List of transgender people
A number of noted individuals are or were transgendered.
Transgender, for the purposes of this article, is an umbrella term that can include transsexuals, transvestic fetishists, cross-dressers, intersexuals, drag queens, drag kings and others. This article is not sorted by transgender behavior.
Please note that these people have been selected for this list because their fame or notoriety was in some way due or connected to their being transgendered.
Living Individuals
- Kamikawa Aya, Tokyo municipal official (first transgendered person to seek elected office in Japan)
- Mianne Bagger, golfer, transsexual woman
- Georgina Beyer, New Zealand's (and the world's) first transsexual mayor (1995) and member of parliament (2002)
- Kate Bornstein, transsexual author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist
- Sara Davis Buechner (née David Buechner), concert pianist
- Lady Bunny, drag performer
- Wendy Carlos, American transsexual composer and electronic musician
- The Lady Chablis, drag queen
- Caroline Cossey, also Tula, British transsexual model, author, and Bond girl
- Candy Darling, part of Andy Warhol's Factory and subject of The Velvet Underground song "Candy Says", and Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"
- Michelle Dumaresq, transsexual professional mountain bicyclist
- Jackie Enx, transsexual drummer for the heavy metal band Rhino Bucket
- Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist and author
- Mary Ann Horton, (also Mark Horton), transgendered (bi-gendered) Internet pioneer
- Dana International, transsexual Israeli pop singer
- Eddie Izzard, a comedian who cross-dresses and calls himself an "executive transvestite"
- Sonja Elen Kisa, linguist, creator of Toki Pona
- Jennifer Jane Leitham, transsexual jazz bassist
- Hedda Lettuce, drag performer
- Shirley Q Liquor, drag queen
- Jan Morris, transsexual author
- Dee Palmer, (née David Palmer), transsexual musician
- Grayson Perry, artist whose work sometimes features his female alter ego, Claire. Winner of the 2003 Turner Prize for art.
- Dr. Renee Richards, transsexual, professional tennis player
- RuPaul, AKA RuPaul Andre Charles, American drag queen
- Jason Saffer, AKA Jolene Sugarbaker, drag performer and comedian
- Melissa Sklarz, the first openly transgender public official in New York State, Democratic county judicial delegate in Manhattan
- Sandy Stone, transgender activist and author
- Margaret Stumpp, transsexual co-manager of Quantitative Management department at Prudential Financial Inc.
- Terre Thaemlitz, musician
- Pussy Tourette, drag performer and singer
20th and 21st Century Individuals
- Gwen Araujo, US transsexual, murdered 2002 [1]
- Danielle Bunten Berry, US software developer, formerly Dan Bunten, author of several titles for Electronic Arts in the 1980s, died of cancer
- Lili Elbe, Danish transsexual, one of the first women to undergo a crude form of sexual reassignment surgery, through five operations which were completed by 1930. Fifteen months after her final surgery, she either died from complications or faked her own death to avoid the media attention. She is the subject of the 1933 book Man Into Woman, although it is likely she was never biologically male, but rather born intersexual , supposedy with rudimentary ovaries which would conflict with the speculative diagnosis of Klinefelter's Syndrome
- Bella Evangelista, also known as Elvys Perez, drag performer who was murdered in Washington, D.C. [2]
- Christine Jorgensen, one of the first Americans to have sexual reassignment surgery in 1952
- Pepper LaBeija, Harlem, New York drag queen, subject of the documentary Paris Is Burning
- Glen Milstead, actor and drag performer also known as Divine, star of many John Waters films
- Sylvia Rivera, transgender activist, resisted police at Stonewall on June 27, 1969
- Brandon Teena, US transsexual boy who was murdered, subject of the film Boys Don't Cry [3]
- Billy Tipton, woman who lived as a male jazz musician
- Ed Wood, Jr., film-maker with transvestite tendencies
Earlier Historical or Mythological Individuals
It is often difficult to construe the gender and sexual identity of pre-modern individuals. In many societies, those whom Western society might consider homosexual or bisexual are or were considered transgendered. Therefore, see also List of famous gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.
- Alfhild, beautiful maiden in Norse mythology who dressed as a man to avoid marrying King Alf
- Chevalier d'Eon
- Christina of Sweden
- Hatshepsut, female Pharaoh of Egypt who wore male clothing and even a false beard
- Pope Joan, who according to legend was a cross-dressing woman elected Catholic pope (named Pope John VIII) whose tenure was placed between Leo IV (847-855) and Benedict III (855-858), and who died or was murdered in childbirth during a papal procession. There is no evidence for her existence.
- Joan of Arc, tried and executed also for cross-dressing
- James Barry, surgeon who masqueraded as a man throughout her life in order to be able to practice medicine
- Pope Paul II, Catholic pope known to have worn women's clothes and was nicknamed "Our Lady of Pity"
- Hannah Snell, 18th century woman who used a male uniform and fought alongside British marines
- Tiresias, soothsayer to Oedipus from Greek mythology changed into a woman and back in an unrelated tale
Books
- Feinberg, Leslie (1996). Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-7941-3
- Garber, Marjorie (1992). Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90072-7
- Wheelwright, Julie (1989). Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed As Men in Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness. London: Pandora Books. ISBN 0-04-440494-8
See also: List of famous gay, lesbian or bisexual people