60 Fun Facts About Transgender

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

She had been drafted into the US Army in 1944, which is why the newspapers made so much of the 'ex-GI' angle when she came home in 1953.

What word fills the blank in the 1953 Daily News headline announcing Christine Jorgensen, "Ex-GI Becomes ___ Beauty"?

The full headline continued: 'Bronx Youth Is a Happy Woman After Medication, 6 Operations'. It made her an instant celebrity.

Lili Elbe, one of the earliest recipients of gender-affirming surgery, was a painter from which country?

She was married to fellow painter Gerda Wegener from 1904 until the marriage was annulled in 1930; her surgeries took place in Germany, where she died in 1931.

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

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

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

The photographs of that bonfire are among the most reproduced images of Nazi book burning; much of what was lost was decades of research on gender and sexuality.

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

For decades she was assumed to have died in the 1933 Nazi raid on the institute; research published in 2023 showed she survived, changed her name legally in 1934 and lived until 1966.

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

It is counted as one of the first LGBTQ riots in US history and was largely forgotten until historian Susan Stryker's 2005 documentary Screaming Queens.

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

The cafeteria was an all-night hangout for trans women and drag queens who were routinely harassed by police.

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

She gave the answer especially when questioned about her gender; she was a fixture of the 1969 Stonewall uprising and co-founded STAR with Sylvia Rivera in 1970.

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

Police first ruled it a suicide; after years of pressure the classification was changed to 'undetermined' and the case was reopened in 2012.

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

She was furious that drag queens and trans people were being pushed out of the movement they had helped start; the speech is now a landmark of trans history.

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

It began in 1999, founded by a group including Gwendolyn Ann Smith, and grew out of the 'Remembering Our Dead' web project.

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

She was killed in Allston, a neighbourhood of Boston; her death inspired the 'Remembering Our Dead' project that became the annual observance.

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

She wanted a day that celebrated living trans people rather than only mourning the dead. Joe Biden became the first US president to proclaim it in 2021.

Who created the transgender pride flag in 1999?

A US Navy veteran, she donated the original flag to the Smithsonian in 2014.

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

The light blue and pink stripes borrow the traditional colours for baby boys and girls; the design reads the same whichever way up it flies.

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

The original flag now belongs to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, donated in August 2014.

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

The story was headlined 'The Transgender Tipping Point'. She is also the first openly trans person with a wax figure at Madame Tussauds.

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

She had already become the world's first openly trans mayor, in the town of Carterton, and represented Wairarapa until 2005.

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

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

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

It was the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia; four years later she won a seat in the Delaware state senate.

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

She was sworn in as an admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in October 2021, having previously been Pennsylvania's health secretary.

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

A former journalist and vocalist in the thrash metal band Cab Ride Home, she moved up to the state senate in 2023.

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

An ophthalmologist by profession, she went on to coach Martina Navratilova to two Wimbledon titles.

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

She lifted in the women's +87 kg class and failed all three snatch attempts, finishing last in her group.

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

Bangladesh had done so in 2013, and Pakistan and Nepal also recognise a third gender on official documents.

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

It emerged over five annual gatherings and describes people who fill a traditional third-gender or gender-variant role in their nations.

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

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

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

The Chevalière d'Éon spied in Russia and England, fought in the Seven Years' War, and lived officially as a woman from 1777.

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

She was also a racing driver, and part of her surgery was performed by Michael Dillon, himself the first trans man known to have had phalloplasty.

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

A British doctor and poet, he took the name Lobzang Jivaka; the surgery had been performed by plastic-surgery pioneer Harold Gillies from 1946.

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

Her coded dispatch, 'Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned', reached London in time for coronation morning.

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

His Casablanca clinic was the destination of choice for many British trans women in the 1960s and 70s, when surgery at home was all but impossible to obtain.

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

She had been a lingerie model in British Vogue; the 1970 Corbett v Corbett ruling that annulled her marriage shaped UK law for decades, and she was appointed MBE in 2012.

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

She went on to score films for Stanley Kubrick and Disney, all built around the Moog synthesizer.

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

The Kubrick films were A Clockwork Orange and The Shining; all three scores leaned on the Moog synthesizer she helped make famous.

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

The film dramatises the life of a young trans man murdered in 1993; Sevigny, who played his girlfriend, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

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

He was murdered by two male acquaintances in 1993; the case became a rallying point for hate-crime legislation.

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

The casting of a cisgender man drew criticism at the time; director Tom Hooper based the film on David Ebershoff's 2000 novel.

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

It was her first nomination; the same year she also starred in Ex Machina.

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

Dolly Parton's song for the film, 'Travelin' Thru', was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar.

The FX series Pose, with the largest transgender cast ever, is set in which New York subculture?

It follows houses competing in the balls of the 1980s and 90s; Billy Porter became the first openly gay Black man to win a lead-acting Emmy for it in 2019.

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

She won Best Actress in a Television Drama for playing house mother Blanca Evangelista.

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

In 2021 he became the first openly trans man on the cover of Time magazine.

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

Her sister and co-director Lilly came out in 2016 with a statement to the Windy City Times.

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

The world-record score of 8,618 points at Montreal made Jenner a Wheaties-box celebrity for a generation.

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

Annie Leibovitz shot the cover, the magazine's first to feature an openly transgender woman; Jenner had come out to Diane Sawyer on 20/20 that April.

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

Virginia Prince, founder of the cross-dressing magazine Transvestia, was using 'transgenderal' by 1969, and the word spread from there.

Cauldwell's 1949 coinage 'transsexual' was inspired by a 1923 German term of whom?

The German original was 'seelischer Transsexualismus'; Harry Benjamin's 1966 book The Transsexual Phenomenon then made the term standard in medicine.

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

The professional body founded in 1979 and named after him with his permission is now WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

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

The news came as a shock to his sons, his bandmates and the women who had considered themselves his wives.

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

His insistence that gender identity and sexual orientation are separate things forced clinics to drop rules that barred gay trans men from transition care.

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

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

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

His mass chest X-ray programmes across several states are credited with sharply reducing TB deaths; he was also a published novelist.

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

She made headlines in 1998 as a make-up-wearing 16-year-old who beat, then kissed, a bigger opponent at Bangkok's Lumpini Stadium.

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

The case, Carcaño v. McCrory, was brought by the ACLU and Lambda Legal against the state's HB2 law; she was 17.

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

It was designed with heterosexual trans women in mind, and contemporary views on gender identity differ sharply from it.

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

Denmark's parliament followed in 2017 by abolishing the F64 gender identity disorder codes.

Magnus Hirschfeld coined the word 'Transvestit' in 1910, borrowing from which language?

It came from the 19th-century word travesti and was later rendered in English as transvestite.

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

That was 59,460 people; Australia's 2021 census put its figure at 0.9% of those aged 16 and over.