Transgender history
Accounts of transgender people have been identified going back to ancient times in cultures worldwide as early as 1200 BCE Egypt. Opinions vary on how to categorize historical accounts of gender-variant people and identities.
The galli, eunuch priests of classical antiquity, have been interpreted by some scholars as transgender or third-gender. The trans-feminine kathoey and hijra gender roles have persisted for thousands of years in Thailand and the Indian subcontinent, respectively. In Arabia, khanith have occupied a third gender role attested since the 7th century CE. Traditional roles for transgender women and transgender men have existed in many African societies, with some persisting to the modern day. North American Indigenous fluid and third gender roles, including the Navajo nádleehi and the Zuni lhamana, have existed since pre-colonial times.
Some medieval European documents have been studied as possible accounts of transgender persons. Kalonymus ben Kalonymus's lament for being born a man instead of a woman has been seen as an early account of gender dysphoria. John/Eleanor Rykener, a male-bodied Briton arrested in 1394 while living and doing sex work dressed as a woman, has been interpreted by some contemporary scholars as transgender. In Japan, accounts of transgender people go back to the Edo period. In Indonesia, there are millions of trans-/third-gender waria, and the extant pre-Islamic Bugis society of Sulawesi recognizes five gender roles.
In the United States in 1776, the genderless Public Universal Friend refused both birth name and gendered pronouns. Transgender American men and women are documented in accounts from throughout the 19th century. The first known informal transgender advocacy organisation in the United States, Cercle Hermaphroditos, was founded in 1895.
Early modern gender-affirming surgeries, including an ovary and uterus transplant, were performed in the early 20th century at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Germany, which was later raided and destroyed by Nazi Germany. The respective transitions of transgender women Christine Jorgensen and Coccinelle in the 1950s brought wider awareness of gender-affirming surgery to North America and Europe respectively. The grassroots political struggle for transgender rights in the United States produced several riots against police, including the 1959 Cooper Donuts Riot, 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot, and the multi-day Stonewall Riots of 1969. In the 1970s, Lou Sullivan became the first publicly self-identified gay trans man and founded the first organization for transgender men. At the same time, some radical feminists opposed construals of womanhood inclusive of transgender women, creating what would later be known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism. In the 1990s and 2000s, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was established in the United States, and transgender politicians were elected to various public offices. Legislative and court actions began recognizing transgender people's rights in some countries, while some countries and societies have continued to abridge the rights of transgender people.
Historiography
A precise history of the global occurrence of transgender people is difficult to compose because the modern concept of being transgender, and of gender in general as relevant to transgender identity, did not develop until the mid-20th century. Historical understandings are thus inherently filtered through modern principles, and were largely viewed through a medical lens until the late 20th century. LGBTQ+ scholar Genny Beemyn writes:Genny Beemyn argues that transgender history has also been filtered through gay history, identifying Billy Tipton as an example of a historical figure misrepresented by scholars as gay when a transgender reading of his life would be more appropriate.
Absence of autobiographical accounts has resulted in historians assigning identities to historical figures, which of course may be inaccurate. Author Jason Cromwell assesses that if a person of the female sex indicated that they were a man, modified their body to look more traditionally male, and lived their life as a man, then he was a trans man; the same approach has been used to identify trans women. Genny Beemyn distinguishes trans people from crossdressers in the historical record by assessing that a person who crossdressed only in public did not mind exposing their dual life as a crossdresser, while those who crossdressed consistently and sought to keep their sex a secret were more likely trans.
Beemyn also distinguishes non-binary people in the historical record. They note Indigenous societies in the "New World" who historically had non-binary gender roles enshrined in their society, which enraged European explorers. For example, in 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa killed 40 natives on the Panama Isthmus for being sodomites, as they had been assigned male at birth but were practicing female gender roles. Not all Europeans were as judgmental: a matter-of-fact 1564 narrative describes "hermaphrodites" as "quite common". An account from Edwin Thompson Denig in the first half of the 19th century describes a "neuter" gender among the Crow people. Denig said of it: "Strange country this, where males assume the dress and perform the duties of females, while women turn men and mate with their own sex!" Beemyn concludes that European writers lacked the language or cultural understanding to adequately describe the practices they were witnessing. Overall, they caution not to make generalizations about native practices, since third gender roles were extremely diverse and ranged from exalted positions who were believed to have supernatural power, to denigrated underlings.
Africa
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt had third gender categories, including for eunuchs. In the Tale of Two Brothers, Bata removes his penis and tells his wife "I am a woman just like you"; one modern scholar called him temporarily "transgendered".North Africa
The Nuba peoples of Sudan, have traditional roles for male-assigned people who dress and live as women and may marry men, which have been seen as transgender roles. Trans people face discrimination in the modern Sudanese state, and cross-dressing is illegal.West Africa
By the modern period, the Igbo had third-gender and transgender roles, including for females who take on male status and marry women, a practice which also exists among the Dahomey of Benin and has been viewed through both transgender and homosexual lenses. Anthropologist John McCall documented a female-assigned Ohafia Igbo named Nne Uko Uma Awa, who dressed and behaved as a boy since childhood, joined men's groups, and was a husband to two wives; in 1991, Awa stated "by creation I was meant to be a man. But as it happened, when coming into this world I came with a woman's body. That is why I dressed ."East Africa
Among some Kenyan peoples, male priests dress and style their hair like women and may marry men, and have been compared to trans women.Among the Nuer people, widows who have borne no children may adopt a male status, marry a woman, and be regarded as the father of any children they bear ; the Nuer are also reported to have a male-to-female role. The Maale people of Ethiopia also have a traditional role for male-assigned ashtime who take on feminine roles; traditionally, they served as sexual partners for the king on days he was ritually barred from sex with women. The Amhara people of Ethiopia stigmatize men in their communities who adopt feminine dress.
In Uganda today, transphobia and homophobia is increasing, introduced in the 1800s and 1900s by Christian missionaries and stoked in the 2000s by conservative American evangelicals; trans people are now often kicked out by their families and denied work, and face discrimination in accessing healthcare. Before their Christianization, Ugandan peoples were largely accepting of trans and gay people; the Lango people accepted trans women—male-assigned people called jo apele or jo aboich who were believed to have been transformed at conception into women by the androgynous deity Jok, and who adopted women's names, dress, and face-decorations, grew their hair long, simulated menstruation, and could marry men—as did the Karamojong and Teso, and the Lugbara people had roles for both trans women and trans men.
Southern Africa
Traditional Bantu third genders
Various Bantu peoples in southern Africa, including the Zulu, Basotho, Mpondo and Tsonga, had a tradition of young men who married or had intercrural or anal sex with older men, and sometimes dressed as women, wore breast prostheses, did not grow beards, and did women's work; these relationships became common among South African miners and continued into the 1950s, and while often interpreted as homosexual, boy-wives are sometimes seen as transgender.Botswana
In two cases in 2017, Botswana's High Court ruled trans men and trans women have the right to have their gender identity recognized by the government and to change gender markers; the court said the registrar's refusal to change a marker was unreasonable and violated the person's "rights to dignity, privacy, freedom of expression, equal protection of the law, freedom from discrimination and freedom from inhumane and degrading treatment".South Africa
From the 1960s to 1980s, the South African Defence Force forced some white gay and lesbian soldiers to have sex reassignment surgery.Since March 2004, trans and intersex people are allowed to change their legal sex after medical treatment such as hormone replacement therapy. Several Labour Court rulings have found against employers that mistreated employees who transitioned.
Americas
North America
Early history
Prior to western contact, some Indigenous peoples in North America had third-gender roles, like the Diné nádleehi and the Zuni lhamana. European anthropologists usually referred to these people as berdaches, which Indigenous people have always considered an offensive slur. In 1990, participants in the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference in Winnipeg, Canada, adopted the pan-Indian neologism two-spirit; this was largely an effort to replace the offensive slur, berdache, as well as an attempt to organize inter-tribally. Though acceptance of this term in traditional Native communities has been limited, it has generally met with more acceptance than the slur it replaced.One of the first European accounts of Iroquois practices of gender was made by missionary Joseph-François Lafitau who spent six years among the Iroquois starting in 1711, and observed "women with manly courage who prided themselves upon the profession of warrior, to become men alone", and people he called "men cowardly enough to live as women."
Lynn Meskell and Karen Olsen Bruhns write that there is archaeological evidence that third-gender or similar people existed in California 2,500 years ago at rates comparable to those at which they currently exist among Indigenous peoples in the region, and Barbara Voss states that archaeological and ethnographic evidence suggests third-gender categories in North America may go back to the first migrations of people from eastern Asia and Siberia over 10,000 years ago.