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Michael Cimino (1939 – 2016) film director and author
Cimino grew up in Long Island, New York. He was educated in private schools and then attended first Michigan State University and then Yale. At the latter he took a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in 1961...
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Peggy Deauville (1899 -? ) performer
Tom’s father, Benjamin Davies, was the minister at Caersalem Baptist Chapel in the coal-ming village of Abergwynfi, Naeth Port Talbot, South Wales, and was a prominent figure in the local temperance...
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David Martin (1946 – 1984) burglar.
Original version: December 2009David Martin was born in Paddington, London, and was educated at the Finsbury Park comprehensive school. He was trained as a motor mechanic. However he also started...
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Patricio Manuel (1985 - ) boxer
Manuel was raised by a single mother in Santa Monica, California, and was five times the women’s national amateur boxing champion, and also competed in the 2012 Women’s US Olympic Trials until forced...
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Mikki Nicholson (1978-2014) Scabble champion
Mikki started playing Scrabble in 2005 after discovering the game online. By 2010 she was coming first in tournaments including the British National Championship, which provided her with £1,500 so...
View ArticleLyn Raskin (1928 - ) aspirant playwright, bookkeeper, secretary
Part I: life until first visit to Benjamin clinicPart II: TransitionPart III: comments(Citation dates refer to entries in Raskin's book, Diary of a Transsexual)Edward Raskin, originally from...
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Lyn Raskin: Part II - transition
Part I: life until first visit to Benjamin clinic Part II: TransitionPart III: commentsRaskin was looking for a writer to write her biography, and a friend suggested Irmis Johnson, a noted journalist...
View ArticleLyn Raskin: Part III - Comments
Part I: life until first visit to Benjamin clinic Part II: TransitionPart III: commentsIf Lyn Raskin is still alive she will be 93/4.One hopes that she did not come to a bad end, but overestimating how...
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Mowry Saben/Ralph Werther/Earl Lind/Jennie June (1870 - 1950) journalist,...
(This article builds on the October 2022 article in OutHistory “Who Was Jennie June?” by Channing Gerard Joseph Online. I accept Joseph’s argument that Mowry Saben and Jennie June were the same...
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Mowry Saben/Ralph Werther/Earl Lind/Jennie June: Part II - publications
Part I: early lifePart II: publicationsPart III: comments and bibliography In 1907 Mowry Saben wrote a short newspaper article. 'Woman – An Age-Haunting Problem' which was published in the Detroit...
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Mowry Saben/Ralph Werther/Earl Lind/Jennie June: Part III - Comments and...
Part I: early lifePart II: publicationsPart III: comments and bibliography Comments:Jennie June was the pen name of Jane Croly (1829-1901), journalist – and definitely a different person.---While our...
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Lorraine Channing (1923 - ?) magazine illustrator
Lorraine was a magazine illustrator. When Turnabout: a Magazine of Tranvestism was founded in June 1963, she was the Art Editor, working with Siobhan Fredericks and D.Rhodes/Darrell Raynor. For the...
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Pierre Vacher (1892-1990) doctor and sexologist
Vachet was raised in Givry, Saône-et-Loire, and qualified as Docteur en médecine, Paris, 1915. He later became the Director of the École de psychologie and editor of La Revue de psychologie...
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Annette/Sheldon (1931-1971) businessman, engineer
Sheldon was raised in Idaho, grew to 6’2’’ (1.88m) and served in the military as a Marine sergeant. Sheldon had been cross-dressing since early childhood, with an initial emphasis on shoes. He married...
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Ajita Wilson (1950 – 1987) prolific actress
Original March 2007.Wilson was born and raised in Brooklyn.After a start as a transvestite entertainer in New York in the last remaining burlesque spectacles of the time, Wolson also posed for some...
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Phil Black (1903 - 1975) female impersonator, ball organizer.
Original version December 2008.Pittsburgh’s Hill District had been settled in the 1820s when those who could afford it moved out from Pittsburgh’s industrial core. It became the city’s primary...
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David Petillo (1908 – 1983) hitman, mafioso
Original Version March 2010.Antonio Petillo from Pollico, Salerno south of Naples, emigrated to New York in 1885, and married Michelina, also an Italian immigrant, the next year. They had seven...
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Frank Blunt (1865 - ?) pioneer trans man, gigolo
Original version October 2011.Initially from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Blunt had been raised as a girl named Annie Morris. The father was abusive and at age 13, Morris ran away. Morris was accepted by a...
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Three books – expected but never arrived
All writers have plans that do not pan out, but readers, who enjoyed/appreciated the early book, do have a pang of regret that the promised second volume has never appeared – not even after a...
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The authors of April Ashley’s autobiographies
There are now three book-length (auto)biographies of April Ashley – Odyssey, The First Lady and Inside Out - and two major newspaper versions written by interviewing April (The News of the World. 6 May...
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Shelley Ball (1953–) sex worker, inmate.
Original: May 2011. William Ross Ball was raised, one of four children in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Their alcoholic father killed himself when the child was eight, followed by the mother having a...
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Dorchen Richter/Dora Richterov (1892 - 1966) waiter, cook, maid.
Original July 2008. Revised to include information from Rainer Herrn, Raimund Wolfert and Clara at Lili-Elbe-Bibliothek in particular.- - - - - - - - - -Rudolph Richter, the second of six children of...
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A review of Alison Li’s biography of Harry Benjamin
Alison Li. Wondrous Transformations:A Maverick Physician, the Science of Hormones, and the Birth of the Transgender Revolution. University of North Carolina Press, 2023.There are four biographies of...
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Louise Michel (1830-1905) teacher, anarchist, Communard
Louise was the illegitimate daughter of Marianne Michel, a domestic servant in Vroncourt-la-Côte, Haute-Marne. Marianne was seduced and then abandoned by Laurent Demahis, the scion of the estate, who...
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Phillips vs Brown, 1979 - a trans patient sues
Phillips, who then had a different name, grew up in Pennsylvania, where he was raped by his father and others, and placed in foster homes from age 13.After moving to California, she met John Phillips,...
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