6. Christine Jorgensen: The First Transgender American to go public
Christina Jorgensen was not the first American to have a sex change as is often claimed, but she was the first transgender person to announce her gender reassignment publicly– and to fight to make the transgender phenomenon better understood. Born George William Jorgensen, in the Bronx in 1926 Jorgensen was a shy, frail, little boy who avoided rough games and fights. Jorgenson explained in later interviews that her childhood was happy. However, the onset of puberty led to the feeling she was a woman in a man’s body.
After hearing about pioneering work in Europe, Jorgensen began to explore making the transition from male to female. In 1950, he started taking estrogen under the supervision of Dr. Christian Hamburg and in 1951, began gender reassignment procedures in Copenhagen, Denmark. The surgery transformed Jorgenson physically and mentally. She chose a new name ‘Christina’ in honor of her doctor and in 1955 returned to America. An outgoing ‘Blond Beauty‘ now replaced the shy little boy and Christina Jorgenson fast became a celebrity; acting and entertaining as well as speaking up as an advocate for transgender people on TV and radio. She died in 1989 of bladder and lung cancer, having, as she put it given the sexual revolution “a good swift kick in the pants.”