
• Initial rejection of widow’s benefits to later be awarded

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pg 104

James Carey

• Worked as a stagecoach driver
• Coroner ordered his body exhumed (4 days after burial) for examination following the claim from a worker that “all was not right” with their corpse
• Body was examined by a group of doctors with an artist present who illustrated his findings and published them with interviews of people who knew Carey

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pg 128

Charles Williams

• Black female sailor
• Stole some hogs (!!) in New York City. Discovered when being imprisoned and forced to change out of his clothing.
• The changing from freedom to imprisoned being a spectacle for the officers was the reason they were even noticed at this point
• Sentenced to hard labor in quarry- upon discovery this was unwanted for a female to perform, instead was forced to perform more feminine labor

pg 153

William Brown

• Black Sailor served in Royal Navy from 1804-1816

pg 156

*Albert Guelph

• Frequented the lie that they were a secret descendent of King George IV and Queen Caroline in hiding, originally meeting the wives in women’s clothes then switching to men’s saying they were in hiding and the women’s clothing was misleading
• First, in London, married Mary Ann, who notified her mother immediately that Guelph was female and together they reported him to the police, marriage was dissolved as it was under false pretense. Second, in Syracuse, married Miss Lewis, whose father disagreed with the marriage and contacted police to break it up against the bride’s wishes, resulting in his imprisonment
• Received money from family to not need to work and stayed with sister during second trial, abnormal for connections to birth family in husbands

pg 178

Samuel M. Pollard

• Terrible husband, severely beat his wife, who escaped to her uncle and released the story (granted annulment and remarried later)
• One of the only female husbands to claim purely financial reasoning for transing gender, did a speaking tour to earn some more money, continued in men’s clothing despite claims about it being financially motivated

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pg 241

Joseph Lobdell

• Started as “female hunter”, wrote a biography about taking up the masculine role to sustain family
• Left abusive husband, left daughter in care of brother to earn money for them
• Ended up donning men’s clothes full time and had to relocate after threats of tar and feathering following discovery
• Married a woman who Lobdell lived with until their brother involuntarily committed them to the psychiatric hospital and faked their death to their wife and town
• Written about in medical journal as a “case of sexual perversion”

pg 200

Annie Hindle

• Known as a masculine woman who played male roles in theatre shows and would wear men’s clothes frequently in day to day
• Dressed in men’s clothes for the marriage ceremony (perhaps assumed full time men’s dress after wedding)
• Marriage in press along with story after wife’s death, some news even calling Hindle a widower
• Treated as legitimization of same-sex marriage more than anything

pg 245

Leroy Williams

• Civil War veteran
• Met his wife through matrimonial papers (ad for a wife to marry)
• Shortly after marriage the wife filed for divorce claiming Williams to be female, no third party was sought to corroborate it
• Williams may have been assigned male and the wife simply tried to use that to get out of the marriage when she discovered he was not as well off as he had led her to believe.

pg 247

John A. Whittman

pg 250

• Expressed he started dressing as a man to make more money and only married wife by her request (tho she filed the complaint upon learning he was female, partially too because he lied about his finances)

Humor some analysis!

• Gender at the time perceived as secondary to sexuality
• Invert as a category reflects this with same-sex attraction resulting in gender being “inverted”
• Leads into early 1900s sexology view that spirit is fixed so the body must be changed (hence wide acceptance of those who undergo surgery)
• The wives of female husbands often not perceived as non-normative until much later on
• Female husbands who were explicitly sexual were punished more severely
• Threat to heterosexuality more severe than threat to gender
• This was not seen as much with soldiers who transed gender as their sexuality was generally seen as serving to help hide their sex.

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• Many accounts of female husbands and other gender crossings retrospectively note people noticing “clues” to the person’s gender crossing
• Used to assuage fears and mistrust which might lead to people being skeptical of others in their community (think current trans panic and transvestigation)
• Specifically beardlessness and voice
• Female husbands with genuine attraction to women
• Often used to reinforce the idea that it is natural for women to want men ergo to be wanted by women, one must become a man
• Wives of female husbands held more power than the average wife
• Not only were they often free of reproductive pressures, they could easily use their husband’s gender to escape an unhappy marriage they would otherwise be trapped in

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Edward De Lacy Evans (1830-1901)

• Worked as a servant, blacksmith, and gold miner
• Immigrated from Ireland to Australia in 1856
• Discovered and publicly outed when involuntarily committed to psychiatric ward (unrelated to gender), refused to bathe for weeks until they forced him
• “cured” and continued to join a carnival as a male impersonator
• Not specifically a “female husband,” uncertain if the press about him ever referred to him as such

Category II: �Are you just that passionate or is there more going on here?

Yeah some of the people from Female Husbands could have been here too but I wanted to keep them together by the source

Eleno de Céspedes (1545-unknown)

• Afro-Spanish Surgeon and soldier
• Married a man (while presenting female) and later a woman (while presenting male)
• intersex, claimed it became evident while giving birth, allowed to marry wife after inspection deemed he did have a penis
• Tried by the inquisition for transvestism, sodomy, and using witchcraft- only charged for bigamy because he hadn’t properly documented his husband’s death before his second marriage

Dr. James Barry (c. 1789-1865)

• Looked so young that they tried to hold him back from graduating medical school cause they thought he lied about his age (he did but the other way)
• Performed the first successful C-section in the British empire (fourth ever)
• Investigated for sodomy
• With Lord Charles Somerset in Cape Town
• Risked death penalty if convicted, did not reveal his sex which would have cleared him (though he would have lost his medical career)
• Advocate for sanitation, clean water, and healthcare for the poor, enslaved, and imprisoned.
• Specifically asked to be buried wrapped in his bed sheets without inspection- didn’t happen, was outed posthumously

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Short king, wore lifts in his shoes

Albert D.J. Cashier (1843-1915)

• served in the Union army during the Civil War.
• Maintained masculine identity after the war.
• Worked odd jobs until he was injured by a car rolling over his leg while working as a driver.
• When injured he was sent to live in a soldier’s home
• Superintendent reportedly knew Cashier’s sex, but kept it a secret
• Outed once his dementia was too severe and he was transferred to a mental institute
• Was forced into women’s dress for the last years of his life while he suffered from dementia
• Received full honors and military burial
• more recently a musical was made about him titled “the Civility of Albert Cashier” (2017)

Subcategory: Saints

• Priests as third gender/ self reflection
• Alicia Spencer-Hall discussion: these people present themselves as men in front of god “when you’re supposed to present yourself in the most authentic way possible”
• If applicable, I’ve chosen to have their canonized name with the (male) name they went by in life in parenthesize for ease of looking them up
• Contrary to what you’re about to see I am neither religious nor was I raised particularly religious….
• Anyway here’s 19 saints

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Saints (part 1)

Saint Hilaria (Hillarion) unknown

Ahistorical, dress as a man to join monastery, associated with healing miracles, likely origin in mid-Egyptian Tales of Bentresh

*Saint Thecla of Iconium 1^st century

Dressed as man to preach, sent by Apostle Paul himself to preach in modern day Turkey

*Saint Eugenia (Eugene) Died 258

Lived as a monk before being accused of rape by a woman he turned down, revealed himself before the tribunal. Lots of wild and uncomfortable conversion to Christianity over here.

Saint Susanna (John) of Eleutheropolis (Palestine)

Dressed as a man to join a monastery (as a eunuch), revealed sex when accused of seducing a nun

Saint Matrona (Babylas) of Perge 5^th century

Ran a nunnery where they all dressed as men

Saint Thecla of Iconium

Matron Babylas of Perge

Illuminations from the menologion of Basil II

Saints (part 2)

Saint Euphrosyne (Smaragdus) of Alexandria C. 410-470

Revealed himself once his father came to him for spiritual guidance while mourning the “loss of his only child” who was the saint himself

*Saint Appolinaria (Dorotheus) of Egypt Died 420(nice) or 470

Hermit, also revealed after accused of impregnating a woman

Saint Pelagia (Pelagius) of Antioch 5^th century

Spent last years as a male aesthetics hermit

Papula of Gaul 6^th century

Ran away when young to join a monastery, revealed himself 3 days before death

Saint Anastasia (Anastasisus) 6^th century

Separated from husband to live as male hermit in desert, reunited but didn't reveal until death

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Saint Euphrosyne (Smaragdus) of Alexandria

Saint Pelagia (Pelagius) of Antioch

Illuminations from the menologion of Basil II

Saints (part 3)

Saint Anna (Euphemianos) of Constantinople 8^th century

Adopted male identity to live as a monk after husband and children died

Saint Marina (Marinos) the Monk C. 715-750

Discovered after death after being denounced as he had been named as the culprit in the rape and impregnation of a woman

Euphrosyne (Johannes) the younger c. 923

Avoided marriage by donning men’s clothes and sailing away to live as a monastic hermit not saint?

Saint Christina of Markyate c. 1160

Dressed as man to avoid marriage

Hugolina (Hugo) of Vercelli

Desert hermit

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Saint Marina (Marinos) the Monk (in red)

Saint Euphrosyne (Johannes) the younger

Bearded saints!

*Wilgefortis, 14^th century

Folk saint, transformed to grow a beard after praying, crucified by their father for refusing to marry and being Christian

Saint Galla of Rome 6^th century

Widow, grew a beard to avoid remarriage, joined church with (probably lover) Benedicta (patrons of queer relationships), entered heaven together

Joint feast with Benedicta May 6^th

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Wilgefortis

*Agnes of Monacada (Benjamin de la Cartuja) 1400s

Hermit after rejection from monastery due to being female, out but still used Benjamin (venerated not saint)

Xenia (Andrei) of st. Petersburg (1700s)

Adopted husband's ID after he died "holy fool", showed up to husband's funeral in his clothes and insisted that Xenia had been the one that died

Saints (part 4)

The Publick Universal Friend (1752-1819)

• “Indescribable being” and preacher, founded Jerusalem, New York
• Claimed to have died and been resurrected by a genderless spirit, renamed themselves. (1776)
• Indicate other worldliness by “mixing category signifiers- especially those of gender, priestly status, and ethnicity” Larson, 2014
• Followers used genderless language for the Friend
• Critics used gender ambiguity as sign of the devil’s work

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LARSON, SCOTT. “‘Indescribable Being’: Theological Performances of Genderlessness in the Society of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776–1819.” Early American Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, 2014, pp. 576–600. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24474871. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

Others:

Alonso Diaz Ramerez de Guzman (1585-1650)

Known for being particularly cruel to native people (yikes!). Killed his brother and assassinated someone. Granted permission to keep dressing as a man by Pope Urban VIII.

Charles Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879)

Drove a stagecoach, discovered postmortem

Hiram Calder (1850-1914)

Baker, discovered postmortem

Harry Gorman (outed 1902)

Railroad worker, discovered upon injury, insisted it was rather common

Category III: �Our Father who art thou in Heaven

Gender transformation by the divine in myth and legend

Transformation by the Divine

Saint Paula Barbada (6^th century, Spain)

Was pursued by a rapist, ducked into a hermitage to hide and begged god to be transformed into a man to hide. Was granted a beard (some versions say fully transformed into man), lived rest of his days in the hermitage

image of the hermitage from https://www.turismoavila.com/web/tradiciones_y_leyendas/visor/index.php?iid=5b2136a8225bf-14

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Saint’s feast: Feb. 20th

Saint Hildegrund (Joseph) of Shonau

-upon dressing the body for death, they discovered the body was female

-monks claimed the body had been transformed after death

-the soul is the person, not the body. Without the soul the body was female. (trans man as was allowed by god to be male or trans woman as the body became female when the soul entered heaven thus was perfect?) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1ks0cj4.5

Transformation by the Divine: Chanson de geste

Yde (in Yde et Olive, 13^th century French poem)

Yde’s mother dies in childbirth. As Yde ages, looks more like the late queen. Yde’s father demands that Yde marries him. Yde flees, ends up getting married to a woman and is transformed into a man

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• Sinclair suggests ancient Indian source in oral tradition
• Fathers a child named Croissant (included for being fun)

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Full Turin manuscript (only surviving complete version) Yde et Olive found pages 389va-395va and 397rb-399va

https://portail.biblissima.fr/ark:/43093/mdata3da5723e41dc46a5032ad967f44f357de45578ed

Image of page from Turin manuscript L. II. 14, f. 394V

Blanchandin/e (in Tristan De Nanteuil, 14^th century French Hagiography)

For more info see Blake Gutt’s paper from 2018 “Transgender genealogy in Tristan de Nanteuil”

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Transformation by the Divine: Greek Mythos

Iphis

Mythological figure from ancient Greece.

Iphis’ father during his birth threatens that if he is a girl, he will kill it. Iphis’ mother lies and says that Iphis was born a boy, raises him as such.

Iphis is to be married to Ianthe, is taken to the temple of Isis where Iphis and his mother pray they not be discovered and he be able to marry his love.

Isis (Egyptian) transforms him.

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Transformation by the Divine: Greek Mythos

Leucippus of Crete

Mythological figure from ancient Greece, not the pre-socratic philosopher that developed atomism.

Story begins the same as Iphis, presented as a male child to prevent femicide.

Leucippus is transformed as he approaches puberty by Leto.

Phaistos (town) established a rite of passage named after Leucippus where boys dress in women’s clothes, swear an oath of citizenship, then remove the womanly clothing, reenacting Leucippus’s transformation

Transformation by the Divine: Greek Mythos

Caeneus

Mythological figure from ancient Greece.

Earliest surviving records of his transformation link to first half of sixth century BC

After being raped by Poseidon, then Caene is granted a wish. Not wanting to have a child by Poseidon or any other, requests to be transformed into a man. (Poseidon also makes him invulnerable)

illustration for Ovid's Metamorphoses book 12 by Virgil Solis, 1563.

Honorable fiction mentions (non-mythological)

• Livre de la mutation de fortune
• 14^th century French poem, main character dreams of changing gender, expresses it as a genuine wish to do so
• Dialogues of the Courtesans, Lucian
• 2^nd century CE Greece: a brief dialogue between the hetaira Lelana and the young man Clonarion about Megillah, a wealthy woman from Lesbos who keeps her head shaved, pursues women like a man,

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Indian mythology and Hindu scripture

Coming soon from input of a trans masc near you!

Category IV: �Cultural category

Cultural gender identities allowing uptake of male social roles

Cultural gender identities

Burnesha (Balkan Sworn Virgins)

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Individuals assigned female at birth take a vow of chastity and live as men.

Were traditionally allowed to take on work and carry out activities reserved only for men.

Tradition has decreased greatly as women have gained additional freedoms. Estimated 12 surviving individuals (2022).

Photos: Jill Peters, 2009

Cultural gender identities

Bacha Posh (Afghanistan)

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Practice in which sometimes a family with only daughters will delegate a male social role to one.

Child is allowed to go to school, move more freely in society as a boy would, even earn an income. Especially important as the Bacha Posh would be able to escort mother and sisters in public.

Typically ends at puberty when it becomes more difficult to pass.

Photo: Loulou d’Aki, 2021

Photo: Mstyslav Chernov, 2021

Two-spirit, Indigenous American, and Inuit Genders

Note on Terminology:

• Two-spirit is a modern term used to encompass third and fourth genders in indigenous American tribes.
• Coined in 1990 specifically to replace colonial terms that were being used (and are even still sometimes used in academia)- the two major ones both come from homophobic slang
• Critiques include that of homogenizing tribes and gender roles within them by creating an umbrella term

Notes on the historical record:

• The majority of the preserved historical record is that created by European colonists who were perpetuating their own biases in their records. Some of what may have been seen as gender variance could be simply a failure to understand less severe gender inequality that was present in some tribes at the time.
• Just plain racism: Inuit Sipiniq gender category which covers gender variance with the belief that the fetus changed sex in the womb- but anthropological research done in the 70s label it as “perinatal transsexuality” and discuss “increased female pseudo hermaphrodism” as explanations, but such wording largely echoes “race science” and may be simply a result of racist interpretations of normal differences in the body as seen often used against African women.

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Two-spirit & Indigenous American Genders

Indigenous tribes are far from monolithic, and that includes in their conception of gender.

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• Mojave tribe’s hwame and fourth gender in Kaska Dena tribe- similar to bacha posh role but life long with option to marry women.
• Plains tribes (ex: Cree, Lakota, Apache, etc) frequently have third gender role but very scant cross-gender afab accounts, much less fourth gender.

Two-spirit & Indigenous American Genders

Some tribes seemingly without a fourth-gender still have individuals living cross-gender lives

• Bíawacheeitchish (Woman Chief) of the Crow (1806-1854)
• Pi’tamaka (Running Eagle) of the Blackfeet (died after 1878) [some evidence of more cross-gender lives in Blackfeet, but they are notable]

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• Also difficult to see the actual nature of female cross-gender roles because it’s all based on European records which mark the cross-gender amab roles more severely (homophobia and misogyny) than cross-gender afab roles

“Female Husbands” in Igbo-speaking Tribes

• Igbo tribes situated through modern day Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea (collection of tribes which speak the language)
• “Igba Ohu”

Might be better translated as a marriage between two women, sometimes as female husband. Doesn’t socially transition (afaik)

• “Ekwe”

Religious classification associated with the goddess Idemili. More casually associated with a woman’s economic success or charisma. (“involuntary possession by the goddess”)

• See Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society by Ifi Amadiume

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Others:

• Indonesian calalai (also use angelophone “tombois” sometimes now with globalization, older individuals specifically identify as men, more https://www.jstor.org/stable/40608385
• Indonesian Bugis of Sulawesi recognize 5 gender categories

• Kenya: Nandi “Female husbands”
• Sudan: Nuer childless women may take male social role
• DRC and Uganda: Lugbara Agule afab priests
• Term “unongayindoda” in Nguni language of South Africa’s eastern cape- has turn from descriptive to derogatory (not necessarily linked to sexual identity or practice) being reclaimed

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Category V: �The Modern Man

Lived recently enough to perhaps have genuine identity as trans in some capacity, capped at must have died before the year 2000

Jack Bee Garland �(1869-1936)

• Written about by Lou Sullivan (see later slide)
• In Philippines/Spanish American War (1889), accompanied troops, was discovered to be female, soldiers snuck them back on where they later worked as a Spanish language interpreter and nurse (didn’t fight); marketed the story later as a “woman soldier”
• Wrote about life in several books which were generally self marketed as “female soldier”
• Lived in San Francisco's tenderloin district with a male partner.

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Harry Allen �(1882-1922)

• petty criminal in pacific northwest (burglary, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, vagrancy, bar fights)
• heavy presence in newspapers for crimes and other spectacles (specifically in regards to his romantic endeavors)
• Mother defended him in papers and testified in support of him in court.
• notorious ladies’ man (reportedly four women who were in love with him committed suicide when he didn’t want to be with them, though he said none of them were about him)

Karl M. Baer �(1885-1956)

• First man to undergo gender affirming surgery (1906)
• He was intersex, when his voice started dropping he thought he had TB, we’ve all been there
• Was hospitalized after being electrocuted where he was put into contact with Magnus Hirschfeld
• Wrote “Memoirs of a man’s maiden years” by N.O. Body
• Moved from Germany to Palestine in 1938 after being briefly incarcerated and tortured.
• Was in a throuple with his wife and another woman

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Amelio Robles Avila �(1889-1984)

• Served in the Mexican revolution, raised to Colonel, serving a key role in many battles
• Shot a pistol with one hand while smoking a cigar with the other, wooing women (descriptions of him are kinda insane I love them)
• Male identity accepted and was granted a military pension despite it being known he had been afab

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Alan L. Hart �(1890-1962)

• American Radiologist
• Pioneered using x-rays to diagnose TB, implemented TB screening programs
• Saved millions of lives by doing so
• 1917- Received a hysterectomy and gonadectomy (first trans man in U.S. to do so)
• Started testosterone treatment once it became available
• Wrote several novels some of which sold very well

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William “Billy” Tipton �(1914-1989)

• American Jazz musician
• Outed upon his death
• Reportedly withheld knowledge of his sex from all but the first of his five common law wives (never legally married)
• Last wife claimed he had said he’d been in an accident as a child which left him disfigured and never let her see
• Adopted children, all also surprised to learn he wasn’t born male, some changed their last names to distance themselves from the scandal

Laurence Michael Dillon �(1915-1962)

• British physician
• First person to receive testosterone HRT in Britain
• First phalloplasty
• Published “Self: a study in ethics and endocrinology,” advocating for access to medical transition
• Performed the orchidectomy on Roberta Cowell, the first woman to receive GRS in Britain

Willmer “Little Ax” Broadnax �(1916-1992)

• Performed with family and in well-known gospel quartets
• Little Ax and the golden echoes
• The Fairfield four
• The five blind boys of Mississippi
• A nice example of someone being able to transition and stay close with birth family
• Outed upon his death
• Indications that he transitioned very early in life as a census when he was 8 includes a correction that implies that Wilmer was already presenting masculine

Reed Erickson �(1917-1992)

• American Philanthropist
• Early patient of Harry Benjamin (HB brought Magnus Hirschfeld's work to U.S.)
• Known trans rights advocate
• Founded the Erikson Educational Foundation (EEF)
• Millions to early LGBTQ movement
• Funded the Harry Benjamin foundation (turned into WPATH)
• Created resources and a referral network for trans individuals to connect to medical, legal, and academic support

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At one point owned a leopard who he named after Harry Benjamin????

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Lou Sullivan �(1951-1989)

• Specifically identified as a gay trans man- founded “FTM”, an early activist group
• Specifically influential in our current understanding of gender and sexuality as separate, pushed against the requirement of heterosexuality for GAPs
• Helped decentralized trans health care from limited gender clinics to further access (movement away from John Money’s clinic at John Hopkins)
• Selected entries from his journals are published as “We both laughed in pleasure”

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Join book club! We’re reading this for June!!

Linked articles I particularly love:

1. Gutt, B. (2018). Transgender Genealogy in Tristan de Nanteuil . Exemplaria, 30(2), 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/10412573.2018.1453652

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• LARSON, SCOTT. “‘Indescribable Being’: Theological Performances of Genderlessness in the Society of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776–1819.” Early American Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, 2014, pp. 576–600.

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• Deborah A. Miranda; EXTERMINATION OF THE JOYAS: Gendercide in Spanish California. GLQ 1 April 2010; 16 (1-2): 253–284. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2009-022

PDFs of books:

Female Husbands by Jen Manion

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Before we were trans by Kit Heyam

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Black on both sides by C. Riley Snorton

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Transgender History by Susan Stryker

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We both laughed in pleasure- Lou Sullivan Diaries

Comments? Questions?

This powerpoint will continue to evolve with input from you!

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I’m aware of both my lack of knowledge of much non-western history and my outsider status amongst discussions of the cultural categories so please let me know if you have suggested individuals, categories, or critiques.

for individuals, please comment names on this slide!

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for critiques,please comment on the slide relevant to your critique.

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you may also reach out to me personally @verbalmoonwalking on discord