Who can Remember reading about Christine Jorgenson

[Bulldog1948]

I wanted my titile to be, " WHO CAN ACTUALLY REMEMBER READING THE ARTICLE ABOUT CHRISTINE JORGESON WHEN IT WAS FIRST PRINTED IN THE PAPER"

i mean her surgery was headline news in our local paper. I never would have been allowed to read it, exceapt I had to walk out to the mailbox to get the paper. I could read most of it, but being so young had no idea what 'gentilia' meant lol But, I sure thought it was a very neat story. Actually, that's when my "word quest' definitions for transsexual,homosexual and other sexual terms began. It took me until the 1970s to find the word transsexual really beginning to be discussed.

Mike

[Guest Janice Lynn]

I wanted my titile to be, " WHO CAN ACTUALLY REMEMBER READING THE ARTICLE ABOUT CHRISTINE JORGESON WHEN IT WAS FIRST PRINTED IN THE PAPER"

i mean her surgery was headline news in our local paper. I never would have been allowed to read it, exceapt I had to walk out to the mailbox to get the paper. I could read most of it, but being so young had no idea what 'gentilia' meant lol But, I sure thought it was a very neat story. Actually, that's when my "word quest' definitions for transsexual,homosexual and other sexual terms began. It took me until the 1970s to find the word transsexual really beginning to be discussed.

Mike

Mike,

I remember the day very, very well. I was paperboy (er.... papergirl, paperperson :-) at

the time and remember very well folding my newspapers for delivery (that is, making

them capable of flight from my bike to the front porch without coming a part) and looking

at the photograph of Christine and thinking .... "Oh, THAT is what I am!"

I knew it at that moment. And it had nothing whatever to do with sexuality .... I was

several years too young to know what all those various and separate body parts were

about. I just knew instinctively that I was like her because I understood WHY she would

go all the way to Denmark to have the surgery done.

The agony, of course, was not being able to share the realization that she was a

hero (heroine, actually) with anyone. Not my parents. Not my brother. Not may

sister. Not my "best friend." Instinctively I knew that this was something I had to bury

deep in order that someone would never discover the truth about me.

Looking back, it was maybe just the second or third step in that incredibly self-

defeating experience of "learning the rules" about what it was to be a boy and

in the process learn how to prevent anyone from suspecting that *-----* was in

reality Janice Lynn.

Like so many others, I learned to live the lie until it just didn't work anymore.

<sigh>

Jan

[Carolyn Marie]

I was too young to have read the actual article, Mike, but I do remember hearing about her in either print or TV news when I was around 10. It was the first time I realized there were other people who felt like I did. I followed her life after that, and read everything I could find. She was my first inspiration that it was possible to achieve what I had thought was impossible.

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

[MaryEllen]

I remember that story. A girl in my class said to me that I should do that too. At the time I desperately trying to be as macho as I possibly could. I pretended to be highly insulted but I was secretly grinning inside. Little did she know.

MaryEllen

[Guest Risu]

I never read the article or saw the paper it was in but the doctor who prescribes my HRT treated Christine after her original doctor at John's Hopkins refused to do it anymore. When I asked him why he helps trans people he said it was because of her and that it really wasn't a problem with him.

I've read as much as I can about Christine and if you type her name into youtube search you'll get some videos, including the news interview she did shortly after returning from Denmark and others she did not long before her death. She really was one of the original pioneers in our country and I really can't imagine how lonely and difficult it must have been for her.

Christine definitely was a hero, or heroine.

~Jade.

[Guest SaleneAlexis]

I didn't read the newspaper article (because it was way before I was born) but in a class in college we had to do a book report on any book we wanted to, and I chose the autobiography of Christine and that was when things started to really make sense to me that I am a Transsexual Female, but I wasn't fully ready to come out yet. That took several more years, but reading that book I feel set the wheels in motion for where I am today

Stephanie

[Guest Lacey Lynne]

Mike:

Like, you gassed me, man! Didn't her story break, like, in 1953 or so? Heck, I wasn't born until 2 years later ... giggle. Nah, I missed out on THAT one! However, I heard about her in junior high school and thought, "Whoa! Far out!" Little did I know ... sigh. Who knew? WHO KNEW?!?

Peace Lacey

[Guest Janice Lynn]

Mike:

Like, you gassed me, man! Didn't her story break, like, in 1953 or so? Heck, I wasn't born until 2 years later ... giggle. Nah, I missed out on THAT one! However, I heard about her in junior high school and thought, "Whoa! Far out!" Little did I know ... sigh. Who knew? WHO KNEW?!?

Peace Lacey

I was 9 or 10 when I read about it .... my father lied about my age so I could get that

paper route.

Back in those days paperboys "collected" once a week. 32 cents (Monday-Saturday),

with the paperboy keeping 11 cents plus tips.

I remember some of my customer complaining that the newspapers chose to not only

print such a story, but putting it on the front page.

Jan

[Guest Daiyu Hurst]

I was also too young to remember anything in print. But in the summer of 1970, I was reading the Playboy review of the movie "The Christine Jorgensen Story", and that was the clue about the real me. I asked my mother to take me to see it, and she did. After seeing it, I was certain I knew who the real me was.

[Guest rita63]

I remember reading the story, my parents encouraged newspaper reading. I don't remember thinking it was weired or unusual just one of those strange things they did in Scandanavian countrys likt having a sauna and rolling in the snow. Older and wiser now I know how wonderful saunas are in the winter and SRS is just another way people express themselves.

hugs rita

[Guest Janice Lynn]

I was also too young to remember anything in print. But in the summer of 1970, I was reading the Playboy review of the movie "The Christine Jorgensen Story", and that was the clue about the real me. I asked my mother to take me to see it, and she did. After seeing it, I was certain I knew who the real me was.

Wow, your mother is a saint given that the subject matter was well known and

it had terrible reviews. I saw it once and sort of agreed with the critics. Hmmm....

I wonder if that can be had on a DVD. Maybe Netchicks has it.

Jan

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

CJ was my all time hero.....she made it possible for me to hang onto hope all of these years......

I'll never forget you Christine.......

HUGGS....

Your admirer...

Donna Jean

[Guest Mia J]

While I wasn't reading newspapers at that age I do remember the story and my parents talking about it. Even at 6 I thought that I was just like her. As I go older I would try to find information about her as she was the only link I had to transsexual information growing up.

Mia

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I don't recall reading the story in the newspaper but I did see a newsreel on her at the movies. I looked and looked for information on her after that - but it was not there until years after. The Christine Jorgensen - A pPersonal Autobiography - as a paperback. I read it over and over. I wonder if I still have that book? But I was wishing there had been more photographs in the book! Through the years, whenever I found an article on her, I cut it out, folded it and slipped it into that book. When she died I was so upset - like my favorite movie star died or something!

Lizzy