Christine Jorgensen: Transgender Woman
http://www.cristanwilliams.com/b/2011/07/08/christine-jorgensen-transgender-woman/About two weeks ago I uncovered a 1985 article wherein Christine Jorgensen rejects the word "transsexual" and instead chooses to self-identify as being a "transgender" person. While suppressing, this discovery seemed somewhat reasonable because, as the current historical narrative goes, "transgender" meant crossdresser in the 1970s and it only began to change as a term to become inclusive of transsexual people sometime in late 1980s.
This common view on the evolution of the word seemed sound in my mind until this evening when I uncovered yet another article in which Jorgensen rejects the word "transsexual" and instead chooses to self-identify as being a "trans-gender" woman. Only this time she is self-identifying as transgender in 1979:
