The First Drafts of Trans Histories Part II: 1950-1969

It is a cliché that journalism is the first draft of history, and so it is with trans history. The following are journalists who were in the right place at the right time and saw the potential story.

Part I: 1900-1950

Part II: 1950-1969

Part III: 1970 onwards

Irmis Johnson (? - ?)

Johnson was a noted journalist who had written on a variety of topics. When the Christine Jorgensen story broke in December 1952, the Hearst company negotiated an exclusive deal with Jorgensen for $20,000 and sent Johnson to Copenhagen early in 1953 to interview Christine. Christine and Irmis got on well This resulted in five consecutive weekly articles in the the American Weekly, actually written by Johnson but attributed to Jorgensen.

Later Jorgensen paid Johnson $5,000 to expand the American Weekly articles into a full autobiography, but did not like the document that Johnson produced. Jorgensen’s 1967 autobiography was written by Lois Kibbee, an actress. Kibbee did have access to Johnson’s document.

In 1969 Lyn Raskin was looking for a writer to write her biography. There were discussions with Johnson, but as there was no publishers’ advance on offer, Johnson bowed out.

• Christine Jorgensen. “The Story of my Life”. The American Weekly, February 1953 for 5 weeks. Actually written by Irmis Johnson.
• Christine Jorgensen. A Personal Autobiography. Bantam Books, 1967. Actually written by Lois Kibbee.
• Richard Docter. Becoming a Woman: A Biography of Christine Jorgensen. The Haworth Press, 2008.

Ron Kenyon (1921- ?)

In 1954, Francis Marie Jefferson, who had recently had completion surgery, moved to Port Colborne, Ontario where she had some minor operations with Dr Stuart Wilson in nearby Welland, mainly to remove scar tissue. There had been rumours that a ‘Miss X’ had had a sex change, but she was not identified until Wilson spoke to the Toronto Telegraph – with her permission he said. He gave her name as ‘Josephine Jefferson’, falsely gave her male name as ‘Kenneth Jefferson’, and claimed that she had had surgery in the US. Her real name, her correct male name and the actual Canadian surgeons who had operated on her were not given.

Wilson’s version was written up by Ron Kenyon and published in the Toronto Telegram, 19 March 1954, and was repeated in other Canadian newspapers and also in the US and Australia.

However Kenyon realised that there was something wrong with the story. The population of Port Colborne at that time was just over 8,000. So Kenyon contacted each of the Jefferson families in town, and found Francis Marie. She agreed to be interviewed, and Kenyon’s real story of Francis Marie was published in the Toronto Telegram in three issues, on page 3 in each case, March 20, 22 and 23.

• Marie Jefferson as told to Ron Kenyon. “ ‘I Felt Guilty Living as a Man’ … Marie: People who think I’m Amusing Don’t know the horror …”. The Toronto Telegram, March 20, 1954 p3.
• Marie Jefferson as told to Ron Kenyon. “ ‘Now Men whistle at me …’ I like that, too – Yet I ran out on my wedding“. The Toronto Telegram, March 22, 1954 p3.
• Marie Jefferson as told to Ron Kenyon. “ “Sex switch aids understanding: Has escaped depths of horrible despair: Home, family her aim”. The Toronto Telegram, March 23, 1954p3.
• Zagria. “Frances Marie Jefferson (1929- ?) truck driver, domestic”. Gender Variance Who’s Who, 5 June 2026. Online.

Noyes Thomas (1916-2001)

Noyes Thomas was named after Alfred Noyes the Welsh poet, his uncle.

He became a leading foreign correspondent in the 1930s. In World War II he joined the Ghurkas, served in east Asia, and rose to Lieutenant Colonel. Afterwards, he returned to the News of the World as a journalist.

In the 1960s, the News of the World, which was a Sunday paper then selling for 6d (2.5p in the new money), was the biggest-selling newspaper in the world normally selling over 8 million copies of each edition. It was known for its emphasis on sex and scandal. Its major competitor was The People, also a Sunday paper, which had outed April Ashley 19 November 1961, and destroyed her career as a model and actress.

The News of the World made the best offer for April’s story offering £3,000. April asked for £15,000. They settled at £10,000. Thomas interviewed her and “My Strange Story” ran for six Sundays May-June 1962.

The next year, the big scandal was that of Christine Keeler who had slept with both John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, and Soviet naval attaché, Yevgeny Ivanov. The News of the World paid Keeler £23,000, and Peter Earle and Noyes Thomas spirited her away so that journalists from other papers could not interview her.

However Noyes Thomas had, despite his experiences with April and Christine, a rather old-fashioned attitude to sex:

“In July 1964 the News of the World’s Noyes Thomas warned readers about the ‘creeping menace of homosexuality in Britain today’. There was, he added, ‘a vast “queer” brotherhood with tentacles reaching around the globe’.” (Joyce p167) In August he published a check list in how to spot a homosexual. (Joyce p233-4).

• Roy Kant “‘Her’ Secret is Out”. The People, 19 November 1961.
• Noyes Thomas writing as April Ashley. “My Strange Life”. The News of the World. 6 May 1962.
• Noyes Thomas writing as April Ashley. "Goodbye M'sieu, hello Mamsells, the doctor said". News of the World, 13 May 1962.
• Noyes Thomas. “Arthur Meets Mother”, News of the World, 20 May 1962.
• Noyes Thomas writing as April Ashley. "Roman Scandal – hotel throws us out". News of the World, 27 May 1962.
• Noyes Thomas writing as April Ashley. "The Operation". News of the World, 3 June 1962.
• Noyes Thomas writing as April Ashley. "There, in a crowded pub, Arthur told me he loved me". News of the World, 10 June 1962.
• Noyes Thomas, ‘Into the Twilight World’, News of the World, 26 July 1964.
• Noyes Thomas, ‘The Men Behind the Mask’, News of the World, 2 August 1964.
• Robert Warren. “Noyes Thomas” Press Gazette, June 26, 2001. Online. Obituary.
• John-Pierre Joyce. Odd Men Out: Male Homosexuality in Britain from Wolfenden to Gay Liberation, 1954-1970. The Book Guild Ltd, 2019:167.
• Zagria. “The authors of April Ashley’s autobiographies”. Gender Variance Who’s Who, 7 August 2024. Online.

Barry Farber (1930-2020)

Farber was born in Baltimore and raised in North Carolina. He had a knack for languages, and, to varying extents, picked up 25 of them, and published a book, How to Learn Any Language. He attended the Zagreb Peace Conference, 1951 in Yugoslavia, and the 1952 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki. As a newspaper reporter in 1956, Farber was invited by the US Air Force to cover the airlift of Hungarian refugees from the uprising in Hungary that year. By 1960 he had his first talk show; in 1962 he had an evening talk show on radio station WOR in New York, and in 1967 he became an all-night host, also on WOR.

His first wife was Norwegian, and for some years he was an advocate for Norwegian-style social democracy, and at that time supported the US Democrat Party. However in 1970 he ran for the the U.S. House of Representatives in New York City's 19th district as the candidate of the Republican and Liberal parties, and in 1977 he ran for New York City Mayor for the Conservative Party - in both cases receiving only a small percentage of the votes.

Despite his turn to the right, he - like Lyle Stuart - believed in free speech. He featured Frank Kameny the pioneer gay activist, and Anton LaVey of the Church of Satan in 1969.

Trans activist Siobhan Fredericks was interviewed July 1966. The interview was arranged by Lyle Stuart, publisher of A Year Among the Girls. Farber had done his homework well on the topic of transvestites: he'd read the book thoroughly and familiarized himself with Turnabout magazine in advance of the broadcast. He was so favorably impressed with both the book and magazine that he expanded the originally scheduled forty-five minute interview to a full ninety minutes. This was the first time a radio discussion of transvestism reached a national audience.

In June 1968 Virginia Prince was interviewed by Farber.

In March 1975, after a discussion by a Deputy Police Chief from the Times Square area, of the problems of prostitution and other illegal sexual activities in mid-town New York, there was a panel discussion of transvestism. The panel included a psychiatrist who specialized in transvestite and trans-sexual cases, a transsexual, the wife of a transvestite, a transvestite, and the proprietor of a TV boutique in mid-town Manhattan.

And, August 22, 1972, the day that John Wojtowicz did what came to be called the Dog Day Afternoon bank robbery, he was phoned in the bank by journalist Arthur Bell, who later that evening went on Farber’s program to discuss what he knew including about Wojtowicz’ trans lover Liz Eden.

Farber remained active in broadcasting until May 5, 2020, the day before his 90th birthday. On the 6th he died at home.

• Zagria. “Barry Farber (1930-2020) radio host”. Gender Variance Who’s Who 22 May 2023. Online.

Tom Buckley (1928 - 2015)

New York City born and raised, Buckley served twice in the US Army: just after WWII, and again in the Korean War. He became a New York Times correspondent, and 1966-8 he was mainly based in Saigon to report on the Vietnamese War, although when back in New York, he became involved with reporting on transsexuals.

Oct 4, 1966 a gossip column in the New York Daily News carried the item: “Making the rounds of the Manhattan clubs these nights is a stunning girl who admits she was male less than a year ago and that she underwent a sex change operation at, of all places, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore”. This caused Dr Edgerton to get a phone call from Dr Russell Nelson, president of Johns Hopkins Hospital, to find out if the story were true. Edgerton made a tactical decision and gave an exclusive to The New York Times. Tom Buckley had already contacted Harry Benjamin about doing an article on transsexuals, and he was given the story, which ran on the front page on Nov 21, 1966. A press conference was called on the same day, where Edgerton and several colleagues announced at a press conference the establishment of the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic.

Buckley continued with his project based on four patients of Harry Benjamin, and it was published in Esquire in April 1967 with a photograph of Clara Miller, but without naming her. He estimated that at that time there were 1500 persons in the world who had undergone sex-reassignment surgery, 400 in the US. He also gave a summary of the positions of Benjamin and Robert Stoller, and details about the opening of the Johns Hopkins Clinic.

In 1975 for Harry Benjamin’s 90th birthday, Buckley wrote a profile of the doctor.

• Thomas Buckley. “Johns Hopkins Begins Sex Change Surgery”. The New York Times, Nov 21, 1966.
• Tom Buckley. "The Transsexual Operation". Esquire. April 1967.
• Tom Buckley. “Transsexuality Expert, 90, Recalls ‘Maverick’ Career”. The New York Times, Jan 11, 1975.
• “Tom Buckley, Versatile and Colorful Times Reporter, Dies at 87”. The New York Times, Nov 20, 2015. Online.

DE.Wikipedia(Tom Buckley (journalist))       Muck Rack

Toward a TS Dictionary - the letter Ii

    BOLD=cross reference, see item when appropriate letter posted

Iatrogenic, Iatropic 

A condition, resulting from medical examination or treatment, that would not otherwise exist. This is an acknowledged problem in medicine and doctors seek to minimise it. At its worst it is Grooming. However, the concept is abused by some who use it to attack conditions that they find upsetting. Critics of Transsexualism such as Janice Raymond and Paul McHugh maintain that transsexualism in general is Iatrogenic. Other conditions such as Multiple Personality and Recovered Memories are also said by some to be Iatrogenic. See also Pseudo-Pathologies.

Identidad de Género, Ley de (2012) Argentina

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to have a Gender Identity Law. Passed 55-0 by the Senate. Personal data in the National Registry, particularly name and gender to be modified, and personal documents changed accordingly. In addition, all medical treatments (hormones and surgery) for Transitioning to be included in the Compulsory Medical Program, which guarantees coverage by practices throughout the health system, both public and private. Approvals of neither doctor nor judge, nor surgery are required for a gender change. Legal guardians cannot deny a change for those under 18. President Christina Fernández personally delivered the first batch of new identity cards.

Identidad de Género, Ley de (2018) Chile

The law, introduced in 2013 was enacted after five years, established a legal procedure that allows the change of name and registered sex in all official documents. For unmarried persons over 18 years of age, the change is requested by submitting a request to the Civil Registry and Identification Service, without being required to prove hormone replacement therapy or having undergone sex reassignment surgery

Identidade de Género, Lei da (2011) Portugal

This law allowed changes of name and legal gender, In 2016 a second law was passed allowing legal gender changes based solely on self-determination. 

Identidad de Género, Ley de (2007) Spain

In 2004, Spain’s Socialist Party, the PSOE, was returned to power, and quickly implemented an equal marriage law, but kept delaying the promised Ley de Identidad de Género until prominent trans woman and PSOE activist Carla Antonelli threatened a hunger strike and this attracted international press attention. Finally the Ley de Identidad de Género (which Antonelli had helped draft) was passed three years later. Antonelli was the first in the Madrid area to change her legal identity.

Identity Erasure

The systemic denial, removal and invalidation of what is existentially essential for queer, racial and gender minorities. This was common until the later 20^th century, and right-wing and some religious groups seek to re-introduce it. See Queer Erasure.

Identity Politics

Political movements based on group membership, such as nationality, religion, tribe or sports teams. More recently there have been movements based on gender and sexuality. 

Iel

A gender-neutral French pronoun, from combining Il and Elle.

Ikwekaazo (= "one who endeavors to be like a woman")

Two-spirit among the Ojibwe. They dressed as female and married men but their husbands were not thereby considered Ikwekaazo. They were considered to be strong spiritually, and they were always honoured, especially during ceremonies. See also Ininiikaazo, Niizh manitoag.

Illusionist

A female impersonator who combines glamour with being fully passable.

Imatatore

Italian for a stage Female impersonator.

Imbricated

Overlapping, intertwined, as are gay and trans histories. A term taken from roof tiles or fish scales.

Imperial Court System

An LGBT charitable organization founded in San Francisco in 1965 by drag performer José Sarria which has spread across North America. Participants adopt mock-monarchy and nobility titles, and cross-dressing is welcome at their social events.

Impersonator

One who impersonates: a) celebrities as entertainment b) ordinary persons for purposes of fraud , that is: identity theft c) politicians, that is they be political decoys d) the other gender.

The most popular target for Celebrity impersonators is Elvis Presley who is impersonated by both men and women.

Gender impersonation is done for a variety of reasons:

• To express and maybe resolve the performer’s issues with both genders.
• A safe place for a trans person to experiment before going on the street.
• A way for trans persons to make a living.
• To satirise or deconstruct the gender stereotypes that oppress both genders.
• To ridicule women – see Cod Drag.

Leslie Feinberg: “I've heard women criticize drag queens for 'mocking women's oppression' by imitating femininity to an extreme, just as I've been told that I am imitating men. Feminists are justifiably angry at women's oppression – so am I! I believe, however, that those who denounce drag queens aim their criticism at the wrong people. This misunderstanding doesn't take gender oppression into account. … There is a difference between the drag population and masculine men doing cruel female impersonations. The Bohemian Grove, for example, is an elite United States club for wealthy powerful men that features comedy cross-dressing performances. Many times the burlesque comedy of cross-dressed masculine men is as anti-drag as it is anti-woman. In fact it's really only drag performance when it's transgender people who are facing the footlights. Many times drag performance calls for skilled impersonations of a famous individual like Diana Ross or Judy Garland, but the essence of drag performance is not impersonation of the opposite sex. It is the cultural presentation of an oppressed gender expression.”

See also Copy without an Original.

Implants

See Top Surgery, Breast Implants

Importuning

1. Persistent, repeatedly requesting to the point of annoyance.
2. To request money for sexual activity
3. A false charge brought by British police against those who are victims of entrapment, against gay men cruising each other, and against those Walking While Trans.

See also Disturbing the Peace and Gross Indecency which are also ill-defined laws that the police have used to harass gay and trans persons.

Imposter syndrome

A feeling that one is inadequate or fraudulent even if one is actually quite successful. Many trans persons experience this in their birth gender even if others see them as successful in family and job. Such a feeling may contribute to the decision to Transition. However, cis persons can equally feel such. Research shows that ethnic women in particular, suffering both racism and sexism are afflicted.

A small number of post-transition persons suffer from Imposter Syndrome in their target gender. This can contribute to Detransition.

See Masquerade, Maskenfreiheit.

Incels

An abbreviation for Involuntary Celibates, mainly Heterosexual men who blame women and society for their sexual frustrations, while alienating women with their opinions and attitudes. There is discussion on Incel sites about Incel Cis men who Transition to female to escape being Incel. See Trannymaxxing, Transcel, Trans-Vestigiality.

Incorrect Gender Assignment

Gender assigned by medical professionals without consulting the person involved. This is particularly relevant to Intersex persons who may be subjected to supposedly “corrective” surgery before they are old enough to understand the issue. 

Indicatrons

John Money: “In recognition of the fact that psychology’s units of raw data all serve to indicate something or other to the psychologist or scientist, they can all be categorised as indicatrons”.

Indigender

Culture-specific gender identities that are often seriously and even violently misunderstood by Colonialism.

Infibulate

Females: the ritual removal of the external female genitalia and the suturing of the vulva, female genital mutilation. See also Clitorectomy. Males: placing a clasp through the foreskin.

Informed Consent

An adult and sane person can give Informed Consent to legal gender changes, medical care and transgender medical support without the permission of a Psychiatrist.

Ingersoll Gender Center

A support group in Seattle founded in 1977 by Marsha Botzer. It became known for its guides regarding doctors who offered gender surgery. It is still active after more then 40 years.

Ingle, Ningle

A Renaissance term for being queer. The verb form, ‘to Ingle’ usually means to have anal sex with an Ingle, or for an Ingle to have sex. Some Ingles transvested.

It is also a surname. Lady Bunny, the organizer of Wigstock, was born into the Ingle family. See also Catamite, Ganymede.

Ininiikaazo ("one who endeavors to be like a man”)

Two-spirit among the Ojibwe. They dressed as male and married women but their wives were not thereby considered Ininiikaazo. They were considered to be strong spiritually, and they were always honoured, especially during ceremonies. See also Ikwekaazo, Niizh manitoag.

Innie and Outie

Terms originally applied to belly buttons, and then later to genitals.

Inner Closet

The outer Closet is an attempt to fool other people; the Inner Closet is an attempt to fool oneself.

Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science), Berlin

Under the aegis of Magnus Hirschfeld, a few surgical operations for trans women were performed, using a technique of non-genital skin grafts, The operations were mainly done by Drs Erwin Gohrbandt, Felix Abraham and Ludwig L. Lenz. Dörchen Richter was operated on in 1922 and 1931; Charlotte Charlaque in 1929-1930; Toni Ebel 1930-1931. Abraham published a paper giving the details of the operations on Richter and Ebel in Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualpolitik in 1931. The Institute was destroyed after the Nazi takeover in 1933. 

Intergender

Between male and female. Some restrict the word to Intersex persons only; others use it as a synonym for trans or androgynous.

Intermediate Sex

A term used by Edward Carpenter and Magnus Hirschfeld in the early 20^th century to categorize gays and trans persons. 

Internalised Transphobia

The negative belief that being Trans is inferior to being Cis or Normal, that has been internalised by a Trans person.

International Bill of Gender Rights

A Bill drafted and adopted by the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy in 1993, and was revisited and revised in 1994, 1995 and 1996. While it has no force of law absent its adoption by legislative bodies and recognition of its principles by courts of law, it acts as an ideal to strive towards. It has ten principles:

1) The Right To Define Gender Identity 2) The Right To Free Expression Of Gender Identity 3) The Right To Secure And Retain Employment and to Receive Just Compensation 4) The Right Of Access To Gendered Space And Participation In Gendered Activity 5) The Right To Control And Change One’s Own Body 6) The Right To Competent Medical And Professional Care 7) The Right To Freedom From Psychiatric Diagnosis Or Treatment 8) The Right To Sexual Expression 9) The Right To Form Committed, Loving Relationships And Enter Into Marital Contracts 10) The Right To Conceive, Bear, Or Adopt Children; The Right To Nurture And Have Custody Of Children And To Exercise Parental Capacity.

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

The globally used diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations System.

The ICD listed homosexuality in ICD-9 in 1977, removed it from ICD-10 in 1990.

In ICD -10 transsexualism was located within Gender identity disorders, F64 in ICD-10 Chapter V: Mental and behavioural disorders under the heading "Disorders of adult personality and behaviour". 

ICD-11 in 2018 abolished codes F64 Gender identity disorders and F65.1 Fetishistic Transvestism, among other sexual practices, that used to be referred to as paraphilias. The above codes have been replaced in part by code HA60 Gender incongruence of adolescence or adulthood, which refers to the three conditions that classify the condition of gender dysphoria. The last sentence from code HA60: "Gender variant behaviour and preferences alone are not a basis for assigning the diagnosis."

See also Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP)

Conferences organized by Phyllis Frye and held in Houston, Texas 1992-7. 

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB)

The date, 17 May, was chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. The Founder was Louis-Georges Tin – he acted as Chairman until 2013. At first, in 2005, it was just IDAHO. The T for Transphobia was added in 2009. The B for Biphobia was added in 2015. France became the first country in the world to officially remove transgender issues from its list of mental illnesses in 2009 as announced on the eve of 17 May. In France same-sex marriage was legal from 18 May 2013. Same-sex marriage in Taiwan was passed in Parliament on 17 May 2019. 132 countries around the world commemorate IDAHOTB

International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE)

The International Foundation for Gender Education was founded by Merrisa Sherrill Lynn in 1986, initially as an outgrowth from Boston's Tiffany Club. Although proclaimed as a group for both transsexuals and transvestites, they built in a heterosexual transvestite bias by creating a Virginia Prince Award, despite Prince’s anti-transsexual and anti-transgender obsession. The first award went to Prince herself. The next two went to IFGE organizers Merrisa Sherrill Lynn and Ariadne Kane. The IFGE took-over and published the TV-TS Tapestry Journal, which was originally a Tiffany Club publication. Later in 1992 it was renamed Transgender Tapestry. Despite the ‘International’ in the name, only once was the IFGE conference held outside the US: in Toronto in 1998. At its height IFGE had an annual budget of $325,000, a headquarters in suburban Boston, a bookstore, a perfect-bound four-color magazine, an annual conference, and an endowment worth some $100,000. The conferences ceased after heavy financial losses in 2010. The last Transgender Tapestry appeared in 2009.

International Gender Transient Affinity (IGTA)

The first world-wide trans organization. This was done by mail in the days before the Internet, corresponding with others in many countries and issuing reports on transgender human rights. Organised by Phaedra Kelly, and an outgrowth of the Transconscient Art Movement.

International Journal of Transgenderism

The journal of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), The first 6 volumes, 1997 - 2002, were, and are, available to the public. Subsequent volumes went behind a pay wall. web.archive.org/web/20070505034642/http://www.symposion.com/ijt/index.htm

International Transsexual Sisterhood

A group set up by Yasmene Jabar to help trans women in the middle east. It was active late 1990s, early 2000s. See also Cafe Trans Arabi and Trans Eastern Conference.

Intersex (IS)

Intersex is an Umbrella term for 40+ conditions whereby the genotype is not fully concordant with the male/female binary. The term was first coined in Germany in 1915. 

Intersex is differentiated from transsexual in that:

1. Intersex conditions can be detected at birth if the doctors look and do the tests.
2. Most Intersex activism has been directed at getting doctors to not change them until they are old enough to consent, and to establish that many Intersex conditions are not pathological.

There has been a push, mainly from the trans side, to establish Transsexuality and perhaps Transgender also as a type of Intersex. To some extent this is a matter of definition. However, simple courtesy says that it is the Intersex activists, not the trans activists, who will continue to decide whether or not trans comes under the Intersex umbrella.

While most Intersex persons stay with the gender of rearing, some do switch - that is, some are both Intersex and Trans.

Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), Intersex Medical Interventions.

Surgical, hormonal and other medical interventions performed to modify or reduce atypical or ambiguous genitalia and other sex characteristics, primarily for the purpose of making a person's appearance more ‘normal’. Such surgery can compromise sexual function and sensation, and create lifelong health issues. Interventions on intersex infants and children are increasingly recognized as human rights issues. Intersex organizations, and human rights institutions increasingly question the basis and necessity of such interventions. In 2011, Christiane Völling in Germany won the first successful case brought against a surgeon for non-consensual surgical intervention. In 2015, the Council of Europe recognized, for the first time, a right for intersex persons to not undergo sex assignment treatment and Malta became the first country to prohibit involuntary or coerced modifications to sex characteristics.

Intersex Society of North America (ISNA)

ISNA, founded in 1993, was the first North American organization to advocate for the rights of people born with Intersex conditions, and for more honest, less invasive medical treatment of intersex children. It published the journal Hermaphrodites With Attitude 1994-2005, although it also struggled to eliminate the use of the word ‘hermaphrodite’ for Intersex persons. It advocated a Patient-centred Model wherein an Intersex person is not to be subjected to treatments until old enough to consent. 

ISNA closed in June 2008. Cheryl Chase and some others moved to the Accord Alliance.

Intersex and Variations of Sex Characteristics (IVSC)

A term introduced to replace the tendentious Disorders of Sex Development (DSD)

Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse (ISGD)

An Umbrella term for transgender, intersex and/or gender diverse persons promoted by Tracie O’Keefe. It is another attempt to redefine trans as a type of Intersex, and has not been taken up on the Intersex side.

Intersex UK (iUK)

A support and activist group for UK and Irish Intersex persons.

Intersex Wannabe

A significant number of trans persons maintain that either they personally or all trans persons are a type of Intersex. Most Intersex activists do not agree, and some are quite annoyed at constant applications from trans persons. These trans persons seem to think that it is more legitimate to be intersexed in that such a condition is no way chosen.

Intersectionality

A term first coined in the late 1980s by the academic and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw; the idea is that we have many different identities – such as gender, race and faith – which are all interconnected.

Interzone

1. The Tangier International Zone 1923-1956 was known for diversity, tolerance and bohemianism. Several novelists and gay men lived there openly, including William Burroughs
2. A book of short stories by Burroughs, written 1953-8, published 1989.
3. A Science Fiction magazine since 1982.
4. In the 1920s US cities pushed ‘vice’ out of white and into black neighbourhoods, where interracial and queer lifestyles thrived. These areas became hospitable for drag and other gender crossing. Kevin Mumford proposed the term ‘Interzones’ for these areas.

Intrasex

Not Intersex.

Introjection

A term that has been used by Psycho-analysts and Gestalt therapists, but Sanda Davis puts her own spin on it. She proposes that most men have Introjections of their mothers, sisters, girls at school, wives etc, but in a male with GID these female introjections coalesce and become dominant. This composite introjection comes to think of itself as the true person in the body, and then starts wearing female clothing and proclaiming herself to be woman. Well-meaning friends and relatives make the situation worse by accepting the claim. Davis says that she can cure any case of GID by getting the female introjection to admit that she is not the true personality of the body.

Intromissive

The insertion or introduction of one part into another. In sexual activity the opposite of Submissive.

Introspective

The inward observation of self, the opposite to Extrospective. In Money’s “gender identity/role (G_I/R)” the two complement each other. It is by Introspection that a person knows that he/she is trans. 

Introitus Contracture

A tightening of the entrance to the Vagina.

Invert, Inversion

A term used by sexologists in the 19^th century and the early 20^th century whereby gays, lesbians and trans persons were all regarded as Inverts: male inverts were, to a greater or lesser degree, inclined to traditionally female pursuits, dress and sexual attraction and vice versa. Richard von Krafft-Ebing popularised the term based on proposals by Karl Ulrichs. Havelock Ellis titled Volume II of his Studies in the Psychology of Sex as Sexual Inversion. John Radclyffe-Hall repeatedly referred to the protagonist of The Well of Loneliness as an Invert – never as a Lesbian. Harry Benjamin, in his scale used ‘Trapped in a male body’ to describe Type V Moderate Intensity and ‘Total Psycho-Sexual Inversion’ for Type VI High Intensity. Ira Pauly in his two pioneering papers on “female” and “male” transsexualism, used the term “Psychosexual Inversion”.

From Magnus Hirschfeld in the 1910s onwards it was realised that homosexuals and trans people are conceptually quite distinct.

See Trapped Soul, anima muliebris in corpore virili inclusa. 

Involuntary Transition

Transition that is not consented to. This happens mainly to Intersex persons who are surgically altered when too young to either consent or understand. It happened to adult Intersex persons in the 19^th century when doctors deemed Gonads to be the ultimate determinant of sex, and some who were examined were then compelled by Church and State authorities to switch. There have been more recent examples where a family would rather have a Trans daughter than a Gay Son. See also Cross Rearing.

Ipsogender

Mainly used for an Intersex person who has accepted the medically assigned gender that resulted from non-consensual surgeries at an early age. It also applies to involuntary sex and gender changes resulting from family pressures and/or decisions made by doctors, priests etc.

Irrumatio

Fellatio where the movement is on the Penis side. If involuntary, it is oral rape. 

isiNgqumo

A Gay Speak used in the South African Black townships. It is influenced by Sesotho, Ng uni, isiZulu and other Bantu languages.

Isiaah/ Yĕsha‘ăyāhû (יְשַׁעְיָהוּ) 56:4-5

"For thus saith the LORD unto the Eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." (KJB translation)

The First Drafts of Trans Histories Part I: 1900-1950

It is a cliché that journalism is the first draft of history, and so it is with trans history. The following are journalists who were in the right place at the right time and saw the potential story,

Part I: 1900-1950

Part II: 1950-1969

Part III: 1970 onwards

Mowry Saben (1870-1950)

Saben, privately educated and fluent in Latin, French and German, and an alumnus of Harvard, started writing articles and essays for various newspapers and magazines in the 1900s, and became an established speaker travelling across the country giving lectures on Emmerson, Whitman, Goethe, Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, Havelock Ellis, Krafft-Ebing, religion and freedom.

In the early 1890s Saben, on the down low, had spent time in the Bowery and elsewhere in New York City, transvesting as a fairie or female-impersonator using the name Jennie June, and saying that her male name was Ralph Werther - and later that it was Earl Lind. She socialised at Paresis Hall, was abused by rough young men and contracted venereal diseases.

But Jennie June was, of course, also Mowry Saben, and contributed several essays about transvesting to the American Journal of Urology and Sexology, 1918-20. These essays were expanded into two books: Autobiography of an Androgyne, 1918 and The Female Impersonators, 1922 which have become the major books about gay/trans life in 1890s New York.

• Earl Lind (“Ralph Werther” – “Jennie June”) Autobiography of an Androgyne. Ed., with an Introduction by Alfred W Herzog. The Medico-Legal Journal, 1918. Reprinted Arno Press, 1975. Digital Transgender Archive. Wikisource.
• Ralph Werther-Jennie June (“Earl Lind”). The Female Impersonators; a sequel to the Autobiography of an androgyne and an account of some of the author's experiences during his six years' career as instinctive female-impersonator in New York's underworld. Ed., with an introduction, by Alfred W. Herzog. The Medico-Legal Journal. 1922. Reprinted Arno Press, 1975. Digital Transgender Archive. Wikisource.
• Zagria “Mowry Saben/Ralph Werther/Earl Lind/Jennie June (1870 - 1950) journalist, female impersonator”, Gender Variance Who’s Who April 2024. Online.

Louise (Loulou) Lassen (1876-1947)

Lassen was for many years the only female journalist at Copenhagen’s Politiken, and also wrote for the sister publication Ekstra Bladet. She was a foreign correspondent and also wrote about medical issues.

In October 1930, rumours circulated in Copenhagen about the non-appearance of Einar Wegener, to the extent that sales were not happening at Gerda Gottlieb's exhibition of paintings. Lassen had interviewed Gerda in 1927, and was now able to interview Lili Elvenes (the name that Wegener had now taken after gender surgery) and produced a short series of articles for Politiken and Ekstra Bladet. It was Loulou who proposed that Lili Elvenes be known as Lili Elbe. The first article was by Loulou about Lili and Gerda. In her write-up Loulou stressed that there was nothing homosexual in the lives of Lili and Gerda. The marriage had not been sexual, Lili had been a woman's spirit in a man's body since childhood, and more than that, that Einar and Lili were two different identities.

The second article was a transcript of a telephone call between Copenhagen's Dr Rank and Dr Kurt Warnekros, who was referred to as von Warnekros. Warnekros boasted that he had performed an unprecedented operation that the top French doctors were incapable of. There was no mention of the other trans women who had been operated on under the aegis of Magnus Hirschfeld.

• Loulou Lassen. “Et Liv gennem to Tilværelser. En Fortid som Mand og en Fremtid som Kvinde. Lili Elbe fortæller om Maleren Einar Wegener og om sig selv.” Politiken, 28 February 1931: 5–6. Online.
• Loulou Lassen. “En tragisk Livsskæbne afsluttedes i Gaar.” Politiken, 14 September 1931: 5. Online.
• Jette Drachmann Sollinge. “Loulou Lassen” Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon / Pressefolk. Online.
• Zagria. “Lili Elbe, media construct” Gender Variance Who’s Who, 13 January 2015. Online.

Niels Hoyer (1884-1969)

Ernst Harthern, born Ernst Ludwig Harthern Jacobson, wrote several books under the pen-name of Neils Hoyer. He was raised in Stade, Lower Saxony, and was of Jewish descent. His father abandoned him, and his mother died when he was nine. Despite difficulties he did finally become a journalist and covered Scandinavia for German newspapers until the Nazi takeover in 1933 when his writings were banned. He escaped the German occupation of Denmark by moving to Sweden, and in 1943 was part of the team that helped the majority of Danish Jews to escape to Sweden.

Lili Elvenes had worked on an autobiography aided by her former wife, Gerda, and the journalist Loulou Lassen. In December 1930, however, an ill-intentioned article in the Danish tabloid Sandheden (‘Truth’) characterized the planned publication as a ‘scandalous book’ (‘Skandalebogen’), leading the Danish publisher to drop the book option. Elevenes then approached Harthern, who was based in Copenhagen. Using the unfinished manuscript, Harthern rewrote a new version in German. Elevenes died before it was finished. Translated into Danish and edited, this became most of Fra Mand til Kvinde: Lili Elbes Bekendelser, 1931. The German edition Ein Mensch wechselt sein Geschlecht, 1932 was not a translation from the Danish edition, but a re-editing of Harthern’s manuscript. The 1933 English Man into Woman, is a translation of the German edition.

• Lili Elbe. Fra mand til kvinde: Lili Elbes bekendelser. Hage & Clausen, 1931
• Niels Hoyer. “Ein Mensch wechselt sein Geschlecht.” Scherl Magazin, 7 May 1931: 439-446. Online.
• Lili Elbe, edited by Niels Hoyer, Ein Mensch wechselt sein Geschlecht ; Eine Lebensbeichte ; Aus hinterlassenen Papieren. Reissner, Dresden 1932.
• Neils Hoyer (ed) translated H.J. Stenning; introd. by Norman Haire. Man into woman: an authentic record of a change of sex, London: Jarrold Publishers, 1933.
• DE.Wikipedia (Ernst Harthern)
• Pamela L Caughie. “Transgressing Translation/Translating Transgression: The Lili Elbe Digital Archive and the Modalities of Translation”, Translation and Literature, 32, 3, November 2023. Online.

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)

Born with the Hungarian name of Kösztler Artúr, he later anglicised it to Arthur Koestler.

Before Koestler became a well-known writer in the 1940s, he worked as a journalist. In 1927 he became the Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem for the Berlin-based Ullstein-Verlag group of newspapers. In 1929 he lobbied for a transfer and was sent to Paris, and in 1931 to Berlin, where he worked in a building next to Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, and he spent time in the Institute. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, Koestler, being Jewish, could no longer return to Germany. He returned to Paris, was active in anti-fascist movements, and later reported from both sides in the Spanish Civil War.

His cousin, Ferenc Aldor, had started a mail-order business selling sex manuals. In 1933 Aldor wanted an Encyclopedia of Sex, and needed a skilled journalist to compile it. Koestler was offered 3,000 francs but no royalties. Drawing on his knowledge of Freud, Jung, Adler, and Stekel and his reading of Paolo Mantegazza’s Die Hygiene der Liebe, Koestler buckled down and finished his part of the book in an astonishing two months. Dr Levy-Lenz from Hirschfeld’s Institute contributed two chapters, and Aldor’s brother Willy Aldor compiled two appendices. It was published in late 1933 as L’Encyclopédie de la vie sexuelle. The 1938 English edition contained material by Dr Norman Haire.

In 1935 Koestler was living in Zurich when Willy Aldor came and offered the same payment for a book on Sexual Anomalies and Perversions, which Koestler wrote in a Budapest hotel room based on the writings of Magnus Hirschfeld - a mixture of translation and precis. Geoffrey Marx claims that Koestler’s major source was Pierre Vachet’s Les Perversions Sexuelles which in turn was based on the works of Magnus Hirschfeld and Felix Abraham.

The 1936 English edition edited by Norman Haire appears to include parts of Haire’s translations of a section of Hirschfeld’s Sexualpathologie: Ein Lehrbuch für Ärzte und Studierende - which has never been published in English. Haire wrote that he had revised Koestler’s text: “amended the language and punctuation where necessary, deleted some passages, inserted some, corrected some statements, and brought the text up-to-date”.

Until 1991 when Michael Lombardi-Nash published his English translation of Hirschfeld’s Die Transvestiten, this was the only work in English that sexologists could consult.

• Magnus Hirschfeld. Sexualpathologie. Ein Lehrbuch für Ärzte und Studierend. A Marcus & E Webers Verlag, 1918.
• Pierre Vachet. Perversions sexuelles, d’après l’enseignement du docteur Magnus Hirschfeld, par son premier assistant le docteur Félix Abraham. Paris: François Aldor, 1931.
• Magnus Hirschfeld. Sexual Anomalies and Perversions: Physical and Psychological Development and Treatment : a Summary of the Works of the Late Magnus Hirschfeld. London: Francis Aldor, 1936.
• Magnus Hirschfeld. Geschlechtsanomalien und Perversionen : Ein Studienbuch für Ärzte, Juristen, Seelsorger und Pädagogen. Paris: Aldor, Villefranche-Niche, 1938.
• Michael Scammell. Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic. Random House, 2009 p176-7.
• Diana Wyndham. Norman Haire and the Study of Sex. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2012 p394-5.
• Zagria “Who wrote Hirschfeld’s "Sexual Anomalies and Perversions"?”. Gender Variance Who’s Who, 28 February 2013. Online.
• Zagria, “Felix Abraham. Part II: Les Perversions Sexuelles”, Gender Variance Who’s Who, 25 September 2022. Online
• Geoffrey Marx. “36. Felix Abraham II”. Online
• EN.Wikipedia(Arthur Koestler)

Two books impossible to find

•  Akhter Hussain Balou.   A study of sociology of trans-sexuals of Sindh. 2010.  This book is not offered in Amazon, not even Amazon.IN, not in AbeBooks, not in Anna's Archive.

From Imtiaz Ali's review, the year of publication:

Tracing history of trans-sexuals based on different published sources, Balouch said that one of the tragic aspects of conquering of the countries by kings was that “beautiful boys” used to be “gifted”’ in the past. Trans-sexuals gained prominence during the Mughal era, especially during rule of Mohammed Shah Rangeela, and Alauddin Khilji.Khilji appointed a trans-sexual, Malik Kafur as chief of the army and ordered him to conquer Deccan in 1307 with 100,000 troops under his leadership.

Talking about emergence of this genetic breed in Sindh, the book points out that “Ganga Ram” was first known trans-sexual who migrated from the present-day India to Sindh. ‘Her’ supporters termed themselves ‘Suhagi Faqir’ and they did not like begging.

 

Banikar was first trans-sexual who established a ‘Dera or Murhi’ in Hyderabad around 300 years ago. Transvestites gained prominence during the rule of Talpurs in Sindh.

 

Akhter Balouch referred a tragic incident in his study that occurred in May 1929 in Jacobabad city. A famous local personality, Pir Abul Hasan had developed an extraordinary interest in a Hindu trans-sexual, ‘Sago’ who used to act in stage dramas as a girl.

 

One day, Pir died mysteriously while watching the drama. It triggered Hindu-Muslim riots, in which around 10 Hindus were killed.

 

The British rulers ordered an inquiry into the incident led by a Parsi, Sukhia (in order to ensure impartiality in the Hindi-Muslim clashes, the British rulers used to appoint Parsis). Sukhia in his inquiry report, unearthed a ‘conspiracy’ allegedly hatched by big feudal lords and religious leaders.

• Barbara Daniel. She’s No Lady: The Story of Jamie Lee Hamilton. Toronto: Cormorant Books Inc 300 pp 2005.  Amazon. 

Several booksellers actually list this book, but nobody has a copy.   I once tried and failed to get it through interlibrary loan.  As it was published in Canada, there should be a copy in the National Library of Canada, but there is not.

My account of Jamie Lee Hamilton (1955-2019) Sex worker, activist, political candidate.

 

Barbara de Lamere (1940 - ) proof-reader, magazine editor

Most of the trans women in New York in the 1970s who are written about did not get as far as completion surgery. One who did so was Barbara de Lamere who transitioned at work in the late 1970s, and had surgery in 1982. She retained her job at Kaye Scholer law firm. She became active in The Gay Veterans Association and the Irish and Lesbian Gay Organization.

Enid & Barbara

She had been born as Eddie Dame and mainly raised in New York City. Eddie was in the US Air Force (1959-63) where he found a male lover, Larry. They continued as a gay couple after leaving the Air Force, until Larry married a woman in 1967 saying that he wanted children. However, they continued to meet for sex until Eddie became Barbara in 1982. Eddie had been transvesting since the age of 3, and continued even though Larry was uncomfortable with it. 

In 1967 Eddie joined Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company and was given the stage name of Bunny Eisenhower. The same year he met Enid Jacobs who accepted Eddie’s cross-dressing. Eddie gave up acting. In 1970 Eddie and Enid were married. The same year Eddie was a co-founder with Lee Brewster, Bebe Scarpinato (a teacher), Vicky West (artist) and Chris Moore (a Jewel Box Revue performer) of the Queens' Liberation Front, where he used his stage name, and photographs of Bunny are in Drag magazine 1,1. His affair with Larry continued. The QLF agitated and several New York ordinances that constricted transvesting were removed.

Enid and Eddie were divorced in 1977. Enid kept Eddie’s surname, even after she remarried. 

Eddie started social transition.  In 1982 Eddie took the name Barbara de Lamere and had completion surgery.  The sexual affair with Larry ended.

Enid gained a PhD in English from Rutgers University in 1983, and taught there and at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She became known as a poet, and with her new husband Donald Lev edited Home Planet News, a literary review. Enid and Barbara remained good friends and Barbara was well-known to Enid’s family. Barbara was Associate Editor at the Home Planet News using the name Careufel de Lamiere.

Arthur David Kahn (1920-2009) was a communist author and politician, journalist, classics scholar and professor, and gay rights activist. He had been an officer in the OSS, and was a war interrogator in Germany from 1945. Back in the US he was involved in the Communist Party and the Progressive Party and blacklisted. In the 1960s he did a PhD in Philosophy, and then taught English and comparative literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Later Kahn helped found and later chair the Classics department at the new Brock University in Ontario. (Books by Kahn)

In the early 1990s after interviews and the subsequent book Aids, The Winter War: A Testing of America, published 1993, his interest turned to gay activists in New York City. One of the interviewees was Barbara de Lamere. The resulting book was The Many Faces of Gay: Activists Who Are Changing the Nation, 1997. As a courtesy to protect Enid’s privacy, he gave her name as Esther.

Enid died in 2003, and The Academy of American Poets each year bestows the Enid Dame Memorial Poetry Prize for the best poem by an undergraduate. Tributes.

Barbara/Careufel then became Executive Editor along with Donald Lev.

Susan Stryker’s Transgender History came out in 2008. Presumably she had not read Kahn’s book. She simply wrote: “More significant was the Queens’ Liberation Front (QLF), founded by drag queen Lee Brewster and heterosexual transvestite Bunny Eisenhower”. That is it. Stryker gave only Barbara’s short lived stage name, and a very incorrect and unneeded sexual orientation.

In 2015 I wrote up and published an account mainly based on Kahn’s book.

The second edition of Stryker’s book came out in 2017, with the QLF sentence unchanged.

In March 2021, Enid’s brother commented on my account, mainly to criticize that I had Barbara’s wife’s name wrong - that she was Enid not Esther. That enabled me to google Enid Dame and I found an interesting poet.

DeDe Jacobs-Komisar, Enid’s niece then posted and gave interesting information about how Barbara was welcomed by the Jacobs family even after transition.

The third edition of Styker’s book came out in 2026. Again the with the QLF sentence unchanged, and no other mention of Barbara.

• “Drag Queens Demonstrate”. Drag: a magazine about the transvestite, 1,1: 1970: 6-7. 3 photographs of Bunny.
• Arthur David Kahn. The Many Faces of Gay: Activists Who Are Changing the Nation. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1997: 3, 15-20, 266-9.
• Barbara writing as Careufel de Lamiere. “Remembering Enid”. Home Planet News, 10 March 2003. Online.
• Susan Stryker. Transgender History. Seal Press, 2008: 87. 2nd edition, 2017:111. 3rd edition, 2026: 74.
• Zagria. “Susan Stryker: Transgender History – a review”. April 2010. Online.
• Madeline Tiger & DeDe Jacobs-Komisar. “How Enid Dame led us beyond paradigms”. Bridges, 16,1, Spring 2011.
• Zagria. “Barbara de Lamere previously known as Bunny Eisenhower”. September 2015, revised March 2021. Online.
• DeDe Jacobs-Komisar. Comment online.

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On page ix-x in the Preface, Kahn wrote: “ three interviewees asked to be identified solely by their first names; others are represented under first-name pseudonyms”. So is Barbara de Lamere a pseudonym? Well, we know that she wrote under the name Careufel de Lamiere. However DeDe Jacobs-Komisar’s comment clarifies that she was indeed known as Barbara de Lamere.