1976: Transgenderist
Cristan
Mar 21
http://research.cristanwilliams.com/2012/03/21/1976-transgenderist/ (http://research.cristanwilliams.com/2012/03/21/1976-transgenderist/)
Virginia Prince is oftentimes given credit for coining the term "transgenderist" and "->-bleeped-<-" in 1978. In 1977, Prince writes of three types of different types of trans experiences: "regular ->-bleeped-<- or femmiphile"; class two—those males who live as women openly and in society; and class three—those who undergo or who "seriously plan" sex change surgery. There's no mention of "->-bleeped-<-," "transgender," "transgenderal" or "transgenderist." She goes on to wrote: "People in class two know the difference (between sexual and genderal identity) and consciously elect to change their gender identity without surgery . . . Since class two people recognize the difference between sex and gender we can make a conscious decision to become a woman—a psycho-social gender creature." As late as 1977, Prince is not using this term.
It should be noted that when Prince was 81 years old, she said that she the thought she might have said the term "transgenderist" at a conference in 1974 or 75; however, around that same time, she also told Leslie Feinberg that she coined the term in the late 1980s:
"The term transgenderist was first introduced into the English language by trans warrior Virginia Prince. Virginia told me, 'I coined the noun transgenderist in 1987 or '88. There had to be some name for people like myself who trans the gender barrier – meaning somebody who lives full time in the gender opposite to their anatomy. I have not transed the sex barrier.'" – Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg, 1996, page X of introduction
Interesting history. 1976 was about the time I really began to ask myself questions about gender and my own bisexuality. There was no internet in those days. It would be a couple of more years before I used the DARPAnet for research.