60 Fun Facts About Transgender

To which city did Christine Jorgensen travel for her gender-affirming surgery in the early 1950s?

Christine Jorgensen had her surgeries in Copenhagen in 1951-52 under endocrinologist Christian Hamburger; the US Army had drafted her in 1945, which is why her 1953 homecoming was framed as an 'ex-GI' story.

Which word completes the 1952 Daily News headline on Christine Jorgensen, "Ex-GI Becomes ___ Beauty"?

The New York Daily News front page of 1 December 1952 read "Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty"; the story broke while Jorgensen was abroad and made her a celebrity before she came home in February 1953.

In which German city did Lili Elbe die after her final surgery?

Lili Elbe's later operations were performed by Kurt Warnekros at the Dresden Municipal Women's Clinic; she died there of complications weeks after a uterus transplant, her fourth operation.

Which German physician founded the Institute for Sexual Science in 1919?

His institute offered some of the world's first gender-affirming medical care, including surgery, at a time when nowhere else would.

In which city's Opernplatz did Nazi students burn the Institute for Sexual Science's library in May 1933?

Nazi students looted the institute on 6 May 1933 and burned its library four days later on Berlin's Opernplatz (now Bebelplatz); the photographs became the emblematic images of Nazi book burning.

In what year did Dora Richter, the first known person to complete gender-affirming surgery, have her final operations?

Dora Richter's vaginoplasty in 1931 completed a series of operations begun with an orchiectomy in 1922; long assumed killed in the 1933 raid on the institute, she was shown by 2023 research to have lived until 1966.

The 1966 Compton's Cafeteria riot took place in the Tenderloin district of which city?

Compton's Cafeteria stood at Taylor and Turk Streets in San Francisco's Tenderloin; the August 1966 riot was largely forgotten until Susan Stryker's 2005 documentary Screaming Queens.

The Compton's Cafeteria riot reportedly began when a trans woman threw what at an officer?

In Susan Stryker's account, a policeman grabbed one of the trans women and she flung a cup of coffee in his face, setting off the fight that spilled out into the street.

According to Marsha P. Johnson, what did the "P" in her name stand for?

Johnson said the P stood for 'pay it no mind', her stock reply when asked about her gender; she co-founded STAR with Sylvia Rivera in 1970 after the Stonewall uprising.

In July 1992, Marsha P. Johnson's body was found floating in which body of water?

Johnson's body was pulled from the Hudson River near the Christopher Street piers on 6 July 1992; police called it suicide, reclassified it as undetermined in 2002 and reopened the case in 2012.

At the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day rally, Sylvia Rivera famously shouted 'Y'all better' what?

Rivera's 'Y'all better quiet down' speech, bellowed over a booing crowd at the 1973 rally, attacked a movement that was pushing out the drag queens and trans people who had helped start it.

On what date is the Transgender Day of Remembrance observed each year?

Transgender Day of Remembrance is held each November 20; Gwendolyn Ann Smith began it in 1999 as a vigil growing out of her 'Remembering Our Dead' web project.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance memorialises Rita Hester, murdered in 1998 in which US state?

Rita Hester, a Black trans woman, was stabbed to death in her Allston apartment in Boston, Massachusetts, on 28 November 1998; the vigils held in her memory became the annual observance.

Activist Rachel Crandall Crocker, who created Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009, is from which US state?

Crandall Crocker co-founded the group Transgender Michigan and launched the day from Michigan in 2009 to celebrate living trans people rather than only mourn the dead; Joe Biden first proclaimed it presidentially in 2021.

Who created the transgender pride flag in 1999?

Monica Helms, a US Navy veteran, designed the flag in 1999 after Michael Page, creator of the bisexual pride flag, urged her to make one for the trans community.

On the transgender pride flag, what does the central white stripe represent?

The flag's designer said the central white stripe stands for intersex, transitioning or non-binary people, in her words those with 'a neutral or undefined gender'; the blue and pink stripes borrow the traditional baby colours.

The transgender pride flag was first shown publicly in 2000 at a pride parade in which city?

Its designer lived in Phoenix and carried the flag in that city's pride parade in 2000, its first public outing; the original went to the Smithsonian in August 2014.

Which Orange Is the New Black actress was the first transgender person on the cover of Time, in June 2014?

Laverne Cox, who played Sophia Burset in Orange Is the New Black, fronted Time's 9 June 2014 issue headlined 'The Transgender Tipping Point'; in 2015 she got a Madame Tussauds wax figure.

Georgina Beyer, the world's first openly transgender MP in 1999, sat in which country's parliament?

Georgina Beyer won the Wairarapa seat for Labour in New Zealand's 1999 election, having already been the world's first openly trans mayor, of Carterton, from 1995.

Sarah McBride, the first openly trans member of Congress, won a 2024 seat in which state?

She was already the first openly trans state senator in the country, elected in Delaware in 2020, before winning the US House seat in 2024.

In July 2016 Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person to speak at what kind of event?

McBride addressed the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on 28 July 2016, the first openly trans speaker at a national party convention; she was then national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign.

Rachel Levine became the first openly transgender person to hold what rank in a US uniformed service?

Levine was sworn in as a four-star admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps on 19 October 2021, the first openly trans four-star officer in any US uniformed service; she had been Pennsylvania's health secretary.

In which state did Danica Roem win in 2017 as the first openly transgender US state legislator?

Roem won a Virginia House of Delegates seat in November 2017, the first openly trans person elected and seated in a US state legislature; a former journalist, she moved up to Virginia's Senate in 2023.

Renée Richards won a 1977 court ruling allowing her to compete as a woman in which sport?

Richards, an ophthalmologist, won a 1977 New York Supreme Court ruling against the US Tennis Association's chromosome test and played that year's US Open; she later coached Martina Navratilova to two Wimbledon titles.

Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender woman at an Olympics, competed in Tokyo in which sport?

Hubbard competed in weightlifting in the women's +87 kg class at Tokyo in August 2021, failing all three snatch attempts and so recording no total.

Which country's Supreme Court legally recognised hijras and transgender people as a "third gender" in 2014?

India's Supreme Court ruled in April 2014, in the NALSA judgment, that hijras and transgender people are a third gender with equal rights; Bangladesh's cabinet had recognised hijras the year before.

The Indigenous umbrella term "two-spirit" was adopted at a 1990 conference in which city?

The term was adopted in 1990 at the third annual intertribal conference of Native American and First Nations LGBT people, held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as an umbrella for those who fill traditional third-gender or gender-variant roles in their nations.

Fa'afafine, a recognised third gender, are part of the traditional culture of which Pacific islands?

The word literally means 'in the manner of a woman', and fa'afafine work in every part of Samoan society, from caregiving to government.

Which term coined by Havelock Ellis is named for the 18th-century French spy who lived half his life as a woman?

Havelock Ellis coined eonism for the Chevalier d'Eon, who spied for Louis XV in Russia and England, fought in the Seven Years' War and lived publicly as a woman from 1777 until death in 1810.

Roberta Cowell, the first known British trans woman to have surgery in 1951, had earlier been a WWII what?

Cowell flew Typhoons as an RAF fighter pilot, was shot down in late 1944 and held as a prisoner of war; she was also a racing driver, and Michael Dillon performed one of her early operations.

Michael Dillon, the first known transgender man to undergo phalloplasty, ended his life in Asia as what?

Dillon, a British doctor, left Britain in 1958 after being outed and became a Buddhist monk under the name Lobzang Jivaka, dying at Dalhousie in 1962; Harold Gillies had performed his phalloplasty from 1946.

Which 1953 news story did Jan Morris break for The Times?

Morris, The Times correspondent with the expedition, coded the first ascent of Everest as 'Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned', and the news reached London for coronation morning, 2 June 1953.

Jan Morris and April Ashley both had gender-affirming surgery by Dr Georges Burou in which country?

Burou's clinic in Casablanca, Morocco, was the destination of choice for British trans women in the 1960s and 70s; Ashley went in 1960 and Morris in 1972.

Which newspaper outed April Ashley as a trans woman in 1961 under "'Her' secret is out"?

The Sunday People ran 'Her secret is out' in November 1961, ending Ashley's modelling career; the 1970 Corbett v Corbett ruling annulling her marriage shaped UK law for decades, and she was appointed MBE in 2012.

Which 1968 album gave composer Wendy Carlos a surprise hit and three Grammys?

Switched-On Bach, Carlos's 1968 album of Bach pieces realised on a Moog synthesizer, went platinum as a classical crossover hit and won three Grammys; she later scored films for Stanley Kubrick and Disney.

Wendy Carlos composed the scores for two Stanley Kubrick films and which 1982 Disney movie?

Carlos scored Tron for Disney in 1982, mixing synthesizers with the London Philharmonic; her Kubrick credits were A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980).

Who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1999)?

Hilary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar in March 2000 for playing Brandon Teena, a young trans man murdered in 1993; Chloe Sevigny, as his girlfriend Lana, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Boys Don't Cry tells the true story of Brandon Teena, a trans man killed in which US state?

Brandon Teena was shot and stabbed at a farmhouse in Humboldt, Nebraska, on 31 December 1993 by John Lotter and Tom Nissen, a week after they had raped him and he reported it to police.

The 2015 film The Danish Girl cast which actor as Lili Elbe?

Eddie Redmayne, fresh from his Oscar for The Theory of Everything, played Lili Elbe for director Tom Hooper; the casting of a cisgender man drew criticism, and in 2021 Redmayne said he would no longer take the role.

Who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing painter Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl?

Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress at the February 2016 ceremony, her first nomination, for playing Gerda Wegener; she had also starred in Ex Machina in 2015.

Felicity Huffman was Oscar-nominated for playing trans woman Bree in which 2005 film?

Transamerica, Duncan Tucker's 2005 film, earned Huffman a Best Actress nomination; Dolly Parton's song for it, 'Travelin' Thru', was nominated for Best Original Song.

The FX series Pose is set in which New York subculture?

Pose follows rival houses competing in the ball culture of 1980s and 90s New York; Billy Porter won the 2019 Emmy for lead actor in a drama for playing its emcee, Pray Tell.

In January 2022, Pose star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez became the first transgender actor to win which award?

Rodriguez took the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama on 9 January 2022 for playing house mother Blanca Evangelista, the first trans performer to win a Golden Globe.

Elliot Page, who came out as a trans man in 2020, earned an Academy Award nomination for which 2007 film?

Page's turn as pregnant teenager Juno MacGuff in Juno earned a Best Actress nomination at the 2008 Oscars; in 2021 he became the first openly trans man on the cover of Time.

Lana Wachowski, the first major Hollywood director to come out as transgender, co-directed which 1999 blockbuster?

The Matrix, written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, opened in March 1999 and won four Oscars; Lana came out publicly in 2012 and Lilly in 2016 via the Windy City Times.

Before coming out as a trans woman in 2015, Caitlyn Jenner won Olympic gold in 1976 in which event?

Jenner won the decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Games with a world-record 8,618 points, a win that led to the Wheaties box and a generation of celebrity.

Which magazine put Caitlyn Jenner on its July 2015 cover with the caption "Call me Caitlyn"?

Vanity Fair's July 2015 cover, shot by Annie Leibovitz, carried the line 'Call me Caitlyn'; Jenner had come out in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC's 20/20 that April.

John F. Oliven's first printed use of 'transgenderism' came in a 1965 reference work on what?

Oliven's 1965 medical text Sexual Hygiene and Pathology used 'transgenderism', arguing 'transvestism' misdescribed people whose wish was to change gender; the cross-dressing magazine Transvestia was printing 'transgenderal' by 1969.

Which US university hospital opened the first American gender identity clinic in 1966?

Johns Hopkins in Baltimore opened its Gender Identity Clinic in 1966 and closed it in 1979 under psychiatrist Paul McHugh; Stanford followed with its own programme in 1968.

Harry Benjamin's influential 1966 book on affirmative treatment was titled The Transsexual what?

The Transsexual Phenomenon (1966) argued for hormones and surgery rather than psychotherapy alone; the professional body founded in 1979 as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association later became WPATH.

Billy Tipton, whose birth sex was discovered only by paramedics at his death in 1989, had a long career as what?

Tipton worked for decades as a jazz musician, playing piano and saxophone and leading the Billy Tipton Trio; the discovery at his death in 1989 shocked his adopted sons, bandmates and former partners.

Lou Sullivan, founder of FTM International, was the first trans man known to publicly identify as what?

Sullivan identified openly as a gay trans man and insisted gender identity and sexual orientation are separate, pushing clinics to drop rules that barred gay trans men from transition care; he founded FTM International in 1986.

Chaz Bono, who competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2011, is the son of which singer?

He first appeared on television as a toddler on his parents' show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour; his DWTS partner was Lacey Schwimmer.

Alan L. Hart, an early US trans man, pioneered X-ray screening for which disease?

Hart pioneered mass chest X-ray screening to catch tuberculosis before symptoms appeared, running programmes in Idaho and Connecticut from the 1930s; he also published four novels.

Nong Toom, whose life inspired Beautiful Boxer (2003), was a champion in which sport before her transition?

Nong Toom fought professionally in Muay Thai, making headlines in 1998 as a make-up-wearing 16-year-old who beat, then kissed, a bigger opponent at Bangkok's Lumpinee Stadium.

Hunter Schafer was the youngest plaintiff in a 2016 lawsuit against a 'bathroom bill' in which state?

Carcano v. McCrory, brought by the ACLU and Lambda Legal in 2016, challenged North Carolina's HB2 'bathroom bill'; Schafer, then a 17-year-old high-school student, joined as its youngest plaintiff.

Harry Benjamin's six-category classification of transsexuals and transvestites was called what?

The Sex Orientation Scale, set out in Benjamin's 1966 book, ranked six types from 'transvestite' to 'true transsexual'; built around heterosexual trans women, it has little in common with modern views of gender identity.

Which country was first to remove gender identity disorder as a diagnosis, by decree in 2010?

France removed 'transsexualism' from its list of psychiatric conditions by a health ministry decree in February 2010, the first country to do so; the WHO's ICD-11, approved in 2019, moved gender incongruence out of the mental disorders chapter.

The 1910 coinage 'Transvestit' was built from words of which language?

'Transvestit' was built from Latin trans ('across') and vestire ('to clothe') for the 1910 study Die Transvestiten; the English form 'transvestite' followed in the 1920s.

The 2021 Canadian census found roughly what share of the population identified as transgender?

Statistics Canada counted 59,460 transgender people in 2021, 0.19% of Canadians aged 15 and over; with non-binary people included, the gender-diverse share was 0.33%.