The First Drafts of Trans Histories Part III: 1970 onwards

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

Arthur Bell (1939 - 1984)

Brooklyn born, Montreal raised, Arthur Bell was an early member of the New York Gay Liberation Front and a founding member of the Gay Activists Alliance, and became a journalist mainly for The Village Voice. Bell was in Europe with his lover Arthur Evans the summer of 1969, and thus was not at Stonewall.

Bell and Sylvia Rivera publicized the plight of Chris Thompson, a dancer who went for treatment for asthma at New York’s Bellevue Hospital in 1970, but was locked in the psychiatric wing for being black, gay and trans.

Bell publicized Sylvia Rivera’s trial in 1970 for soliciting signatures on a petition for gay rights, and then later her involvement in Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and then STARHouse. It is presumably the fame resulting from this that led David Isay and Martin Duberman to include her in their accounts of Stonewall (although apparently she was not actually there).

Arthur Bell chronicled STAR’s relationship to both Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance, theorizing that internal GAA ideological conflict contributed to its recalcitrance toward providing financial support.

Perhaps Bell had said too much about the hustling patterns of STAR members in that a flurry of 42nd Street arrests followed The Village Voice article “STAR Trek”.

Mafiosi Mile Umbers owned the rundown building where STAR house was located. In July 1971 he confronted them about unpaid rent and settled for eviction. His bar Christopher’s End was also raided, and Bell wrote about Umbers’ influence in straight and gay pimping and in the gay bar scene in The Village Voice, 22 July, and shortly afterwards GAA organized a protest campaign outside Christopher’s End.

In December that year, Bell wrote about the wedding of Liz Eden and John Wojtowicz/Basso, and in August 1972 John attempted what became known as the Dog Day Afternoon bank robbery which turned into a hostage situation. Bell phoned into the bank and Wojtowicz answered and gave his version of what he was doing. Bell understood that Wojtowicz had shared his plans with Mike Umbers who supplied guns in exchange for 50% of the take. Bell later that evening went on Barry Farber’s radio program to discuss what he knew about the incident. Bell also interviewed Liz.

Arthur Bell’s investigation of claims that Wojtowicz had been set up by the Gambino mafia family brought bomb threats to the Village Voice. At Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) meetings

“conservative and radical gays debated over whether Wojtowicz was a counterrevolutionary lumpen adventurer victimized by the mob or a proud gay superfly caught in an act of righteous expropriation, but the debate was inconclusive.” (Holm, 1976)

In May 1972 Bell also found time to interview the Andy Warhol ‘superstar’ Candy Darling.

In May 1979 Bell interviewed composer Wendy Carlos who had just revealed that she had transitioned some years earlier.

And later that year he wrote in support of the campaign against William Friedkin‘s film Cruising being filmed on the streets where real gay and trans persons were endangered. While the film was partially based on news articles he had written about unsolved murders of gay men, he was leaked the screenplay and deplored its negative depiction of gay men.

Arthur Bell died in 1984, age 44, from complications related to diabetes.

*Not the golfer, or the convicted murderer, or the dancer.

• Arthur Bell & Sylvia Rivera. “Chris: Gay Prisoner in Bellevue.” Gay Flames, Nov. 14, 1970. Online
• Arthur Bell. “NYU Sit-In Story.” 1970, NYPL.
• Arthur Bell. “Ray Rivera is known as.” 1970, NYPL.
• Arthur Bell. “Sylvia goes to college”. Village Voice, October 13, 1970.
• Arthur Bell. “Statement to G.A.A. About the Weinstein Sit-In.” Sept/Oct 1970, NYPL
• Arthur Bell. “STAR Trek: Transvestites in the street.” Village Voice, July 15, 1971, 1, 46.
• Arthur Bell. “Mike Umbers: The Emperor of Christopher Street”. Village Voice, July 22, 1971. Online.
• Arthur Bell. Dancing the Gay Lib Blues: A Year in the Homosexual Liberation Movement. Simon & Schuster, 1971.
• Arthur Bell. “For immediate release: Transvestite Forum to Kickoff Series on Alternate Life Styles.” March 5, 1972, NYPL.
• Arthur Bell. “Candy Darling, Where Were You the Night Jean Harlow Died”. Village Voice, May 18, 1972. Online.
• Arthur Bell. “Littlejohn & the mob: Saga of a Heist”. The Village Voice, August 31, 1972. Online.
• Eric Holm. "Dog Day Afternoon, Dog day aftertaste". Jump Cut, 10-11. 1976:3-4. Online.
• Arthur Bell. Kings Don't Mean a Thing, William Morrow and Co, 1978.
• Arthur Bell. “Wendy/Walter Carlos: a candid conversation with the “switched-on Bach” composer who, for the first time, reveals her sex-change operation and her secret life as a woman”. Playboy, May 1979. Online.
• Arthur Bell. “On ‘Cruising’: The Hollywood Hassle”. The Village Voice, September 3, 1979. Online.
• Stephen L Cohen. The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: “An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail”. Routledge, 2008.
• Zagria. “Sylvia Rivera Part II: GAA & Weinstein Hall”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 8 September 2017. Online.
• Zagria. “Sylvia Rivera Part V: Later Years”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 14 September 2017. Online.
• Zagria. “Liz Eden and Dog Day Afternoon: Part I - Two Weddings and a Bank Robbery”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 22 August 2020. Online.
• EN.Wikipedia(Arthur Bell (journalist))
• Village Voice(Arthur Bell)

Kris Kirk (1950-1993)

Christopher Pious Mary Kirk (1950 – 1993) was a journalist for Gay News in the early 1980s. Later he was the first openly gay music journalist writing for Melody Maker, The Guardian and other publications. In 1984 he published Men In Frocks, with photographs by his lover Ed Heath.

The title, Men in Frocks, was of course ill-chosen. Kris, several times in the book has to apologize that a person (Poppy Cooper, Roz Kaveney, Letitia Winter) is not a man in a frock, she having become a woman. However the book is of major historical interest, and many of its observations are still valid.

The book remains the best history of drag and trans women from the 1940s to the early 1980s. In the ‘40s there was drag performance in the soldiers-in-skirts revues; in the ‘50s some went to Paris and were employed at Madame Arthur/Le Carrousel. A very small number were able to transition, and others did drag acts on the ships of the merchant navy, and there was actually still a molly house, that of Stella Minge in Silvertown, London. In the ‘60s drag shows in pubs became common, and then drag balls which attracted drag performers at first, and then trans women started coming. The ‘70s started with the Gay Liberation Front in which otherwise cis gay men did political drag. There was also a Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen group for the more committed. In the ‘80s Kirk and Heath went to the London TV/TS group and featured several of the participants in their book.

In their ‘TV & TS’ chapter Kirk discusses the differences between DQ, TV and TS. The stereotypes, and the fact that many do not fit the stereotypes. He concludes:

"If there is any one lesson to be learned from studying this field it is that the individual is individual. People define themselves and the self-definition must always takes priority over the received wisdom. I have met self-defined drag queens whom others would describe as TV either because they enjoy 'passing'; or because they 'dress' so often that it could be seen as a compulsion; or because they wear lingerie, either to turn men on or to make themselves feel sensuous. I have met drag performers who have grown to dislike drag, and men who insist on being called 'cross-dressers' because they dislike what the word 'drag' stands for, and men who wear part-drag in order to create confusion and doubt amongst others, but who would never wear full drag because that would defeat their object. I know self-defined TVs who are gay or bisexual or oscillating, some of them having learned to cross this sexuality barrier through their cross-dressing. I have met TVs who dress like drag queens and drag queens who dress like TVs, and TVs whose cross-dressing has encouraged them to question their 'male role', which in turn has made them examine their idea of 'femininity'. And perhaps most important of all, I have learned how marshy a terrain is the middle ground between our earlier clear-cut distinction between transvestites and transexuals."

In 1986, Channel 4 television broadcast a documentary-drama about Kris Kirk entitled A Boy Called Mary. In 1988 Kris and Ed moved to rural Wales to open a bookshop, but three years later Kris found that he had Aids. He went blind in 1992, and died in 1993.

• Kris Kirk with photographs by Ed Heath. Men In Frocks. Gay Men's Press 1984.
• Kris Kirk. Boy Called Mary: Kris Kirk's Greatest Hits. Millivres Books, 1999.
• Zagria. “A review of Kris Kirk & Ed Heath - Men in Frocks, 1984”. Gender Variance Who’s Who 16 April 2013. Online.
• “Men in Frocks”. LGBT+ Language and Archives: Cumbria’s Queer heritage, August 3, 2020. Online.
• EN.Wikipedia(Kris Kirk)

Liz Hodgkinson (1945 -)

Liz Hodgkinson and her husband became journalists at first in North-East England. In 1970 they moved to Richmond, London and both obtained work with the national and the London papers then located in Fleet Street. Liz found work at The Sunday People, The Sun, The Daily Mail, and The Times.

In Richmond she heard rumours of the local trans woman, and then encountered Roberta Betty Cowell in the post office. Betty took a shine to Liz, and made many of her documents available. They started writing a book together about Cowell's life, but in the end Betty did not approve it for publication.

Later Liz met Judy Cousins who established SHAFT (Self-Help Association For Transsexuals) in 1980, and Julia Grant who had just been featured in a BBC documentary. She wrote an account of the two for The Sun in October 1980, her first publication on trans persons.

Hodgkinson visited SHAFT and interviewed several of its members. This resulted in her 1987 book, Bodyshock (review). The book is dedicated to Judy Cousins, but an account of her life is missing in the book. However Hodgkinson also published a profile on Cousins in The Sunday People around the same time that the book came out. Likewise Betty Cowell is mentioned only in the section on birth certificates, and no profile otherwise given.

Betty Cowell had told Liz about Michael Dillon, and in researching her book Liz was introduced to Andrew Hewson, the literary agent who had taken over John Johnson Ltd, and who was holding Dillon's then unpublished autobiography and others of his documents. In addition to writing about Dillon in Bodyshock, she wrote a full-length biography of him, based on the autobiography. Her collection and the autobiography of course are a major source of Pagan Kennedy's more recent joint biography of Michael Dillon and Betty Cowell, which gives Hodgkinson only the most cursory credit.

Cowell never re-established contact with her two daughters. She died age 93 in 2011.

In 2015 there was a Channel 4 television documentary about Michael and Betty, and Hodgkinson contacted one of Cowell’s daughters, and wrote up an article for the Daily Telegraph, and issued a second edition of Michael, Née Laura, but with a slightly changed title.

• Liz Hodgkinson. “Why are Julia and Judy different from other women”. The Sun, 14 October 1980. Online.
• Liz Hodgkinson. "Father, Dear Father: Ex-officer and gentleman Judy Cousins and her daughter Penny Croucher talk to Liz Hodgkinson". The People, ?, 1987. Online.
• Liz Hodgkinson. Bodyshock: the truth about changing sex. Columbus, 1987.
• Mary Kenny. “They've looked at life from both sides now”. The Irish Independent, 26 September 1987. Review of Bodyshock.
• Liz Hodgkinson. Michael, Née Laura: The Story of the World's First Female-to-Male Transsexual. Columbus, 1989.
• Liz Hodgkinson. “Bridges across the divide to the opposite sex: how attitudes to transsexuals have changed and what help is on offer”. The Independent, 9 October 1990.
• Liz Hodgkinson. “Goodbye Samantha, hello Sam: What motivates increasing numbers of cross-dressers to escape their sex”. The Independent, 14 September 1992. Online.
• Review of Bodyshock. The Tartan Skirt, 6, April 1993. Online.
• Pagan Kennedy. The First Man-Made Man: The Story of Two Sex Changes, One Love Affair, and a Twentieth-Century Medical Revolution. Bloomsbury Press, 2007.
• Liz Hodgkinson. "The true story behind Britain's first transsexual woman". The Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct 2015. Online.
• Liz Hodgkinson. From a Girl to a Man: How Laura Became Michael. Quartet Books, 2015. A second edition of Michael, Née Laura.
• Maggie Hartford. "Liz Hodgkinson explores the history of transgender people in new book". Oxford Mail, 9th February 2016. Online.
• Zagia. “A Rereading of Liz Hodgkinson’s Bodyshock: The Truth About Changing Sex, 1987”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 5 June 2022. Online.
• EN.Wikipedia(Liz Hodgkinson)

David Batty (1974? -)

David Batty graduated BA in literature from the University of Birmingham in 1995, and BA in journalism at Cardiff University, 1997, and became a Guardian journalist in 2001. He specialises in social affairs, inequality, cultural politics, adoption and trans issues.

In 2004, as the Gender Recognition Bill was proceeding through parliament, psychiatrist Russell Reid faced a complaint to the General Medical Council (GMC) that he too easily accepted patients for hormone therapy and surgery. The complaint was brought by four of his colleagues at the Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic, psychiatrists James Barrett, Richard Green, Donald Montgomery and senior registrar Stuart Lorimer on behalf of four of his former patients. Batty wrote this up for The Guardian in January, February and June.

Starting with some of Russell’s patients, Batty reached out and met other transsexuals, especially those with doubts or regrets. He was preparing an article on such.

In July, a few weeks after the Gender Recognition Act had been passed, Batty returned to the University of Birmingham where Chris Hyde ran the Aggressive Research Intelligence Facility (ARIF). The Guardian had actually asked ARIF to study more than 100 international medical studies of post-operative transsexuals. Hyde said: "There is a huge uncertainty over whether changing someone's sex is a good or a bad thing. While no doubt great care is taken to ensure that appropriate patients undergo gender reassignment, there's still a large number of people who have the surgery but remain traumatised - often to the point of committing suicide." He also warned that “the results of many gender reassignment studies are unsound because researchers lost track of more than half of the participants” - and that “the high drop out rate could reflect high levels of dissatisfaction or even suicide among post-operative transsexuals”. He ignored the much higher suicide rate of those denied transition, and that it is well established that post-operatives often disappear because they are pleased and completed, not dissatisfied.

This article was later cited in various places against the acceptance of gender surgery - notably at the US Supreme Court case Joel Doe Et Al., V. Boyertown Area School District Et Al., and Pennsylvania Youth Congress Foundation, 2018 on whether trans persons are protected under Title IX. Online.

Batty followed up the article, the very next day, with a major account in the magazine supplement to The Guardian’s sister publication, The Sunday Observer, “What happens if you change your sex ... and then change your mind” with before and after photographs of some regretters. He featured Marissa who changed sex three times (m-f-m-f) having reversed after joining an evangelical church and then having regretted reversing, and Claudia, a singer, who transitioned 18 years earlier, lost her confidence to perform and only in 2004 was suing Russell Reid. Marissa and Claudia were then cited in other publications. Batty cites the ARIF estimate that 3-18% of transsexuals regret transition (most other estimates say 1-2%). He quotes the Australian changeback Alan Finch who advocates for all sex changes to be banned, and for supposed balance Batty tells of a single successful transition, that of physicist Rachael Padman.

In 2006-7 the GMC proceeded with its inquiry into Russell Reid, and Batty wrote up the developments. He profiled some of the patients under single letter pseudonyms, and Charles Kane by name. Kane was suing Reid separately. Kane who was then in his reversion-to-male phase, later also had a third sex-change again to female(m-f-m-f), and settled on the name Samantha.

Russell Reid’s practice was taken over by Richard Curtis, himself trans. In 2013 similar complaints were made as those against Russell Reid, and again it was Batty who reported this in The Guardian.

*not the footballer

• David Batty. “GMC inquiry into gender change expert”. The Guardian, 20 January 2004. Online.
• David Batty, “Sex-change patient complains to GMC”. The Guardian, 18 February 2004. Online.
• David Batty. “Inquiry into sex change specialist”, The Guardian, 19 June 2004. Online.
• David Batty. “Sex changes are not effective, say researchers”, The Guardian, 30 July 2004. Online.
• David Batty. “What happens if you change your sex ... and then change your mind: Mistaken Identity”. The Observer, 31 July 2004.
• “I need some rebuttals for this study that says sex changes are not effective”, r/asktransgender, Reddit. Online.
• David Batty. “Sex change experts should err on the side of caution”. The Guardian, 10 October 2006. Online.
• David Batty. “Psychiatrist rushed me into having sex change, says patient”. The Guardian, 26 October 2006. Online.
• Julie Bindel. “Mistaken identity”. The Guardian, 23 May 2007. Online.
• David Batty. “Sex Change Doctor Guilty Of Misconduct”. The Guardian, 25 May 2007. Online.
• David Batty. “Russell Reid inquiry: key figures”. The Guardian, 25 May 2007. Online.
• David Batty. “Sex-change doctor found guilty of misconduct”. The Guardian, 26 May 2007. Online.
• David Batty. “Doctor is accused of breaching rules on sex-change surgery”. The Guardian, 7 January 2013.
• Zagria, “Claudia (1958 - ) opera singer, drag performer”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 3 November 2008, Online.
• Zagria. “Russell Reid (1943 - ) psychiatrist”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 18 May 2010. Online.
• Zagria. “Richard Curtis (1967 - ) doctor, yacht racer”. A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 24 July 2019. Online.
• The Guardian(David Batty)
• Muck Rack(David Batty)

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)