Rikki Swin (1947 - ) chemical engineer, executive

July 3, 2013, 3:00 pm

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Swin was born in Chicago, and did a degree in chemical engineering. Swin became an expert in polymer construction and design, and at 23 founded Tec Air, Inc. in Willow Springs. Illinois. Swin conceived a method – which was patented - of balancing fans by inserting adjustable screws into hollowed-out sections of the mold insert that is used to form the fan hub. Tec Air grew to annual revenues of over $20m.

In 1990 the US arm of Denso Corporation (株式会社デンソ) approached Tec Air to submit a quote on manufacturing fans, which revealed to Tec Air that its patents were being infringed. From 1992-9 Tec Air won a series of lawsuits and was awarded $25m.

In 1999 Swin sold the business, and transitioned as Rikki. She founded an Institute, originally called Gender Education Research and Library, but then renamed for herself when the original acronym was spelt out, endowed it with $5m and purchased archives from Virginia Prince, Ariadne Kane, Merissa Sherrill Lynn, Betty Ann Lind and the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE). It opened on March 22, 2001 to coincide with the 15^th Annual Conference of IFGE which was

held that year in Chicago. Swin had co-sponsored the Conference but was not present at it. She provided charter buses to ferry the Conferencees to the Institute's $2m building in down-town Chicago for a catered reception, but the actual collections were not on view. Swin said that the Institute was "primarily designed to help the mainstream world understand the transgender one, to break down Jerry Springer-like portrayals of transsexuals, and to show the community in a positive, productive light" and "that the transgender population represents an underused research pool that can help conduct anecdotal or scientific research" on gender differences. Trans activist Alison Laing was hired to work on the collection, and academics Ken Dollarhide and Susan Stryker were allowed to access the unorganized material.

The RSI took out full-page adverts in Transgender Tapestry, but then disappeared in 2002. The building was reportedly empty. The phone number was out of service. Many people wondered where the archives had gone to.

Rikki Swin had moved to Vancouver Island and in 2007 she donated the Rikki Swin Institute archives to the University of Victoria Library Transgender Archives, but this was not announced until 2010. Aaron Devor made an official announcement at the WPATH meeting in Atlanta in September 2011.

Joseph Pryweller. "Tec Air Wins Suit Against Denso". Plastics News, June 30, 1997. www.plasticsnews.com/article/19970630/NEWS/306309993/tec-air-wins-suit-against-denso.
TEC AIR, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DENSO MANUFACTURING MICHIGAN INC. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. September 30, 1999.
Julie Deardorff. "Crossing The Line Between Genders: What Men Find When They Become Women". Chicago Tribune, April 08, 2001. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-04-08/news/0104080312_1_transsexuals-estrogen-therapy-gender.
Lotta Hubris (Dallas Denny). "Nice Box. Wonder What’s In It?" Transgender Community News & Views, July, 2001: 30-1. Online at: http://dallasdenny.com/Writing/2011/11/01/nice-box-wonder-whats-in-it-2001.
Dallas Denny. "Where's Our History?" Trans Group Blog, December 21, 2007. http://transgroupblog.blogspot.ca/2007/12/wheres-our-history.html.
Dallas Denny. "History Mystery Solved". Chrysalis Quarterly, Nov 4, 2011. http://dallasdenny.com/Chrysalis/2011/11/04/history-mystery-solved.
Dallas Denny. "I Get Censored: A Never-Before-Told Tale of Intrigue, Enforced Secrecy, and Missing Transgender Archival Material". Chrysalis Quarterly, Dec 20, 2011. http://dallasdenny.com/Chrysalis/2011/12/20/i-get-censored.
Luke Simcoe. "UVic hosts world’s largest archive of transgender material". Metro, November 2, 2012. http://metronews.ca/news/victoria/426458/uvic-hosts-worlds-largest-archive-of-transgender-material.
"Rikki Swin Institute (RSI)". University of Victoria Transgender Archives. http://transgenderarchives.uvic.ca/the-collection/rikki-swin-institute-rsi.
www.rikkiswin.com

____________________________________________________________

Dallas Denny’s quite reasonable "Where's Our History?" was written for Transgender Tapestry in 2004, but was repeatedly delayed by Executive Director Denise Leclair for three years. This was the “biggest factor” in Dallas resigning as editor.

The University of Victoria Library Transgender Archives has now also acquired the UK Trans-Gender archives from Richard Ekins.

↧

Shoshanna Gillick (1943 - 1999) psychiatrist

July 5, 2013, 6:35 am

≫ Next: Gloria Greaves (1933–) sex worker

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Marvin Gillick was trained as a psychiatrist at Georgetown University, and had board certifications in General Psychiatry, Child/Adolescent Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. He served as a Lieutenant Commander/ psychiatrist/ drug counselor in the US Navy, and was later an associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for more than a decade. He and his wife had a daughter.

He worked with anorexic, autistic and emotionally disturbed children. He also counseled trans patients and gave workshops to gay and lesbian care providers.
Gillick was working for Cigna Corp in 1993 as a staff psychiatrist when she started transition as Shoshanna, and was fired on the pretext of violating the dress code.

She moved to San Francisco, partially to be closer to her daughter, and opened a private practice.

"I am a developmental child psychiatrist trained and experienced in evaluating children and adolescents. As both a child and an adolescent with GID, I was seriously leaking gender, and can recall on a daily basis festering and suppurating while attempting to construct a workable core gender identity. Before there was a GID diagnosis I experienced a gender identity disorder which made for one confused and extremely unhappy little boy.

My article strongly differentiated between "gender non-conforming" children and adolescents who displayed variant gender behavior but did not present with the emotional distress and functional impairment of a psychiatric disorder. Unfortunately, most of my psychiatric colleagues are either or both insensitive or ignorant of gender developmental issues, and lump all individuals who display crossgender identification or behavior as sick, weird or psychotic. …

Rather than abolish GID, I suggest a more accurate picture of the diversity of gender presentations. Under the heading of "gender variants" I include non-pathological phenomena such as healthy gender independence, healthy gender-blending, and healthy gender-questioning in youth and adults. Variants means simply different presentations, which are not better or worse than the "normal" masculine or feminine flavors. My concept of "gender deviants" implies a symptomatic, painful, jumping off the track of the gender train. I have introduced a clinical syndrome of anatomical rejection/disgust with the genitalia of birth or "genital dysphoria." A separate condition which I term "gender dysphoria" is a rejection of the gender role and behavior associated with the genitalia at birth. When these two serious clinical syndromes combine that is what I am calling gender identity disorder. I got it, and its no fun."

In 1998, apparently again as Marvin although still considering surgery, she became employed at an outpatient clinic in San Mateo. However in August 1999 Marvin was found hanged in the foyer of the clinic.

Sarah Seton (Rachel Tortolini) dedicated her book to Shoshanna.

Gianna E. Israel. “Interview with Shoshanna Gillick, MD”. Gianna Israel Gender Library, 1997. www.firelily.com/gender/gianna/gillick.interview.html also at www.transgendercare.com/support/etc/tdp/extlink.asp?gtl=601&lid=4a25k5t5wdli.
Barbara Feder. “Psychiatrist is found dead: Marvin Gillick apparently hangs self from ceiling beam at San Mateo clinic”. Jan Jose Mercury, Aug 19, 1999. Online at: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/browse_thread/thread/3bc319f88d75db97/aba4b21ea8652e14?pli=1.
Jean Bobby Noble. Masculinities Without Men?: Female Masculinity in Twentieth-Century Fictions. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004: xxviii.
Sarah Seton. Transsexuality in the late 20^thCentury: What it was and what it wasn't. Aetheom Press, 2008: Dedication.

↧

Gloria Greaves (1933–) sex worker

July 8, 2013, 6:14 pm

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Gloria Robinson completed surgical transition in the early 1960s, became the wife of Brian Greaves, and had for 20 years she had been recognised as a female for national insurance purposes.

In 1982 Gloria Greaves was working as a dominatrix offering humiliation, flagellation, bondage and torture accompanied by masturbation, but not sexual intercourse at 15 Calendon Street in Belgravia, London, and subletting 89b Warwick Way to Moira Tan who offered similar services.

Both Tan and Greaves were arrested and convicted of keeping a disorderly house under the Disorderly Houses Act of 1751. Furthermore Mrs Greaves was convicted under the Sexual Offences Act 1956 of living on the earnings of prostitution in that she was Tan's landlady, and her husband of living on the earnings of male prostitution (that is of his wife's).

The wording of the 1956 Act is:

1; It is an offence for a man knowingly to live wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution.
2 For the purposes of this section a man who lives with or is habitually in the company of a prostitute, or who exercises control, direction, or influence over a prostitute's movements in a way which shows he is aiding, abetting or compelling her prostitution with others, shall be presumed to be knowingly living on the earnings of prostitution, unless he proves to the contrary.

Thus only a man can commit the offence.

Mr Greaves was convicted of both living on the earnings of prostitution (implicitly that of a female) and of living on the earnings of male prostitution. Tan was sentenced to six months and "deprived of property rights in apparatus found at such premises"; Mrs Greaves was sentenced to 18 months, the same deprivation of property rights and a fine of £10,000; Mr Greaves was sentenced to 12 months – Mrs Greaves to serve her time in a women's prison. All were released pending appeal which took place in December 1982 and February 1983.

The appeal court quashed Mr Greaves' conviction of living on the earnings of (female) prostitution. However all other appeals against conviction were dismissed, but appeals against sentence were upheld and the custodial sentences were suspended for two years. The judges agreed that the convictions of Mr and Mrs Greaves depended on the assertion that Gloria was still man. They cited the precedent of Corbett v. Corbett (1970), and considered but rejected the contention that

"for the purposes of s 30 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 and s 5 of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 another test should be applied; that, if the person had become philosophically or psychologically or socially female, that person should be held not to be a man for the purposes of the sections and that, on this basis, the evidence was inconclusive and the counts ought to have been withdrawn from the jury".

They continued:

“It would in our view create an unacceptable situation if the law were such that a marriage between Gloria Greaves and another man was a nullity, on the ground that Gloria Greaves was a man; that buggery to which he consented with such other person was not an offence for the same reason; but that Gloria Greaves could live on the earnings of a female prostitute without offending against section 30 of the Act of 1956 because for that purpose he/she was not a man and that the like position would arise in the case of someone charged with living on his earnings as a male prostitute.”

"R v Tan and others". Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, 10 February 1983. www.pfc.org.uk/caselaw/R%20v%20Tan%20and%20others.pdf.
"Once a man, always a man". British Medical Journal, 286, 19 March 1983. http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1547328/pdf/bmjcred00545-0069.pdf.
Stephen Livingstone. "Notes of Cases: Transsexuals and Sexual Identity". The Modern Law Review, 51,4,1988. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1988.tb01770.x/pdf.
Rob Jerrard. "Living on the earnings of prostitution". No date. http://www.rjerrard.co.uk/law/articles/livings.htm.

Thus it was possible to be sent to a women’s prison convicted of a crime that only a man could commit.

Gloria transitioned and married many years before Corbett v. Corbett, and thus until 1970 was accepted as a legal woman. It is nor stated whether of not she had her birth certificate amended, not whether the marriage of the Greaves was nullified in 1983.

I am presuming that Gloria went to Dr Burou, as there were few other options at the time.

There is no record of the Greaves after 1983.

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Giorgia O’Brien (1928 - 2004) singer, actor.

July 11, 2013, 3:20 am

≫ Next: Tony Barreto-Neto (1945 - ) musician, activist, cop.

≪ Previous: Gloria Greaves (1933–) sex worker

Giorgio Montana, born in Palermo, Sicily, was keen on singing and spent eight years in amateur choirs. He had the unusual ability to switch between baritone and soprano. He was almost accepted at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, but a man who could sing soprano did not have the respectability then required.

He worked in Germany and France, often en travesti. One of his co-workers was Coccinelle. On return to Italy he became a star of the avanspettacolo, and performed at Rome's Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, singing both pop and opera.

In 1970 Giorgia completed transition with De Burou in Casablanca. She changed her surname to O'Brien in homage to Margaret O'Brien who played Beth in the 1949 version of Little Women.

Giorgia worked three years at Milan's Teatro Piccolo, and collaborated with Franco Zeffirelli and Guiseppe Bertolucci. The latter cast her in his 1979 film, Oggetti smarriti. Giorgia was noted was her rendition of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries wherein she sang both Brunnhilde (siprano) and Wotan (bass).

In 1985 she and Christine Jorgensen were featured in the Danish documentary about transsexuals, Paradiset er ikke til salg.

In 1991 she was cast as the wife of the minister in Johnny Stecchino in 1991. In real life she became the wife of Georges Argand.

In 1998 she revived her half-man-half-woman act.

Giorgia died at the age of 76 after a short illness. Her husband died shortly afterwards.

Teit Ritzau (dir). Paradiset er ikke til salg (Paradise Is Not for Sale). With Giorgia O’Brien and Christine Jorgensen. Denmark 60 mins 1985.
Gianfranco Mingozzi (dir). Giorgio/a Una storia di Transessualsimo attraverso una diva dello spettacolo. With Giorgia O’Brien. Italy 2004.
"Giorgia O'Brien, Uomo dalla voce d'angelo". ANSA. www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/notizie/rubriche/daassociare/visualizza_new.html_790972343.html.
"Giorgia O'Brien" MaleSoulMakeUp: Queer Culture Blog, 7 giugno 2011. http://malesoulmakeup.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/giorgia-obrien.

IT.WIKIPEDIA IMDB

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Tony Barreto-Neto (1945 - ) musician, activist, cop.

July 15, 2013, 12:30 pm

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Barreto-Neto, raised in Tampa, Florida, knew he was a boy by age 5.

After puberty, Barreto-Neto ran off to New Orleans where, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a lesbian, s/he did a degree at Louisiana State University Medical Center while being openly gay, dropped out of graduate school, ran a gay disco, played drums in several bands, especially Original Bleus, became active on lesbian issues, was the first female co-chair of the Louisiana Gay Political Action Coalition (LAGPAC) and spent time in Colorado, Belgium and California. He was arrested many times in the 1960s and ‘70s for being ‘disguised’ in male clothing.

In his 40s Barreto-Neto became a cop back in Hillsborough, Florida and became a decorated police officer with numerous awards. He transitioned to Tony on the job. Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson told the St. Petersburg Times: "This deputy was good as a female, and I'm sure will be just as good as a male". He completed this with phalloplasty from Dr Dan Greenwald in Tampa in 1995.

Tony founded and was Director of TOPS (Transgender Officers Protect and Serve), was a director of IFGE, and chair of Gender PAC. He is also a Eucharistic minister in the Catholic Church. He lobbied in Washington, protested outside courthouses, appeared in a documentary film and on ABC's "20/20." He attempted to visit the Michigan Women’s Music Festival on the grounds that if trans women are excluded, trans men should be welcomed. But he was asked to leave.

Some of his fellow officers became hostile after his transition, and his home was shot at. In 2002, Tony moved to Vermont with his wife and adopted daughter. He joined the Hardwick, Vermont, Police Department.

However the Town Manager became aware of a website that described Tony as transsexual following an anonymous phone call from Tampa, and urged a newly

hired police chief to harass Barreto-Neto until he quit. The newly hired chief quit after two weeks. However no-one talked to Tony any more. Other officers did not respond to his calls for backup. He sued. The Attorney General’s Office found the complaints credible, and in 2004 Hardwick settled, paying Tony $90,000, and requiring that the town adopt a formal policy of non-discrimination and train its employees on transgender issues. This established for the first time that trans persons are protected under Vermont law.

Tony was thereafter unable to obtain work as a police officer until 2012.

Gary Shepherd. “Gender surgery: Tampa's newest medical trend”. Tampa Bay Business Journal, Mar 22, 1999. www.ftmphallo.com/Greenwald/tampa.htm
"Statement from Tony Barreto-Neto, Camp Trans FTM or... THE SHOWERING PENIS S-P-E-A-K-S!!!". Eminism, August 1999. http://eminism.org/michigan/19990800-barretoneto.txt.
Candace Page. "Disputed firing leaves transgendered cop, town in limbo". Free Press, May 02, 2004. Online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TNUKdigest/message/9065.
Euan Bear. “Groundbreaking Ruling Recognizes Trans Rights”. Out in the Maintains, 5 May 2004.www.mountainpridemedia.org/oitm/issues/2004/05may2004/news01_trans.htm.
"Barreto-Neto v. Town of Hardwick Police Department". Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, December 31, 2004. www.glad.org/work/cases/barreto-neto-v-town-of-hardwick-police-department.
Darren Peron. “Becoming, Part 3: Transgender Discrimination”. WCAX News. Nov 14, 2008. www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=9352206.
"Anthony Barreto-Neto: TLGB Activist". Linkedin. www.linkedin.com/pub/anthony-barreto-neto/25/198/994.

↧

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

July 18, 2013, 12:21 pm

≫ Next: Martina Castellana (196?–) dermatologist, councillor

≪ Previous: Tony Barreto-Neto (1945 - ) musician, activist, cop.

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

See also Canada, UK, France, Germany, 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.

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.
Alice Baker (188? – 19??) school teacher arrested and outed in the press, but a quiet inspiration to many. GVWW.
Ray Bourbon (1892 – 1971) pansy performer who claimed to have had the operation. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Phil Black (190? – 1975) performer who started the New York drag balls that evolved into the later voguing balls. GVWW
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
Hedy Jo Star (1920 – 1999) showgirl, costumier. The first full-length autobiography by a US trans woman, 1955. GVWW
Stormé DeLarverie (1920 – ) Jewel Box Review performer, Stonewall alumnus. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Pussy Katt (1929 – ) the first known US surgical transsexual who had her operation in 1945 at age 16. GVWW
Gloria Hemingway (1931 – 2001) writer, doctor, daughter of Ernest. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Issan Dorsey (1933 – 1990) drag performer who became a Zen Abbot. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Terry Noel (1936 – ) Jewel Box Review performer, computer programmer-analyst. The first trans women known to work for the US Government. GVWW
Aleshia Brevard (1937 – ) first trans women to play significant roles in Hollywood films. www.aleshiabrevard.com.
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
Catherine Jones (1944 – 2011) Artist. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Donna Parsons (1945 – 2003) recording supervisor, Chaplin impersonator. GVWW
Joan Roughgarden (1946 – ) biologist at Stanford University, author of Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. WIKIPEDIA
Rachel Harlow (1948 – ) star of The Queen, a sensation at the Cannes International Film Festival, club owner in Philadelphia. GVWW
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
Sulka (195? – ) pioneer trans porn star who became post-op (unlike most such stars today).
Johnny Science (1955 – 2007) drag king/trans man pioneer in 1980s/1990s New York. GVWW

↧

Martina Castellana (196?–) dermatologist, councillor

July 20, 2013, 3:47 am

≫ Next: 13 trans in Canada who changed things by example and/or achievement

≪ Previous: 20 trans in the US who changed things by example and/or achievement

Michele Castellana grew to 1.9 m (6'2") and qualified as a dermatologist, and worked in the hospitals of Salerno. For a while s/he was the androgynous Micha. Then she was Martina.

In 2009, after twenty years on hormones, Martina ran, perforce under the name of Michele, as a Salerno list candidate for Silvio Berlusconi's Il Popolo della Libertà (PdL) in the provincial elections and became a consigliere. In 2010 she was elected president of the provincial commission for equal opportunities, and was able to open a gender identity centre – the first south of Rome.

In 2011 the city of Salerno granted her a revised identity card making her the first Italian trans woman to have a revised card without undergoing surgery.

In 2012 she released her autobiography, Sulla mia pelle.

In June 2013 Martina flew to Malta with the singer Sandro Giacobbe, and was invested with a Cross of Malta (although not the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta).

Filippo Maria Battaglia. "Bionda, dermatologa e transgender. Una Castellana per il Pdl a Salerno". Panorama, 13-03-2009. http://news.panorama.it/politica/Bionda-dermatologa-e-transgender-Una-Castellana-per-il-Pdl-a-Salerno .
Silvia Morani. "'Io, trans del PdL, vorrei che tutti i partiti parlassero d’amore'" Giornalettismo, 24 ottobre 2011. www.giornalettismo.com/archives/160945/io-trans-del-pdl-vorrei-che-tutti-i-partiti-parlassero-damore.
Angela Cappetta. "Donna all'anagrafe senza cambiare sesso Vittoria della trans-consigliera del Pdl: La battaglia vinta da Martina Castellana, presidente della commissione Pari opportunità della Provincia". Corriere del Mezzogiorno,21 ottobre 2011 .http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/cronaca/2011/21-ottobre-2011/nome-donna-senza-cambiare-sessovittoria-trans-consigliere-castellana-1901893308251.shtml .
Martina Cartellana. Sulla mia pelle. La mia vita senza bavaglio. Edisud Salerno, 2011.
Angela Cappetta. "«Sulla mia pelle», le tre vite
del consigliere ". Corriere del Mezzogiorno,13 gennaio 2012 .http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/politica/2012/13-gennaio-2012/sulla-mia-pelle-tre-vitedel-consigliere-martina-castellana-1902847834320.shtml.
"New Knight of Malta Dame is a Transsexual". The Independent, 23 June 2013. www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-23/news/-new-knight-of-malta-dame-is-a-transsexual-1889501188.
"Un trans diventa «dama» all'Ordine di Malta, ma i Cavalieri smentiscono: «Non con noi». Nota del gran magistero sull'investitura della Castellana: «Organizzazioni usano il nostro nome per scopi di lucro»". Corriere del Mezzogiorno, 21 maggio 2013. http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/salerno/notizie/cronaca/2013/21-maggio-2013/trans-diventa-dama-ordine-maltama-cavalieri-smentiscono-non-noi-2221251998458.shtml.

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13 trans in Canada who changed things by example and/or achievement

July 22, 2013, 3:17 am

≫ Next: Walter L. Williams (1948–) anthropologist.

≪ Previous: Martina Castellana (196?–) dermatologist, councillor

See also US, UK, France, Germany, Australia/NZ, Americans in Europe, Europeans in the Americas.

Qa'nqon Ka'mek Klau'la (? – 1837) Kutanai two-spirit person and prophet who led a First Nation uprising in the 1830s. WIKIPEDIA
Lana St-Cyr (1927 – 1986) first transvestite entertainer in Québec from 1940s. Arrested in 1962. Raelian activist. GVWW
Dianna Boileau (1930 – ) The first patient at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry Gender Clinic, possibly the first surgical transsexual in Canada (there were some unrecorded others at McGill and Dalhousie around the same time) and Canada’s first transsexual autobiography. GVWW
Michelle Duff (1939 – ) motorcycle racer, winner of 1964 Belgian Grand Prix. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Marie-Marcelle Godbout (1944 – ) performer, co-founder of l’Association des Transsexuelles du Québec. GVWW
Brigitte Martell (1949 – 2006) child pop star, chanteuse, co-founder of l’Association des Transsexuelles du Québec. GVWW
Aaron Devor (1951 – ) sociologist, sexologist, author of Gender Blending and FTM: Female-toMale Transsexuals in Society, administrator of the world’s largest trans archive. WIKIPEDIA
Rupert Raj (1952 – ) activist, counsellor, founder of FACT and MMR. Worked for trans men and women for over 30 years. GVWW Wikipedia page inexplicably deleted.
Toby Dancer (1953 – 2004) musician. Commemorated in 2012 Ontario Trans Rights Act. GVWW
Michelle Josef (1954 – ) drummer in Prairie Oyster, with Detroit Symphony Orchestra and other bands. Sued Ontario government to re-instate funding for transgender surgery. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Jamie Lee Hamilton (1955 – ) half-Chippewa, sex worker, activist, trade unionist, candidate and elected politician, performer, agitated re missing women killed by Robert Pickton. GVWW WIKIPEDIA
Maxine Petersen (195? – ) psychologist, world’s first Gender Clinic staff person to transition. GVWW
Carys Massarella (196? – ) Emergency Physician, lead Physician for the Transgender Care Program in Hamilton, Ontario and assistant professor at McMaster University.

↧

Walter L. Williams (1948–) anthropologist.

July 26, 2013, 7:34 pm

≫ Next: 20 trans Americans who found their destiny in Europe

≪ Previous: 13 trans in Canada who changed things by example and/or achievement

Walter Lee Williams completed a PhD in History and Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He became Professor of Anthropology, History and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California in 1979.

Williams read and was impressed by Jonathan Katz' 1976 Gay American History which contains a section on 'berdaches'. He began research on the subject at the UCLA American Indian Studies Center, but quickly found better resources at the the Gay and Lesbian archives at ONE, Inc. He gave his first paper on the subject at a history conference and was scolded for even discussing it by a leading historian who had previously written letters of recommendation for him.

One, Inc put Williams in touch with gay pioneer Harry Hay who had lived for years on native reservations. In 1982 Williams set out to find a living 'berdache', and did so among the Omaha, and then another among the Lakota. He followed this with a field trip to the Yucatán where he met Mayan 'berdaches'. He also did ethnographic fieldwork living on Eastern Cherokee, Seminole, Pine Ridge Sioux, Aleut and Navajo Nation reservations.

In 1986 Williams published The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Williams' book was a ground-breaking summary of the literature supplemented by his fieldwork. He outed himself in the book as a gay researcher, and discussed the alliance of living 'berdaches' with the then gay movement. He dismissed the idea that a 'berdache' was transsexual:

"It is worth noting that many transsexuals may pass for women because there is no respected alternative to masculinity in this society. Bodily mutilation is a heavy price to pay for the ideology of biological determination. American Indian cultures, through the berdache tradition, do provide alternative gender roles. Indians have options not in terms of either/or, opposite categories, but in terms of various degrees along a continuum between masculine and feminine."

He also included sections on gay pirates and cowboys that are not of obvious relevance to the topic of the book.

The Spirit and the Flesh won the Gay Book of the Year Award from the American Library Association, the Ruth Benedict Award from the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, and the Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the World Congress for Sexology.

Harry Hay reviewed the book and criticized it for conflating winkte or nádleehé or other 'berdache' with gay and for de-emphasizing the ceremonial and spiritual aspect of the role. However he concluded:

"All that being said, the book is also a vast compendium of gaily related information, chock-a-block full of new anthropological notions to explore, old academic confusions to clean up, and all of it very readable. ... The Spirit and the Flesh is, for all its faults, clearly a giant step in the direction of enabling, perhaps even empowering, Heteros to see Gay People as we wish to be heard. It is without a doubt a book no serious library can in future be without. (p282)"

Four years later the third annual intertribal First Nations/Native American gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg voted strongly for the term 'two-spirit' and that the term 'berdache" not be used.

Williams was co-founder with an ex-boyfriend of the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History for the American Historical Association and was an officer of the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists.

In 1992 a second revised edition of The Spirit and the Flesh was published, but still used the terms 'berdache' and 'Indian'.

In 1994 Williams got the University of Southern California to provide space for the ONE Gay and Lesbian Archives.

In 1997 Jean-Guy A. Goulet re-analyzed the original 1947 and 1954 accounts of the Northern Athapaskans and demonstrated that Williams' paraphrase added an unwarranted conclusion.

The same year Pat Califia in Sex changes: the politics of transgenderism made the obvious, but not previously well articulated, point that both Katz and Williams talk of 'berdaches' as gay, but surely they are a type of transgender. Califia comments:

"Williams' position on the gender of the berdache is ambiguous. On the one hand he is forced to admit at the very least that the berdache was differently-gendered, combining male and female qualities, occupying a social role that was 'half-man, half-woman' and 'not-man, not-woman'. Yet he insists, in an amazing series of arguments, that the berdache were not women, transvestites, hermaphrodites, or transsexuals.(p132)"

"Why is Williams so reluctant to simply own the fact that one of the most important defining qualities of a berdache was her donning of female apparel? His line of reasoning here seems based almost entirely on distaste about transvestism, which he dismisses as an embarrassing sexual kink. ... I assume that Williams would come down hard on a straight researcher who insisted on interpreting homosexuality solely through the lens of medical or psychiatric pathology and protest if it was discussed only as a recently-discovered type of sexual abnormality. Why doesn't he reject a similar definition of and treatment of transvestism and transsexuality? (p133)"

Williams lived for extended periods in Thailand, Indonesia (as a Fulbright scholar), Cambodia, Philippines, and other parts of Asia and the south Pacific.
In 2006 Williams added an author's note in Amazon:

"Unless continued sales of this book will justify the publication of a third revised edition in the future, it is not possible to rewrite what is already printed. Therefore, I urge readers of this book, as well as activists who are working to gain more respect for gender variance, mentally to substitute the term "Two-Spirit" in the place of "berdache" when reading this text."

In February 2011 Williams suddenly quit his position at the University of Southern California, and relocated to Cancún, Yucatán, after being questioned by Los Angeles police after returning from a trip to the Philippines. In June 2013 the FBI put Williams on its Ten Most Wanted list, the 500^th person to gain that distinction.

He was arrested by the Yucatán local police the next day, reportedly having been shopped by a local resident for the $100,000 award. He was extradited to Los Angeles and arraigned. He was was charged with sexual assault and predation on two 14-year-old boys from the Philippines with whom he engaged in webcam sex and then flew to the Philippines to have sex with in December 2010. He is facing 100 years in prison.

Walter L.Williams. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Extract: "The Berdache Tradition". Online at: http://windward.hawaii.edu/facstaff/dagrossa-p/articles/berdache.pdf.
Jane Monnig Atkinson. "The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture by Walter L. Williams (Beacon: $21.95; 333 pp., illustrated)". Los Angeles Times, October1, 1987. http://articles.latimes.com/1986-12-14/books/bk-2824_1_public-opinion-survey.
Randy P. Conner. Blossom of Bone: Reclaiming the Connections between Homoeroticism and the Sacred. HarperSanFrancisco, 1993: 5-6, 8-9, 27, 28, 294..
Harry Hay "Review of The Spirit and the Flesh by Walter Williams" Homosexual Information Center Newsletter, January 1987. Reprinted in Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the words of its founder, Harry Hay edited by Will Roscoe. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996: 275-283.
Jean-Guy A. Goulet. "The Northern Athapaskan 'berdache' Reconsidered: On reading More Than There Is in the Ethnographic Record". In Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas & Sabine Lang. Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997:56-8.
Sabine Lang. Men As Women, Women As Men: Changing Gender in Native American Cultures. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998: xi, xii, 7, 8, 11, 21, 24, 43, 45, 243, 244, 312, 313, 322, 323.
Walter L.Williams & Yolanda Retter. Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A Documentary History. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003.
Pat Califia. Sex changes: the politics of transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press 1997. Second edition by Patrick Califia 2003: 127-142.
Walter L.Williams, Edwin Clark Johnson & Wesley Thomas. Two Spirits: A Story of Life with the Navajo. Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2006.
Walter L.Williams. "The 'two-spirit' people of indigenous North Americans". The Guardian, 11 October 2012. www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/11/two-spirit-people-north-america.
Walter L.Williams. Extended comment on: Joseph Hawkins. "ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, USA: From Community Collection to Professional Archives: A Journey". LGBTI ALMS 2012, 2012/06/27. http://lgbtialms2012.blogspot.ca/2012/06/history-is-written-by-those-who-save.html.
Charles Orgbon. "Two-Spirit People: Gays Accepted by Native Americans ". Huffingfton Post, 07/18/2012. www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-orgbon/twospirit-people-gays-acc_b_1677851.html.
Karen Ocamb. "FBI Puts Gay Former USC Professor Walter L. Williams on Top 10 Most Wanted List". Frontiers LA, 6/18/2013. www.frontiersla.com/News/Context/story.aspx?ID=1987377.
Steven Nelson. "Walter Williams, Ex-Professor Accused of Raping Young Boys, Heads to Court: Williams was captured Tuesday after one day on the FBI's '10 Most Wanted' list". USNews, June 20, 2013. www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/06/20/walter-williams-ex-professor-accused-of-raping-young-boys-will-appear-in-court.
Victoria Brownworth. "The Strange Case of Walter Lee Williams: Renowned Gay Writer on FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List Captured". Lamda Literary, 21.Jun.2013. http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/06/21/the-strange-case-of-walter-lee-williams-renowned-gay-writer-on-fbis-ten-most-wanted-list-captured.
Victoria Brownworth. "Op-ed: How a Renowned Gay Writer Made the FBI's Most Wanted List: Strong credentials in LGBT academia shrouded Walter Lee Williams's dirty secrets". Advocate, June 24 2013. www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/06/24/op-ed-how-renowned-gay-writer-made-fbis-most-wanted-list.

EN.WIKIPEDIA   LinkedIn   WorldCat   Amazon.US
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There are some issues to be raised against The Spirit and the Flesh, but it was the first book-length discussion of North American aboriginal gender variation. There are now almost a shelf-full of such books, but it was Williams who opened the door.   There is no such shelf of books on South American or Australian aboriginal gender variation.

The fact that Katz and Williams regarded two spirit persons as homosexual rather than transgender, and were not really called out about it until Pat Califia’s 1997 book, is a demonstration of the changing social construction of sex and gender.

Apparently Wikipedia did not have a page on Williams until his arrest.   The current page says nothing at all about his academic career. In addition the page is called “Walter Lee Williams” in the style of US policing, and the several mentions of “Walter L Williams” (as he is always listed on his books) on other Wikipedia pages do not click through.

Williams has been arrested in Mexico for a crime said to have been committed in the Philippines, based on an anonymous denunciation.   There is no mention of a Filipino request for his extradition.   Given that Gary Glitter, the most famous westerner to be convicted for child sexual abuse in East Asia was sentenced in Vietnam to three years and released after two, the US probably does not want to risk that the Philippines might be as liberal as its Communist neighbour.

There has been a rush by universities and gay organizations to dis-associate from Williams although he is merely accused.   He has not yet been tried. The concept of ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ is merely a memory from the past.

The Victoria Brownworth, who wrote the article above for the Advocate, is the same person who has been having a contretemps with Cristan Williams (no relation to Walter)

↧

20 trans Americans who found their destiny in Europe

July 29, 2013, 3:39 pm

≫ Next: Vasil Popovici (1815 – 1905) monk.

≪ Previous: Walter L. Williams (1948–) anthropologist.

See also US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia/NZ,Europeans in the Americas.

Ella Zoyara (1840 – 1879) from St Louis, a circus equestrian who entranced counts and kings. GVWW
Jane Heap (1883 – 1964) from Kansas, editor of The Little Review, studied with Gurdjieff in Paris, set up London Gurdjieffian group. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA
Ricky Renée (1925 – ) Jewel Box Revue performer from Indiana, moved to London, voted one of Top Ten Artists, cameo in Cabaret, 1972. DE.WIKIPEDIA
Les Lee (1929 – 2010) Quebec performer who became a star at Le Carousel. GVWW
Sonne Teal (193? – 1966) Canadian star of Le Carousel died on a Japanese tour. GVWW
Jean Fredericks (193? – 197? ) Toronto opera singer, organized London drag balls. GVWW
Angie Stardust (1940 – 2007) Jewel Box Review performer from Virginia who became a star on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. GVWW
Camille Cabral (1944 – ) Brazilian dermatologist and activist in Paris. GVWW PT.WIKIPEDIA FR.WIKIPEDIA
Rachel Pollack (1945 – ) New Yorker who became the London GLF TV/TS contact person. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA
Yeda Brown (194? – ) from Rio Grande do Sul, performed at Le Carrousel, settled in Spain, muse of Salvador Dali. GVWW
Sabrina Ramet (194? – ) Californian Political Scientist, specialist on eastern Europe, editor of Gender Reversals and Gender Cultures, professor in Norway. DE.WIKIPEDIA
Brenda Lee (1948 – 1996) one of the first São Paulo sex workers to work in Paris. She returned to set up a health care centre before being murdered. GVWW PT.WIKIPEDIA
Ajita Wilson (1950- 1987) New York film actor who became a star in Euro-trash films. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA
Desire Dubounet (1951 – ) Ohio inventor and performer who fled the FDA and lives in Budapest. GVWW
Del LaGrace Volcano (1957 – ) Californian gender queer photographer based in UK. EN.WIKIPEDIA
Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque (1963 – 1999) and Ingrid de Souza (1976 - ) Fernanda was a sex worker from the Nordesta who published her autobiography after time in Roman prison and became an Italian celebrity. Ingrid, also Brazilian, played Fernanda in the film. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA IT.WIKIPEDIA
Roberta Close (1964 – ) Brazilian model living in Switzerland. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA
Lazlo Pearlman (1972 – ) US actor, based in London. GVWW
Monica León (1975 – ) Argentinian activist who fled to Paris after the 2004 police assault on the Gondolin Hotel. GVWW
Lea T (1981 – ) from Belo Horizonte, schooled in Italy, famous model. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA

↧

Vasil Popovici (1815 – 1905) monk.

August 1, 2013, 2:57 am

≫ Next: Marcella Di Folco (1943 - 2010) film actor, activist, councillor

≪ Previous: 20 trans Americans who found their destiny in Europe

Vasil Popovici spent most of his life as a monk in the Orthodox Monastery at Țibucani in north east Romania. Revered as a mystic, it was only at his death that he was discovered to be female-bodied.

"Popovici, Vasil" in Randy P. Conner, David Hatfield Sparks & Mariya Sparks. Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore. London: Cassell, 1997: 270.

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There are a couple of score of Christian saints who were revealed to be female-bodies, many but not all were revealed only at death. The classic account is in the Appendix to Marie Delcourt’s Hermaphrodite: Myths and Rites of the Bisexual Figure in Classical Antiquity, 1956. I have generally not featured these because it was not possible to pin down the stories to a specific time and place, and so it seems more likely that the tales are legends rather than history.

In this case we have a specific monastery and precise birth and death dates. However, as we are given no other details of Popovici’s life; the tale matches the legends exactly; Conner, Sparks & Sparks give no source reference, it is quite likely that Popovici is also a legend.

↧

Marcella Di Folco (1943 - 2010) film actor, activist, councillor

August 3, 2013, 3:30 am

≫ Next: The Cabin Inn, Chicago

≪ Previous: Vasil Popovici (1815 – 1905) monk.

Marcello was raised in Rome. After school he worked as a porter at the Hotel Rivoli, and then from 1965 at the Piper Club.

In 1969 Di Folco had to deliver a letter to the Cinecitta film studios, where he was Fellini Satyricon. From then till 1980 Di Folca appeared in several more Fellini films, and even more films by other directors. He was credited as Marcello Di Falco (actually the originally spelling of the family name).

Cross-acting as the Prince in Amarcord, 1973

spotted by director Frederico Fellini and given a part in

In 1980 Di Folco did what she had wanted for many years and had transgender surgery with Dr Burou in Casablanca. On return Marcella worked as an intercontinental operator for Italcable.

Marcella 1999

She became an active participant in the newly founded Movimento Italiano Transessuali which achieved legal recognition of changed gender two years later. In 1986 Marcella moved to Bologna where MIT had its headquarters, and two years later became its president. In 1990 Marcella was elected to the Bologna City Council, and again from 1995-9. In 1994 MIT opened in Bologna the world's first gender identity clinic managed by transsexuals. In 2000 she persuaded the Equal Opportunities Minister to set up a Gender Identity Commission. In 2001 she was a Girasole (Sunflower, ie Green) list candidate. In 2004 she was Communist candidate for the European Parliament and for the Provincial Council of Bologna. In 2006 she was a Green Candidate for the Senate.

Marcella died aged 67 of a tumour.

A Bologna street has been named in her honour.

"È morta Marcella Di Folco. Il principe di «Amarcord», icona dei trans: Scoperta da Fellini, che la rese indimenticabile nella scena della Gradisca. Attivista politica, fu la prima consigliere comunale transessuale". Corriere di Bologna, 07 settembre 2010. http://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/notizie/cronaca/2010/7-settembre-2010/morta-marcella-folco-principe-amarcord-icona-trans--1703715074389.shtml
"R.I.P. Marcella Di Folco". The Wild Eye, September 9, 2010. www.thewildeye.co.uk/blog/latest-news/r-i-p-marcella-di-folco.
"In ricordo di Marcella di Folco: Auguri Marcella!". LaMetamorfosi. www.lametamorfosiftm.com/2011/03/in-ricordo-di-marcella-di-folco-auguri.html.
"Sel e Pd: 'A Bologna una via dedicata a Marcella di Folco'". gay.it, 7 Settembre 2011. www.gay.it/channel/attualita/32376/Sel-e-Pd-A-Bologna-una-via-dedicata-a-Marcella-di-Folco.html.

LIBEROCINEMA IT.WIKIPEDIA IMDB WIKIPINK

The Italian sites claim that Marcella was the first open trans person elected to a city council. No to diminish her achievement, but Rachel Webb was elected to Lambeth Council in 1986, and Mark Rees to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in 1994.

↧

The Cabin Inn, Chicago

August 5, 2013, 7:20 am

≫ Next: 18 trans persons in Italy who changed things by example and/or achievement

≪ Previous: Marcella Di Folco (1943 - 2010) film actor, activist, councillor

The (Cozy) Cabin Inn opened in 1933 at 3119 Cottage Grove Avenue in Bronzeville, in Chicago's South Side, at the southern side of the Century of Progress fairgrounds. Impersonator Gilda Gray was the hostess, and did an imitation of the fan dance made famous by Sally Rand at the just finished World's Fair. It was owned by Jack Hardy and Nathan "Big" Ivy, who hailed from Arkansas and was a successful entrepreneur friendly with Chicago Negro politicians.

In Summer 1934 the show featured impersonator/blues singer Luzetta Hall and the dance team of Blue and Jean, The Lady and Gentleman of the Carioca. The star was the Brown Mae West (Dick Barrow) – not to be confused with the Sepia Mae West. Nat Ivy placed advertisements in the local newspapers: "When you have seen our Floor Show ... you have seen Chicago at its Best".

In late 1934 and early 1935 Mayor Joseph Kelly had the police clamp down on pansy and lesbian bars in the Near North Side but left Bronzeville alone. White patrons who enjoyed this type of entertainment started going to Bronzeville.
In October 1935 the Cabin Inn hosted a double wedding: that of midget dancer "Bullfrog Shorty” to Muriel Borsack, and that of impersonator Jean Acker and Vernon Long. Luzetta Hall was Jean's bridesmaid and guests came from as far away as Philadelphia and Indianapolis. It is said that Alfred Finnie took inspiration from this event in founding the Finnie's Balls which started that year. However the police came and closed the club. The impersonators were given a choice: "put on your pants or go to jail with the management".

The Inn was open again within a week, allegedly having paid bribes. The police returned in December and cited the Cabin Inn for violating its entertainment license. Barrow had a gig in Los Angeles and quickly went to it.

The Chicago Defender reported December 21 that twelve had been arrested: the two owners, two bartenders, the floodlight operator and seven female impersonators, three working at the Cabin Inn and four guests. In South State Street Court Judge Eugene McGarry dismissed all the charges: "The testimony does not show any specific violations of ordinance ... It appears that these men were dressed in female clothes. The testimony shows that it was a masquerade party. Female impersonators appear on stage every day. In the absence of any such testimony I have no choice but to find the defendants not guilty and that will be the order."

The Cabin Inn re-opened with Varieties of 1935, featuring a team of impersonators led by Valda Gray. In 1938 The Cabin Inn relocated to 3520 South State Street, still with Valda Gray.

By 1940 Nat Ivy had run out of influential friends and lost his entertainment licence.

Chad C Heap. Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940. Chicago: University of Chicago press, 2007: 94-6.
St. Sukie De la Croix. Chicago Whispers A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012: 146-8, 152.
Tristan Cabello. "Queer Bronzeville: African American LGBTs on Chicago's South Side, 1900-1985: The emergence of African-American queer cultures on Chicago's South Side, 1920-1940". Windy City Times, 2012-02-29. www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Queer-Bronzeville-African-American-LGBTs-on-Chicagos-South-Side-1900-1985/36389.html.

____________________________________________________________

Heap says that the Inn was originally called the Cozy Cabin Inn and changed its name in 1935 when it relocated to South State Street. De la Croix says nothing about ‘Cozy’ and has the move to South State Street in 1938. De la Croix says that the December trial was re the October wedding; Heap implies that it was re the December raid.

De la Croix makes some odd stylistic choices for a gay man. He describes Bullfrog Shorty’s wedding as genuine without any quotes, but does put quotes around Luzetta being Jean’s “bridesmaid”.

We are not told if the marriage of "Bullfrog Shorty” to Muriel Borsack was registered with the State of Illinois.

↧

18 trans persons in Italy who changed things by example and/or achievement

August 7, 2013, 3:48 pm

≫ Next: Eric Gilbert Oakley (1916 - ?) female impersonator, hack writer.

≪ Previous: The Cabin Inn, Chicago

Sporus (? - 69) after Nero killed his wife Poppaea, he had his slave Sporus castrated and dressed like her. Sporus was at Nero's death and became the consort of his successor. GWVV EN.WIKIPEDIA
Elagabalus (203 – 222) Roman Emperor from age 14 to 18. Reputed to do what would now be regarded as gay and trans. EN.WIKIPEDIA
Roland Ronchaia (? - 1354) sex worker during the Black Death. GVWW
Bellino (1732 – 1790) castrato impersonator. GVWW
Giorgia O'Brien (1928 – 2004) travesti, singer, actor. GVWW IT.WIKIPEDIA
Dominot (1930 - ) performer at Le Carousel and in Rome. Star in Fellini's La Dolce Vita. GVWW IT.WIKIPEDIA
Maria Starace (1932 - ) writer, actor, painter. In 1959 the most famous homosexual in Italy; in 1983 the most famous transsexual. GVWW IT.WIKIPEDIA
Marcella do Folco (1943 – 2010) film actor at Cinecitta, Movimento Italiano Transsessuali activist, Bologna city councillor. GVWW IT.WIKIPEDIA
Roberta Franciolini (1945 – 2011) activist. GVWW
Mario Mieli (1952 - 1983) Marxist pioneer transvestite/gay activist and theorist who argued that the repressive system stifles natural transsexuality. EN.WIKIPEDIA IT.WIKIPEDIA
Eva Robin's (1958 - ) model, singer, actor. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA IT.WIKIPEDIA
Robertina Manganaro (1958 - ) aristocrat, doctor, model, designer. GVWW
Mirella Izzo (1959 - ) activist, founder of Chrysalis AzioneTrans. IT.WIKIPEDIA
Luana Ricci (1963 - ) musicista in Lecce. GVWW
Vladimir Luxuria (1965 - ) activist, actor, Member of Parliament. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA IT.WIKIPEDIA
Martina Castellana (196? - ) dermatologist, Salerno city councillor. GVWW
Davide Tolu (1969 - ) writer, translator, activist. GVWW
Ketty Gabriele (1981 - ) Camorristi. GVWW EN.WIKIPEDIA

↧

Eric Gilbert Oakley (1916 - ?) female impersonator, hack writer.

August 10, 2013, 7:39 pm

≫ Next: Michael Wallent (1969 - ) IT executive

≪ Previous: 18 trans persons in Italy who changed things by example and/or achievement

According to the author page in Man into woman, Eric Gilbert Oakley was the son of T. Gilbert Oakley (? - 1953) of the National Association for Mental Health, Chief Consultant to the Pelman Institute (which promoted courses in willpower and mental exercises) and author of books on psychology and feelings of inferiority.

Eric lists his higher education as Skerry’s College (which prepares for civil service exams) and the Glasgow School of Art. However he puts a D.Psy after his name, which presumably was not acquired at either Skerry's or the GSA.

After military service in the Second World War, and six years on the stage, Oakley became editor of the monthly Health Magazine, and wrote more than 60 books. Like his father he wrote about self confidence and psychology. He also wrote about sex. He married and became the father of a daughter.

In 1964 he published Man into woman: the amazing account of a male's change into female, with full psychological and medical case history and personal analysis questionnaire, which purported to be a biography of Juliet Griffiths who had gender surgery in Casablanca in 1950. I have analysed this, and came to the conclusion that it is a clever fraud. It does however portray Griffiths as a pioneer and a star despite her early death, and its implication that you needed lots of class privileges to transition.

During the 1960s Oakley studied female impersonation and decided that he could offer something different. He started doing one-night drag acts under the name of Linda – one-nighters being compatible with his work as a writer.

In 1970 Oakley published Sex change and dress deviation. He followed the usual convention of two sections: one on Transvestism and the other on Trans-sexuality. He explains that

"Transvestism is a mild form of sex change … and involves not merely a change of clothing but a distinct attitude of mind that expresses a desire to adopt the feminine role in society".

He identifies different types:

Partial Transvestites who dress only on set occasions, which can be planned, designed or spontaneous depending on the strength of the urge.
Permanent Transvestites at work as well as home – a complete and utter compulsion.
Extreme Transvestite who "wishes to have sexual relations with a real girl while living with her as a girl himself".
Those who worship the the opposite sex and wish to be above the carnal desires and activities of men.
The passive homosexual who dresses with the intention of attracting aggressive homosexuals. (Oakley insists that "His identification is not a true one.")
The masochistic cross-dresser who desires a dominant woman to bring out his passive femininity.

In the introduction to the Trans-sexuality section Oakley writes

"The author considers that any man who is prepared to face such hazards is worthy of the greatest possible respect and consideration from everyone involved".

Note that he writes 'man' for trans woman, and he repeatedly refers to the operation as a phallectomy rather than a vaginoplasty - which means that he regards it as a removal rather than a gain. He seems to regard trans-sexuals as a special cases of effeminate men:

"The feminine mind in the male body can produce the image of effeminacy. The degree of femininity will determine his sexual role which will be chosen from three possible alternatives, i.e. the passive (femme) homosexual, the transvestite, or the trans-sexual. Trans-sexual identification with the female embarces not only the feminine mind, but the body as well. Unlike transvestism, this identification with the female is rarely, if ever, acquired. Transvestite and effeminate men are born with a predeliction for feminine habits and characteristics, but the trans-sexual is born with definite physical characteristics which interrect with his mental attitude."

He claims in chapter 12 that at the time of writing

"it is said that at Hammersmith Hospital alone no less than twelve sex-change operations are performed every month".

On the next page he writes

"Trans-sexual males are seldom sought after by homosexuals since they approximate far too closely to the woman who is of course, the sexual 'enemy' of the homosexual male".

Unfortunately he does not stick to this generally true observation elsewhere.

Oakley's typology of trans-sexual personalities is:

Those who are really transvestite but insist that they are trans-sexual. They resist hormone treatment, electrolysis and of course phallectomy.
Those who take hormones but stop short of phallectomy through fear or because of secret sexual pleasure.
The homosexual trans-sexual who is really a glorified transvestite. He is accepted by his followers, i.e. aggressive male homosexuals, as a femme , and is used anally by them.
The dedicated trans-sexual who simply cannot face life as a man and is convinced that his male role is erroneous and unjust.

On the last page of the book Oakley writes:

“From his observations, the author is convinced that the transvestite is far happier than the trans-sexual. Life is by no means so complex, so painful, or so embarrassing for them. The future is not obscured by a mist of hopefulness and doubt. The best of two worlds lies within the transvestite's grasp, for he can change from male to 'female' at will.

The author concludes, therefore , that the sex-change phenomenon is wholly and completely disastrous, and that medical bodies the world over are seriously at fault in encouraging it in any way when other means of therapy are surely at their disposal to help these unfortunate people."

Gilbert Oakley. Man into woman: the amazing account of a male's change into female, with full psychological and medical case history and personal analysis questionnaire. London: Walton Press, 1964.
Gilbert Oakley. Sex change and dress deviation. London: Morntide, 1970.
Desmond Montmorency. The Drag Scene: The Secrets of Female Impersonators. London: Luxor Press, 1970: 130.

WORLDCAT AMAZON.CO.UK
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The 1970 Oakley and the Montmorency book were both published in 1970. Both books are the same size and shape, both are dominantly yellow and both have a partial title but no author on the spine. One is published by Morntide and the other by Luxor. However both Morntide and Luxor give their address as 50 Alexandria Road, London SW19.

There is no mention at all of Virginia Prince, although the Beaumont Society, the British version of Prince's group, had been founded in 1967. Initially it had very little impact.   Also note that while the book came out a year after the Stonewall riots, they too are not even mentioned.

It is not obvious how to read the 1964 Man into woman.   Having established that it is not true, we could read it as Oakley’s wish life. Which of course would be in marked contrast to his 1970 rejection of gender surgery. Which of course parallels Prince who wanted surgery in the mid-1950s but later dogmatically told everyone that they should not have it.

The anti-gay, anti surgery platform which is now associated with Prince is found here in Oakley and demonstrates that it was not derived from Prince. Unlike Prince Oakley does not differentiate transvestism from female impersonation, and like Susanna Valenti he was a performer.   He seems to think that female impersonators are mainly heterosexual – a very different point of view from that found in Kris Kirk’s Men in Frocks, and a point of view that became very hard to maintain as time went on.

1970 was probably the latest that such ignorant comments about both homosexuals and transsexuals could be published.

↧

Michael Wallent (1969 - ) IT executive

August 13, 2013, 5:07 am

≫ Next: Titica (1987–) singer

≪ Previous: Eric Gilbert Oakley (1916 - ?) female impersonator, hack writer.

Michael Wallent was raised in Boston, Massachusetts and studied engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He married a woman, and moved to Seattle to join Microsoft in 1996 and advanced quickly.

By 1999 he was overseeing the team of 300 working on Internet Explorer, and was known for his blunt even aggressive comments re his team's work.

By 2005 he had had two children and had divorced and remarried. He was now head of a team that helped design the look and feel of Windows Vista.

In 2007 he and his second wife had a child, and he took paternity leave. At this time Wallent told his wife that he was transgender. On return to work Megan Wallent explained the situation to her boss, and then to the others on the team. She took six weeks leave, started her blog, had breast implants and facial surgery. When she returned to Microsoft it was to a different division.

It was noted that Megan's management style was different in that she asked probing questions to help the engineer find a solution. She discussed her situation re the Microsoft transgender healthcare program with the Microsoft JobsBlog:

"The other thing that gets complicated is that what they will pay for is mostly bottom surgery. Turns out that for FTM [female-to-male] transgendered folks, bottom surgery is kinda not the thing. And even increasingly for MTF [male-to-female] transpeople, bottom surgery isn’t necessarily for everybody. I didn’t have it. I have no plans to have it. I’ve been very public about that. I had facial surgery, and that’s not something that benefits would cover.

It raises interesting issues of what’s elective. Is it elective to pass? It brings up this fundamental question: if you believe that Gender Identity Disorder is a medical issue, and you want cure people of that, what is that? Is it all about bottom surgery? I’m going to say no. Gender identity isn’t about your parts, it’s about how you present yourself to the world. I’ve had this conversation with senior folks in HR, and they get it."

In 2010 Megan joined the board of Out & Equal, which advocates for LGBT equality in the workplace.

In March 2013 Wallent announced on her blog that he was returning to being Michael, purportedly because of the health risks for "someone with my genes" associated with estrogen.

Neal Karlinsky & Alyssa Litoff. "Transgender Executive: 'Just a Different Person Now Than I Was Then'". ABC News, March 6, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4394493&page=1.
"A conversation with Megan Wallent" JobsBlog: Life at Microsoft, 03/28/2008. http://microsoftjobsblog.com/megan-wallent.
Cole Wakefield & Joey Amato. "OUTBiz Profile: Megan Wallent" South Florida Gay News, May 16 2010. http://southfloridagaynews.com/articles/outbiz-profile-megan-wallent/101203.
Daniel McGinn. "Crucible: Changing Gender on the Job". Harvard Business Review, November 2010. http://hbr.org/2010/11/crucible-changing-gender-on-the-job/ar/1.
http://meganwallent.com.

EN.WIKIPEDIA

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Titica (1987–) singer

August 16, 2013, 4:59 am

≫ Next: Emmon Bodfish (1943 – 1999) druid, plumber, investment advisor

≪ Previous: Michael Wallent (1969 - ) IT executive

Titica, born and raised in Luanda, was trained in ballet. However she was rejected by her family, mocked on the street and beaten by strangers. She had breast implants in Brazil in 2008.

She was first involved in kudora music as a backing dancer. In October 2011 she released her first single, O Chão. , which has become one of the most played kudora tracks in Angola and its diaspora. She has since done a tour of Europe and the Americas. She is frequently on radio and television, and played at the annual Divas concert before President dos Santos.

"Titica – Kuduro’s Dance Queen". Masalacism, December 14^th, 2011. www.masalacism.com/2011/12/titica-kuduros-dance-queen.
Louise Redvers. "Transsexual artist Titica takes Angola by storm". BBC News Africa, 12 April 2012. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17628726.
Estelle maussion. "Titica, la transsexuelle qui brise les tabous en Angola: La jeune chanteuse transsexuelle angolaise Titica veut aider, à travers son art, à lutter contre l'homophobie et la transphobie dans son pays". Slate Afrique, 28/06/2012. www.slateafrique.com/89907/titica-la-chanteuse-transsexuelle-qui-brise-les-tabous-en-angola.

EN.WIKIPEDIA

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Emmon Bodfish (1943 – 1999) druid, plumber, investment advisor

August 18, 2013, 10:40 am

≫ Next: Mario Martino (1938 - ) nun, nurse, activist.

≪ Previous: Titica (1987–) singer

Originally from Ohio, Emmon Bodfish was active in the Reformed Druids of North America. He produced the Druid Missal-Any Magazine 1983-1991, some of which was reprinted in A Reformed Druid Anthology, 2nd Edition, Volume 3: The Magazine Volume. At this time he corresponded with trans woman Tadhg MacCrossan, in the period before she wrote The Sacred Cauldron. His wisdom is still quoted on Druid sites.

As his prior identity, Margaret, Bodfish ran a pool maintenance and plumbing business, The Blue Lagoon. Later he worked as an investment advisor. He owned a simple home in the affluent Orinda area outside San Francisco. He also owned a town-house in Marin County. In the late nineties he was apparently isolated and depressed, and occasionally reverted to being a woman.

In June 1999 Emmon was found bludgeoned to death. The next day his son Max Wills was found, an apparent suicide in a Santa Monica hotel room. Max was known to have suffered from long term depression but was reluctant to kill himself while his mother was alive.

Later the police discovered a floor safe containing $60,000 in gold and coins. A drill had been found at the same spot but there was no sign that it was used to pry out the safe. In addition a police investigator apparently contracted Q fever in the Bodfish home.

Samhain 1986. "Samhain: The Other World". Reposted at: www.opednews.com/articles/Samhain-The-Other-World-by-Emmon-Bodfish-081029-130.html.
Isaac Bonewits & Michael Scharding (eds).A Reformed Druid Anthology, 2nd Edition, Volume 3: The Magazine Volume. Online at: http://orgs.carleton.edu/druids/arda.
Ed Walsh. " Bodfish likely struggled with killer, report says". Bay Area Reporter, 28/08/99. Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/_QyBWhoc5SE.
Ed Walsh. "Reclusive Bodfish had stash of herbal remedies, vitamins: Report says liver was normal". Bay Area Reporter, 10/29/99. Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/OpbPg1-y3ds.
Ed Walsh. "Bodfish investigator may have gotten rare disease from Orinda home". Bay Area Reporter, 2/4/00. Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/E9-N8dH6ixw.
Charlie Goodyear. "Diary Prompts Theories in Orinda Slaying / Police suspect mother-son death pact". SFGate, March 31, 2000. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Diary-Prompts-Theories-in-Orinda-Slaying-Police-2766298.php.

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The murder remains unsolved. Different possibilities have been suggested including transphobia, family involvement, a fustrated robbery and even, based on an entry in his diary, that Emmon contracted his own death.

The Druid sites do not mention the murder.

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Mario Martino (1938 - ) nun, nurse, activist.

August 23, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Nana, Place Blanche , Paris circa 1960

≪ Previous: Emmon Bodfish (1943 – 1999) druid, plumber, investment advisor

Angela was born to Italian immigrants in the US Midwest. Her father was a macho cop who sometimes beat his wife and child. Angela was criticized for being too much like her father, especially after her mother died when she was 12, and her father remarried.

At 15 she was sent to a boarding school run by nuns. The next year she transferred to an aspirancy, a training school for girls who aspired to be nuns, but was sent home after trysts with a classmate were discovered. She trained as a nurse, and with the encouragement of a favorite nun did enter a convent as Sister Mary Dominick, but after further love involvements, felt that she had to leave.

Angela then left her first lover who was a lesbian, Angela feeling rather that he was a man who wanted a male-female relationship. While working as an operating-room technician, Angelo found a pregnant woman who accepted him as a man, but she died in childbirth.

Angelo's next girlfriend, Rebecca, had religious objections which were not quieted by the copy of Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness that he gave her to read, but did finally accept that Angelo was becoming a man.

When Christine Jorgensen's autobiography came out in 1967, Angelo (and many other transsexuals) attempted to contact Harry Benjamin.

"And scared was the word. No other word adequately described my feeling as I picked up the phone and put in a long-distance call to the man I wanted most in the world to see, Dr Harry Benjamin. His amiable secretary explained that the doctor was away. She would, however, refer me to a most reputable physician in the city where I was working. 'He can advise you,' she said, 'and make recommendations.' I thanked her and placed the call. That secretary said the doctor had just left on vacation and she had no recommendations to offer. I phoned the county Medical Society and was given three names, among them that of Dr Patterson. My fourth call was to his office.(p143"

Dr Patterson answered his own phone and told Angelo to come right over. After a physical and one session with the psychiatrist in the next office, Angelo was approved as transsexual and started taking testosterone. The physical transition caused a rift with Rebecca who again raised her religious objections. Dr Patterson was apparently stringing Angelo along with assurances that referrals were forthcoming, but eventually Angelo realized that Patterson has no such contacts.

However he became friends with Nick, another patient of Dr Patterson. an East European immigrant who had already had a mastectomy and hysterectomy. Nick found Dr Lake in an out-of-town hospital who was willing to did a mastectomy for high fees. Angelo and Rebecca made up, Angelo had his first phalloplasty as the first-ever such patient of a Dr Fogle, which however became infected and had to be removed. He did not attempt phalloplasty again for another four years, this time with Dr Robertson in the Midwest. Again complications set in and he lost the tip.
He tried without success to reconcile with his father. Even when the father was dying after a stroke and heart attack, they were not able to make peace.

Angelo legally changed his name, and he and Rebecca were married. He was employed as a nursing supervisor in Lake's hospital.

Using the name Mario Martino they, assisted by Dr Lake, founded The Labyrinth Foundation Counseling Service in Yonkers, New York for male-to-female transsexuals, and provided a post-operative half-way house.

As Mario he published his autobiography, the first such in the modern sense by a trans man, in 1977. The book is dedicated to Harry Benjamin and to Rebecca, and includes a short Foreword by Benjamin.

Angelo studied for a PhD in counseling psychology which he completed in 1979. Sometime in the early 1980s he dropped out of sight, and wasn't heard of again.

*Not Mario Martino the Italian photographer, nor the Puerto Rican journalist, nor the character in The Godfather.

Mario Martino with harriett - Emergence: a Transsexual Autobiography. New York: A Signet Book 1979.
"Personal Profiles: Mario Martini". Gender Review, 4, March 1979: 5-6.
Pat Califia. Sex changes : the politics of transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press 1997. Second edition by Patrick Califia 2003: 38-47.
Judith Halberstam. Female masculinity. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998: 154-5.
Joanne J. Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, Mass. ; London: Harvard University press, 2004: 94-5, 152, 158, 162, 163, 165, 184, 227, 228, 236-7, 275.
Emily Nelson. FTM Trans Theory VS. Trans Narratives: Working to an Updated Trans Theory. Masteruppsats at Upsale Universitet, 2011. http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:461938/FULLTEXT01.

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Martino was insistent that he was not and had not been a lesbian, and conceived of FTMs as heterosexual men. As Califia notes: “It would be interesting to see his reaction to the FTMs with gay male identities who are becoming more vocal today(p46)”.

Another group that Martino did not identify with was trans women: “But the male-to-female patients were another story. Too few of them acted like any other female, either in speech or in manner. The extroverts among them referred to each other as closet queens, shrilled out their demands, showed their newly constructed vaginas to anyone who’d look, and used language that I’d never heard from a woman(p209-210)”.

Was Emergence the first autobiography by a trans man? Several of the 18th and 19th century trans men wrote auto biographies of a kind, but the assumptions and social constructions are quite different from those of the 1970s. However Robert Allen’s But for the Grace: The True Story of a Dual Existence London: W.H. Allen 1954 surely counts as a modern trans man autobiography.

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Nana, Place Blanche , Paris circa 1960

August 25, 2013, 9:10 am

≫ Next: The other Harry Benjamin

≪ Previous: Mario Martino (1938 - ) nun, nurse, activist.

Paris 1960 during the Franco-Algerian War. The famous transsexuals were at Le Carousel and Chez Madame Arthur where April Ashley, Coccinelle, Bambi, Amanda Lear etc, were appearing. Obviously not all transsexuals are stage performers.

The Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm (1918 - 2002) lived in Paris 1856 - 1962 and photographed many of the trans women who lived and worked around Place Blanche. However we know very little about these women either before or after the short period in which they were photographed, and only in a few cases are they named.

These are of Nana:


Christer and Nana 1962


Gina and Nana

Nana 1959

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