[Magdalen] Christine Jorgensen

[Grace Cangialosi]

Alln,
I was thinking about Jorgenson yesterday, because I remember that, though I was only nine in 1952. I was a voracious reader even then, and must have seen it in the paper or heard something on the radio. We were living in Japan at the time. I remember knowing only that a man had somehow turned into a woman, but I never asked my parents about it. I seem also to remember seeing before and after pictures...maybe in Life Magazine.
Then a bit later there was Dr. Renee Richards, but I don't remember her other name or which came first.

> On Jun 4, 2015, at 5:45 AM, Allan Carr <allanc25 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The news about  Caitlin Jenner made me wonder when Christine Jorgensen
> became the first person I had ever heard of going through surgery to effect
> a transition from male to female. She travelled to Denmark and obtained
> permission to take female hormones and then a series of reassignment
> operations beginning with an orchiectomy (castration) on September 24, 1951.
> 
> In a letter to friends dated October 8, 1951, she wrote "Remember the
> shy,miserable person who left America? Well, that person is no more , and,
> as you can see, I'm in marvelous spirits."
> 
> In November, 1952, she had a penectomy. On December 1, 1952, the New York
> Daily News published a story "Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Bombshell" which
> immediately caused a sensation, which I remember well. I was 21 and was
> in my second year in the US Army.
> 
> Those were not accepting days, over sixty years ago. Nevertheless, she was
> a courageous spokesperson for transgender people for the rest of her life.
> 
> She later had a vaginoplasty in the USA. In the 70s and 80s she toured
> university campuses and other venues to speak about her experiences and
> also worked as an actress and entertainer. She was charming, witty and
> direct. She died in 1989.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Allan Carr