Comments on: A milestone in our community turns 60

By: The Lauderdale

The Lauderdale — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 05:49:12 +0000

I read Jorgensen’s bio some years back and she certainly claimed to have been the first American (on the list of fully surgically transitioned MTFs, I mean.)

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:46:00 +0000

GI Joe

Thank you for the source. Unfortunately, it doesn’t list transition date, and most on the list were born too late to precede Jorgensen. But you inspired me to look further.

The best source I could find suggests that there were, perhaps, four in Germany in the Thirties, no full transitions in the Nazi years, and afterward Denmark and Norway began efforts.

I still don’t know if Jorgensen was fifteenth or fiftieth. This article say the was the first American. But wherever she was on the sexual transition list, she was instrumental in transitioning social attitudes.

By: Steve Krotz

Steve Krotz — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 17:05:34 +0000

A very good piece. Whether she was the first or not isn’t the point. The fact that eventually she became indistinguishable from any other woman in her community is the real milestone. But if it weren’t for the publicity she garnered and the dignity with which she was able to handle it, the transgender community probably would not be where it is today. She was the first transgender woman to make a lot of people stop and think. That’s a true pioneer.

By: G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 14:57:38 +0000

There were in fact MANY transgendered people who medically transitioned before Christine Jorgensen.

The wikipedia list of proeminent transgender people for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transgender_people) gives many examples of transgender people who successfully transitioned before the second world war (some before WW1!) – and I do mean “transition” as in medical transition, not just social transition. They led productive lives afterward, (as musicians, scientists, explorers…).

Jorgensen’s was just the first to have such a public impact and be so publicized (and sensationalized, with that special 50s “freak show” touch).

Anyway, thank you for this post, it was very nice and very thoughtful.

By: Boo

Boo — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 12:00:32 +0000

“They are not as a whole glamorous and exciting or “a man in a dress”. They’re just people.”

Some, of course, are super awesome people. Fantastic exstatic people. Scrumtrulesecent whooptiddlyazing people. Some are.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:30:16 +0000

I was mistaken, so I added “widely known”. Thanks for the catch.

However hers was certainly one of the very first and as she became the public face of what would become the trams community, it is definitely a milestone

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:21:52 +0000

Lindoro, it was my understanding that hers was the first successful reassignment surgery (others had horrible consequences). But I may be mistaken.

I’ll check it out and correct if necessary

By: Lindoro Almaviva

Lindoro Almaviva — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:05:49 +0000

Hers was the first successful transexual transition.

I am not sure what you are refering to, could you please expand on that? It is my understanding (and I am more than willing to be corrected) that hers was not the first gender reassignment surgery ever, they had been done before, so I am not sure what you mean by "successful." Would you mean wide-known and akcknowleged? Are we talking about successful as in lack of complications or as in "the subject went about his life as if nothing had been going on and therefore successfully integrated to society and showed that this could be done and no big deal had to come out of it?"