In the 1920’s and 1930’s Lili Elbe began transitioning by presenting as female in public, but she was introduced to others as Einar’s sister. Lili regularly posed as female models in Gerada’s painting, and in 1913 the Danish public was shocked when it was discovered that the beautiful women in Gerda’s paintings had actually been based off of Lili, who publicly identified as a man. In 1912 Lili and Gerda moved to Paris, where she could live openly as a woman and her wife could be actively lesbian. After cross dressing, she was convinced that she was in fact transgender and come out to her wife. As a favor to her wife, Lili began cross dressing to pose as female models for Gerda’s popular paintings. While living as a man, Lili was a successful painter and married fellow artist Gerda Gottileb. Lili was assigned male at birth and given the name Einar Wegener.
Lili Elbe was a bisexual trans-intersex woman born in Denmark in 1882.Ī painting of Lili Elbe by her ex-wife Gerda Gottileb One recipient of such experimental treatment was Lili Elbe, the first documented woman to receive gender reassignment surgery.
New experimental medical procedures allowed trans people to medically transition by taking hormones and getting surgery. Trans visibility before the Third Reich may not have been mainstream, but this community began experiencing acceptance from prominent medical professionals in the 1920’s and ’30s. I created this post to benefit my many trans followers and share of piece of important but forgotten trans history with the larger Tumblr community. But what is often left out of this picture is the suffering of trans people who were persecuted under the Third Reich. Often in the Queer community, the impact of the Holocaust is framed through the experiences of cis gay men, who were one of the most targeted groups during WW2. The brutality of Hitler’s regime impacted several communities and has changed the social understanding of many marginalized groups to this day. Treatment of Trans People During The Holocaust (See also: Barnabe Barnes’ The Devil’s Charter, in which the Borgias are all in league with demons and/or witches and Cesare employs a hapless assassin named Frescobaldi that apocryphal Shakespeare play about Thomas Cromwell Aaron Hill’s adaptation of Henry V in which Henry is followed into battle by his ex-girlfriend Harriet who kills herself in front of him and, my personal favorite, Caesar Borgia by William Evans, which includes some amazingly over-the-top monologues from the title character. Oh, I love weird historical historical dramas. That led me to an article about the play, which I read (well, skimmed) with increasing glee. I came across a mention of said play in Emma Donoghue’s Passions Between Women (I am all for lesbian history books these days) and after reading it was set in the Wars of the Roses immediately had to a) tell tumblr user sepulchralsoubrette about it b) Google it. You know, like “questionable timelines/lifespans”. This is relevant to a disproportionate quantity of my interests. I can’t believe it’s taken me to this day to find out that there’s a 1698 play ( Queen Catharine or, The Ruines of Love by Mary Pix) in which Isabel Neville (or someone named Isabella at any rate) is torn between her lesbianism Romantic Friendship for Catherine of Valois (why not?) and her passion for George of Clarence.