This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1700 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing.

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18 July 2013

20 trans persons in the US who changed things by example and/or achievement


Buzzfeed, a days ago published “24 Americans Who Changed The Way We Think About Transgender Rights”.

See also Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia/NZ, Americans in Europe, Europeans in the Americas.
 
Lists like this are always arbitrary, and well-deserving persons are always left out.   However I quickly realized that my list would be quite different even though some on the BuzzFeed list would have made my list if I were starting from scratch.  However as this is in effect a response I have not included any of those on the BuzzFeed list.   (No. I am not going to specify whom).

The 20 persons below are not sorted by importance.   How could one do that?  They are sorted by birth year.
  1. We'wha (1849 - 1896) a Zuni lhamana.  The first two-spirit person to be invited to the White House in the 1880s where she met with President Grover Cleveland.    WIKIPEDIA.
  2. Alice Baker (188? – 19??) school teacher arrested and outed in the press, but a quiet inspiration to many.  GVWW
  3. Ray Bourbon (1892 – 1971)  pansy performer who claimed to have had the operation.  GVWW    WIKIPEDIA
  4. Phil Black (190? – 1975)  performer who started the New York drag balls that evolved into the later voguing balls.  GVWW 
  5. Reed Erickson  (1917 – 1992) engineer, philanthropist.  Subsidized many organizations and writers. The major mover behind the trans scene in the 1960 and 1970s.  GVWW    WIKIPEDIA 
  6. Hedy Jo Star (1920 – 1999) showgirl, costumier.  The first full-length autobiography by a US trans woman, 1955.  GVWW   
  7. Stormé DeLarverie (1920 – 2014) Jewel Box Review performer, Stonewall alumnus.  GVWW    WIKIPEDIA 
  8. Pussy Katt (1929 – ) the first known US surgical transsexual who had her operation in 1945 at age 16.  GVWW  
  9. Gloria Hemingway (1931 – 2001) writer, doctor, daughter of Ernest.  GVWW    WIKIPEDIA
  10. Issan Dorsey (1933 – 1990) drag performer who became a Zen Abbot. GVWW   WIKIPEDIA 
  11. Terry Noel (1936 – ) Jewel Box Review performer, computer programmer-analyst.  The first trans women known to work for the US Government.  GVWW   
  12. Aleshia Brevard (1937 – )  first trans women to play significant roles in Hollywood films.  www.aleshiabrevard.com
  13. Agnes (1939 – ) at 19 in 1959 was able to persuade Robert Stoller and the UCLA Medical Center that she had testicular feminization syndrome, and so was approved for vaginoplasty. GVWW  
  14. Catherine Jones (1944 – 2011) Artist. GVWW   WIKIPEDIA   

  15. Donna Parsons (1945 – 2003) recording supervisor, Chaplin impersonator. GVWW    
  16. Joan Roughgarden (1946 – ) biologist at Stanford University, author of Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and PeopleGVWW          WIKIPEDIA  
  17. Rachel Harlow (1948 – ) star of The Queen, a sensation at the Cannes International Film Festival,  club owner in Philadelphia.  GVWW  
  18. Patrick Califia (1954 – ) controversial writer  who wrote one of the best books on the topic, Sex changes : the politics of transgenderism, before himself deciding to transition. WIKIPEDIA 
  19. Sulka (195? – ) pioneer trans porn star who became post-op (unlike most such stars today).  GVWW 
  20. Johnny Science (1955 – 2007) drag king/trans man pioneer in 1980s/1990s New York.  GVWW  

1 comment:

  1. As I further think through what I am doing here, I realize that I am going to do a list of Americans who moved to Europe and Europeans who moved to the Americas.

    Hence I have removed from here Angie Stardust, prominent among those who moved to Europe, and replaced her with the equally notable Jeffrey Catherine Jones.

    ReplyDelete

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