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

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.

---

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.

The Autogynephilia Project

Thomas Hubbard (Wikipedia) was previously a classicist at the University of Texas-Austin who wrote/edited several important books on sex in ancient Greece and Rome, until some students took his discussions of ancient man-boy sexuality as a defence of modern pederasty and vandalised his house. This led to his retirement. He is now President and Executive Director of the William A Percy Foundation for Social and Historical Studies.

William A Percy (Wikipedia) is best known for The Age of Marriage in Ancient Rome (2003) and was a co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990). The articles in the Encyclopedia on ‘Transvestism (Cross-dressing)’ and ‘Transsexualism’ were pretty bad generally, totally ignoring writings by trans persons, and also admiring the pioneering transphobe Janice Raymond - but they were written by the other two co-editors, not by Percy. See my “More on Wayne Dynes”. I did meet Percy in person. He asked me various questions re trans matters, but showed no conscious interest in autogynephilia as such - although he did offer to sponsor me to go to Fantasia Fair (which I declined).

Percy, before his death in 2022, maintained an extensive web site williamapercy.com but the Foundation set up in his name has allowed it to die.

The Foundation web page lists 14 projects, almost all related to male homosexuality. The odd one out is The Autogynephilia Project.

Let us start with the image on the Autogynephila Project page:

This is a 1841 painting of a cis woman admiring herself in a mirror by the Danish painter Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg.

Now the point of Autogynephilia is that it is a diagnosis of a type of boy or man who is sexually aroused by the idea of himself as female. Autoandrophilia is a girl or woman who likewise is sexually aroused by the idea of herself as male. One of the criticisms of the idea of Autogynephilia is that if there is actually such a thing, its most common occurrence is in post-pubertal teenage cis girls who are delighted by the changes in their maturing bodies. Some cis women continue to be autogynephilic well into maturity, as some cis men do continue to be autoandrophilic. If so, autogynephilia is a normal variation, not a mental illness. It occurs in mature trans women to the extent that transition is a sort of second puberty.

Very little research has been done on cis female autogynephilia, and thus there is no baseline against which to measure trans female autogynephilia.

However the Blanchard-Bailey-Zucker clique do not go with this interpretation.

The picture is definitely not an image of an autogynephilic trans girl.

So why this image? Does it imply that Hubbard etc do not understand what autogynephilia is supposed to be? Or is it a sly subversion of their own project?

What is Autogynephilia (AGP)?

Prior to 1910 the words ‘transvestite’ and ‘tranvestism’ had been used without specific reference to sexual arousal or orientation. The Paris police had been issuing permissions de travestissement since 1800 mainly to female-born persons living and/or working as male without reference to sexuality. In 1910 Magnus Hirschfeld published his Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb,(Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress) and two years later a pictorial supplement, Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb (Erotic crossdressing).

The inclusion of “erotischen Verkleidungstrieb” in the title misled later writers although we may note that many of the actual case studies in the former book do not report anything sexual as such. Due to criticisms that he had conflated homosexuality and transvestism in earlier writings, Hirschfeld had overcompensated, and for the 17 case studies that comprise Part 1, he systematically excluded androphilic transvestites. Eight years later in his Sexualpathologie he reversed this and reported that about 35 per cent of transvestites are heterosexual and an equal percentage homosexual, while about 15 per cent are bisexual. The remaining 15 per cent are mostly what he called automonosexual, but also include a small proportion of asexuals. Hirschfeld also arranged police permissions, translating the French permissions de travestissement as Transvestitenscheinen, and, as in Paris, the document was with reference to work, not to sexuality.

Various psychiatrists, notably Emil Gutheil and Wilhelm Stekel, mainly working as Freudian psychoanalysts, picked up on the erotic slant, and analysed their trans patients as needing to be cured. (Stekel apparently coined the term ‘paraphilia’.)

Kurt Freund, in Toronto in the 1980s was a pioneer in the application of penile plethysmography. This tool claimed to measure penile arousal when a ‘man’ was shown various pictures of adults and children or listened to descriptions of such. The results of this research were such that Freund was never able to identify anyone as bisexual, and so, rather than see this as a defect in his methodology, he claimed that there are no bisexuals. Despite this deficiency, he used penile plethysmography, to divide trans women into two groups whom he designated as ‘homosexual’ and ‘non-homosexual’. For both types, the term ‘homosexual’ for heterosexual trans women denies that we are women.

Ray Blanchard, who replaced Freund at Toronto’s Clarke Institute (now CAMH=Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) coined the term ‘autogynephilia’ for the ‘non-homosexual’ group. In his “Origins of the Concept of Autogynephilia” he defines it as “a male’s propensity to be erotically aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman”. Blanchard was criticised for dismissing exceptions to his model as either misreportings or even lies.

Other approaches

Of course the word “autogynephilia” is simply “love of oneself as a woman” using Greek roots. Apparently most of the cross-dressers and gynephilic trans women who do use the term “autogynephilic” for themselves use it in this sense without the baggage of fetish or erotic arousal. Indeed an actual erotic arousal while out shopping or on public transport is very likely to be problematic.

Anne Vitale proposed a 3-type division: G1 the high intensity trans person who often starts to transition in childhood; G2 persons who spend some years as a lesbian or gay man before transition; G3 persons who conform to society’s gender expectations, often marry and have children - they typically suffer increasingly painful and chronic gender dysphoria and live secretive lives. G1 and G2 transition without trauma, requiring medical assistance only for hormone prescriptions and gender surgery. G3 need help dealing with what she calls Gender Deprivation Anxiety Disorder (GEDAD) which seems to be similar to AGP but offers a healthier solution.

There is a cultural problem in that AGPs seem to be found only in North America and Europe. Rod Fleming claims to identify AGPs in the Philippines and wrote about his affair with Samantha whom he presents as AGP. He sees Filipino AGPs as not androphilic, but like androphilic trans women they transition before maturity although after puberty. In which case they do not go through the fetishistic (GEDAD) phase - and therefore do not meet Blanchard's definition.

Charlotte Goiar proposed the concept of Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS) as opposed to autogynephiles. To many, HBS and Blanchard’s Homosexual Transsexual (HSTS) appear to be almost the same, but HBS and Blanchardianism are two solitudes not talking to each other.

Jack Molay took what is useful in the concept of autogynephila and came up with Crossdreamer - ‘transvalued’ as he says. “The act of dreaming about being one’s target sex or getting aroused by the idea of being one’s target sex. Crossdreamer is a subcategory under the wider umbrella term ‘transgender’ … Crossdreamers may be assigned male or female at birth. Their sexual orientation varies. There is no clear and distinct boundary between crossdreamers and other transgender people.” Crossdreamer is not a synonym for autogynephilia in that it does not require erotic arousal.

The anti-trans people, TERFs, Trump’s Maga people, and various religious groups, are delighted by the concept of Autogynephilia. They see all transsexuality as inauthentic, and a mental condition to be cured. Blanchardism feeds their prejudices and they see even HSTS as autogynephilic. “Autogynephilia” has become a strong insult term applied without discrimination.

Meanwhile out in the trenches of living as AGP, Rosey Bloomflower, a self described autogynephilic wrote comments on my encyclopedia two years ago: “Interestingly, the majority of the soi-disant autogynephiles in my generation (bear in mind I am quite young, going on 20 right now) seem to be exclusively attracted to other trans women. I have a boyfriend at the moment, but sometimes a relationship with a non-op trans woman does seem appealing. I am not attracted to genetic females or anyone with a vagina even if surgically constructed”. This is way beyond Blanchard. “It is my belief that the majority of "AGP" trans women are primarily attracted to other trans women, and only force themselves to sexually interact with cis women out of heteronormativity and internalized homophobia. You can see many cases where they divorce their cis wives if they had one, and partner with another trans woman after transitioning.”

I commented in reply: “Two trans women attracted to each other is a type of homosexuality. 'homo' = 'same' not 'male'. If they also self-id as AGP then they are homosexual AGPs, but Blanchard's definition of AGP (bi, hetero and asexual) is that AGPs are non-homosexual. So here we have an interesting contradiction of terms. Blanchard is a closeted gay man who has made comments outside his theoretical works that are even more anti-trans. His whole schema is a cisplaining using insulting terms/exonyms derived from the dubious concept of 'fetishism', and he has even refused to restate it in more polite terms.”

Recently, psychologist James Morandini has proposed that as many as 1 in 3 bisexual men may be autogynephilic. So much for Freund’s erasure of bisexuality.

Conclusion

Of course the problem with any Typology is human beings are idiosyncratic, they are human. Some appear to fit into one of the boxes of the Typology; others are re-interpreted until they appear to fit; others read the Typology as an instruction manual; and many just do not fit in any way at all. See my The Game of Typology. Blanchard proposed only two types of trans woman; Vitale proposed three; Harry Benjamin proposed six (and, as has been noted, he erased gay transvestites and gynephilic ‘true transsexuals’ ); in my expansion of Benjamin’s scale I propose nine. One could easily come up with many more - especially when indigenous and Asian variations are considered.

Hubbard writes: “The Percy Foundation is funding further study of this marginalized identity by an international team of prominent sexual scientists, led by Prof. J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern, and including Blanchard, Ken Zucker … and the evolutionary psychologist Paul Vasey, as well as several others.”

This team can hardly be objective in that Bailey, Blanchard and Zucker have built careers by assuming that AGP is a real thing. For them to find that AGP is a valid diagnosis is like a defence lawyer also being the judge and jury.

Hubbard shows no discomfort at the misuse of the word “homosexual” for heterosexual trans women, as if we were still in the 1980s. It is long past the time when Blanchardians should have proposed a less contentious terminology. Alice Novic proposed the terms Love-to-be-femme and Act-femme. Phil Illy has proposed AutoHeterosexual. Neither of these have been accepted. The only alternate term that has gained traction is Cross Dreamer with its significant revision of what AGP is.

It may not be a real thing, but in the last 40 years, different writers have taken different approaches to the conceptual nexus that encompasses AGP, GEDAD and cross dreaming. There is no indication that The Androphilia Project will absorb any of that, or even discuss the absence of AGP in Africa and Asia, or in previous centuries. The sociology or social psychology of identity formation is not even mentioned.

The Androphilia Project needs a rethink, and should be done by other more neutral people, not those who invented the concept and built their careers on taking it as fact.

• Magnus Hirschfeld. Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb, mit umfangreichem kasuistischem und historischem Material. Verlag Alfred Pulvermacher, 1910.

• Magnus Hirschfeld & Max Tilke. Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb: Die Transvestiten. Verlag von Alfred Pulvermacher & Co., 1912.

• Magnus Hirschfeld. Sexualpathologie. Ein Lehrbuch für Ärzte und Studierende. 1918. Volume II: Sexuelle Zwischenstufen. Das Mannlicher Weib und der Weiblicher Mann. (5 Sections: Hermaproditismus, Androgynie, Transvestitismus, Homosexualität, Metatropismus).

• Wilhelm Stekel. Der Fetischismus, vol. 7, Störungen des Trieb- und Affektlebens. Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1923. Translated by S Parker: Sexual Aberrations: The Phenomena of Fetishism in Relation to Sex. John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd, 1930.

• Kurt Freund, Betty Steiner & Samuel Chan. “Two types of cross-gender identity”. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 11, 1982.

• Kurt Freund. “Cross-Gender Identity on a Broader Context”. Chp 9 in Betty Steiner. Gender Dysphoria: Development, Research, Management. Plenum Press, 1985.

• Ray Blanchard, J G Racansky & Betty Steiner. “Phallometric Detection of Fetishistic Arousal in Heterosexual Male Cross-Dressers”. The Journal of Sex Research, 22, 4, November 1986.

• Ray Blanchard. “Origins of the Concept of Autogynephilia”. Feb 2004. Previously online at www.autogynephilia.org/origins.htm.

• Anne M. Vitale. Gendered Self: Further Commentary on the Transsexual Phenomenon. Flyfisher Press/Lulu, 2010.

• Jack Molay. A Creative Crossdreamer Vocabulary: Reflections on Transgender. Amazon Digital & Blurb, 2015.

• Charlotte Goiar. The Original Harry Benjamin Syndrome Book. Self published, 2021.

• Phil Illy. AutoHeterosexual: Attracted to being the other sex. Houndstooth, 2023.

• “The Autogynephilia Project”. William A Percy Foundation for Social and Historical Studies. Online.

• Andrea James. “Thomas K. Hubbard vs. transgender people”. Transgender Map, November 3, 2025. Online.

• James Morandini. “One in Three Bisexual Men May Be Autogynephilic. Understanding Their Experience Matters”. QueerMajority, November 18, 2025. Online.

Shadows in the Irish Independent

This image accompanied an article on trans persons in the Irish Independent, 26 September 1987.  Readers of this encyclopedia will of course recognise the anguish of being trapped in the wrong gender.

Anyway I put the picture into Google App to see if the picture had been used elsewhere.

Google App totally failed to get it: -

"This puzzle requires matching the visual elements of the long shadow in the foreground to the correct person standing in the background.

The shadow belongs to the second woman from the left (the one wearing the sleeveless V-neck dress and a headband).

Visual Evidence Breakdown

• The Hair: The shadow shows long, wavy hair flowing backward with a distinct thick headband across the top of the head. Only the second woman is wearing a headband.
• The Dress/Sleeves: The shadow features sleeveless, bare arms connecting directly to the shoulder line. The woman on the far left has puffy short sleeves, and the woman on the right has long sleeves with a high collar.
• The Hands: The shadow's hands are clasped together tightly right in front of the waist. This matches the exact posture and hand placement of the second woman.

If you enjoy visual brainteasers, I can provide more puzzles. Would you prefer a logic grid puzzle, a lateral thinking riddle, or another spot-the-difference challenge?"