Happy Birthday: Christine Jorgensen
Although Jorgensen was not the first transgender woman to undergo gender-reassignment surgery, she is the first to have been widely known.
BY Christopher Harrity
May 30 2012 4:26 PM ET
http://www.advocate.com/women/2012/05/30/happy-birthday-christine-jorgensenGeorge William Jorgensen Jr. (May 30, 1926 – May 3, 1989) grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., with the signature traits of early gender dysphoria. She was an introverted boy who felt at odds with other boys her age. In 1945 she was drafted into the military. And today would have been her birthday.
After her service, Jorgensen began exploring the possibility of gender-reassignment surgery. She began taking the female hormone ethinyl estradiol on her own. She researched the subject with the help of Joseph Angelo, a physician who was the husband of one of Jorgensen's classmates at the Manhattan Medical and Dental Assistant School.
Sweden was the only place where doctors were performing the surgery. During a trip to Copenhagen to see relatives, however, Jorgensen met Christian Hamburger, a Danish endocrinologist and specialist in rehabilitative hormonal therapy. Jorgensen stayed in Denmark and began more advanced hormone therapy as well as the first of a series of operations.
