Gloria Swanson (1906 - 1940) performer.
Original version: October 2010Walter Winston was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His family, like many other African Americans, moved north to Chicago for a better life. In the 1920s Winston took the name...
View ArticleJessica Amanda Salmonson (1950 – ) science fiction writer and editor.
Original version August 2010Salmonson started life as Amos, being born in Seattle to parents on the carny circuit, father a fire eater and mother a sword swallower. Amos was seven when, with an elder...
View ArticleThe four years leading to Stonewall – a New York timeline
On the tops of, and around Stonewall, I have already published the following accounts Stonewall Inn and the Riots...
View ArticleThe five years following Stonewall - a New York timeline
On the topics of, and around Stonewall, I have already published the following accountsStonewall Inn and the RiotsThree Centuries of Police RaidsOther Trans Person in New York 1969-72Recurring...
View ArticleThe trans geography of New York 1966-74
The four years leading to StonewallThe five years following StonewallThe trans geography of New York 1966-74Mid TownThe Village
View ArticleReview of two books about Stonewall
While Stonewall was an iconic event for both the trans and the gay movements, the perspectives of the two movements are quite different. This is shown in the two books here, which, although both of...
View ArticleRichard Curtis (1967 - ) doctor, yacht racer
Richard Curtis started life as Vanda Zadorozny, the child of a Polish immigrant who survived a Nazi forced labour camp and became a mine worker in West Yorkshire. Vanda had medical training at St....
View ArticleFatima Djemille (187? – ?1921) belly dancer
In 1893 the 11thWorld’s Fair was held in Chicago, and named the World’s Columbian Exposition. It attracted over 27 million visitors and introduced electricity, the zipper, the Ferris Wheel and much...
View ArticleRevival of an old bogey-person
Those of you who pay attention to my sidebar may have noticed a surge in visits to my June 2007 article on Angela Douglas. In fact there have been 450 visits in the last week. I am not always able to...
View ArticleEdward Dolan (1880-1937) murdered
Associated Press version May 28 1937In 1937, Edward Dolan (we have only her male name) was living with her husband, Kenneth Reese, a hospital orderly, at an apartment building on Ludlow Street in...
View ArticleJanis Ashley (1951 - ) pediatrician
Ashley qualified as a doctor, and married young. At age 25 he knew he wanted to be a woman, and the marriage ended in divorce.She had completion surgery in 1978 and became one of the two practicing...
View ArticleFulcanelli (?1839 - ?1954) alchemist
Fulcanelli is the name, almost certainly a pseudonym, on two esoteric books, Le Mystère des Cathédrales and Les Demeures Philosophales, both published at the end of the 1920s, which discuss alchemy,...
View ArticleAlfred H Read (187?-?) minister.
An elderly Congregational minister, the Rev. Arthur Read was featured in the press in the late 1920s when he was captured as the supposed female ghost that had been haunting the lanes around the...
View ArticleJohn Coulter (1834 - 1884) servant, labourer
John Coulter was a man of definite masculine appearance with good muscular development.At the age of twenty-one he was working as a man-servant on a farm near Dungannon in County Tyrone. In this...
View ArticleTracey Gayle Norman (1951 - ) model
Original version: April 2014Tracy Norman was raised in Newark, New Jersey. Father thought that his child was too effeminate and made a desultory attempt at teaching boxing. He moved out when Tracy was...
View ArticleA Chronology of trans persons in modelling and fashion: Part I: to 2000
Part I: to 2000Part II: 21st century1889L.S., a fashion model in Paris, In 1909. Aged 20, she was engaged to be married and was bothered by apparent tumours in her labia majora and attended the Hôpital...
View ArticleA Chronology of trans persons in modelling and fashion: Part II: 21st century
Part I: to 2000Part II: 21st century2001Barbara Diop from Senegal worked as a model in Milan.2003The 2003 Cricket World Cup was held in South Africa. It was arranged that each team be led onto the...
View ArticleKimberley Elliot (1953 – 1980) TAO, Neo-American Church
Kimberly's story is told from two sources: Susanna Pena's history of TAO and Art Kleps' history of the early years of psychedelism. Putting the two together we get the following. However see also...
View ArticleTwo mafiosi
Giovanni Arrivoli (1975 - 2016) Post-transition Giovanna Arrivole was arrested with 17 others for drug dealing, and was released in 2012. He still owned a café bar, the Blue Moon in Campania, which was...
View ArticleFrankie Jaxon (1895 – 1953) female impersonator, singer, actor
Frank Devera Jackson was born in Montgomery, Alabama,. He and his sister were orphaned. They were then raised by a widowed aunt in Kansas City, Missouri. At age 19, the aunt died, and the rest of the...
View Article