by Evelyn Bailey
The history of transgender stretches back to the beginning of time, in all parts of the globe — the Far East, the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Africa, the Greek and Roman Empires, Europe and the Americas, where some Native nations, such as the Navajo (Dineh), have long believed there are four genders.
In many ways there is nothing new about the gender variant identities of men and women in the 21st century. Records dating back as early as 1503 BCE (Before Common Era) document transgender or transvestite royalty. The Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut ascends the throne, the second Egyptian queen to rule (the first was Queen Sobekneferu of the 12th Dynasty). Learning from the disfavor shown to her predecessor, Hatshepsut dons male clothing and a false beard signifying kingship, and reigns until 1482 BCE, sending explorers down the east coast of Africa and building a magnificent temple at Deir al-Bahri, still visited today. She has one daughter, Neferure, who she grooms as successor (male clothing, false beard and all), but Neferure does not live into adulthood.
In the seventh century BCE, King Ashurbanipal (Sardanapalus) of Assyria spent a great deal of time in women’s clothing, something that was later used to justify overthrowing him. Between the 6th and 1st centuries BCE, in the Greek Hippocratic Corpus (collection of medical texts), physicians propose that both parents secrete male or female “bodies” and that if the father’s secretion is female (rather than male) and the mother’s is male, the result would either be a “man-woman” (effeminate male) or a “mannish” female. No documentation has been found to determine if this is an attempt to classify homosexuality or bisexuality or an indication of some familiarity with intersex conditions.
In ancient Rome, circa 60 CE (Common Era), Emperor Nero reportedly has a young slave boy, Sporus, castrated (eunuching, in early times, was believed to be the primary mechanism of gender change — “eunuchs” ranged in form from males whose testicles had been removed to those also given a total penectomy), and takes him as a wife in a legal public ceremony. Sporus is from then on clothed as an Empress, and accompanies Nero as such. Some eunuchs may have been what we would think of as trans, while some were castrated unwillingly.
In 218 CE, the Roman Emperor Elgabalus (or Heliogabalus), becomes known for wearing makeup, eccentric habits, behaving as a prostitute, and numerous bisexual escapades. He reportedly offers a large reward to any physician who can give him female genitalia, a reward which is apparently never collected (although this may be myth).
Phrygian worshippers of the goddess Cybele would choose their gender and cut off their genitalia. They would run through the streets in a religious frenzy and throw their genitalia away. After being nursed back to health, the Phrygian transsexuals were dressed in female clothing and assumed female names and gender roles. A practice much like this has survived into the 20th century in India among a sect called the Hijras. After undergoing a form of Sexual Reassignment, they are recognized as true females or most recently as a third gender, made legal by the Indian government. Hijras are looked down upon by patriarchal Hindu society — yet are also believed to be capable of giving blessings.
The only surviving legal records from the 14th century which mention same-sex intercourse and/or cross-dressing were those of John Rykener, known also as Johannes Richer and Eleanor, a transvestite prostitute working mainly in London (near Cheapside), who was arrested in 1395 for cross-dressing and interrogated.
Rulers of nations such as King Henry III of France, in 1577, frequently cross-dressed and, while dressed as a woman, was referred to as her majesty by his courtiers. Even his male clothes were considered outrageous despite the flamboyant standards of 16th-century France. Nzinga, King of Angola from 1624 – 1653, cross-dressed and led several successful military battles against the Portuguese. Queen Christina of Sweden (often considered bisexual) in 1654 abdicated the throne, dressed in men’s clothing and renamed herself Count Dohna. Greta Garbo played her in a famous film of the ‘30s.
During the 18th century “molly houses” provided a space for the English gay community to meet, carouse and relate to one another. “Mollies” were men who often cross-dressed and developed their own queer culture. Many prominent historical personages were possibly transgender. The memoirs of MTF transsexual Abbe Francois Timoleon de Choisy, who attended a Papal inaugural ball in female dress in 1676, offer the first written testimony of cross-dressing. Chevalier D’Eon, born Charles d’Eon, was a famous French spy/ambassador who was born male but lived a significant part of his/her life as a woman. The Chevalier’s birth sex was a hotly debated question.
Female to male transvestites, some of whom were quite possibly transgender, joined Nelson’s Navy, and were only discovered when they were flogged. They were never punished when they were discovered and often went on stage and became celebrities, wowing audiences backed by an all singing and all dancing group of cross-dressed transvestite tars. Mary Lacy, known as William Chandler, who served on the Sandwich as a carpenter, is one of the most famous, as he wrote a biography. Others include William Brown who served on the Queen Charlotte until being outed by a newspaper in 1815, and Alice Snell aka James Gray, who served as a navy marine until 1750.
In England, the first openly lesbian and transgendered person, Charlotte Clarke, comes out by publishing A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Charlotte Clarke (Youngest Daughter of Colley Cibber, Esq.) in 1755. In the autobiography, Clarke, a flamboyant cross-dressing actress during a time in which male impersonation was a popular form of entertainment (even if still very much taboo), relates many scandalous things, including her relationship with her “wife,” “Mrs. Brown.”
The most famous trans person of the 18th century, French diplomat Chevalier Éon de Beaumont, lived the first half of her life as a man and the second as a woman. Charles de Beaumont, Knight of Eon, 1728-1810, was a secret French agent, went to Russia on a secret mission for Louis XV, and was lady companion to the Empress Elisabeth. She fought in the Seven Years war, and was later secretary to the French ambassador to London. On her return to France (1777) Eon was ordered to dress permanently as a woman, which she did until her death.
In the 1800s, an ancient Transsexual (Transgenderist) custom was discovered in the Balkans. It seems that, from the most ancient times, it was possible for women to become men, legally and socially. When a male heir was not available, the law allowed a woman from the family to legally become a male to preserve the family’s land. All the female had to do was swear to remain a virgin. From that moment she was expected to act and dress like a man. In return, she was granted male privileges and treated like a man.
The19th century saw the first woman, George Sand, born Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, an accomplished French romantic writer, in modern European history to frequently wear men’s clothes, shocking her contemporaries. She was not, apparently, transgender or lesbian. Of course today with the change in women’s fashion, cross-dressing in male attire for women no longer exists, and drag kings, genderqueer people and transmen simply wear their own male clothing.
In 1867 Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs (who relates in his memoirs that as a child, he wore girls’ clothing, wanted to be a girl and most enjoyed playing with other girls) becomes the first “Uranian” (he refers to “Urning” as a male who desires men, and “Dioning” as a male who is attracted to women; it is not until two years later that Karl-Maria Kertbeny coins the word “homosexual”) to speak out publicly in defense of GLBT causes.
Late in the 19th century, Eugene Schuyler visits Turkestan and observes, “here boys and youths specially trained take the place of the dancing-girls of other countries.” The Bacchá are androgynous or cross-dressing Turkish underclass boys, trained in erotic dance, but also available as prost
itutes. This tradition continues until around or shortly after WWI.
During the 19th century in England, “madhouses” and asylums were established for those who were identified as “unstable,” which included those whose behavior and/or actions were not considered appropriate for binary men and women. Often gender variant people of means could live without help from public assistance. Those who could not were kept behind closed doors so as not to disturb the citizenry.
Next month we will pick up the history from here and bring it into current day. Shoulders to Stand On recognizes the courage of these early pioneers who dared to live openly.