60 free Transgender trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This transgender trivia quiz covers a century of trans history and the people who made it. You will find the pioneers (Lili Elbe, Dora Richter, Christine Jorgensen, Michael Dillon, Roberta Cowell), the activists of Compton's Cafeteria and Stonewall, the doctors and scientists who coined the words we use, and the origin of the transgender flag and the Transgender Day of Remembrance. There are questions on culture and firsts too: the first openly trans MP, member of Congress and four-star officer; the Oscar-winning films about trans lives; Laverne Cox on the cover of Time; Wendy Carlos, the Wachowskis and Pose; the tennis and weightlifting cases that changed sport; and third-gender traditions such as hijra, fa'afafine and two-spirit. Questions range from easy to expert, and every answer has been checked against a reliable source. It works for Pride quizzes, history classes, workplace inclusion events or a straightforward pub round.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01To which city did Christine Jorgensen travel for her gender-affirming surgery in the early 1950s?
Copenhagen
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.
Q 02What word fills the blank in the 1953 Daily News headline announcing Christine Jorgensen, "Ex-GI Becomes ___ Beauty"?
Blonde
The full headline continued: 'Bronx Youth Is a Happy Woman After Medication, 6 Operations'. It made her an instant celebrity.
Q 03Lili Elbe, one of the earliest recipients of gender-affirming surgery, was a painter from which country?
Denmark
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.
Q 04Which German physician founded the Institute for Sexual Science in 1919?
Magnus Hirschfeld
His institute offered some of the world's first gender-affirming medical care, including surgery, at a time when nowhere else would.
Q 05In which city's Opernplatz did Nazi students burn the Institute for Sexual Science's library in May 1933?
Berlin
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.
Q 06In what year did Dora Richter, the first known person to complete gender-affirming surgery, have her final operations?
1931
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.
Q 07The 1966 Compton's Cafeteria riot took place in the Tenderloin district of which city?
San Francisco
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.
Q 08The Compton's Cafeteria riot reportedly began when a trans woman threw what at an officer?
A cup of coffee
The cafeteria was an all-night hangout for trans women and drag queens who were routinely harassed by police.
Q 09According to Marsha P. Johnson, what did the "P" in her name stand for?
Pay it no mind
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.
Q 10In July 1992, Marsha P. Johnson's body was found floating in which body of water?
The Hudson River
Police first ruled it a suicide; after years of pressure the classification was changed to 'undetermined' and the case was reopened in 2012.
Q 11At the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day rally, Sylvia Rivera famously shouted 'Y'all better' what?
Quiet down
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.
Q 12On what date is the Transgender Day of Remembrance observed each year?
November 20
It began in 1999, founded by a group including Gwendolyn Ann Smith, and grew out of the 'Remembering Our Dead' web project.
Q 13The Transgender Day of Remembrance memorialises Rita Hester, murdered in 1998 in which US state?
Massachusetts
She was killed in Allston, a neighbourhood of Boston; her death inspired the 'Remembering Our Dead' project that became the annual observance.
Q 21In July 2016 Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person to speak at what kind of event?
A national party convention
It was the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia; four years later she won a seat in the Delaware state senate.
Q 22Rachel Levine became the first openly transgender person to hold what rank in a US uniformed service?
Four-star officer
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.
Q 23In which state did Danica Roem win in 2017 as the first openly transgender US state legislator?
Virginia
Q 14Activist Rachel Crandall Crocker, who created Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009, is from which US state?
Michigan
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.
Q 15Who created the transgender pride flag in 1999?
Monica Helms
A US Navy veteran, she donated the original flag to the Smithsonian in 2014.
Q 16On the transgender pride flag, what does the central white stripe represent?
Intersex, transitioning or non-binary people
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.
Q 17The transgender pride flag was first shown publicly in 2000 at a pride parade in which city?
Phoenix
The original flag now belongs to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, donated in August 2014.
Q 18Which Orange Is the New Black actress was the first transgender person on the cover of Time, in June 2014?
Laverne Cox
The story was headlined 'The Transgender Tipping Point'. She is also the first openly trans person with a wax figure at Madame Tussauds.
Q 19Georgina Beyer, the world's first openly transgender MP in 1999, sat in which country's parliament?
New Zealand
She had already become the world's first openly trans mayor, in the town of Carterton, and represented Wairarapa until 2005.
Q 20Sarah McBride, the first openly trans member of Congress, won a 2024 seat in which state?
Delaware
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.
A former journalist and vocalist in the thrash metal band Cab Ride Home, she moved up to the state senate in 2023.
Q 24Renée Richards won a 1977 court ruling allowing her to compete as a woman in which sport?
Tennis
An ophthalmologist by profession, she went on to coach Martina Navratilova to two Wimbledon titles.
Q 25Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender woman at an Olympics, competed in Tokyo in which sport?
Weightlifting
She lifted in the women's +87 kg class and failed all three snatch attempts, finishing last in her group.
Q 26Which country's Supreme Court legally recognised hijras and transgender people as a "third gender" in 2014?
India
Bangladesh had done so in 2013, and Pakistan and Nepal also recognise a third gender on official documents.
Q 27The Indigenous umbrella term "two-spirit" was adopted at a 1990 conference in which city?
Winnipeg
It emerged over five annual gatherings and describes people who fill a traditional third-gender or gender-variant role in their nations.
Q 28Fa'afafine, a recognised third gender, are part of the traditional culture of which Pacific islands?
Samoa
The word literally means 'in the manner of a woman', and fa'afafine work in every part of Samoan society, from caregiving to government.
Q 29Which term coined by Havelock Ellis is named for the 18th-century French spy who lived half his life as a woman?
Eonism
The Chevalière d'Éon spied in Russia and England, fought in the Seven Years' War, and lived officially as a woman from 1777.
Q 30Roberta Cowell, the first known British trans woman to have surgery in 1951, had earlier been a WWII what?
Fighter pilot
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.