West Sumatra in Indonesia

The Complicated Gender of Sumatran Tombois

Indonesian tombois are understood as men in many public contexts, but their families of origin often treat them as female in some respects and male in others.
Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe

What Actually Happened to “The Danish Girl” and Her Wife

Lili Elbe, a Danish-born transgender woman, famously transitioned in the early twentieth century. What did her spouse, Gerda Wegener, think about it?
Adrienne Rich with Susan Sherman. Photo by Colleen McKay. c. 1983

The Incredible Versatility of Adrienne Rich

Rich challenged the language of the past in poetry and prose while not quite embracing a fully inclusive future.
From Sexualpathologie by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, 1921

Visualizing Trans Identities

Photography played an important role in determining gender categories and presentations for both scientists and trans individuals in interwar Germany.
Protestors demonstrate during a rally against the transgender bathroom rights repeal at Thomas Paine Plaza February 25, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Transgender Legal Battles: A Timeline

New laws regarding transgender youth are based on the assumption that the gender binary is natural.
An illustration from The surprising adventures of a female husband! by Henry Fielding

The Female Husband is So Eighteenth Century

Henry Fielding's novel, a fictional account of the life of Charles Hamilton, conflates vagrancy with sexual, gender, and religious deviance.
Christine Jorgenson

A History of Transphobia in the Medical Establishment

At a time when trans people who wanted surgery needed to trust doctors, transphobia made it difficult.
Usnea antarctica

The Unsung Heroine of Lichenology

Elke Mackenzie’s moments of self-citation illuminate the hopes of someone who, against ease and tradition, did not wish to separate her identity from her research.
The Eldorado Nightclub

Gender Identity in Weimar Germany

Remembering an early academic effort to define sexual orientation and gender identity as variable natural phenomena, rather than moral matters.
Christine Jorgensen

Was Christine Jorgensen the Caitlyn Jenner of the 1950s?

“What is femininity anyway?” Jenner writes in her new book, The Secrets of My Life. Perhaps the famous trans woman Christine Jorgensen knew.