Documentary to Tell the Story of a Civil War Trans Soldier

[Carolyn Marie]

http://www.people.com/article/weve-been-around-transgender-docuseries-albert-cashier

I'm going to be looking for this show. Sounds really interesting.

Carolyn Marie

[Charlize]

This could be great fun and i was amazed that there were even some positive comments! Being a vet who served in combat and had the respect of the men he served with while a trans* man is something the haters have a bit of trouble with.

I copied this part of one comment here as it has some interesting history. Some of it i knew and some was new to me:

Here are just a few of the many transgender people in history who identified other than their gender assigned at birth. Maybe, you should do a bit more research on a topic before you jump in and make an embarrassing remark.

Born in 1728, the Chevalier d'Eon had an illustrious career as a French spy and diplomat. After spending roughly the first half of his life as a man, the Chevalier began appearing at Queen Elizabeth's court dressed as a woman, claiming to have been assigned female at birth, and demanding to be recognized as such by the French government (an autopsy following the Chevalier's death showed the Chevalier had in fact been assigned male at birth). The Chevalier was such a well-known figure that the term "eonism" enjoyed a brief vogue as a descriptor for those displaying transgender or genderfluid characteristics.

Born Laura Maud in May of 1915, Laurence Michel Dillon was the first transgender man ever to undergo a phalloplasty (meaning, basically, a doctor constructed a penis for him from scratch, and grafted it onto his body). He also published a book entitled Self: A Study in Endocrinology and Ethics, which many people consider the first book about transgender identity and gender transitioning. In this book, Dillon described transgender identification as innate and unaffected by psychotherapy, and advocated medical treatment using hormones and surgery as an alternative. Dillon himself aided in the surgical transition of Roberta Cowell, Britain's first male-to-female transgender person to undergo sexual reassignment surgery.

The French crusader Jean d'Arc (better known to some of you non-French-speakers as Joan of Arc) was tried for heresy by an English court, and was ultimately burned as a heretic. Though the main reason behind her trail was that Jean claimed to hear voices which directed her in battle, a secondary, and nearly as important issue was her insistence on wearing male clothing. She adamantly refused to wear women's clothing, or to style her hair in the female-appropriate fashion of the time. It's unclear to modern historians what implications Jean d'Arc's devotion to cross-dressing may have had regarding her gender identity or sexuality, but this was considered a very serious, blasphemous offense at the time, so the fact that she stuck to it so fiercely has certainly aroused questions. When confronted about her choice to dress exclusively in male attire, Jean reportedly said, "It pleases God for me to wear it."

Born Tobias Lawson in 1886, Lucy Hicks Anderson married twice, and was repeatedly fined and jailed by the government for alleged fraud (for marrying and receiving benefits reserved for same-sex spouses, even though she was allegedly "male"). In defiance of the charges, Anderson declared, "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman." This happened several years ahead of Stonewall, so many people consider Anderson one of the earliest pioneers for marriage equality.

Born in Denmark in 1882, Elbe was not only trans, but also a lesbian. She met her wife, Gerda, at college, and they moved to Paris to be artists together. Elbe first started dressing in women's clothes to fill in for Gerda's female models, but was so comfortable in ladies' attire that she transitioned to doing so full-time. Gerda became modestly famous in the Paris art scene for her portraits of beautiful women in high fashion attire, all of which were modeled by Lili.

Hugs,

Charlize

[Carolyn Marie]

Great information there, Charlize. Thanks!

Carolyn Marie