Some notes on Living

It’s been a little while since my last post, as I have recently relocated to a different state, so I’m going to try to make this a very educational exposè, albeit a longer post than usual. On the last post, ‘Exposing The Truth About Transexualism: Part 4‘, I went over documented occurrences of transgenderism throughout history in many different cultures. Today, I will discuss famous transgender people throughout history.

First, we’ll take a look at Ancient Rome. One of the earliest recorded instances of a “sex-change” operation may have been performed at the order of the infamous Emperor Nero. Alledgedly, Nero kicked his pregnant wife in the abdomen, killing her. Remorsefully, Nero attempted to find a woman whose face resembled his slain wife’s. The closest candidate was a young male ex-slave named Sporum. Nero is reported to have ordered his surgeons to change the ex-slave into a woman. The two were married shortly after.

Heliogabalus, another Roman emperor, is reported to have been formally married to a powerful slave and then to have taken up the tasks of a wife following the marriage. He was described as the “Queen of Hierocles” and is said to have offered half the Roman Empire to the physician who could equip him with female genitalia.

In 9th Century Rome, Pope John VIII is reported to have been a woman. In an account published with Pope Julius III’s approval, it was stated that, “she gave birth to a baby and died, together with her offspring, in the presence of a large number of spectators.“

Next, we will take a look at France, and a few very well known gender-noncomforming individuals. The first of course, is that of Joan D’Arc (Joan of Arc). In 1429, a 17-year-old natal female, dressed in men’s clothing, employed brilliant military strategies to rout the English from France. She was burned alive at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the age of 19. Joan of Arc was executed in part for her cross-gendered expression, as seen here from the words of the Grand Inquisitors: “You have continually worn man’s dress, wearing the short robe, with nothing left that could show you to be a woman: and on many occasions you received the Body of our Lord dressed in this fashion, although you have been frequently admonished to leave it off, which you have refused to do, saying that you would rather die than leave it off, you blaspheme God in his sacraments, and you condemn yourself in being unwilling to wear the customary clothing of your sex.“

During the Renaissance period, “Sa majesté” (her majesty) was used in reference to King Henry III of France, who wished to be considered a woman. Henry made his point felt by appearing before the Deputies dressed as a woman, with a long pearl necklace and low cut dress.

In 17th Century France, the Abbé de Choisy, also known as François Timoléon has left behind a vivid firsthand description of a strong cross-gender wish. In his early youth, his mother dressed him completely as a girl. At age 18, Abbé de Choisy continued this practice wearing tight-fitting corsets which “made his loins, hips, and bust more prominent.” Regarding his gender identity, he wrote, ‘I thought myself really and truly a woman. I have tried to find out how such a strange pleasure came to me, and I take it to be in this way. It is an attribute of God to be loved and adored, and man – so far as his weak nature will permit – has the same ambition, and it is beauty, which creates love, and beauty is generally woman’s portion. I have heard someone near me whisper “There is a pretty woman,” I have felt a pleasure so great that it is beyond all comparison. Ambition, riches, even love cannot equal it.‘

l’Abbé d’Entragues attempted to replicate feminine facial beauty “pale and interesting” by undergoing frequent facial bleedings.

Yet another abbé was Becarelli, a false messiah, who claimed to be able to command the services of the Holy Ghost and boasted of possessing a drug, which could “change sex“. While physical sex was not changed, men who took the drug temporarily believed themselves transformed into women and women thought themselves transformed into men.

Mlle. Jenny Savalette de Lange died at Versailles in 1858 and was discovered to be a man. During his lifetime, he had managed to get a substitute birth certificate designating himself female, was engaged to a man six times, and was given 1,000 francs a year pension by the King of France with a free apartment in the Chateau of Versailles.

Chevalier D’Eon de Beaumont (1728-1810) is one of the best-documented transgender persons of the 18th Century. Though very highly competent in all manly skills, he had been dressed as a girl during his childhood, and retained a taste for female clothes throughout his life, even collecting his own scrapbook of materials relating to “hermaphroditism“. When he appeared as a lady at a masquerade ball, he was noticed by the Prince de Conti and King Louis XV, they formed the idea of hiring him as a spy to engage in secret diplomacy while disguised as a woman. In 1755, he was sent to Russia disguised as Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont, where he became a confidant to Empress Elizabeth. He resumed male costume a year later, and was awarded by King Louis for services rendered, and made a Captain of Dragoons. He continued to work for the secret service, and as a member of the French Embassy in London from 1763, was involved in many political intrigues. From this period, numerous rumors spread to the effect that the Chevalier D’Eon really was a woman. In 1775, King Louis XVI granted the Chevalier a large state pension in return for some state papers and on the condition that D’Eon henceforth dress in the garments of the female sex. Only upon his death, was it finally proven that, despite possessing many feminine bodily features, he was undoubtedly a man.

19th Century:

In 1930, Einar Wegener, a Danish artist, became the “first transexual” to undergo Sexual Reassignment Surgery. She became known as Lili Elbe. SRS wasn’t enough for Lili however, and she wanted to be able to have children. A surgeon postulated that it was possible. It was rumored that she had ovarian and uterine tissue implanted, which proved to be fatal and she died shortly afterwards.

Lucille Hart (1890-1962) grew up in Albany, Oregon and attended Albany College (now Lewis & Clark College) and Stanford University. After graduating from Albany College in 1912, she obtained a Doctor of Medicine Degree from University of Oregon Medical Department in Portland. She was the only woman in the class and took top academic honors. According to psychiatrist J. Allen Gilbert, who Hart consulted, Hart was sexually attracted to women, she often dressed in men’s clothes, and “had a loathing of the female type of mind“. Hart married Inez Stark in California, in February, 1918, using the name Robert Allen Bamford, Jr. Her therapy with Dr. Gilbert led to Hart’s hysterectomy later that year. She assumed the identity and clothes of a man, then renamed herself Alan L. Hart, and began medical practice in southwest Oregon at the Gardiner Hospital.

Billy Tipton (1914-1989), born Dorothy Lucille Tipton in Oklahoma City, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where she was raised by an aunt after her parents’ divorce. After the divorce, she rarely saw her father, G.W. Tipton, a pilot who sometimes took her for airplane rides. In high school, Tipton became interested in music, especially jazz. She went by the nickname “Tippy“. She studied piano and saxophone, but school policies forbade girls to play in school band, until Tipton returned for a senior year in Oklahoma and finally joined a band there. In 1933, Tipton began dressing like a man, which allowed her to blend with the other members of the jazz bands she played with in small Oklahoma bars. As she began a more serious music career, she decided to adopt a male persona, calling herself by her father’s nickname, Billy, and presenting herself consistently as male. Billy had countless relationships with women over the years, none of his beloved ever knowing of his female anatomy.

In 1952, American G.I., George Jorgensen decided to become Christine, after finding surgeons in Scandinavia that were competent and familiar with the surgical procedure of SRS. When she wrote to her parents to tell them that she was now their daughter, they replied that they still loved her. She returned to America as a glamorous woman, hoping to begin a new life. Instead, she found a media obsessed with her past. She settled into her new life, becoming engaged twice. Yet she was only able to earn a living singing ‘I Enjoy Being a Girl‘ in nightclubs, and giving interviews to newspapers and magazines.

More Recent TransHistory:

Jan Morris (1926- ) “fathered” five children before undergoing SRS in 1972. She has been at one time or another, an Oxford chorister, Welsh bard, military intelligence officer, newspaper journalist, and critically-acclaimed author. She wrote ‘Conundrum‘, which was the story of her transformation and her life.

Dana International (Hebrew: דנה אינטרנשיונל; stage name of Sharon Cohen), born in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 2, 1972, is an Israeli transexual pop singer, who won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Diva“. She has released 8 albums so far and a further 3 compilation albums, and has worked closely with other Israeli artists, including DJ Offer Nissim. Her 1998 winner, “Diva“, was nominated as one of the 14 greatest Eurovision songs.

Calpernia Sarah Addams (born February 20, 1971), is an American author, actress, and activist for issues regarding the transgender/transexual community. Addams was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, in a strict Christian fundamentalist household. Addams enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a teenager and served 4 years as a field medical combat specialist. She was first stationed in the the Middle East during the Gulf War, and later at Adak, Alaska. Afterwards, Addams returned to Nashville and began performing in a drag burlesque revue. The 2003 film, “Soldier’s Girl” is based on a tragic event in Addams’ life. In 1999, Calpernia Addams began dating an Army private named Barry Winchell, who was training at the nearby military base in Fort Campbell. Winchell was harassed by fellow soldiers when rumors of his relationship with Addams began to circulate around the base. After being taunted and pressured, Winchell was murdered in his sleep on July 4th, 1999, for what the other soldiers saw as a “homosexual” relationship. Calpernia recalls this tragic event in her autobiographical memoirs, entitled ‘Mark 947‘, named after the Bible Verse, Mark 9:47. Calpernia, with the partnership of Andrea James, another transexual woman operate Deep Stealth Productions, as a means to help transitioning transexual women find their female voice, and to offer wardrobe, makeup, and “coming out” advice. (And the DVD on “finding the female voice” has been a HUGE help for this transexual woman!) Calpernia can currently be seen on “Transamerican Love Story” on Logos.

This is by no means a complete list of famous transgender individuals. There are many others, including microchip pioneer Lynn Conway, author/professor Jenny Boylan, Methodist minister Drew Phoenix, actress/performer Candis Cayne (from the television show ‘Dirty Sexy Money‘), and even Bond girl (Bond… James Bond… yes, THAT Bond) Caroline Cossey (also known as ‘Tula‘).

A note about transexualism in the media:

As transexualism becomes more known to society, more and more films and television shows portray transexualism in a positive light. Gone are the days of the horribly exploiting shows such as Jerry Springer, and movies such as ‘Silence of the Lambs‘. Transexualism was previously seen in such a negative viewpoint because of factors such as these. Fortunately, shows such as ‘All My Children‘, ‘Ugly Betty‘, and even ‘Friends‘ have portrayed transexuals in a more positive outlook. Movies such as ‘Transamerica‘ and ‘Ma Vie En Rose‘ show the struggles of life in terms of dealing with being transgender or transexual. For ‘All My Children‘, portraying a transgender woman in a positive light was the main objective, and I highly recommend the Zarf/Zoe storyline to anyone wanting to learn more about transexualism. Most of the episodes containing bits and pieces of the Zarf/Zoe storyline can be dug up on YouTube.com.

Hopefully, with the advent of these new positive portrayals of transexuals, society will begin to see that it is not a choice to be transgender or transexual. With education comes acceptance, and with acceptance comes balance.

Love and Peace,
Chloë Elise