Historical Self-Identified Transgender Women
Angela Morely was the first openly transgender person nominated for an academy award. She won two Emmy Awards for musical arrangement, as well as other Emmy nominations. Her work includes The Little Prince, The Slipper and the Rose, Dynasty, Dallas, Watership Down, and uncredited collaboration work with John Williams on the Star Wars soundtrack.
Carlett A Brown was an intersex naval officer who may have been the first African American transgender woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery. She was planning on going to Europe to get the surgery and marry a sergeant stationed in Germany at the time. It is unknown if she made it to Europe.
Christine Jorgenson was an actress, nightclub singer, and entertainer, noted for being one of the first well-known transgender figures in America. She used her platform to advocate for other transgender people. She was known for her wittiness and front page debut on New York's newspapers.
Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, or Coccinelle, was a club singer and celebrity in Europe. She was one of the first well known transgender people in Europe. She founded "Devenir Femme," an emotional support group for transgender women. She also helped found the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity, and her first marriage was the first recognized transgender union in Europe.
Lili Elbe was a Danish painter who was one of the first identifiable recipients of sex reassignment surgery. She may have been intersex, but this is unknown. She often modeled for her wife's paintings, which is how she discovered her identity. She died as a result of complications from a uterus transplant.
Lucy Hicks Anderson lived as a woman from 1920 to 1945, married to Clarence Hicks and then Ruben Anderson. When it was found she was transgender, she was persecuted for perjury, to which she said "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman...I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman." She was found guilty and sentenced to ten years probation, until she was sent to prison for fraud since she received allotment checks as the wife of a military person.
This page details transgender women who self-identify as women without doubt. For some of these women, the word "transgender" did not exist yet, so they may not have self described as such, but we understand that that is what they would be in today's terms.
Roberta Cowell was a racing driver and WWII pilot. She is the first known British woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery, assisted by close friend Michael Dillon. She claimed to have been intersex, which is how she justified the surgery. Her transition was highly publicized, but the press often excluded traits of hers that
didn't line up with the typical idea of how transgender people behaved.