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Home , James Barry (surgeon), Lili Elbe, Raquel Willis, Roberta Cowell, Transgender flag

National Ambulance LGBT Network Back to LGBT

Basics - Trans

A quiz looking at some

important cultural moments Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans staff, in trans history patients and communities

Copyright © NALGBTN, 2019 Joshua Barraclough, 6 November 2019

Find us online: National Ambulance @NatAmbLGBTUK www.ambulanceLGBT.org LGBT Network How Does This Work?

In this pack of information you will find some interesting facts about Trans history. You will find out about the trans community throughout history.

A little warning though… on each slide there is some information that is not correct.

Can you spot the false facts?

Have fun reading and we hope you enjoy finding out more about trans history and culture.

You can find out the answers to this quiz on the National Ambulance LGBT Network website at www.ambulanceLGBT.org/ Talking Terminology

Old term: Old term: Old term: Transexual Transvestite The word The term ‘sex- Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term ’’ ‘Transsexualism’ first change’ is an in 1910. He used it to describe persons who habitually appeared around outdated term which and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. 1965 when a is also factually psychiatrist called incorrect. In the 1970’s the term crossdresser was coined, and John Oliven, from Confirmation Surgery today is more widely accepted than transvestite. Columbia University, is preferred as a Crossdresser is a term for someone who identifies with coined the word. It is more accurate way to their assigned gender and who presents in ways now generally describe procedures typically associated with a different gender. Kings considered outdated which confirm who often only present in this way part of the time and may and is they know present in a way typically associated with their assigned more widely themselves to be. gender in most of their day to day life. Crossdressers accepted. may or may not identify as trans.

New term: New term: New term: Transgender Gender Crossdresser confirmation surgery

The Transgender Black Trans Flag Non-Binary Genderqueer Pride Flag

The Transgender Pride created the The Non-binary Pride flag was Designed by genderqueer Flag was created in 1999 Black Trans Flag as a created by Kye Rowan in 2014 writer and advocate Marilyn by a from the symbol to represent the when there was a call for a flag Roxie, the genderqueer flag USA called Monica Helms. reduced levels of violence that could represent the non- was created in 2011. the black trans community binary community. face.

Agender Pride Flag Genderfluid Pride Flag The Trans Flag The Trans Kaleidoscope

Salem, an artist from New The Genderfluid flag was The Trans Flag was created The Trans Kaleidoscope was York created the agender designed in 2012 by by Michelle Lindsay a graphic created by members of the flag in an effort to JJ Poole and displays five designer from , Toronto Trans Alliance in increase visibility. They coloured horizontal stripes. Canada. 2014. The colours represent a were 20 when the flag range of gender identities was created. across the spectrum. James Barry

James Barry was a military He was profoundly surgeon in the , passionate about providing born in Cork, Ireland in 1789. quality health care. However, He went to University in he did seem to have issues Edinburgh. He lived both his with authority and was not private life and public life as easy to work with. He even male so that he could attend had an altercation with Marie University and become a Curie when he visited the surgeon despite being born Crimea. James Barry female. He died in London in 1865. His His first posting was to Cape last instruction was that he Town, South Africa in 1816. Whilst wished to be buried in the there, Barry performed the first clothes in which he died, Caesarean section in Africa in without examination. which both the mother and the Unfortunately, this was ignored child survived. The baby boy he and a charwoman hired to lay delivered was named James Barry out the body discovered the Munnik in his honour. truth about his sex; at first she tried to blackmail the army, and Portrait of There was no denying Barry was a very skilled surgeon when that failed she made the James Barry and wherever he went he made great improvements to news public. healthcare and sanitation. Gender Diverse Cultures

Quariwarmi (Inca) In pre-colonial Andean culture, the Incas worshipped the chuqui chinchay, a dual- gendered god. Third-gender shamans performed sacred rituals to honour this god.

Mino (Benin) The Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) had an all-female regiment of female warriors called the mino (our mothers). They were unmarried and childless women who were thought to have masculine or aggressive traits. (South Asia) In South Asian cultures including India, Pakistan, and ‘Sistergirls’ and ‘Brotherboys’ (Aboriginal) Bangladesh, hijras are those assigned male at birth who In Canada, indigenous transgender people are known as adopt a feminine gender identity, ‘sistergirls’ and ‘brotherboys’. As in some other native women's clothing and other cultures, there is evidence that feminine gender roles. Hijra trans and people were generally live on the margins of much more accepted in their society and many live in society before colonisation. well-defined, organised, all-hijra Now, there is much more stigma communities, led by a guru. attached to these individuals. The Crossdresser’s Ball (1880)

From this position he The Crossdresser’s Ball, also sometimes watched through the called the The Drag Ball, took place on the windows into the hall, he 24 September 1880 In Hulme, Bolton. saw the large group of men, however about half of them were now The Temperance Hall in Hulme was hired for an dressed in women’s event on 24 September by a group of men who clothing. claimed to be from the Pawn Brokers’ Assistants’ Association. The ball started around 21:30 and the At 02:00 police raided blinds of the windows looking into the hall were the ball. The men inside drawn or covered with newspaper. attempted to resist arrest but it was futile. The Illustrated Police News, There were around 47 men Women’s clothing was 1880. The front page shows the attending the Hall that evening strewn around the room events of 24th September 1880 as some had attempted and the arrest of the men at the and music could be heard from drag ball. inside. Detective-Sergeant to quickly change. Jerome Caminada took interest in The men were arrested and charged the next day the loud music and covered with having ‘solicited and incited each other to windows. Caminada climbed onto commit an unnameable offense’. The trial was a the roof of an outhouse which mixture of social outrage and humour. Sadly, many allowed him to see into the hall. Jerome Caminada 1890 of the men were sent to prison with hard labour. Magnus Hirschfeld

1897 Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld founds the first gay liberation organisation in Germany: the Magnus Hirschfeld was a Scientific Humanitarian Committee. German physician and sexologist. An outspoken 1910 Magnus Hirschfeld coins the terms ‘transvestite’ advocate for sexual and ‘’. minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific 1919 Magnus Hirschfeld becomes one of sexology’s Humanitarian Committee the founding fathers when he opens the world’s first first advocacy group for gay Magnus Hirschfeld sexological institute, the Institute for Sexual and . Science in Berlin. It becomes the first clinic to serve transgender people on a regular basis. He founded the Institute for Sexual Research, which opened on 6 July 1919 in Berlin. 1932 Magnus Hirschfeld performs the first ‘documented’ Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS) on Dora-R.

Working with surgeons he established and 1932 Man Into Woman, the story of Lili Elbe’s life, MTF operated what was in practice the worlds first transition, and SRS is published. Gender Identity Clinic. One of Hirschfeld’s first clients was Einer Wegener, who transitioned to 1933 The Institute for Sexology is raided, shut down, become Lili Elbe, undergoing the worlds first and its records destroyed by the IRA. Physicians documented male to female gender and researchers involved in the clinic flee reassignment. Germany.

Lili Elbe

In 2000, wrote , a fictionalised account of Elbe's life. It was an Lili Elbe, was a international bestseller and was translated into a Danish transgender dozen languages. woman and among the early recipients of . In 2015, it was made into a film, also called Boys Don’t In 1930, Elbe went to Germany for sex Cry, produced by Gail reassignment surgery, which was highly Mutrux and Neil LaBute experimental at the time. A series of four operations and starring Eddie were carried out over a period of two years. In 1931 Redmayne as Elbe. The Elbe was looking forward to her final surgery film was well received at involving a uterus transplant since she wanted the Venice Film Festival in children. Sadly, her immune system rejected the September 2015, although transplanted uterus. The operation and a it has been criticised for its subsequent surgical revision caused an infection, casting of an English which, in that pre-antibiotic age, led to Elbe's death man to play a from cardiac arrest on 13 September 1931, three Danish transgender months after the surgery. woman. The Nazi Party

In 1933, the Nazi Most people sentenced under regime launched their Paragraph 175 served time in assault against the state prisons rather than death queer and trans camps. The total number of community of Germany. people imprisoned in LGBT clubs and concentration camps under organizations were Paragraph 175 is estimated Pink and black triangle banned and raided Holocaust victims included between 5,000 to 15,000, with arm bands worn by homosexual men and across Berlin. a death rate of 60 to 75%. LGBT people during transgender women. Nazi occupation On 11 November 1933, the Charlotte von Mahlsdorf police were asked to ‘pay was a trans woman and a special attention to survivor of Germany’s brutal transvestites’ and to ‘deliver regimes. Following an them to the concentration altercation with her father who camps’. The Nazis made little was a Nazi, she was sent to a distinction between trans Nazi psychiatric institution people and queer men and before being sentenced to women. Trans women wore juvenile prison as an anti- inverted pink triangles along Nazi chart showing the social delinquent. She with cis men. And trans men continued with LGBT activism badges used for Charlotte "undesirable" groups wore inverted red triangles. von Mahlsdorf until her death in 2002.

Christine Jorgensen After being treated with extensive psychotherapy captured international and a series of insulin injections, Jorgensen headlines in the early underwent several surgical operations and, with 1950s as the first person the announcement of her transformation in 1952. in the to She became an instant celebrity. undergo a successful gender-reassignment In 1959 Jorgensen operation. announced her engagement to typist Howard Knox. The couple was unable to obtain a marriage license because Jorgensen's birth certificate listed her as male. Unfortunately, Knox lost his job, when his engagement After graduating high to Jorgensen became school, Christine was known. It is difficult to drafted into the US Army imagine how challenging life for World War II. After the could have been for the pair war, Christine moved to but Jorgensen remains an Denmark to pursue Christine Jorgensen inspiration for many trans gender transition. people today. The

The Stonewall Riots, also Many of those who instigated and took a vital role called the Stonewall within the uprising were transgender people Uprising, began in June particularly transgender women of colour. 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Marsha P Marsha P Johnson Inn, a gay club. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are two trans In the early hours of the women who have 28 June police entered been identified as the bar and harassed playing a key role in those inside. Sylvia the uprising and Rivera subsequent protests They arrested 13 people, including those who that followed. they considered to be violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing law. This is widely considered to be the most important event that led to the gay liberation movement and the Due to the constant harassment by police, the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. LGBT people outside the bar became increasingly agitated. This led to an uprising of Today, Stonewall is best known hundreds of people. The protests, involving as the lesbian and gay rights thousands of people, continued in the area for lobbying group that has existed in five more days. the since 1989. Marsha P Johnson

Marsha was a co- As an African American trans woman, founder of STAR (Street Marsha P. Johnson has consistently been Transvestite Action overlooked both as a participant in the Stonewall Revolutionaries) with uprising and more generally, LGBT activism. Despite her friend Sylvia Rivera, this, following the events at Stonewall, Johnson and she was one of the first her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street activists to aggressively Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and they fight back against became fixtures in the community, especially in their institutional prejudice in commitment to helping homeless . the wake of the Stonewall uprising. Marsha died in 1992. She Famously, when asked by a judge what the was found in the Hudson initial ‘P’ stood for, Johnson replied ‘Pay it no River. Although friends and attention’, which would become her signature. acquaintances said that they had witnessed her An eccentric woman known being harassed earlier in for her outlandish hats and the day and insisted that glamorous jewellery, she was she was not suicidal, her fearless and bold. Despite her death was ruled a suicide. difficulties with mental illness Many still believe she was and numerous police murdered or attacked. encounters

Sylvia Rivera

Rivera was one of the Initially Rivera earliest and most supported the Gay influential transgender Rights Bill, however she rights activists felt betrayed when the following the bill became in law in Stonewall Inn uprising 1986 as it only included in 1969, at which she the rights of the was present at only transgender community. 17 years old.

Rivera was different to many in She spent almost her entire the mainstream gay liberation life fighting for civil rights movement because of her reform, not only for gay and diverse and complex transgender people, but also background. She was poor, for , and as trans, a , a person part of the feminist movement. of colour, and endured many On her death, one prominent years of homelessness. For all activist cited her as ‘the Rosa of these reasons, Rivera fought Parks of the modern for not only gay and trans rights transgender movement’. Her but also racial, economic and portrait now hangs in the criminal justice issues. National Portrait Gallery. In the United Kingdom

Roberta Cowell became the A series of programs entitled 'A UK’s first full surgically altered Change of Sex' are aired on the trans woman. She had a BBC - viewers could for the first vaginoplasty in 1951, via a time follow transgender woman surgical method invented and Julia Grant through her transition. performed by Dr . It also highlighted the arrogance This occurred two years before at that time of psychiatrists based Christine Jorgensen's surgery at the Gender Identity Clinic, in Denmark. Charing Cross Hospital.

April Ashley had gender reassignment surgery in Trans Pride Manchester is Casablanca in 1960. After an annual Pride event for returning to England, she Trans people held became a successful fashion in Manchester. The 2013 model and actress. She Trans Pride was said to be became the first person in the the first Trans Pride in the UK to be outed as transsexual UK and it has grown every by the Sunday People in 1961. year since.

The Answers [1]

The following slides contain the answers to the quiz. Don’t peek until you have worked out which piece of information is incorrect on each of the slides.

Good luck! The Answers [2]

Talking Terminology Gender Identity Flags James Barry

Florence Nightingale Drag kings are mostly female The black trans community, performance artists who dress in particularly trans women of James Barry was reported to masculine drag and personify colour face increased hate crime have had an altercation with male gender stereotypes as part and violence compared to the not Marie of an individual or group routine. wider trans movement. Curie. The portrait highlighted is The correct term here should be Unfortunately many trans women actually of Florence Nightingale crossdresser. of colour are still murdered each not Marie Curie. Marie Curie was year around the world. a Polish physicist and chemist who conducted research on radioactivity. The Answers [3]

Gender Diverse Cultures The Crossdresser’s Ball (1880) Magnus Hirschfeld

‘Sistergirls’ and ‘Brotherboys’ are The Crossdresser’s Ball took We’re not sure what the IRA were indigenous transgender people place in Hulme. Those who are doing in Germany in 1933! It was from Australia not Canada. If you better at Geography than I am actually the Nazis who raided and look at the map you will see the will know that Hulme is in shut down the institute. Much of arrow pointing to Australia not Manchester not Bolton. the research was burnt. Hirschfeld Canada. was out of the country at the time The Ball took place in a working and being a Jewish physician who class district of Manchester and advocated for sexual minorities he a majority of those involved were decided to stay away from from Manchester and Sheffield. Germany for a while. The Answers [4]

Lili Elbe The Nazi Party Christine Jorgensen

The film loosely based on Lili Trans men would have worn I hope most people spotted this Elbe’s life is called The Danish black inverted triangles along one! Christine Jorgensen was Girl. Boys Don’t Cry is a 2000 with cis women who were given hormone injections as part film starring Hilary Swank which deemed 'undesirable’ by the Nazi of her treatment not insulin is a dramatization of the real-life Party. injections. story of Brandon Teena. A who was raped and murdered by his fiends when they realised he was trans. The Answers [5]

The Stonewall Riots Marsha P John Sylvia Rivera

The Stonewall Inn and therefore Marsha’s famous signature when When the Gay Rights Bill came The Stonewall Riots were in New people asked her what the ‘P’ into law in 1986 it actually York City not San Francisco. It stood for in her name was ‘Pay it excluded trans people. was the New York City police no mind’ not ‘Pay it no attention’. Something which Sylvia Rivera who raided The Stonewall Inn felt angry and betrayed about. and harassed those inside. She did very little activism for 20 years following this and struggled with drug addiction. The Answers [6]

In The United Kingdom

We have come to the end of the quiz! Count up your answers and see Trans Pride Brighton was said to how well you did! be first Trans Pride event in the UK. The first march took place in 2013. On the 14 September 2019 the first Trans Pride London took place. In years to come we may see other big cities with pride events specifically for the trans community.