Transgender history dates back to the first recorded instances of transgender individuals in ancient civilizations. However, the wordtransgenderism did not exist until 1965 when coined by psychiatrist John F. Oliven ofColumbia University in his 1965 reference workSexual Hygiene and Pathology;[1] the timeline includes events and personalities that may be viewed as transgender in the broadest sense, including third gender and other gender-variant behavior, including ancient or modern precursors from the historical record.
Before the Common Era
c. 7,000 BCE – c. 1700 BCE – Among the sexual depictions inNeolithic andBronze Age drawings and figurines from the Mediterranean are, as one author describes it, a "third sex" human figure having female breasts and male genitals or without distinguishing sex characteristics. In Neolithic Italy, female images are found in a domestic context, while images that combine sexual characteristics appear in burials or religious settings. In Neolithic Greece and Cyprus, figures are often dual-sexed or without identifying sexual characteristics.[2]
c. 2900 BCE – c. 2500 BCE – A burial of a suburb ofPrague, Czech Republic, a male is buried in the outfit usually reserved for women. Archaeologists speculate that the burial corresponds to a transgender person or someone of the third sex.[3]
c. 400 BCE – Ancient Greek physicianHippocrates writes of theenarei, a class of androgynousScythian priests and healers; "there are many eunuchs among the Scythians, who perform female work, and speak like women".[4][5] Theenarei are also mentioned around the same time inHerodotus' workHistories; "the Scythians who plundered the temple were punished by the goddess with the female sickness, which still attaches to their posterity. They themselves confess that they are afflicted with the disease for this reason, and travellers who visit Scythia can see what sort of a disease it is. Those who suffer from it are called Enarees".[6]
First millennium (1–1000)
c. 1 – c. 100 – Philo of Alexandria andMarcus Manilius provided descriptions of transgender people during the earlyRoman Empire. Philo stated: "Expending every possible care on their outward adornment, they are not ashamed even to employ every device to change artificially their nature as men into women".[7][8] He also attested that some members of this group, to that end, had their penises removed.[8]
54 – Nero becomesEmperor of Rome. Nero married two men,Pythagoras andSporus, in legal ceremonies, with Sporus accorded the regalia worn by the wives of the Caesars.[9]
218 – 222 – Roman emperorElagabalus's reign begins. According to Cassius Dio, Elagabalus delighted in being called the mistress, wife, and queen of Hierocles, one of Elagabalus's lovers.[12] The emperor wore makeup and wigs, preferred to be called a lady and not a lord, and offered vast sums to any physician who could provide the emperor with a vagina;[13][12] for this reason, the emperor is seen by some writers as an early transgender figure and one of the first on record as seekingsex reassignment surgery.[13][12][14][15]
576 – Death ofAnastasia the Patrician who left life as a lady-in-waiting in the court ofJustinian I in Constantinople to spend twenty-eight years (until death) dressed as a male monk in seclusion inEgypt,[16] and has been adopted by today'sLGBTQ community as an example of a "transgender" saint.[17][18]
1001–1900
c.1322 – Kalonymus ben Kalonymus composes a poem forEven Boḥan, aJewish ethical treatise. The poem expresses discontent with having been born male instead of female.[19][20] The poem, which was traditionally interpreted as a piece ofsatire, has sometimes been reinterpreted as a genuine expression of gender dysphoria.[21][22]
1347 – Rolandino Roncaglia is tried for sodomy, an event that caused a sensation in Italy. He confessed he "had never had sexual intercourse, neither with his wife nor with any other woman, because he had never felt any carnal appetite, nor could he ever have an erection of his virile member". After his wife died of plague, Rolandino started to prostitute himself, wearing female dresses because "since he has female look, voice and movements – although he does not have a female orifice, but has a male member and testicles – many persons considered him to be a woman because of his appearance".[23]
1498 – AMoor inRome, who was likely a trans woman, was executed for transvestism on April 7 this year, wearing "(her) usual women's clothes … (she) was placed on a bundle of wood and strangled at the column of the gallows" and subsequently burned.[24]
1537 – An unnamed woman was executed for wearing male clothing nearBasel.[25]
1542 – Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca documents same sex marriages and men "who dress like women and perform the office of women, but use the bow and carry big loads" among a Native American tribe in his publication,The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and His Companions from Florida to the Pacific 1528–1536.
1561 – Process of Wojciech z Poznania, who married Sebastian Słodownik, and lived with him for two years inPoznań. Both had female partners. On his return toKraków, he married Wawrzyniec Włoszek. Wojciech, considered in public opinion as a woman, was burned for 'crimes against nature'.[26]
1586 – Barbara Brunner ofKusnacht, living in Lenzburg, was discovered to "be male under (her) clothes" and is burned at the stake on May 28 that year; a man was also burned for sodomy the same day between Lenzburg andAarau, but it is unknown if the two executions were related. The executions were recorded in the chronicles ofJohann Jakob Wick.[27]
1629 – Thomas(ine) Hall is ordered by the Quarter Court ofJamestown, Virginia to wear a combination of male and female attire after a series of incidents led to Hall submitting to physical examination and the Court determining Hall to have a "dual nature" gender; it is likely that Hall wasintersex as well asnon-binary.
1776 – After recovering from a fever, a preacher inNew England claimed to have died and started calling themselves the "Public Universal Friend" eschewing use of gendered pronouns and identification as either male or female.
1777 – TheChevalier d'Éon, an androgynous French courtier and spy of disputed gender identity, agrees with a request by French authorities to live and present as a woman.
1781 – Jens Andersson of Norway, assigned female at birth but identifying as male, was imprisoned and put on trial after marrying Anne Kristine Mortensdotter in a Lutheran church. When asked about his gender, the response was "Hand troer at kunde henhøre til begge Deele" ("He believes he belongs to both").[28]
1836 – Mary Jones, a transgender African-American sex worker, is placed on trial in New York City after allegedly pickpocketing a client. The case received significant press attention, and she was depicted in a published lithograph entitled "the Man-Monster".
1871 – Thehijra (a term used in South Asia to refer to eunuchs, intersex, or transgender people) are defined by the colonial authorities of theBritish Raj as a "criminal tribe" alongside various other social groups following the enactment of theCriminal Tribes Act, imposing state surveillance and restrictions on free movement.
1895 – The Countess, a French transgender courtesan and singer, published her autobiographyThe Secret Confessions of a Parisian: The Countess, 1850-1871.
1895 – TheCercle Hermaphroditos, the earliest known transgender organization in the United States, was reportedly founded in this year according toJennie June.
20th century
First half
1906 – Karl M. Baer, in December 1906, becomes the first transgender person to undergo sex reassignment surgery.[29]
1907 – The word 'transsexual' is used to mean between or applicable to both men and women (modern usage of this and related words develops later, see 1931 onwards).
1913 – English sexologistHavelock Ellis (known for his writings on homosexuality) coins the term "sexo-aesthetic inversion" to refer to a phenomenon "by which, a person's tastes and impulses are so altered, that if a man, he emphasizes and even exaggerates the feminine characteristics in his own person".[30] He would later use the term "eonism", named for the aforementionedChevalier d'Éon, to refer to this phenomenon.
1919 – In Berlin, Germany, DoctorMagnus Hirschfeld co-founds theInstitut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sex Research), a pioneering private research institute and counseling office. Its library of thousands of books was destroyed by Nazis in May 1933.[31][32][33]
1931 – Lili Elbe received vaginoplasty anduterus transplant. Immune system rejection of the transplanted uterus caused her death.
1931 – Toni Ebel and her partnerCharlotte Charlaque, received vaginoplasty and became first transsexed couple. They were involuntarily separated but lived until other trans women received sexual reassignment surgery and public attention after World War II.
1934 – In February 1934,Dora Richter applied for a legal name change, granted by the president of Czechoslovakia in April 1934. She lives until 1966.[39]
1941
The first use of the English wordtranssexuality in print recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary indicates the word is already in use, regarded by that author as a rarer synonym for homosexuality; the first use in print in a modern sense that the dictionary records is in 1950.
1950s – Rina Natan becomes the first known transsexual woman in Israel to undergo sex reassignment surgery. The surgery was conducted as an emergency operation after she attempted to perform it on herself; This came after her unsuccessful campaign to change Israeli policy to allow for sex reassignment surgeries. After the incident, the Israeli government did change its policy.[40]
1952 – David Oliver Cauldwell uses the term "trans-sexual" in English (in its modern meaning) based on an earlier German term, having introduced "transsexualism" in 1949.[41][42]
1952 – Christine Jorgensen becomes the first widely publicized person to have undergone sex reassignment surgery, in this casemale to female, creating a world-wide sensation.[43]
1953
Glen or Glenda, an American film featuring transgender surgery and transvestism, is released. A promotional poster for the film advertised that it would include a character that had changed sex.[44][43]
Danish endocrinologistChristian Hamburger publishes one of the earliest reports on hormone therapy in transgender women,[45] effective pharmaceutical female sex-hormonal medications having been available since the 1920s and 1930s.[46]
1959 – TheCooper Do-nuts Riot occurs at Cooper's Do-nuts in Los Angeles, US; rioters were arrested byLAPD.[50] Transgender women, lesbian women, drag queens, and gay men riot, one of the firstLGBTQ uprisings in the US.[51] It is viewed by some historians as the first modern LGBT uprising in the United States.
1960s
1965 – The termtransgenderism is coined by psychiatrist John F. Oliven ofColumbia University in his 1965 reference workSexual Hygiene and Pathology.[52][53][54][1]
1966 – TheCompton's Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 by transgender women and Vanguard members in theTenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recordedtransgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969Stonewall Riots in New York City by three years.
1968 – According to the online encyclopediaglbtq.com, "In the aftermath of the riot at Compton's, a network of transgender social, psychological, and medical support services was established, which culminated in 1968 with the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit [NTCU], the first such peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world".[55]
c.1970 – 1973 – "There are as many sexes as there are people" was a popular slogan in London'sGay Liberation Front (GLF) during this time; It relates to both cross-dressers and transsexuals.[58][59] A subgroup called the "Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen Group" was also formed within the GLF.[60]
1972 – Sweden becomes the first country in the world to allow transgender people to legally change their sex, and provides free hormone therapy;[61]
1974
Chile allows a trans woman,Marcia Torres, to legally change her name and gender on the birth certificate after undergoing sex reassignment surgery, becoming the second country in the world to do so.[62]
TheHuman Rights Campaign Fund is founded bySteve Endean; the Human Rights Campaign is now America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.[65]
1992 – Althea Garrison was elected as the first transgender state legislator in America, and served one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. It was not publicly known that she was transgender when she was elected.[70]
1993 – US state ofMinnesota enacts gender identity anti-discrimination legislation.
1995 – TheHuman Rights Campaign drops the word "Fund" from their title and broadens their mission to promote "an America where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are ensured equality and embraced as full members of the American family at home, at work and in every community;"
1998
Gender identity was added to the mission ofParents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays after a vote at their annual meeting in San Francisco.[71] Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays is the first national LGBT organization to officially adopt a transgender-inclusion policy for its work.[72]
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays established its Transgender Network, also known as TNET, as its first official "Special Affiliate", recognized with the same privileges and responsibilities as its regular chapters.[78]
At the Reform seminaryHebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, the Reform rabbiMargaret Wenig organized the first school-wide seminar at any rabbinical school which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are intersex or transsexual.[79]
In December 2002, the British Lord Chancellor's office published aGovernment Policy Concerning Transsexual People document that categorically states, "What transsexualism is not ... It is not a mental illness."[80]
2003
Reuben Zellman became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained in 2010.[81][82][83]
TheCommittee on Jewish Law and Standards approved a rabbinic ruling that concluded that sex reassignment surgery (SRS) is permissible as a treatment ofgender dysphoria, and that a transgender person's sex status under Jewish law is changed by SRS.[84]
Legal recognition of indeterminate gender:Alex MacFarlane became the first person reported to obtain a birth certificate and passport, inAustralia, showing indeterminate gender.
Jennifer Finney Boylan's autobiography,She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, was the first book by an openly transgender American to become a bestseller.[85] Preceded byConundrum, byJan Morris in 1974.[63]
2004
The first all-transgender performance ofThe Vagina Monologues was held. The monologues were read by eighteen notable transgender women, and a new monologue revolving around the experiences and struggles of transgender women was included.[86]
Luna, byJulie Anne Peters, was published, and was the first young-adult novel with a transgender character to be released by a mainstream publisher.[87]
2005
The first European Transgender Council Meeting was held in Vienna.[88]
In 2006Kim Coco Iwamoto became the first transgender official to win statewide office in Hawaii.
Elliot Kukla, who came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, was the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.[89]
Kim Coco Iwamoto became the first transgender official to win statewide office in Hawaii.
2007
Anti-discrimination legislation for gender identity:[clarification needed] theUS states of Colorado, Iowa Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont.
Candis Cayne played Carmelita Rainer, a transgender woman having an affair with married New York Attorney General Patrick Darling (played byWilliam Baldwin), on theABC prime time dramaDirty Sexy Money.[90][91][92] The role made Cayne the first openly transgender actress to play a recurring transgender character in prime time.[90][91][92]
Amaranta Gómez Regalado (forMéxico Posible) became the first trans person in the Mexican Congress.
Theresa Sparks was elected president of theSan Francisco Police Commission by a single vote, making her the first openly transgender person ever to be elected president of any San Francisco commission, as well as San Francisco's highest ranking openly transgender official.[95][96][97]
2008
Silverton, Oregon electedStu Rasmussen as the first openly transgender mayor in America.[98][99]
Angie Zapata, a transgender woman, was murdered inGreeley, Colorado. Allen Andrade was convicted offirst-degree murder and committing abias-motivated crime, because he killed her after he learned that she was transgender. This case was the first in the nation to get a conviction for ahate crime involving a transgender victim.[100] Angie Zapata's story and murder were featured onUnivision's "Aqui y Ahora" television show on 1 November 2009.
The first ever U.S. Congressional hearing on discrimination against transgender people in the workplace was held, by the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.[101]
2009
TheInternational Transgender Day of Visibility was founded by Michigan-based transgender activist[102]Rachel Crandall Crocker in 2009[103] as a reaction to the lack of LGBT holidays celebrating transgender people, citing the frustration that the only well-known transgender-centered holiday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance which mourned the loss of transgender people to hate crimes, but did not acknowledge and celebrate living members of the transgender community.
Diego Sanchez became the first openly transgender person to work onCapitol Hill; he was hired as a legislative assistant forBarney Frank.[104] Sanchez was also the first transgender person on the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) Platform Committee in 2008.[105][106]
Barbra "Babs" Siperstein was nominated and confirmed as an at-large member of theDemocratic National Committee, becoming its first openly transgender member.[107]
In May 2009, the government of France declared that a transsexual gender identity would no longer be classified as a psychiatric condition,[108] but according to French trans rights organizations, beyond the impact of the announcement itself, nothing changed.[109]
2010s
2010
Tyler McCormick became the first openly transgender man (and the first wheelchair user, and the first person from New Mexico) to winInternational Mr. Leather.[110]
After a lawsuit filed by golferLana Lawless, the rules of theLPGA were changed in 2010 to allow transgender competitors.[111][112][113]
Guinness World Records recognized transgender manThomas Beatie as the world's "First Married Man to Give Birth".[114]
Amanda Simpson became the first openly transgender presidential appointee in America when she was appointed as senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.[115]
Chaz Bono appeared on the 13th season of the US version ofDancing with the Stars in 2011. This was the first time an openly transgender man starred on a major network television show for something unrelated to being transgender.[123]
Jaiyah "Johnny" Saelua became the first openly transgender international footballer to play in the World Cup when she took the field for American Samoa in Oceania's first round of World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014.[124]
2012
Anti-discrimination legislation for gender identity:Chile, Canadian province ofManitoba
Anti-discrimination legislation for gender expression:Ontario
Emily Aviva Kapor, an American rabbi who had been ordained privately by a "Conservadox" rabbi in 2005, began living as a woman in 2012, thus becoming the first openly transgender female rabbi.[125]
Rainbow Jews, an oral history project showcasing the lives of Jewish bisexual, lesbian, gay, and transgender people in theUnited Kingdom from the 1950s until the present, was launched.[126] It is the United Kingdom's first archive of Jewish bisexual, lesbian, gay, and transgender history.[127]
Stacie Laughton became the first openly transgender person elected to any American state legislature when she won a seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.[130] However, she resigned from the New Hampshire state legislature before she took office, after it was revealed that she had served four months in Belknap County House of Corrections following a 2008 credit card fraud conviction.[131][132]
San Francisco voted to become the first U.S. city to provide and cover the cost of sex reassignment surgeries for uninsured transgender residents.[133]
Philadelphia passed one of the most comprehensive transgender rights bills on the city level, which addresses transgender bathroom use and city employee healthcare, making it the first city on the east coast to provide transition related healthcare to its city employees.[137]
Autumn Sandeen, a U.S. veteran and transgender woman, received a letter from a Navy official stating, "Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has been updated to show your gender as female effective 12 April 2013."Allyson Robinson ofOutserve declared, "To our knowledge, this is the first time that the Department of Defense has recognized and affirmed a change of gender for anyone affiliated, in a uniformed capacity—in this case a military retiree."[138]
For the first time, the California Department of Education's list of recommended books for grades Pre-K-through-12 included a book with a transgender theme,I Am J by Cris Beam.[140]
California enacted America's first law protecting transgender students. TheSchool Success and Opportunity Act extends gender identity and gender expression discrimination protection to transgender and gender-nonconforming K-12 students in public schools[141]
Jennifer Pritzker came out as transgender in 2013 and thus became the world's first openly transgender billionaire.[142]
A six-year-old girl named Luana, who was assigned male at birth, became the first transgender child in Argentina to have her new name officially changed on her identity documents.[143] She is believed to be the youngest to benefit from the country's new Gender Identity Law, which was approved in May 2012.[143]
On 31 October 2013Paris Lees became the first openly transgender panellist to appear on the BBC'sQuestion Time programme, drawing praise from commentators who included former Deputy Prime MinisterJohn Prescott and the Labour Party deputy leaderHarriet Harman.[145]
Stephen Alexander, of Rhode Island, became the first high school coach to come out publicly as transgender.[146]
On 1 November Audrey Gauthier was elected president of CUPE 4041, representing Air Transat flight attendants based in Montreal.[147] She thus became the first openly transgender person elected president of a union local in Canada.[147]
Q Radio, which went on the airwaves in September, claims to be India's first radio station which caters to the country's lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.[148]
San Francisco's first Project Homeless Connect for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people was held.[149]
The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until 2013's release of the diagnostic manualDSM-5. The condition was renamed togender dysphoria to remove thestigma associated with the termdisorder.[150] The DSM-5 also moved this diagnosis out of the sexual disorders category and into a category of its own.[151]
2014
Anti-discrimination law for gender identity: Canadian provinceSaskatchewan
The U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the firstTitle VII action taken by the federal government on behalf of transgender workers.[152] The lawsuits were filed for Amiee Stephens and Brandi Branson, both transgender women.[153]
Meghan Stabler became the first openly transgender woman to be namedWorking Mother magazine's Working Mother of the Year.[154]
Mills College became the first single-sex college in the U.S. to adopt a policy explicitly welcoming transgender students,Mount Holyoke became the firstSeven Sisters college to accept transgender students.[161]
Nina Chaubal and Greta Gustava Martela cofoundedTrans Lifeline, the first U.S. suicide hotline dedicated to transgender people.[163][164]
Tona Brown became the first African-American openly transgender woman to perform at Carnegie Hall.[165]
The Transgender Trends panel was the first panel on that subject ever held at San Diego Comic-Con.[166]
The San Francisco Police academy graduated its first openly transgender police officer, Mikayla Connell.[167]
The 100 block of Turk Street in San Francisco was renamed Vicki Mar Lane after trans activist Vicki Marlane.[168]
Lea T became the face of American hair-care brandRedken, thus making her the first openly transgender model to front a global cosmetics brand.[169][170][171]
Chris Mosier became the first openly transgender man inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.[173][174]
Kinnon MacKinnon became the first openly transgender man to earn a gold in powerlifting at the Gay Games in the 2014 Games.[175]
BBC2 commissioned Britain's first transgender sitcom, called Boy Meets Girl, which follows the developing relationship between Leo, a 26-year-old man and Judy, a 40-year-old transgender woman.[176]
Padmini Prakash became India's first openly transgender television news anchor.[178]
Denmark became the first European country to remove the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis as a necessary requirement in the gender recognition process.[179]
Malta became the first European state to add recognition of gender identity to its constitution as a protected category.[180]
The first openly transgender woman got married in Malta.[181][182]
At least 1,000 openly transgender Bangladeshis held Bangladesh's first pride march, to mark one year since the government recognized them as a third gender.[183]
The Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Board approved the first transgender student-athlete to play in a winter sport in Arizona.[184]
The FTM Fitness Conference hosted the first bodybuilding competition for transgender men, the FTM Fitness World Bodybuilding Competition.[185]
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a second resolution related to sexual orientation and gender identity on 26 September 2014.[186][187] It passed by a vote of 25-14 and is the first time in the Council's history that it adopted a resolution on LGBT rights with the majority of its members.[186][187]
Petra De Sutter became the first openly transgender person to serve in Belgium's Parliament, specifically its Senate.[188]
Luisa Revilla Urcia became the first openly transgender person elected to a public office in Peru when she won a seat on the local council in La Esperanza in the province of Trujillo in northwestern Peru.[189]
The Labor government in Victoria, Australia appointed Martin Foley as Minister of equality, marking the first time an Australian government has ever had a dedicated Minister overseeing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex issues.[190]
Vered Meltzer was elected to the City Council in Appleton; as such he became the first openly transgender elected official in Wisconsin.[191]
Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus, the U.S.'s second known transgender chorus, was founded, inspiring others to found similar groups in cities across the country.
2015
No date
Anti-discrimination law for gender identity and gender expression: Canadian province ofAlberta.
January
Madhu Kinnar became India's first openly transgender person to be elected mayor; she was elected mayor ofChhattisgarh's Raigarh Municipal Corporation.[192]
Zoey Tur joinedInside Edition as a Special Correspondent during February, thus becoming the first openly transgender television reporter on national TV in America.[193][194]
February
Pennsylvania State RepresentativeMark B. Cohen introduced the first transgender rights bills in Pennsylvania's history.[195]
The U.S. Justice Department announced that it had filed its first civil lawsuit on behalf of a transgender person (Rachel Tudor); the lawsuit wasUnited States of America v. Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the Regional University System of Oklahoma, filed in federal court in that state.[197]
April
In a first for the state, California's Department of Corrections was ordered by a federal judge to grant a transgender prisoner (Michelle-Lael Norsworthy) access to gender-affirming surgery.[198]
Andreja Pejic became the first openly transgender model profiled byVogue, in its May 2015 issue.[199]
Laverne Cox (among others) posed nude for theAllure annual "Nudes" issue, becoming the first openly transgender actress to do so.[200] She also became the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself atMadame Tussauds.[201] She also won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as Executive Producer forLaverne Cox Presents: The T Word.[202][203] This made her the first openly transgender woman to win a Daytime Emmy as an Executive Producer; as well,The T Word is the first trans documentary to win a Daytime Emmy.[202]
Scott Turner Schofield became the first openly transgender actor to play a major role on daytime television, as the character Nick on the showThe Bold and the Beautiful.[204] On the same show, the characterMaya Avant (played byKarla Mosley) became the first transgender bride to be married on daytime television when she married Rick Forrester (played byJacob Young).[205]
Maka Brown, an 18-year-old senior at the Salt Lake School for Performing Arts, was crowned Utah's first openly transgender prom queen.[206]
May
When President Obama declared May to beNational Foster Care Month in 2015, he became the first president to explicitly say gender identity should not prevent anyone from adopting or becoming a foster parent.[207]
Abby Stein came out as transgender and thus became the first openly transgender woman (and the first woman) to have been ordained by an ultra-Orthodox institution, having received her rabbinical degree in 2011 from Yeshiva Viznitz in South Fallsburg, New York. However, this was before she was openly transgender, and she is no longer working as a rabbi as of 2016.[208] She is also the first openly transgender woman raised in aHasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's founder theBaal Shem Tov.[209]
June
Loiza Lamers won "Holland's Next Top Model", making her the first openly transgender winner of the "Top Model" franchise.[210]
Caitlyn Jenner became the first openly transgender woman on the cover ofVanity Fair.[212]
Chris Mosier became the first known out trans athlete to join a U.S. national team that matched his gender identity, rather than the gender assigned him at birth, when he won a spot on Team USA in the men's sprint duathalon.[213]
Breanna Sinclairé became the first openly transgender person to sing the national anthem at a professional sporting event, which she did at aMajor League Baseball game.[215]
Audrey Middleton became the U.S. television show Big Brother's first openly transgender houseguest.[216]
July
Aydian Dowling became the first openly transgender man on the cover ofMen's Health magazine, as part of a special collector's edition.[217]
Hari Nef became the first openly transgender model signed to IMG.[220]
President Obama appointedRaffi Freedman-Gurspan to serve as an Outreach and Recruitment Director in the Presidential Personnel Office, making her the first openly transgender appointee to work inside the White House.[221]
The (American) Department of Veterans Affairs opened its first clinic for transgender service members.[222]
September
Andrew Guy became Australia's first openly transgender TV host, as a guest presenter onThe Project.[223]
Nepal adopted its first democratic constitution, which is the first in Asia to specifically protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.[224]
October
The first Oscar campaigns for openly transgender actresses supported by a movie producer were launched for actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez andMya Taylor of the movieTangerine.[225]
EastEnders chose Riley Carter Millington as the first openly transgender actor in UK TV soap history; he played 'Kyle', a man who has transitioned from female to male, which Riley did in real life.[226] Shortly after,Hollyoaks cast transgender actress Annie Wallace.[227]
A transgender man'sphalloplasty became the first ever seen on camera, in the Channel 4 documentaryGirls to Men.[228]
November
The first U.S. congressional forum on anti-transgender violence was held.[229]
Tamara Adrian was elected to theVenezuelan National Assembly, thus becoming the first openly transgender Venezuelan to be elected to their national legislature, as well as the first openly transgender person in the entire Western Hemisphere to do so.[231]
Israel held its first transgender beauty pageant, which was called "Miss Trans Israel", and was held at a club in Tel Aviv.[236]
President Barack Obama appointedRaffi Freedman-Gurspan as the White House's primary LGBT liaison, making her the first openly transgender person in the role.[237]
Amelia Gapin became the first openly transgender woman to be featured on the cover ofWomen's Running.[244]
On 10 June 2016, anOregon circuit court ruled that a resident,Elisa Rae Shupe, could obtain a non-binary gender designation. TheTransgender Law Center believes this to be "the first ruling of its kind in the U.S."[245]
Chris Mosier was chosen as the first openly transgender athlete to be featured in the "Body Issue" ofESPN The Magazine,[248] and appeared in Nike's first ad with an openly transgender athlete.[249]
It was announced on 30 June 2016 that, beginning on that date, otherwise qualified United States service members could not any longer be discharged, denied reenlistment, involuntarily separated, or denied continuation of service because of being transgender.[250]
July
Misty Plowright became the first openly transgender candidate to win a major party primary for the US House of Representatives.[251]
An important legal victory for transgender people occurred in April 2016, when the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of transgender male studentGavin Grimm, which marked the first ruling by a U.S. appeals court to find that transgender students are protected under federal laws that ban sex-based discrimination. The ruling came on a challenge to the Gloucester County School Board's policy of making transgender students use alternative restroom facilities.[252]
Elle printed special collectors' covers for their September 2016 issue, and one of them featured Hari Nef, which was the first time an openly transgender woman had been on the cover of a major commercial British magazine.[259]
August
Lea T became the first openly transgender person ever to participate in the opening ceremonies of an Olympics when she led the Brazilian team into the stadium on her bike during the2016 Rio Olympics.[260][261]
September
Tracey Norman andGeena Rocero became the first two openly transgender models to appear on the cover of an edition ofHarper's Bazaar.[262]
The January 2017 issue ofNational Geographic has a nine-year-old transgender girl on the cover (Avery Jackson); she is thought to be the first openly transgender person onNational Geographic's cover.[264]
Denmark became the second country in the world to officially remove transgender identities from its list of mental health disorders.[265]
Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio became the first openly transgender model on the cover of FrenchVogue.[267][268]
Joe Maldonado became the first openly transgender member of the Boy Scouts of America.[269] In 2016, he was rejected from the Cub Scouts for being transgender, but this policy was changed in 2017 after his story became nationally known.[269]
Martina Robledo became the first openly transgender woman to act as a trophy presenter at the Grammys.[270]
March
Japan became the first country in the world to elect an openly transgender man to a public office when Tomoya Hosoda was elected as a councilor for the city ofIruma.[271][272]
June
M Barclay became the first openly non-binary trans person to be commissioned as a Deacon in theUnited Methodist Church.[273]
TheUnitarian Universalist Association's General Assembly voted to create inclusive wordings for non-binary, genderqueer, gender fluid, agender, intersex, two-spirit and polygender people, replacing the words "men and women" with the word "people". Of the six sources of the living tradition, the second source of faith, as documented in the bylaws of the denomination, now includes "Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love."[274]
July
Philippa York, formerly Robert Millar, came out as transgender, thus becoming the first former professional cyclist to have publicly transitioned.[275]
Alex Hai came out as a transgender man, thus becoming the first openly transgender gondolier in Venice.[276][277]
Andrea Jenkins became the first openly transgender black woman elected to public office in the United States when she was elected to the Minneapolis City Council.[280]
Tyler Titus, a transgender man, became the first openly transgender person elected to public office in Pennsylvania when he was elected to the Erie School Board.[281] He andPhillipe Cunningham, elected to the Minneapolis City Council on the same night, became the first two openly trans men to be elected to public office in the United States.[282]
TheUnited StatesDefense Health Agency for the first time approved payment for sex reassignment surgery for an active-duty U.S. military service member. The patient, a trans woman infantry soldier, had already begun a course of treatment, and the procedure, which the treating doctor deemed medically necessary, was performed on 14 November at a private hospital, since U.S. military hospitals lacked the requisite surgical expertise.[283]
December
America's first all-LGBT city council was elected in Palm Springs, California, consisting of three gay men, a transgender woman and a bisexual woman.[284]
Paris Lees became the first openly transgender woman featured in BritishVogue.[293]
February
Laverne Cox became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of anyCosmopolitan magazine (specifically, Cosmopolitan South Africa's February 2018 issue).[294]
Transgender Health reported that a transgender woman in the United States breastfed her adopted baby; this was the first known case of a transgender woman breastfeeding.[295][296]
Marvia Malik became the first openly transgender newsreader to appear on Pakistani television in 2018.[300][301][302]
June
Peppermint made herBroadway debut inThe Go-Go's-inspired musicalHead Over Heels. The show began previews on 23 June 2018 and officially opened 26 July; playing the role of Pythio, Peppermint became the first trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway.[303]
Angela Ponce made history on 29 June 2018 as the first openly transgender woman to be crownedMiss Spain,[304] and became the first openly transgender contestant in Miss Universe.[305][306]
Christine Hallquist became the first openly transgender candidate for governor nominated by a major political party in the United States when she was nominated for governor of Vermont by the Democrats.[309]
September
Stav Strashko became the first openly transgender actress ever to receive anOphir Award nomination for Best Actress.[310]
Yance Ford and Joslyn Barnes were awarded an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for producingStrong Island, which made Ford the first openly transgender man and the first black openly transgender person to win an Emmy award, as well as the first openly transgender filmmaker to win aCreative Arts Emmy.[290][291][292]
Patricio Manuel became the first openly transgender male to box professionally in the United States, and, as he won the fight, the first openly transgender male to win a pro boxing fight in the U.S.[312]
Colombia prosecuted a transgender woman's murder as afemicide for the first time in 2018, sentencing Davinson Stiven Erazo Sánchez to twenty years in a psychiatric center for "aggravated femicide" a year after he killed Anyela Ramos Claros, a transgender woman.[313]
Army Capt. Alivia Stehlik, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Blake Dremann, Army Capt. Jennifer Peace, Army Staff Sgt. Patricia King and Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Akira Wyatt became the first openly transgender members of the United States military to testify publicly in front of Congress.[319]
April
The Trump administration announced on April 12 that transgender people were no longer allowed to enlist in the United States military if they had ever medically transitioned or had a history of gender dysphoria. Currently serving individuals were required to serve under their gender assigned at birth. This legal action is colloquially known as the "Trans Military Ban".
May
Meghan Stabler became the first openly transgender member of Planned Parenthood's National Board of Directors.The Advocate editors named Meghan as one ofThe Advocate magazine's 2019 Champions of Pride.[320]
Indya Moore became the first openly transgender person to be featured on the cover of the U.S. version ofElle magazine.[321]
Lucia Lucas, normally based in Germany, made her debut as Don Giovanni with the Tulsa Opera, becoming the first openly transgender person to sing a lead role in a standard operatic work in the US.[322]
Janet Mock signed a three-year deal withNetflix giving them exclusive rights to her TV series and a first-look option on feature film projects; this made her the first openly transgender woman of color to secure a deal with a major content company.[324][325]
Zach Barack became the first openly transgender actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when he played a classmate of Peter Parker's inSpider-Man: Far From Home.[326][327]
July
Laverne Cox was one of fifteen women chosen by guest editorMeghan, Duchess of Sussex to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue ofBritishVogue; this made Cox the first openly transgender woman to appear on the cover of BritishVogue.[328][329][330]
June Eastwood became the first openly male-to-female transgender athlete to compete in NCAA Division I cross country; she competed for the University of Montana women's team.[333]
Teddy Quinlivan became the first openly transgender model to be hired by Chanel.[334]
September
Angelica Ross became the first openly transgender person to host an American presidential forum.[335]
Mattel launched the world's first line of gender-neutral dolls, which they marketed asCreatable World.[336]
November
In November 2019, transgender community leader Lauren Pulido raised the transgender pride flag over the California state capitol for Trans Day of Remembrance, reportedly the first time the transgender flag was raised over a state capitol building in the United States.[337]
December
In December 27,Chile's Gender Identity Law came into force, allowing people to change their legal name and gender without the need of sex reassignment surgery.[338][339]
2020s
2020
February
Camila Prins became the first openly transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in the Carnival parade in São Paulo.[340]
The Pfister Hotel named Nykoli Koslow as its first openly transgender Artist in Residence.[341]
March
Megan Youngren became the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic marathon trials in U.S. history.[342]
The Philadelphia Police Academy graduated its first openly transgender officer, Benson Churgai.[343]
Diana Zurco became Argentina's first openly transgender newscaster.[344]
Chris Mosier became the first openly transgender male athlete to ever compete in an Olympic trial alongside other men; however, he was unable to finish the race due to injury.[345]
June
The Trump administration passed a regulation removing protections for transgender patients under medical care.[346]
Peyton Rose Michelle Theriot won election in Louisiana to the women's Democratic State Central Committee seat for the 46th District (seat A), representingSt. Martin,Iberia andSt. Landry, becoming the first out transgender woman elected to a political position in the state.[349]
On 1 October 2020,Petra De Sutter was sworn in as one of seven deputy prime ministers in thegovernment ofPrime MinisterAlexander De Croo, becoming Europe's first transgender deputy prime minister, and the most senior trans politician in Europe.[351]
FaZe Clan's Soleil 'Ewok' Wheeler came out as transgender, making him the first transgender male on a T1 esports organization.[352]
On 3 November 2020,Taylor Small became the first transgender person elected to be a state legislator in Vermont.[356][357]
On 7 November 2020,Joe Biden became the first president-elect to mention the transgender community in a victory speech.[358]
Big Sky premiered on 17 November 2020, makingJesse James Keitel the first nonbinary actor to play a nonbinary series regular on primetime television.[359][360]
In November 2020,Mauree Turner became the first non-binary state legislator elected in the United States.[361]
In November 2020,Stephanie Byers became the first Native American transgender person elected to office in America, when she was elected to the Kansas state House of Representatives; she is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. This election also made her the first transgender person elected to the Kansas state legislature.[362][363]
December
Mara Gómez became the first trans footballer to play in a top-flight Argentinian league.[364]
Aftervarying restrictions over the years, there stopped being restrictions on people serving in the US military due to their being transgender when PresidentJoe Biden signed the "Executive Order on Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform" on January 25, 2021.[366][367]
February
InAngola a new criminal code went into effect after the parliament passed it in January 2019 and the president signed it into law in November 2020. The new code contains full anti-discrimination protections on the basis of gender identity.[368][369]
March
Elliot Page became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover ofTime magazine.[370]
Rachel Levine was confirmed 24 March as U.S. assistant secretary for health, making her the first openly trans person confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a U.S. federal government position.[373]
L. Morgan Lee became the first openly transgender person nominated for aTony Award in an acting category; she was nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Thought 1 inA Strange Loop.[387]
TheCommittee on Jewish Law and Standards approved a ruling authorizing non-gendered language for thealiyah, and the honors of the hagbah (lifting the Torah) and the gelilah (rolling up the Torah). The ruling also includes non-gendered language for calling upCohens andLevis (descendants of the tribe of Levi) as well as how to address people without gendered language during the prayerMi Shebeirach. This was a codification of a practice that already existed in places Jewish transgender people led.[388][389]
June
FINA (now World Aquatics) announced a new policy that effectively bars all transgender women from competing in professional women's swimming, with the exception of athletes who "can establish to FINA's comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 (of puberty) or before age 12, whichever is later". FINA also announced the development of a separate "open" category for some events, to be determined by a working group over the next six months, so that "everybody has the opportunity to compete at an elite level".[390][391]
August
Ellia Green became the first Olympian to come out as a trans man.[392]
Jamie Hunter became the first openly transgendersnooker player to win a women's tour ranking event in snooker when she won the U.S. Women's Open.[393]
Seth Marnin became the first openly transgender judge in New York, and the first openly transgender male judge in the United States.[405][406]
July
Rikkie Kollé won theMiss Nederland 2023 beauty pageant, becoming the first openly transgender person to win a national beauty pageant.[407]
November
Danica Roem was elected to the Virginia Senate, becoming the first openly transgender person to be elected to a state senate in theSouthern United States.[408]
2024
January
Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person to be elected and serve in both chambers of a state legislature (specifically, Virginia’s) in U.S. history.[409]
^Talalay, Lauren E. (2005). "The Gendered Sea: Iconography, Gender, and Mediterranean Prehistory".The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory. Blackwell. pp. 130–148, especially p. 136.ISBN978-0-631-23267-4.
^OrnamentisAugustarum:Suetonius,Life of Nero28–29, discussed by Craig A. Williams,Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. pp. 284, 400, 424.
^For the spelling, see Hans-Werner Goetz, Jörg Jarnut, Walter Pohl (eds.),Regna and Gentes: The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early ... (2003,ISBN9004125248), page 62.
^abcVarner, Eric (2008). "Transcending Gender: Assimilation, Identity, and Roman Imperial Portraits".Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Supplementary Volume.7. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press:200–201.ISSN1940-0977.JSTOR40379354.OCLC263448435.Elagabalus is also alleged to have appeared as Venus and to have depilated his entire body. ... Dio recounts an exchange between Elagabalus and the well-endowed Aurelius Zoticus: when Zoticus addressed the emperor as 'my lord,' Elagabalus responded, 'Don't call me lord, I am a lady.' Dio concludes his anecdote by having Elagabalus asking his physicians to give him the equivalent of a woman's vagina by means of a surgical incision.
^Godbout, Louis (2004)."Elagabalus"(PDF).GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Chicago: glbtq, Inc. Retrieved6 August 2007.
^Dale Albert Johnson,Corpus Syriacum Johnsoni I (2015,ISBN1312855347), page 344-8
^Conner, Randy P.; Sparks, David Hatfield; Sparks, Mariya; Anzaldúa, Gloria (1997),Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore, Cassell, p. 57,ISBN0-304-33760-9
^Hamburger C, Sturup GK, Dahl-Iversen E (May 1953). "Transvestism; hormonal, psychiatric, and surgical treatment".J Am Med Assoc.152 (5):391–6.doi:10.1001/jama.1953.03690050015006.PMID13044539.
^Benjamin, H. (1969). "Introduction". In Green, R.; Money, J. (eds.).Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
^Faderman, Lillian and Timmons, Stuart (2006).Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. Basic Books. p. 1-2.ISBN0-465-02288-X.
^Thomas E. Bevan,The Psychobiology of Transsexualism and Transgenderism (2014,ISBN1440831270,pages 42, 61: "The term transsexual was introduced by Cauldwell (1949) and popularized by Harry Benjamin (1966) [...]. The term transgender was coined by John Oliven (1965) and was popularized by various transgender people who pioneered the concept and practice of transgenderism....Oliven, J. (1965, June). Transgenderism = transsexualism.Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, 514.
^Simon, Ray (2017)."Stirring up the origin of the 'alphabet soup'".Erie Gay News. Archived fromthe original on 11 November 2021. "According to scholars, the word first appeared in print in John F. Oliven's 1965 book, "Sexual Hygiene and Pathology." Oliven writes: Where the compulsive urge reaches beyond female vestments, and becomes an urge for gender ('sex') change, transvestism becomes 'transsexualism.' The term is misleading; actually, 'transgenderism' is what is meant, because sexuality is not a major factor in primary transvestism. Although Oliven's understanding of "transgender"is not the same as our understanding of it today, his use of it is still significant. As K.J. Rawson and Cristan Williams note in their book, "Transgender*: The Rhetorical Landscape of a Term," Oliven didn't use the word in the book's 1955 edition; it was added later, when the second edition was revised and published. Gradually, some members of this marginalized community began to apply the word "transgender"to themselves. For example, Virginia Charles Prince, publisher of the long-running periodical "Transvestia," occasionally used a variation of the word, "transgenderal.""
^Oliven, John F. (1965).Sexual hygiene and pathology: a manual for the physician and the professions. Lippincott.Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved22 August 2020.: "Transexualism. Where the compulsive urge reaches beyond female vestments, and becomes an urge for gender ("sex") change, transvestism becomes "transexualism." The term is misleading; actually, "transgenderism" is meant, because sexuality is not a major factor in primary transvestism."
^Ladin, Joy (15 March 2012).Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog): Joy Ladin: 9780299287306: Amazon.com: Books. University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-0299287306.
^American Psychiatric Association,DSM-5 Fact Sheets, Updated Disorders: Gender DysphoriaArchived 2016-12-29 at theWayback Machine (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 2013): 2 ("DSM-5 aims to avoid stigma and ensure clinical care for individuals who see and feel themselves to be a different gender than their assigned gender. It replaces the diagnostic name 'gender identity disorder' with 'gender dysphoria', as well as makes other important clarifications in the criteria.").
^Vingan, Alyssa (4 November 2014)."Transgender Model Lea T Lands Big Redken Contract".Fashionista.com. Retrieved6 November 2014.Now, Lea T has received her most groundbreaking campaign yet: She's signed on to be a brand muse for global haircare brand Redken, with print and digital campaigns set for a January 2015 release.
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