I was thinking today about historical trans people today,

Joan of arc springs to mind, she wore mens clothing and armour, cut her hair short. The technical reason for her execution was a biblical clothing law.

Perhaps Anne Bonney and Mary Read the pirate women were trans too?

What are some of your fravorite historical trans people?

Hua Mulan, a woman who dressed up as a man in order to join the Chinese imperial army to fight battles on behalf of his father. Although probably not based on a true event, the story is from a famous historical Chinese poem that's been studied by scholars for many hundred years.

I love the sea, defo being on, playing in it....

So all the women aboard Nelson's 'Victory'.... more than a few went on with there husbands one in particular was a notorious powder monkey... and the upper echelons knew all too well about the deception, but her bravery kept her always on station....

Also one cannot let Vita Sackville-West go by without a mention.... its said she inspired 'Orlando'....

There is actually pretty good evidence which suggests that Queen Elizabeth the 1st may well have been a CAIS intersex woman.

Quite possibly just one of many complex reasons why she never married.

For obvious reasons this is well buried in various archives but the clues are there if you go digging, as indeed I have done in pursuit of research in writing my Royal Transgender drama (which I am currently rewriting for about the seventh time).

The only one I can recall is Tiresias.

According to Greek mythology Tiresias was changed into a woman after making Hera mad for disturbing snakes (there is also the story he was being punished for spying on Athena taking a bath). He spent 7 years living a a woman untill the curse was released.
Later Zeus and Hera fell into an argument of which sex gains the most pleasure of intercourse. Knowing Tiresias spent years as a woman they figured that of all people, he would be the best candidate to answer this question. His answer was "If the pleasure of sex consist of 10 parts, man has only one."
For this answer Hera struck the poor man blind.

Synchonicity....dontchajustluvit....?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/7960081/Angelina-Jolie-stars-as-a-man-in-Salt-other-actresses-who-have-cross-dressed-for-the-camera.html

Quote from: Kairi on August 24, 2010, 04:40:30 AM
Hua Mulan, a woman who dressed up as a man in order to join the Chinese imperial army to fight battles on behalf of his father. Although probably not based on a true event, the story is from a famous historical Chinese poem that's been studied by scholars for many hundred years.

I adore the story of Mulan

The disney version is one of my favourite cartoons

Well, though she is moreorless contemporary rather than historical, I'd have to say Rene Richards. 

She had a lot on the line in her transition and transitioned more publicly than anybody I can think of ... even moreso than Christine Jorgenson.  Renee was:  New York City ophthalmologist and surgeon, Richard Raskind, strabismus surgical specialist when this was just a burgeoning specialty, a Yale graduate, a tennis professional and coach of the greatest woman tennis player ever (so far as I know), Martina Navratilova.  All of this was in the mid-1970s when public mores and attitudes were WAY different than they are now.

Renee Richards never sought notoriety, fame or wealth.  All she ever really wanted was a quiet and normal life.  She could have and would have been wealthy.  Transition cost her much indeed.  She did it all under the microscope of the modern-day media.  Too much!  I admire the hell out of her!

Octavianus.

That is so typical of the ancient Greeks.

I am intrigued by George Sands and Frederic Chopin.

We'wha, member of the Zuni tribe, is the subject of a fascinating book.

Z

Although I don't like them I find alot of there behaviors depraved. I find the case Of the short lived emperor Elagabalus interesting as they seem to be almost certainly transsexual based on there behavior. because they were an emperor there behavior was well documented and I think proves the case that this isn't a recent social phenomenon.
Elagabalus' sexual orientation and gender identity are the source of much controversy and debate. Elagabalus married and divorced five women apparently without consummating most of them his most stable relationship seems to have been with his chariot driver, a blond slave from Caria named Hierocles, whom he referred to as his husband. Cassius Dio reported Elagabalus would paint his eyes, epilate his facial hair and wear wigs.
Herodian commented that Elagabalus pampered his natural good looks by wearing too much make-up.  He was described as having been "delighted to be called the mistress, the wife, the Queen of Hierocles" and was said to have offered vast sums of money to the physician who could equip him with female genitalia.

In our more recent history David Remier, For showing biological innateness of our condition As horrific as the experiments performed on them were.

The Swedish Queen Christina has said that she had a man's soul in a woman's body, so she may have been an FTM. She was raised as the prince the king had never gotten, and was in love with a woman.