Tracking Transgender: The Historical Truth

Why and when did transsexual people begin calling themselves transgender? According to some internet memes transsexuals began self-identifying as transgender due to a vast global plot by crossdressers1,2 . According to this conspiracy, transsexuals by the millions were forced by the media3, through a cunning application of crossdresser colonization 4 to start using the term “transgender” sometime in the mid-1990s by a communist.5 In an ironic twist, the apparent solution to this imagined dilemma is to invent a new term – or string of terms – which means “transgender”6. This meme has survived because, until recently, few seemed to realize that “transgender” was decades older than some seemed to believe. Furthermore, it seems that not many are aware that “transgender” predates the term “transgenderist” – a word whose authorship is almost always erroneously attributed to Virginia Prince. As we review the historical record, we are presented with a choice. We

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