15 other persons worthy of more attention

 Buzz feed a few days ago ran a list of 19 trans persons who had achieved something in life. I have two problems with it.

• It is a list of the usual suspects. Why are such lists almost always aimed at readers who have been off-grid for years and are unaware of trans persons? These days even most cishet persons, old and young, are aware of Lili Elbe, Billy Tipton, Coccinelle, Christine Jorgensen, Renee Richards, Sylvia Rivera. Why not devote more of the list to the lesser known?
• The inclusion yet again of Roberta Cowell, referred to by those who knew her as Betty. Yes, Betty was one of the first trans women in Britain (preceded by Norma Jackson and Dorothy Medway – who unlike her were not nepo-babies and had far fewer resources), but she refused to consider herself as one of us – and in fact was quite transphobic. She insisted that Christine Jorgensen was a transvestist. She declined Michael Dillon’s advances, as she said later: “But as far as I was concerned, it would have been two females getting married (p87 in Hodgkinson’s book)”. On p101 of her autobiography she wrote: “One thing was certain. I had not the slightest desire to swell the ranks of the gentlemen of no particular gender. It is true that I had become a little more tolerant in this direction than I had been in the past; this meant, however, that had I met one I would have refrained from actually kicking his spine up through the top of his head.” When interviewed for the Sunday Times in March 1972 the interviewer commented: “She doesn’t approve of the Permissive Society and she doesn’t welcome Women’s Lib. She certainly hopes the trend towards Unisex has stopped. It’s unhealthy, unnatural.” And quoted her: “My experience shows that men and women are so completely different as to be almost different species. …. I was a freak. I had an operation and I’m not a freak any more. I had female chromosome make-up, XX. The people who have followed me have often been those with male chromosomes, XY. So they’ve been normal people who’ve turned themselves into freaks by means of the operation.” And of course, Cowell totally abandoned the two daughters that she had fathered. And indeed how could she have fathered children were she not XY?

Cowell is not at all a positive role model.

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Here are 15 other trans persons worthy of more attention. I could easily list 50 or more.

The sort is by birth date.

John de Verdion (1744-1802)

German book dealer and language teacher. De Verdion, after some embarrassment re his sex, emigrated to London, where he taught German to Edward Gibbon, and English to the Prussian ambassador. He lived 30 years in London, despite suspicions about his sex. GVWW

Toupie Lowther (1874-1944)

From teenage, a fencing champion, Toupie in 1898 vanquished the army’s Sergeant instructor at The Military Gymnasium of the Army Camp in Aldershot, and in 1903 held her own against the Maître, or Prof. Yvon at the Civil Engineers Hall in Paris. An accomplished singer and composer, Toupie set poems by Oscar Wilde and Alfred Tennyson to music, and her music was performed at the Wigmore Hall in London. Toupie was also a keen tennis player and participated in championship games, especially those held at Homburg 1896-1901, and at Wimbledon where she reached the singles semi-final in 1903. Toupie was one of the ‘first women’ to own a motorbike and lift weights. In 1917 Toupie organized an ambulance unit which worked on the front lines during the war. They were heavily involved in the battles at Compiègne, in June 1918. Lowther and several others in the unit were awarded the Croix de Guerre. Radclyffe Hall’s short story, "Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself", and her novel The Well of Loneliness were largely based on Toupie Lowther’s life. In later years Toupie lived in a small village in Sussex, mainly in male dress. GVWW.

Wilmer Broadnax (1922-1992)

From Louisiana, Broadnax took the identity of the elder brother who had died, and moving to Los Angeles, became a successful gospel singer, singing with the Spirit of Memphis and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. He died age 70 after a jealousy fracas with his younger girlfriend who stabbed him. GVWW.

Lucy Salani (1924-2023)

Compulsorily inducted into the Wehrmacht, in German-occupied Italy, the Repubblica di Salò, Salani from Bologna deserted twice. She survived in Bologna as a sex worker with even German officers as clients, until she was recognised and sentenced to a forced labour camp working on parts for the V-1 rockets. With another inmate, Salani escaped. On recapture, she was deported to the Dachau concentration camp, and had to wear a Pink Triangle. As allied troops approached, Salani was in a group that was lined up and machine-gunned. Salani was hit in the leg but was found alive under some dead inmates. After the war she worked in a drag show, and then became an upholsterer. She had completion surgery in London in the 1980s. In the 2010s she was discovered by LGBT groups and became an advocate for concentration camp survivors criticising how they were ignored and forgotten. She lived till age 98. GVWW.

Anne Vitale (1938 - )

Vitale transitioned while doing a psychology PhD. She opened a clinic in San Rafeal, California in 1984, and has treated many trans persons. She treats older transition persons for what she calls Gender Deprivation Anxiety Disorder (GEDAD). It is this deprivation, not a person’s gender identity, that she seeks to treat. GVWW

Dolly Van Doll/Carla Follis (1938 - )

From Turin, Dolly performed at Madame Arthur and then Le Carrousel. She had completion surgery from Dr Burou in Casablanca in 1964. . In 1971 she accepted a contract in Barcelona. She rose to become a star performer in Franco’s Spain, and also met the love of her life. After Franco’s death she revamped her act and opened her own club in Valencia. GVWW.

Roberta Perkins (1940-2018)

Perkins did a dissertation on transvestism and transsexuality at Macquarie University in Sydney in 1981 – one if the very first by an openly trans woman. She was also one of the members of the newly founded Australian Transsexual Association. Roberta’s book The Drag Queen Scene: Transsexuals in Kings Cross, a study of 146 lives based on her dissertation came out in 1983. The New South Wales Minister for Youth and Community Services read it and approved a grant of $A80,000 which was used to open a centre, Tiresias House. Within a few years, the centre has expanded to four houses. A residential nurse and a community worker were employed. Six years later it was renamed the Gender Centre. Perkins later wrote and published books and articles in peer-reviewed journals on trans women and sex workers. She was involved in the struggle for decriminalization of sex work in New South Wales and Australia. GVWW.

Janine Roberts (1942-2016)

Roberts was ordained a Catholic priest, and did degrees in theology, philosophy and sociology. Roberts then resigned from the priesthood and married a woman. They moved to Australia where they had two daughters. Roberts started working with Australian Aboriginals, and in 1976 published a book on their culture and institutional racism. She worked with aboriginal groups in resisting mining on their territory, and researched Granada TV’s World in Action program on the issue. By this time she had transitioned. In the late 1980s Janine was working on a documentary on the diamond industry for Australian, US and UK television. The Sun newspaper outed her to attack her credibility. In 1992, when The Diamond Empire was two-thirds shot, her home was invaded and she was seriously beaten and was in hospital for two months. While she was on the critical list, the BBC took control of the project away from her. The program was shown on the BBC and in the US with her name on it. Pressure from the diamond monopoly, De Beers, resulted in its showing on Australian Broadcasting Company being cancelled, and in the BBC not selling it abroad, especially to South Africa. GVWW.

Sonia Burgess (1947-2010)

Sonia was a lawyer from Yorkshire who had an office in Islington, London where she aided trans persons and immigrants. She sued the Home Secretary in 1991 when a teacher from Zaire was deported in defiance of a court ruling. She was the lawyer for Mark Rees in his appeal to the European Court of Human Right (ECHR) in 1986, and for Stephen Whittle in his four-year struggle to be recognised as his child’s parent – this also went to the ECHR in the early 1990s. Burgess was the lawyer for Press for Change. She building up to transition when in 2010, travelling on the Underground with a frustrated client, the client lashed out and Sonia went under a train. GVWW.

Brenda Lee (1948 – 1996)

She lived in São Paulo from age 14. Brenda was one of the first Brazilian travesties to work in Paris in the late 1970s as a prostitute. She returned to São Paulo in 1984 and bought a house in the Bixiga neighbourhood. She turned the building into a Casa de Apoio to care for those with HIV who had been rejected by their relatives, as many were after a series of murders of travesties in the South Zone of Sao Paulo in 1985. It started with three patients and an agreement with the São Paulo Ministry of Health, and in 1992 was legally incorporated. She worked with the Emilio Ribas Hospital which took those who needed hospitalization. Brenda also had a car repair business and a hairdressers in the building. She was brutally murdered in 1996. She was given a full Catholic funeral with representation from the Cardinal-Archbishop. A Brazilian award for defending human rights was named the Brenda Lee Award. GVWW.

Ajita Wilson (1950-1987)

From Brooklyn, Ajita Wilson moved to Europe where she appeared and often starred in almost 50 films, mainstream, porno and Euro-trash. She died from the complications from a road accident. GVWW.

Anna Grodzka (1954 - )

After marriage and raising a son, Anna transitioned in 2010. She was co-founder and then president of Trans-Fuzja, she was also vice-president of the Commission for Social Dialogue Committee for Equal Treatment under the President of the Capital City Warsaw. She was list Member of Parliament 2011-2015. GVWW.

Helen Savage (1955 - )

Savage was also an archeologist and a wine columnist, but was ordained in the Church of England in 1983, and in 1993 became the vicar in the parish of St Cuthbert’s in Bedlington, Northumberland. She transitioned with doctors at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. She did a PhD on gender dysphoria and Christian theology at the University of Durham, which draws upon the experiences of seven trans Christians who were interviewed over a period of eight months from 2002-3. She wanted to return to being a parish vicar, but encountered more problems as a woman than as a trans person in that some parishes would not take a woman priest, and she wished to remain in the north. Finally in 2015 she took the Moorland group of seven parishes around Hexham in Northumberland, and the Hexham Courant acquired its first ever wine columnist. She is also a Master of Wine (one of only 300 or so worldwide). GVWW.

Yasmene Jabar (1956 - )

A farmer’s daughter from North Carolina, she had completion surgery at age 20. She married two Moslem men (sequentially). She set up Cafe Trans Arabi and the International Transsexual Sisterhood, thefirst to help trans women in the middle east, and then expanded to help trans women wherever they are. In 2005 she was involved in the Trans Eastern Conference (TEC) in Istanbul. GVWW.

Karine Espineira (1967 - )

Born in Chile. The family fled to France after the US-backed Pinochet coup in September 1973. In the early 1990s Karine was involved in the Association du Syndrome de Benjamin that had just been founded by Tom Reucher; She and her life-partner Maud-Yeuse joined the anti-essentialist, anti-psychiatry, queer-theory group organized by University of Lille sociologist, Marie-Hélène Bourcier. In 2008 Karine published La transidentité: de l'espace médiatique à l'espace public; in 2012 Karine, Maud-Yeuse and Arnaud Alessandrin published La Transyclopedie: Tout Savoir Sur Les Transidentites, a history-cum-encyclopedia of transgender in France. GVWW.

The murderers amongst us

I recently noticed an upsurge in my top-ten articles of those convicted of murder, and was wondering why.

Then I discovered this terfy page. Several of the comments added by JLeGuin (the original poster) link to articles in my encyclopedia.

https://ovarit.com/o/GenderCritical/46166/can-we-build-an-index-of-tims-who-murdered-women

TIM is one of those terfy terms, an acronym for ‘Trans Identified Male’ meaning a trans woman.

GVWW is not an apologia for trans persons. I attempt to report truthfully whatever I find. It is the case that there are some trans murderers. As there are multiple millions of trans persons that is not surprising. Pick any other group - academics, shopkeepers, immigrants, housewives, musicians, actors, computer programmers, lesbians etc, and you can compile a list of those charged with and even convicted of murder or manslaughter.

Some of the ones that JLEGuin failed to mention: Dante Gill, David Petillo, Pipás Pista, Amelia Gourley, Harry Crawford, Amara Vadillo, Frank Spisak, Bill Allen, Caitlyn Jenner.

It would also help if JLeGuin bothered to get his/her facts right. In particular it is not true that Synthia China-Blast was convicted of rape. By all accounts she is a Kinsey 6 and has never even had sex with a female.

For comparison here are some lists of musicians and other celebrities who have been charged with or convicted of murder:

IMDB(Celebrities who have killed someone)

Listverse(10 Rock and Metal Musicians who killed Someone)

The Top Tens(Top 10 Musicians who killed Someone)

Listverse(10 Murderous College Professors)

Graveyard Shift(10 Teachers who turned into Infamous Criminals)

Unknown Gender History(Lesbian Serial Killers)

The first US Trans Women up to 1966

1966, the date of Benjamin’s The Transsexual Phenomenon, and the start of surgeries at John Hopkins and other university clinics is of course the obvious cut-off point.

As in the British list, the criteria for inclusion here are either surgery or living full-time and often both. 

Sophia Gibons social transition by 1860, and continued to her death in 1885.

Mrs Noonan, previously Mrs Clifford and then Mrs Nash - social transition before 1868, and continued through three husbands to her death in 1878.

Peggy Yule social transition at age 15 in 1875, and continued to her death in 1965.

Elizabeth Berger social transition at age 9, and continued until outed at age 57 in 1931.

Frances Anderson social transition before 1890, and continued until death in 1928.

Lucy Hicks Anderson social transition as a child in the 1890s, and continued until death in 1954, despite being outed in the 1940s.

Stella Angel social transition 1894.

Frances Carrick social transition 1903.

Georgia Black social transition in 1921, and continued so until her death in 1951.

Jenny Hushler, immigrated from Austria 1882, oscilated while in San Francisco, full social transition on moving to Mississippi in 1922.

Rachael Watson arrested in 1922. in South Carolina.

Elsie Marks, the Cobra woman who did a snake act, social transition in the 1920s, was married and lived so until her death in 1946 after being bitten by a rattlesnake.

Charlotte Charlaque social transition 1920s, surgery in Berlin 1929-30.

Mary Baker social transition in 1927, and worked as a waitress, laundress, chorine, nurse. She was also married. However in 1937 she was arrested for making "improper advances" on an undercover policeman in Brooklyn.

193?. Dr Stanley, Chief Surgeon of the California State Prison, St. Quentin, while examining an apparently male prisoner, he discovered that the prisoner had been surgically transformed into a woman.

Clarabelle, the queen of Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill, lived full-time as female in the 1930s. Her story has been lost. She was succeeded by Wilhemena and then Carioca (who later died on an operating table in Calexico) of whom we know even less.

Josephine Montgomery social transition in the 1930s. This went well until she was arrested and convicted of strong-arm robbery in 1950. (Bullough p567)

A woman, who had been born with the name William Richeson, had been married for six years before being outed in 1937. Her husband was completely surprised. (Bullough p567)

Adele Best. Vern Bullough tells us “ Mrs. Adele Best lived as a woman for 54 years with no one the wiser, including apparently, at least according to her own testimony, her three husbands”, but gives no dates. (p567)

Barbara Wilcox had social transition before 1941, surgery 1956

Louise Lawrence social transition 1944.

Hedy Jo Star social transition 1945, surgery 1962.

Claire Elgin social transition early 1950s, surgery 1953

Pussy Katt surgery 1945 in Mexico.

Sally Barry had social transition in the 1940s, surgery 1953-8.

Carla Sawyer social transition 1949, surgery 1957?

Jela Hicks social transition circa 1950, outed and charged in 1958.

Christine Jorgensen surgery 1951-2 and 1969, social transition 1952

Charlotte McLeod - surgery and social transition 1953

Dixie MacLane social transition 1953, surgery 1955.

Tamara Rees social transition 1952, surgery 1955 in the Netherlands.

Annette Dolan social transition 195?, surgery 1954.

Patricia Morgan social transition mid 1950s, surgery in 1961 with Elmer Belt.

Agnes  social transition 1956, surgery 1959.

Gayle Sherman sociually transition 1956, surgery late 1960s?

Clara Miller surgery and social transition 1957

The person previously called William O’Connell - surgery 1960 (Benjamin p74-81)

Beverly-Barbara social transition 1958, surgery 1968.

Betty social transition 1961, surgery 1962.

Paula Neilsen surgery 1963.

Abby Sinclair surgery 1963 in Casablanca.

Désirée social transition and marriage in 1960s, murdered by her husband.

Judy Bowden social transition 1965, surgery 1971.

Harriet/Ava surgery 1965 in Europe, later became a wife. (Benjamin p83)

Lorraine Channing social transition mid 1960s, Surgery 1967.

The unnamed actor whose photograph is in Benjamin’s book. Surgery before 1966.

Phyllis Avon Wilson social transition 1960s, surgery 1966 (the first at Johns Hopkins)

• Harry Benjamin. The Transsexual Phenomenon. Warner Book, 1966, 1977.
• Vern Bullough. “Transsexualiism in History”. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 4,5, 1975.
• Leslie Feinberg. Trans Gender Warriors.Beacon Press, 1996.
• Roberta Perkins. “Famous Trannies” Polare 13, September 2015.

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The first known British trans women up to 1964

The list of British trans men would of course be a lot longer and go back to the 17^th century if not earlier. It was of course a lot more difficult for trans women to pass until external hormones became available in the 1940s. Transitions could be only social until the 1950s when male-to-female surgery became available for a few, for those with luck, pluck or the right connections. Yes, some gender surgeries had been done in Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, but very very few.

The following list is of trans women who transitioned and would have stayed so if death or arrest by police had not happened. This list does not include stage performers unless living as female full-time offstage, and does not include oscillators. So no Fanny and Stella, nor Gladys Shufflewick, nor Ron Storme.

This is of course a list of those that we know about.   There is probably at least  as many again who were not reported in the press.   John Randell discussed 61 cases in his 1960 MD thesis summarising his first 10 years working with trans persons.   Many of these must have socially transitioned even though they realised that Randell's obduracy would prevent them from being approved for surgery.   We know that he did approve Ina, Terri and Gloria - and there must be others.  Likewise Dr Burou in Casablanca performed over 3,000 operation on trans women from 1956 onwards, but we can name barely 30 of them.   

See also the US List.

Lavinia Edwards: social transition 1825.

Mary Mudge: social transition 1850s.

Norma Jackson: social transition 1931.

November1945: an unnamed serving Sergeant (a full-time soldier and not a conscript) assigned to Hamburg was allowed to travel to Denmark for male-to-female surgery, after extensive medical evaluation by the Medical Officer and a psychologist.

Dorothy Medway: social transition 1945, surgery late 1953.

Betty Cowell: social transition 1950, surgery 1951.

X, unnamed Scots woman, having undergone surgery petitioned in 1957 to have her sex corrected on birth certificate etc as Ewan Forbes had done two years earlier, but was refused.

Georgina Turtle: surgery 1957, social transition 1957.

April Ashley: social transition 1956, surgery May 1960.

Victoria Dolling, 1958

Ina Barton: social transition 1960, surgeries completed 1962.

Terri Rogers: surgery 1962.

Gloria Greaves: surgery 1964.

Trans men listed in the press in 1902

​In April 1902 various newspapers published an article that was merely a list of trans men who had come to public notice. The headlines varied.

The St Louis Republic newspaper published “Forty Three Women who have Posed as Men”, April 27 1902. Online.

For the Sunday Times of Perth, WA, it was “Strange Mysteries of Wedded Life: Women Who have posed as Husbands”. Online.

The opening paragraph: “Within a year six women have been discovered, in America alone, who have successfully masqueraded as men; have gone through a legal form of marriage and even posed as the fathers of families. Upwards of a score of similar cases have come to public attention recently in different parts of the world. There have been forty-three instances of women posing as husbands within the last ten years. One medical authority claims that one woman in every 3,000 is a victim of this peculiar mania.”

1 in 3,000 is of course much higher than the 1 in 100,000 that would be so uncritically repeated in the late 20^th century.

It then goes on to give a list.   When the writer knows the long unused female name he gives it.  In the list below I give the male if I know it.

👉 William Howard of Canandaigua, New York, who died 33 March 1902 after forty years of legal marriage. He left three children.

👉George Green of Petersburg, Virginia, originally from England, died age 74. He lived as male for sixty years, and had been married for thirty-five, blessed by the Roman Catholic Church. He worked as a manual laborer, including in the mines in Pennsylvania.

👉 Murray Hall of New York who had died the previous year and whom we have discussed in detail.  GVWW.

👉 Charles W Hall, originally of Massachusetts, was returning with his wife from Europe for New York, when he died on board ship from complications due to alcoholism. The writer does not give his male name.  GVWW.

👉 The writer claims the Chevalier d’Eon as a woman passing as a man!

👉 Frank Wayne of the US Army killed in battle in 1862.

👉 Franklin Thompson a soldier in the Second Michigan regiment.

👉 Charles D Fuller of the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania during the US Civil War.

👉 A “Mrs L N Blaylock of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina”, also during the Civil War. The writer does not give Blaylock’s male name.

👉 Christian Canenagh with the British Army in the Netherlands. Canenagh fought a duel with a superior officer, and after being outed, remained with the regiment as a cook.

👉 James Barry, military surgeon. GVWW.

👉 John Taylor, said here to be a steward on a trans-Atlantic liner. Actually he was a cabin boy in the French and English navies in turn during the revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. GVWW.

👉 Christian Walsh, in English Army.

👉 Felix Francoine of the Hungarian Army, who despite being outed at death, was buried with full military honours.

👉 Countess Carlotta May of Austria (male name not given) was ‘notorious’ in the 1890s for male clothes and activities, and was engaged to marry a woman. But then dramatically reverted to womanhood, female clothing and married a Count.

👉 Tony Teesa who worked in a hat factory in Yonkers.

👉 A person who had recently died age 103, who had kept a tavern near London for 17 years until one day a pauper was brought in who recognized his long lost wife.

-----

However this does not add up to 43 – only 17 by my count.

2019 trans obituaries

Brenda Lana Smith (1933 – 2019) Honorary Danish Consul in Bermuda. Christine Jorgensen’s housemate until her death. Active in PFC. Campaigned against lack of gay and trans rights in Bermuda.

Jackie Shane (1940 – 2019) musician who had a hit in Toronto, 1962 with “Any Other Way”. She was then androgynous. She completed transition in old age.

Gayle Sherman (1940 – 2019) Jewel Box Review, 82 Club, post-op stripper, cosmetologist.

Bebe Scarpinato (1951 – 2019) teacher, activist in GAA, STAR, QLF, on the originating board of the National Gay Task Force and was active in planning the fourth Christopher Street Liberation Day (which later became the New York Pride March), editor of Drag Magazine.

Julia Grant (1954 – 2019) protagonist of the pioneering documentary A Change of Sex, 1979, author of two autobiographies, bar owner, activist.

Phaedra Kelly (1955 – 2019) cofounder of the Transconscient Arts Movement, founder of the International Gender Transient Affinity. Featured in Richard Ekins’ books.

Jamie Lee Hamilton (1955 – 2019) Vancouver activist, first trans person in Canada to run for public office, ran a non-profit centre for sex workers, and agitated to bring attention to the missing women in the period before the arrest of serial killer Robert Pickton.

Penny Whetton (1958 – 2019) climate scientist, Melbourne. a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Third Assessment Report, and of the Fourth Assessment Report which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Julie Berman (1968 – 2019) Toronto activist who raised awareness about violence against trans women, herself murdered.

Nikki Arguz Loyd (1975 – 2019) A trans activist since adolescence. Her second husband, a firefighter, died on the job in 2010, and his family and first wife litigated to deny her widow’s benefits. This was reversed in 2015.

Miriam Rivera  (1981 – 2019) featured in UK and Australian reality shows in 2004. Found dead in apartment in Mexico.

Rajathi (1981 -2019) priestess murdered and beheaded while attending at her temple in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.

Genilson José da Silva (1984 – 2019) bar owner Jardim Marisa, Campo Belo, Brazil, murdered and mutilated by a trick.

Camila Díaz Córdova (1990 –2019) San Salvador. Fled from transphobic violence to US, but was deported back, and then murdered.

Jade Camila Diaz (199? – 2019) was creating a transgender women's collective in San Francisco Gotera, the provincial capital of Morazán state. She had also worked on forced displacement and migration issues, which particularly affect the trans community. Murdered.

Santiago Carbajal (199? – 2019) Honduran television personality murdered.

Jordan Cofer (1997 – 2019). Cofer’s brother, Connor Betts, did a mass shooting at a nightclub in Dayton, Ohio, and Jordan was the first victim of 9 – also 13 were wounded.  Betts was quickly shot dead by police.

Britany Sanchez Zárate (1999 – 2019) had just been crowned Princess of the Carnival of Minatitlán, Veracruz when two men fatally shot her.

Murder Count

Murders in the 12 months up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Transrespect.

There were 331 recorded deaths this last year – plus many more nor reported, especially in countries were transgender is not recognized. This is slightly less bad than the 369 reported in 2018, but still a serious jump from the 270 in 2017.

As usual the most murders were recorded in Brazil (130), Mexico (63), the United States (30).

2018 Obituaries

Milton Edgerton 1921-2018. Surgeon, co-founder of GIC at Johns Hopkins. Died age 96.

Peter Farrer (1926 – 2017) tax inspector, trans historian, Liverpool. Died age 90.

Sue-Ellen Jacobs (1936-2017) co-ed Two-Spirit People 1997.


Lyndsay Kemp (1938-2018) known for his radical drag performances in the 1970s based on Notre Dame des Fleurs and Salome. Mentor to early David Bowie. Died age 80.

Roberta Perkins (1940 – 2018) sociologist, activist in Sydney, NSW. Died age 78.

Julia Yasuda (1943-2018) set theorist, performer, one of the original members of Anthony and the Johnsons.  Died age 75, at a time of her own choosing after a long struggle with chronic pain and increasing immobility.

Brandy Alexander (1946 – 2016) Charlotte, NC, drag performer since 1964. Featured in a mural. Died age 70 from cancer.

João W Nery (1950 – 2018) psychologist, writer in Sao Paulo. First surgical trans man in Brazil. 4 wives, 2 autobiographies. Dies age 68 after struggle against cancer.

Boom Boom Latour (1955 – 2016) Charlotte, NC, drag performer for 5 decades. Died age 63 after a major heart attack.

Joseph Cluse (1954 - 2018) Two husbands. With the second she was a Christian wife and mother, but concluded that she was outside God’s will. Reverted and became a pastor with Crossover and Exodus. Died age 64.

Tracy Lynn Garner (1960 – 2018) Convicted of killing by buttocks injection. Died in prison age 58 after serving less than three years.

Terri Bruce (1963 – 2018) Hermosa, SD. Archeologist. In 2017 the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on Bruce's behalf against the state of South Dakota for refusing to cover medical care for transgender people. Died age 55.

Michael Berke (1964 – 2018) roadie, reverted to male after becoming involved with the Calvary Chapel mega church in Fort Lauderdale. Featured in an MSNBC documentary in 2008. Died by suicide.

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien (1975 – 2018) 42, launched New England Trans Pride and Miss Trans New England pageant. Murdered by her husband Mark Steele-Knudslien.

Lara Kruger (1986 – 2018) South African DJ and radio personality, after a period of depression.

Dudu dos Santos (1991 – 2018) Brazilian military policeman, abducted and murdered.

Casey Hoke (1997 – 2018). Artist and trans activist, California, died at age 21.

Murder Count

Murders in the 12 months up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance. GayStarNews. Transrespect.
There were 369 recorded deaths this last year – plus many more nor reported, especially in countries were transgender is not recognized. This is a serious jump from the 270 in 2017.


As usual the most murders were recorded in Brazil (167), Mexico (71), the United States (28), and Colombia (21). The situation in Brazil is likely to get much worse after the new president and self-declared homophobe, Jair Bolsonaro, takes over. Already Brazil has more murders of trans persons than all the rest of the world together.

Books on Gender Variance in 2017

In compiling this list I kept noticing Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Thus they are printing quite a few trans titles, although more advice books than history or politics. Their web page list categories: Autism, Disability, Religious etc, but not Trans. Here is the list of the 19 trans books that they do publish, but without making them into a category.



$£¥ €=Excessively overpriced books. 
 

• $£¥ € Robert Diaz, Marissa Largo & Fritz Pino (eds). Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries. Northwestern University Press, 2017.
• Qwo-Li Driskill. Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory. University of Arizona Oress, 2016.
• Laura Erickson-Schroth & Laura A Jacobs. "You're in the Wrong Bathroom!": And 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions About Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming People. Beacon Press, 2017.
• Haeth Foff Davis. Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter?. New York University Press, 2017.
• Ephraim Das Janssen, Phenomenal Gender: What Transgender Experience Discloses. Indiana University Press, 2017.
• $£¥ € Jon Ingvar Kjaran. Constructing Sexualities and Gendered Bodies in School Spaces: Nordic Insights on Queer and Transgender Students. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel & Sarah Tobias. Trans Studies: The Challenge to Hetero/Homo Normativities. Rutgers University Press, 1016.
• Kate Norman. Socialising Transgender: Support for Transition. Dunedin, 2017.
• $£¥ €Tobias Raun. Out Online: Trans Self-Representation and Community Building on YouTube. Routledge, 2016.
• $£¥ € Christina Richards. Trans and Sexuality: An existentially-informed enquiry with implications for counselling psychology. Routledge, 2017.

 
 

Legal & Imprisonment

• Sarah Jane Baker. Transgender: Behind Prison Walls. Waterside Press, 2017.
• Jennie Kermode. Transgender Employees in the Workplace: A Guide for Employers. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Rebecca T Klien. Transgender Rights and Protections. Rosen Publishing Group, 2017.

 
 

Health and Medical

• $£¥ € Lynne Carroll & Laurn Mizock. Clinical Issues and Affirmative Treatment With Transgender Clients, An Issue of Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Elsevier, 2017.
• $£¥ € Michael R Kauth & Jillian Shipard (eds). Adult Transgender Care: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Mental Health Professionals. Routledge, 2017.
• Susan Meyer. Health Issues When You're Transgender. Rosen Young Adult, 2017.

 
 

Arts

• Reina Gossett, Eric a Stanley & Johanna Burton (eds). Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility. MIT Press, 2017.
• Sébastien Lifshitz, textes de Christine Bard et Isabelle Bonnet. Mauvais genres: les travestis à travers un siècle de photographie amateur. Les éditions textuel, 2016.
• $£¥ € Jolene Zigarovich (ed). TransGothic in Literature and Culture. Routledge, 2017.

 
 

Sports

• $£¥ € Eric Anderson & Ann Travers. Transgender Athletes in Competitive Sport. Routledge, 2017.

 
 

Guidebooks

• $£¥ € Corona Brezina. Coming Out as Transgender. Rosen Young Adult, 2017.
• Candis Cayne. Hi Gorgeous!: Transforming Inner Power into Radiant Beauty. Running Press, 2017.
• Vernon Coleman. Men in Bras, Panties and Dresses: The Secret Truths About Transvestites. Kindle, 2017.
• Charlie Craggs (ed). To My Trans Sisters. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Declan Henry. Trans Voices: Becoming Who You Are. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Alex Iantaffi & Meg-John Barker. How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Ephraim Das Janssen. Phenomenal Gender: What Transgender Experience Discloses. Indiana University Press, 2017.
• Matthew Mills & Gillie Stoneham. The Voice Book for Trans and Non-Binary People: A Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining Authentic Voice and Communication. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Sara Woods. Identifying as Transgender. Rosen Publishing Group, 2017.

 

Transphobic

• Alex P Serritella. Transgenda - Abuse and Regret in the Sex-Change Industry. Bookstand Publishing, 2016.
• ++David Kupelian.  The Snapping of the American Mind: Healing a Nation Broken by a Lawless Government and Godless Culture.  WND Books, 2015.  

Couples & Family

• Mary Collins & Donald Collins. At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces. Beacon Press, 2017.
• Jo Green. The Trans Partner Handbook: A Guide for When Your Partner Transitions. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Wenn B Lawson & Beatrice M Lawson. Transitioning Together: One Couple's Journey of Gender and Identity Discovery. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
• Elijah C Nealy. Transgender Children and Youth: Cultivating Pride and Joy with Families in Transition. WW Norton, 2017.

 
 

Cross Dreamers

• Tatiana de Rosnay. Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier. St Martin’s Press.

 
 

AutoBiography

• Alex Bertie. Trans Mission: My Quest to a Beard. 2017
• Eli Clare. Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure. Duke University Press, 2017
• Kimberley Davis. Becoming Kimberly: A Transgender's Journey. CreateSpace, 2017.
• Juno Dawson. The Gender Games: The Problem With Men and Women . . . from Someone Who Has Been Both. Two Roads, 2017.
• Denise Chanterelle DuBois. Self-Made Woman: A Memoir. University of Wisconsin Press, 2017.
• Chris Edwards. BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some. Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2016.
• Laura Jane Grace. Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. Hachette Books, 2016.
• Caitlyn Jenner. The Secrets of My Life. Grand Central Publishing, 2017.
• Charlie Kiss. A New Man: Lesbian. Protest. Mania. Trans Man. Matador, 2017.
• Amanda Lepore. Doll Parts. Regan Arts, 2017.
• C N Lester. Trans Like Me: a Journey for All of Us. Virago, 2017
• Thomas Page McBee. Man Alive: a True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man. Canongate, 2017.
• Janet Mock. Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me. Atria Books, 2017.
• Caroline Paige. True Colours: My Life as the First Openly Transgender Officer in the British Armed Forces. Biteback Publishing, 2017.
• Sam Peterson. Trunky (Trangender Junky).
• Rupert Raj. Dancing The Dialectic: True Tales of A Transgender Trailblazer. CreateSpace, 2017.
•  Kaitlin Sine Riordan, Bondage of self. Kaitlin Sine Riordan, 2016.
• Rhyannon Styles. The New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is. Headline, 2017.
•  Anastacia Tomson. Always Anastacia - A Transgender Life in South Africa. Jonathan Ball, 2016

Biography

• Patricia Bell-Scott. The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. Knopf, 2016.
• ++Val Brown. Toupie Lowther: Her life.  Matador, 2017.  
• Denis Cosnard. Frede. Des Équateurs, 2017.
• Rosalind Rosenberg. Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray. Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Bruce D Smith. Lou Sullivan: Daring To Be a Man Among Men. Transgress Press, 2017
• Roy Woodard. Bunny Breckinridge—Book One: Exalted as an Early Hero of the Gay Rights Movement. Kindle, 2016.
• Roy Woodard. Bunny Breckinridge—Book Two: Exalted as an Early Hero of the Gay Rights Movement. Kindle, 2016.

Race and Gender

• Sonia Borawska. Rachel Dolezal Affair: race, identity and representation of women in the news. : Comperative analysis between media coverage of Rachel Dolezal and Caitlyn Jenner. Kindle, 2016.
• C. Riley Snorton. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

 
 

Trans/GLBT history

• $£¥ € Domitilla Campanile, Filippo Carlà-Uhink & Margherita Facella (eds). TransAntiquity: Cross-Dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World. Routledge, 2017.
• Julio Capo. Welcome to Fairyland Queer Miami before 1940. University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
• Emily K Hobson. Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left. University of California Press, 2016.
• Bob Ostertag. Sex Science Self: A Social History of Estrogen, Testosterone, and Identity. University of Massachusetts Press, 2016.
• Barbara Penne. Transgender Role Models and Pioneers. Rosen Young Adult, 2017.
• $£¥ € Walter Penrose. Postcolonial Amazons: Female Masculinity and Courage in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit Literature. Oxford University press, 2016.
• Benita Roth. The Life and Death of ACT UP/LA: Anti-AIDS Activism in Los Angeles from the 1980s to the 2000s. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
• Emily Skidmore. True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. NYU Press, 2017.
• $£¥ € Thomas Taylor, Annette Timm & Rainer Herrn (eds). Not Straight from Germany: Sexual Publics and Sexual Citizenship since Magnus Hirschfeld. University of Michigan Press, 2017.

 
 

Photography

• Magnus Hastings, with a Foreword by Boy George. Why Drag? Chronicle Books, 2016.

 
 

Previously Announced for 2016:

• $£¥ € Michel J Boucher. Transgender Representation and the Politics of the Real in the United States. Routledge, delayed to December 2018.
• Michael Brownstein. Medical Maverick: 35 Years of Transgender Surgery. Transgress Press. 2016 - disappeared
• Donna Gee. Why Is My Dad Not Answering Her Phone? CreateSpace, 2015. Preview – disappeared

Announced for 2017:

• $£¥ € Eyler. Transgender Healthcare. Springer Publishing, 2017. disappeared
• $£¥ € Lynda Johnson. Trans Gender, Sex, Place, and Space: Geographies of Gender Variance. Routledge, 2017. disappeared
• $£¥ € Candace Moore. Marginal Production Cultures: Infrastructures of Sexual Minority and Transgender Media. Routledge, 2017. Delayed to 2018

 
 

Announced for 2018:

• Brian Belovitch. Trans Figured: My Journey from Boy to Girl to Woman to Man. Skyhorse Publishing, 2018.
• Christine Burns (ed). Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows. Unbound, 2018.
• $£¥ € Ruth Pearce. Understanding Trans Health: Discourse, Power and Possibility. Policy Press, 2018
• Juno Roche. Queer Sex: A Trans and Non-Binary Guide to Intimacy, Pleasure and Relationships. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2018.

7 trans persons in North Africa and 10 emigrants who changed things by example and/or achievement.

North Africa is a difficult place to be trans.  Which is why most persons listed here are emigrants.

Surgeons & psychiatrists

• Georges Burou (1910 – 1987) pioneer surgeon in Casablanca, invented penile inversion surgery. 1000s of patients. GVWW
• Ludwig Levy-Lenz (1889 – 1966) one of Hirschfeld’s surgeons, fled to Egypt in 1936, where he opened a clinic that did transgender surgery. GVWW
• Ezzat Ashamallah, peformed surgery on Sally Mursi, 1988. He was temporarily suspended from the Doctors’ Syndicate.
• Mahmoud Eteifi, Asyut, Egypt, arrested 2010 for transgender surgery. NewsArticle
• Hashem Bahary, psychiatrist, Al Azhar University, Cairo, runs a clinic for trans persons. YouTube.

Cleric

Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (1928 – 2010) grand mufti and then Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, issued a fatwa that Sally Mursi’s change was necessary for her health but that before the operation she should for one year dress, behave and comply with all obligations of Islam for women, except for marital obligations. This fatwa was the first Sunni ruling about sex changes.

Persons

1. Hatshepsut (1508 – 1482 BCE) Egyptian Pharaoh who wore the same kilt and false beard as the male pharaohs. EN.WIKIPEDIA
2. Hasan el Belbeissi (182? - ?) Egyptian belly dancer immortalized by Gustave Flaubert. GVWW
3. Sisa Abu Daooh (1950 - ), Luxor, Egypt, lived and worked as a man for 40 years. Awarded prize as 'best mother' by President al-Sisi. NewsArticle
4. Sally Mursi (1966 - ) Cairo, medical student refused completion of studies, dancer. GVWW
5. Hanan al Tawil (1966 – 2004) actress. GVWW
6. Noor Talbi (1969 - ) Moroccan dancer, model, actress. GVWW
7. Nourhan (198? - ) Cairo, engineer, academic at Al Azhar University, transferred to administration. NewsArticle.

Emigrants

1. Marcel Oudjman (? - ?) from Algeria, moved to Paris and became owner of La Carrousel and Madame Arthur. Part 1 Part II
2. Dominot (1930 - 2014) from Tunisia, actress, performer in Rome. GVWW
3. Marie-Pierre Pruvot/ Bambi (1935 - ) from Ysser, Algiers. Became star at Madame Arthur/ La Carrousel. Then a school teacher and a novelist. GVWW
4. Nana (1939 - ) from Oran, Algeria, became a performer/sex worker in Paris. Later she married. GVWW
5. Marie-France Garcia (1946 - ) from Oran, Algeria, active in FHAR and Les Gazolines in Paris, also a singer. GVWW
6. Bibiana Manuala Fernandez Chica (Bibi Andersen) (1954 - ) actress, performer, born in Tangiers, found fame in Spain. GVWW ES.Wikipedia
7. Pascale Ourbih (1972 - ) from Algeria, model, actress Green Party candidate in Paris. GVWW
8. Randa (198? - ) fled Algeria where her life was threatened. Lives in Lebanon, and is author of The Memoirs of Randa the Trans – first trans autobiography in Arabic. NewsArticle
9. Carla Massoud, from Egypt, now lives in Germany with her husband. NewsArticle BBC
10. Achan/Layla Kingston, born in Libya to South Sudanese Dinka Bor parents. Now lives in Pennsylvania. NewsArticle

11 trans persons in Thailand who changed things by example and/or achievement.

Surgeons

Sanguan Kunaporn, in Phuket, trained by Preecha Tiewtranon. WebPage Susan’s Place – patients include: Melanie Myers, Stefánie Faludi, Racheal McGonigal,

Preecha Tiewtranon in Bangkok. Been doing transgender surgery for over 30 years – over 35,000 surgeries. Trained several other surgeons. WebPage Newsarticle. - patients include: Donna Lee 
Parsons,

Thep Vechavisit in Bangkok is one of the cheapest, but not all are satisfied.  Beware  – WebPage TSRoadmap, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC, Susan’s Place, Patients include: Rose Venkatesan, Alexis Reich

Suporn Watanyusakul, in Chonburi, has been doing transgender operations for over 25 years, and has done over 25000 operations. He does 130 operations a year. Webpage Yahoo Group

Chettawut Tulayaphanich has done 3,000 transgender operations. Webpage

Persons

Choochat Dulayapraphatsorn (1962 - ). Kathoey elected village chief in Tai Ban Mai, Thailand 2008.

Kokkorn Benjathikoon โกโก้ กกกร เบญจาธิกูล (1969 - ) model, actress. GVWW.

Parinya Charoenphon ปริญญา เจริญผล/Nong Tum (1981–) boxer, actress, singer. GVWW.

Nicky Kiranant (1983 - ) air hostess. GVWW.

Yasmin Lee (1983 - ) Thai born US immigrant, started in porn videos and broke through into mainstream Hollywood. GVWW


Nuntita Khampiranon นันทิตา ฆัมภิรานนท์;/Bell Nunita (1983 - ) performer EN.Wikipedia

Yollada "Nok" Suanyot เกริกก้อง "นก" สวนยศ; (1983 - ) performer in Venus Flytrap, elected in Nan province, 2012, also founder and chair of TransFemale Association of Thailand GVWW
EN.Wikipedia

Nuntita Khampiranon/ นันทิตา ฆัมภิรานนท์/ Bell Nuntita (1983 - ) performer in Venus Flytrap, singer. EN.Wikipedia

Peche Di/Pitchadapha Phasi (1989 - ) Thai emigrant to US founded Trans Models, NYC. EN.Wikipedia    Newsarticle     Newsarticle

Sorrawee "Jazz" Nattee (1989 - ), , winner of the Miss Tiffany Universe 2009 contest, has had breast implants removed and has become a monk under the name Phra Maha Viriyo Bhikku. 2013. GVWW

Mimi Tao/ Phajaranat Nobantao (1993 - ) ex-Catholic, 6 years a Buddhist monk, now an in-demand lingerie and fashion model. Newsarticle Newsarticle

Events and institutions

Tiffany’s Cabaret Show, since 1974. Webpage

Miss Tiffany’s Universe/ มิสทิฟฟานี่ยูนิเวิร์ส, a beauty contest for Thai trans women, held in mid-May, in Pattaya, since 1998. EN.Wikipedia

Miss International Queen contest is held annually in Pattaya, with contestants, both pre-op and post-op, from around the world. Must be 18-35. EN.Wikipedia

Thai Transgender Alliance Webpage

Iron Ladies (สตรีเหล็ก, satree lek) volleyball team won the national championship in 1996. This was then portrayed in two films. EN.Wikipedia

Apple Model Management Agency, Thailand's leading modeling agency, announced the worldwide launch of its new Transgender board in 2015. Webpage

Westerners in Thailand

Willow Arune (1946 - ) Canadian lawyer and autogynephilia activist, was – before transition – arrested in Bangkok after becoming involved in a dubious $1million financial transaction with two Americans. GVWW

Melanie Myers (19?? - ) ran a guesthouse, Melanie’s Cocoon, in Phuket, Thailand in the mid 2000s aimed at trans women, and Mel passed her business card to Kunaporn’s patients. GVWW

Alexis Reich (1964 - ) US schoolteacher arrested in Thailand and charged with JonBenet Ramsey murder. GVWW


Veronique Renard/Pantau (1965 - ) Dutch writer, Buddhist activist, has been living in Bangkok since 2005. GVWW