Danielle Muscato

Danielle Muscato, formerly Dave Muscato, is a civil rights activist, writer, debater, pundit, podcast host, and transgender woman from the United States

According to website, she has extensive speaking, writing, activism experience in are ranging from separaation of religion and government to women rights, LGBTQ civil rights, animal welfare and vegetarianism, abortion access, science education, and many other topics of progressive political and social interest

Later she also served on the City of Columbia, Missori Commission On Human Rights in 2016. Furthermore, she appeared on Rolling Stone, People, TIME, The New York Times, The Economist, SPIN, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard Magazine, and on BBC News, CNN 

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Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992), born and also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr.,[3][4] was an American gay liberation[6][7] activist and self-identified drag queen.[8][9] Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969.[6][10][11] Though some have mistakenly credited Johnson for starting the riots, Johnson was always forthcoming about having not been present when the riots began.[11]

Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera.[12] Johnson was also a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene, modeling for Andy Warhol, and performing onstage with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches.[6] Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street"[13] due to being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. From 1987 through 1992, Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP.[6]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life

1.2 Performance work and identity

1.3 Stonewall uprising

1.4 Other activism

1.5 STAR House

1.6 Later life

1.7 Death

2 Postmortem developments

3 Tributes

4 See also

5 References

6 Sources

7 External links

7.1 Photos

7.2 Print interviews

7.3 Videos

Biography

Early life

Johnson was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Johnson had six siblings and a father, Malcolm Michaels Sr., who was an assembly line worker at General Motors. Michaels' mother, Alberta Claiborne, was a housekeeper. Johnson was raised in the Mount Teman African Methodist Episcopal Church.[5][14][15][16] Commenting on this upbringing, Johnson said, "I got married to Jesus Christ when I was sixteen years old, still in high school."[14]

Johnson first began wearing dresses at the age of five but stopped temporarily due to harassment by boys who lived nearby. In a 1992 interview, Johnson described being the young victim of rape by a thirteen year old boy.[17][18] After this, Johnson described the idea of being gay as "some sort of dream", rather than something that seemed possible, and so chose to remain sexually inactive until leaving for New York City at 17.[19] Johnson's mother reportedly said that being homosexual is like being "lower than a dog",[20] but Johnson said that Alberta was unaware of the LGBT community. Johnson's mother also encouraged her child to find a "billionaire" boyfriend or husband to take care of (Johnson) for life, a goal Johnson often talked about. After graduating from Edison High School (now the Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Academy) in Elizabeth in 1963, Johnson left home for New York City with $15 and a bag of clothes.[5] Johnson waited on tables after moving to Greenwich Village in 1966.[22][23] After Johnson began hanging out with the street hustlers near the Howard Johnson's at 6th Avenue and 8th Street, Johnson's life changed. Johnson came out and said “my life has been built around sex and gay liberation, being a drag queen” and sex work. Johnson initially used the moniker "Black Marsha" but later decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting Johnson from the restaurant Howard Johnson's on 42nd Street, stating that the P stood for "pay it no mind"[24] and used the phrase sarcastically when questioned about gender, saying "it stands for 'pay it no mind'".[25] Johnson said the phrase once to a judge, who was amused by it, leading to Johnson's release. Johnson variably identified as gay, as a transvestite, and as a queen (referring to drag queen or "street queen"). According to Susan Stryker, a professor of human gender and sexuality studies at the University of Arizona, Johnson's gender expression could perhaps most accurately be called gender non-conforming; Johnson never self-identified with the term transgender, but the term was also not in broad use while Johnson was alive.[26]

The definitions used by Rivera and Johnson were not always the same as those documented in the more mainstream literature of the era. For instance, Rivera insisted on claiming transvestite solely for use by gay people, writing in the essay "Transvestites: Your Half Sisters and Half Brothers of the Revolution", "Transvestites are homosexual men and women who dress in clothes of the opposite sex."[27] In an interview with Allen Young, in 1972's, Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, Johnson discussed being a "Street Transvestite Action Revolutionary", saying, "A transvestite is still like a boy, very manly looking, a feminine boy."[28] Johnson distinguishes this from transsexual, defining transsexuals as those who are on hormones and getting surgery.[28] Also discussed are Johnson's experiences of the dangers of working as a street prostitute in drag, and Johnson's husband who was murdered. Johnson and Rivera's interviews and writings in this era also at times used terminology in ways that were sarcastic and camp, other times serious, or all of the above at once.[28]

Johnson's style of drag was not serious ("high drag" or "show drag"[19]) due to being unable to afford to purchase clothing from expensive stores.[29] Johnson received leftover flowers after sleeping under tables used for sorting flowers in the Flower District of Manhattan, and was known for wearing crowns of fresh flowers.[30] Johnson was tall, slender and often dressed in flowing robes and shiny dresses, red plastic high heels and bright wigs, which tended to draw attention.[5] As Edmund White writes in his 1979 Village Voice article, "The Politics of Drag", Johnson also liked dressing in ways that would display "the interstice between masculine and feminine". A feature photo of Johnson in this article shows Johnson in a flowing wig and makeup, and a translucent shirt, pants and parka – highlighting the ways that, quoting Kate Millett's Sexual Politics, White says, "she is both masculine and feminine at once."[19]

There is some existing footage of Johnson doing full, glamorous, "high drag" on stage, but most of Johnson's performance work was with groups that were more grassroots, comedic, and political.[31] Johnson sang and performed as a member of J. Camicias' international, NYC-based, drag performance troupe, Hot Peaches, from 1972 through to shows in the 1990s.[32][33] When The Cockettes, a similar drag troupe from San Francisco, formed an East Coast troupe, The Angels of Light, Johnson was also asked to perform with them.[34] In 1973, Johnson performed the role of "The Gypsy Queen" in the Angels' production, "The Enchanted Miracle", about the Comet Kohoutek.[35] In 1975, Johnson was photographed by famed artist Andy Warhol, as part of a "Ladies and Gentlemen" series of Polaroids.[36][35] In 1990, Johnson performed with The Hot Peaches in London.[37] Johnson, who was also HIV positive,[38] became an AIDS activist and appeared in The Hot Peaches production The Heat in 1990, singing the song "Love" while wearing an ACT UP, "Silence = Death" button.[39]

While the photos of Johnson in dramatic, femme ensembles are the most well-known, there are also photos and film footage of Johnson dressed down in more daily wear of jeans and a flannel shirt and cap,[40] or in shorts and a tank top, and no wig, such as at the Christopher Street Liberation March in 1979,[41] or singing with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus at an AIDS memorial in the 1980's,[42] or marching in a protest in Greenwich Village in 1992.[40]

Though generally regarded as "generous and warmhearted" and "saintly" under the Marsha persona, Johnson's angry, violent side could sometimes emerge when Johnson was depressed or under severe stress. Some felt that it was more common for this to happen under Johnson's "male persona as Malcolm".[43] During those moments when Johnson's violent side emerged, according to an acquaintance Robert Heide, Johnson could be aggressive and short-tempered and speak in a deeper voice and, as Malcolm, would "become a very nasty, vicious man, looking for fights".[43] This dual personality of Johnson's has been described as "a schizophrenic personality at work".[44] When this happened, Johnson would often get in fights and wind up hospitalized and sedated, and friends would have to organize and raise money to bail Johnson out of jail or try to secure release from places like Bellevue.[44] In the 1979 Village Voice article, "The Drag of Politics", by Steven Watson, and further elaborated upon by Stonewall historian Carter, it had perhaps been for this reason that other activists had been reluctant at first to credit Johnson for helping to spark the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s.[44] Watson also reported that Johnson's saintly personality was "volatile" and listed a roster of gay bars from which Johnson had been banned. Johnson was one of the first drag queens to go to the Stonewall Inn, after they began allowing women and drag queens inside; it was previously a bar for only gay men. On the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall uprising occurred. While the first two nights of rioting were the most intense, the clashes with police would result in a series of spontaneous demonstrations and marches through the gay neighborhoods of Greenwich Village for roughly a week afterwards. Johnson has been named, along with Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona,[45] by a number of the Stonewall veterans interviewed by David Carter in his book, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, as being "three individuals known to have been in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police at the uprising. Johnson denied starting the uprising. In 1987, Johnson recalled arriving at around "2:00 [that morning]", that "the riots had already started" by that time and that the Stonewall building "was on fire" after police set it on fire. The riots reportedly started at around 1:20 that morning after Stormé DeLarverie fought back against the police officer who attempted to arrest her that night. Carter writes that Robin Souza had reported that fellow Stonewall veterans and gay activists such as Morty Manford and Marty Robinson had told Souza that on the first night, Johnson "threw a shot glass at a mirror in the torched bar screaming, 'I got my civil rights'". Souza told the Gay Activists Alliance shortly afterwards that it "was the shot glass that was heard around the world". Carter, however, concluded that Robinson had given several different accounts of the night and in none of the accounts was Johnson's name brought up, possibly in fear that if he publicly credited the uprising to Johnson, then Johnson's well-known mental state and gender nonconforming, "could have been used effectively by the movement's opponents". The alleged "shot glass" incident has also been heavily disputed.[13] Prior to Carter's book, it was claimed Johnson had "thrown a brick" at a police officer, an account that was never verified. Johnson also confirmed not being present at the Stonewall Inn when the rioting broke out, but instead had heard about it and went to get Sylvia Rivera who was at a park uptown sleeping on a bench to tell her about it.[46] However, many have corroborated that on the second night, Johnson climbed up a lamppost and dropped a bag with a brick in it down on a police car, shattering the windshield.[44]

Other activism

Marsha P. Johnson, Joseph Ratanski and Sylvia Rivera in 1973 by Gary LeGault

Following the Stonewall uprising, Johnson joined the Gay Liberation Front and was active in the GLF Drag Queen Caucus.[47] On the first anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, on June 28, 1970, Johnson marched in the first Gay Pride rally, then called the Christopher Street Liberation Day. One of Johnson's most notable direct actions occurred in August 1970, staging a sit-in protest at Weinstein Hall at New York University alongside fellow GLF members after administrators canceled a dance when they found out was sponsored by gay organizations.[48] Shortly after that, Johnson and close friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) organization (initially titled Street Transvestites Actual Revolutionaries). The two of them became a visible presence at gay liberation marches and other radical political actions.[6] In 1973, Johnson and Rivera were banned from participating in the gay pride parade by the gay and lesbian committee who were administering the event stating they "weren't gonna allow drag queens" at their marches claiming they were "giving them a bad name".[6] Their response was to march defiantly ahead of the parade.[49][6] During a gay rights rally at New York City Hall in the early '70s, photographed by Diana Davies, a reporter asked Johnson why the group was demonstrating, Johnson shouted into the microphone, "Darling, I want my gay rights now!"[50][51]

During another incident around this time Johnson was confronted by police officers for hustling in New York. When the officers attempted to perform an arrest, Johnson hit them with a handbag, which contained two bricks. When asked by the judge for an explanation for hustling, Johnson claimed to be trying to secure enough money for a tombstone for Johnson's husband. During a time when same-sex marriage was illegal in the United States, the judge asked what "happened to this alleged husband", Johnson responded, "Pig shot him".[52] Initially sentenced to 90 days in prison for the assault, Johnson's lawyer eventually convinced the judge to that Bellevue Hospital would be more suitable.[52]

STAR House

With Rivera, Johnson established STAR House, a shelter for homeless gay and trans youth in 1970,[53] and paid the rent for it with money they made themselves as sex workers.[54] While the House was not focused on performance, Johnson was a "drag mother" of STAR House, in the longstanding tradition of chosen family in the Black and Latino LGBT community. Johnson worked to provide food, clothing, emotional support and a sense of family for the young drag queens, trans women, gender nonconformists and other gay street kids living on the Christopher Street docks or in their house on the Lower East Side of New York.[55][56] While the original location of STAR House was evicted in 1971 and the building was destroyed,[53] the household existed in different configurations and at different locations over the years.[54]

Later life

By 1966, Johnson lived on the streets[2] and engaged in survival sex.[57] In connection with sex work, Johnson claimed to have been arrested over 100 times, and was also shot once, in the late 1970s.[5] Johnson spoke of first having a mental breakdown in 1970.[58] According to Bob Kohler, Johnson would walk naked up Christopher Street and be taken away for two or three months to be treated with chlorpromazine, an antipsychotic medication. Upon returning, the medication would wear off over the course of one month and Johnson would then return to normal.[59]

Between 1980 and Johnson's death in 1992, Johnson lived with a friend, Randy Wicker, who had invited Johnson to stay the night one time when it was "very cold out—about 10 degrees [Fahrenheit]" (−12 °C), and Marsha had just never left.[60] When Wicker's lover, David, became terminally ill with AIDS, Johnson became his caregiver. After visiting David and other friends with the virus in the hospital during the AIDS pandemic, Johnson, who was also HIV-positive, became committed to sitting with the sick and dying, as well as doing street activism with AIDS activist groups including ACT UP.[38]

In David France's documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Johnson is seen participating in a 1980s memorial service and action for those who've died of AIDS, along with members of the Gay Men's Health Crisis.[42] In 1992, gay bashing was epidemic in New York. According to Matt Foreman, former director of the Anti-Violence Project, "Anti-LGBT violence was at a peak. That year we had 1,300 reports of bias crime. ... and 18% of those were based on violence perpetrated by police." It was an "unrelenting wave of attacks."[61] In response, marches were organized, and Johnson was one of the activists who marched in the streets, demanding justice.[40] Only weeks later, Johnson would also turn up dead under similar circumstances.[40]

Christopher Park in 2013, now part of the Stonewall National Monument, stands across the street from the Stonewall Inn. George Segal's Gay Liberation statues now stand where Johnson and the other street queens and homeless gay youth spent time in decades past.

In 1992, George Segal's sculpture, Gay Liberation was moved to Christopher Park as part of the new Gay Liberation Monument. Johnson commented, "How many people have died for these two little statues to be put in the park to recognize gay people? How many years does it take for people to see that we're all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race? I mean how many years does it take for people to see that we're all in this rat race together."[62]

Johnson remained devoutly religious in later life, often lighting candles and praying at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hoboken,[63] saying in 1992: “I practice the Catholic religion because the Catholic religion is part of the Santería of the saints, which says that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.”[64]

Johnson would also make offerings to the saints and spirits in a more personal manner, keeping a private altar at home when possible.[5][65] As friend James Gallagher related in the Pay it No Mind documentary interviews,[66] "Marsha would always say she went to the Greek Church, she went to the Catholic Church, she went to the Baptist Church, she went to the Jewish Temple - she said she was covering all angles."[67] In the summer of 1991, Johnson participated in the interfaith AIDS memorial service at the Church of Saint Veronica in Greenwich Village.[68] When asked about religion in the last interview, Johnson said "I use Jesus Christ the most in my prayers, most of the time." A neighbor also said Johnson would pray, prostrate on the floor in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church across from Randy Wicker's apartment (where Johnson lived in later years). Johnson's friend Sasha McCaffrey added, "I would find her in the strangest churches. She'd be wearing velvet and throwing glitter."[69]

Johnson expressed a relationship with the Divine that was direct and personal, saying in the last interview (June 1992), about leaving home in 1963, "I got the Lord on my side, and I took him to my heart with me and I came to the city, for better or worse. And he said, 'You know, you might wind up with nothing.' 'Cause you know, me and Jesus is always talking. And I said, Honey, I don't care if I never have nothing ever till the day I die. All I want is my freedom."[70] "I believe [Jesus is] the only man I can truly trust. He's like the spirit that follows me around, you know, and helps me out in my hour of need."[14]

In Pay it No Mind friends Bob Kohler and Agosto Machado talk about Johnson's relationship with Neptune. Kohler tells a story of sunbathing at the Christopher Street Piers in the West Village when Johnson, naked, began grabbing at Kohler's shirt, shouting, "My father needs those clothes!"[71] Johnson succeeded in pulling Kohler's shirt off and throwing it into the Hudson River. "These were sacrifices to her father, and to Neptune, who got all mixed up together," explains Kohler.[71] Agosto Machado continues, "She was making offerings of flowers and change to King Neptune as an appeasement to help her friends who are on the other side."[72]

Near the time of Johnson's death in 1992, Randy Wicker said Johnson was increasingly sick and in a fragile state. However, none of Johnson's friends or relatives believed Johnson was suicidal.[73]

Death

Shortly after the 1992 Gay pride parade, Johnson's body was discovered floating in the Hudson River.[5] Police initially ruled the death a suicide,[36] but Johnson's friends and other members of the local community insisted Johnson was not suicidal and noted that the back of Johnson's head had a massive wound.[74][75]

Johnson's suspicious death occurred during a time when Anti-LGBT violence was at a peak in New York City, including bias crime by police.[61] Johnson was one of the activists who had been drawing attention to this epidemic of violence against the community, participating in marches and other activism to demand justice for victims, and an inquiry into how to stop the violence.[40] Johnson had been speaking out against the "dirty cops" and elements of organized crime that many believed responsible for some of these assaults and murders, and had even voiced the concern that some of what Randy Wicker was stirring up, and pulling Johnson into, "could get you murdered."[76] This added to the suspicions of foul play and possible murder.[61][40]

Johnson's body was cremated and, following a funeral at a local church, and a march down Seventh Avenue, friends released Johnson's ashes over the Hudson river, off the Christopher Street Piers. Police allowed Seventh Avenue to be closed while Johnson's ashes were carried to the river. After the funeral, a series of demonstrations and marches to the police precinct took place, to demand justice for Johnson.[77]

Postmortem developments

According to Sylvia Rivera, their friend Bob Kohler believed Johnson had committed suicide due to an ever-increasing fragile state, which Rivera herself disputed, claiming she and Johnson had "made a pact" to "cross the 'River Jordan' (aka Hudson River) together".[78] Those who were close to Johnson considered the death suspicious; many claimed that while Johnson did struggle mentally, this did not manifest itself as suicidal ideation.[79] Randy Wicker later said that Johnson may have hallucinated and walked into the river, or may have jumped into the river to escape harassers, but stated that Johnson was never suicidal.[73][13]

Several people came forward to say they had seen Johnson harassed by a group of "thugs" who had also robbed people.[74][75] According to Wicker, a witness saw a neighborhood resident fighting with Johnson on July 4, 1992. During the fight he used a homophobic slur, and later bragged to someone at a bar that he had killed a drag queen named Marsha. The witness said that when he tried to tell police what he had seen his story was ignored.[13] Other locals stated later that law enforcement was not interested in investigating Johnson's death, stating that the case was about a "gay black man" and wanting little to do with it at the time.[80]

In December 2002, a police investigation resulted in reclassification of Johnson's cause of death from "suicide" to "undetermined".[13]

Former New York politician Tom Duane fought to reopen the case, because "Usually when there is a death by suicide the person usually leaves a note. She didn't leave a note."[81] In November 2012, activist Mariah Lopez succeeded in getting the New York police department to reopen the case as a possible homicide.[13]

In 2016, Victoria Cruz of the Anti-Violence Project also tried to get Johnson's case reopened, and succeeded in gaining access to previously-unreleased documents and witness statements. She sought out new interviews with witnesses, friends, other activists, and police who had worked the case or had been on the force at the time of Johnson's probable murder.[82] Some of her work to find justice for Johnson was filmed by David France for the 2017 documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.[83]

SRS Thailand MTF Vaginoplasty Photo

SRS Miami MTF Vaginoplasty Photo

These Photos come old website SRS Miami from Wayback Machine.

SAMUI Clinus MTF Vaginoplasty Photo

 

Before and After case 2

Kay Brown

Brown is a transexual herself, having transitioned from male to female early on in her life, having been first diagnosed as transexual in 1975

Gracie Jane

GROWING up, Gracie Jane was always fascinated by the cartoon and anime characters she saw on the TV and over the years has aspired to match that aesthetic. Gracie Jane told Truly: “From a very young age I had a fascination with looking like a character that doesn’t exist in the real world.” Born male in a little suburb in Ohio, Gracie Jane moved to LA to pursue a new adventure and find a place where she could be her true self. In total, she has spent over $40K on her transformation - the list includes a BBL, breast augmentation, nose job and filler. Next up she will be getting facial feminisation surgery worth $20K. Gracie Jane says she faces judgement for the way she looks daily, but told Truly: “If someone doesn’t agree with my surgery, what makes you think you have a right to have an opinion on my body?" Today, Gracie Jane has lined up one of LA’s hottest photographers to bring her futuristic vision to life, emulating her childhood idols.

Eden Estrada

Eden Estrada is a well-known Mexican model, social media personality, and YouTube star who is known for uploading her glamorous pictures on Instagram and videos related to makeup, reactions, Q&As, and things from her daily life on her YouTube channel titled Eden The Doll. She is a transgender woman who used to work as a male model before she started her transition. Although it was difficult for her to reveal her true self to her family because she comes from a strict background, Eden Estrada did it anyway. Initially, they did not go along with the changes she went through but eventually, they did understand her and started supporting her. She has also had her share of insecurities and one of them was her voice. However, she has learned to love and embrace all her imperfections because no one is actually perfect. Her family has been a major source of support for the diva and she also loves doing makeup and many of her YouTube videos are dedicated to makeup. Eden Estrada has also garnered a huge social media fan base with more than 500k followers on Instagram, more than 350k subscribers on YouTube, and more than 25 million views on the videos that she has uploaded on her channel

Jason Curtis Hall

 Jason Curtis Hall is a man who likes to wear dresses and Bra and Panties posted online. He has a Tumblr Account and Facebook Account.

One of he favorite bras

Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886–1954) was an African-American socialite and chef best known for her time spent in Oxnard, California, from 1920 to 1946. She was assigned male at birth but adamant from an early age that she was a girl, and supportive parents and doctors reaffirmed her in living as one. She established a boarding house in Oxnard, where she became a popular hostess. In 1945, a year after she married her second husband, she was arrested and tried and convicted of perjury, as the government said she had lied about her sex on her marriage license. After release from prison, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles. Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in Waddy, Kentucky, in 1886. From a very early age, Anderson was adamant that she was not male, identifying as female in a time period before the term transgender existed, and naming herself Lucy. Doctors told Lucy's parents to let her live as a young woman, so they did, and she began wearing dresses to school and being known as Lucy. At the age of 15, Lucy left school and did domestic work as a means to support herself. At age 20, she headed west to Pecos, Texas, where she worked in a hotel, and then to New Mexico, where she married her first husband, Clarence Hicks, in Silver City, New Mexico in 1920. She later moved to Oxnard, California at the age of 34. A skilled chef, she won some baking contests. Her marriage to Clarence lasted only nine years, but during the course of the union, she saved up enough money to buy property that was a boarding house front for a brothel; it also sold illegal liquor in Prohibition America. Outside of her time as a Madame, she was a well-known socialite and hostess in Oxnard, and would later use her connections to avoid serious jail time. According to scholar C. Riley Snorton, "When the sheriff arrested her one night, her double-barreled reputation paid off—Charles Donlon, the town’s leading banker, promptly bailed her out [because] he had scheduled a huge dinner party which would have collapsed dismally with Lucy in jail." In 1944, Hicks remarried Reuben Anderson, a soldier stationed in Long Island, New York. In 1945, a sailor claimed that he caught a venereal disease from one of the women in Anderson's brothel, so all of the women, including Anderson, were required to undergo medical examination. When the Ventura County district attorney learned from this examination that Anderson had been assigned male at birth, he chose to try her for perjury, arguing that she lied about her sex on her marriage license and impersonated a woman. During the trial, she stated “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman,” and “I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.” However, the court convicted her of perjury on her marriage license and sentenced her to 10 years of probation. At the time, marriage was only valid between a man and a woman, and she was not deemed a woman, so the marriage was declared invalid. As a result, the federal government charged her with fraud for receiving the financial allotments wives of soldiers got under the GI Bill, and initially also with failing to register for the draft, until she proved she had been too old to register. In this trial, she and Reuben were found guilty and sentenced to a men's prison, where Lucy was forbidden by court order to wear women's clothes. After being released from prison, Anderson was barred from returning to Oxnard by the police chief, who threatened further prosecution. She and Reuben relocated to Los Angeles, where they resided quietly until her death in 1954, at 68. The Handbook of LGBT Elders calls Anderson "one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person". One episode of the HBO TV series Equal is based on the life of Lucy Anderson.

Crystal LaBeija

Crystal LaBeija was an American drag queen and trans woman who founded the House of LaBeija in 1977. The House is often credited as starting the house system in ball culture. She became a mother figure for homeless LGBTQ youth. LaBeija originally worked and competed on the Manhattan drag circuit under the name of Crystal LaAsia, before changing her name to LaBeija as Latin queens kept calling her La Belleza (Spanish for "the beauty"). In the 1960s and 1970s, drag queens of color were expected to whiten their appearance to help their chances at winning competitions and they often faced racist environments. LaBeija was one of only a few African American drag queens to be awarded a "Queen of the Ball" title at a drag ball organized by whites during this era. In 1967, she was crowned Miss Manhattan. LaBeija subsequently competed in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant held in New York City Town Hall, a competition documented in The Queen (1968). In a scene towards the end of the documentary, LaBeija, upset with the perceived racism of the white-run balls, accused the pageant organizer Flawless Sabrina of rigging the judging in the favor of a white queen, Rachel Harlow. Refusing to participate further in a discriminatory system, LaBeija worked with another black drag queen, Lottie LaBeija, to host a ball just for black queens. She agreed to participate in the event so long as she was highlighted in the ball. This event, the first to be hosted by a House, was titled "Crystal & Lottie LaBeija presents the first annual House of Labeija Ball at Up the Downstairs Case on West 115th Street & 5th Avenue in Harlem, NY" and took place in 1972. It was the first time the term "House" was used, coined by LaBeija in order to market the event, which would be a huge success. LaBeija continued to work as a drag performer and activist throughout the 1970s and 1980s. RuPaul's first experience of a drag performance was seeing LaBeija perform a lipsync routine at a nightclub in Atlanta in 1979. In 2019, Rolling Stone reported that LaBeija died of liver failure in 1982. However, the New York Times reported in 1993 that Labeija was still alive and had attended a revival of The Queen at the Film Forum in New York. The article reported that LaBeija was still "a fixture in the drag world" and had a reunion of sorts with contest winner Harlow. "She was very very lovely to me," Harlow is quoted as saying. "She came up to me and kissed me and said hello... She left before the end."

Carlett Angialee Brown

Carlett Brown Angianlee (born c. 1927) was a United States Navy veteran during the 1950s who, if she made it to Europe, was the first African American to undergo gender affirmation surgery. From Pittsburgh, Angianlee was born c. 1927 as Charles Brown. She joined the Navy in 1950 to be able to receive treatment for rectal and nasal bleeding. While serving, she was diagnosed at the US Naval Hospital in Philadelphia for what was described as "a serious mental illness," wanting to be female. The examinations also led to the discovery of "female glands," showing that Carlett was intersex. Opposing the doctor's recommendation to have them surgically removed, Carlett decided instead to seek out a different type of surgery, sex reassignment surgery. Angianlee began writing to surgeons in Germany, Denmark, and Yugoslavia to see about getting SRS. Dr. Christian Hamburger responded saying citizenship was needed to have it done in Denmark. She wrote to West Germany’s Minister of Justice Dr. Thomas Dehler and was told the same. At some point, she arranged to gain citizenship and for the surgery to occur in Bonn, Germany, starting with hormone and cortisone injections. Part of her desire to become a woman stemmed from her desire to marry Sgt. Eugene Martin, who was stationed in Germany at the time. Claiming a two and a half year relationship with the man, she said that "We’ll be married as soon as I am legally a woman." Once out of the navy, she moved to Boston where she made a living by working as a shake dancer and by selling her blood and plasma. Between June 18 and 25, 1953, Angianlee legally changed her name to Carlett Brown Angianlee, who was stationed in Germany. She had renounced her American citizenship and planned to sail to Europe on the SS Holland on August 2. Once there, she had planned doctors appointments to begin her transition. About a month later, Agianlee made the decision to postpone the trip in order to undergo a $500 face lift in New York City from Dr. George J.B. Weiss. Within the following month, she was ordered not to leave the country by the US government until she had paid $1,200 in back taxes. To make more money to be able to pay this off, she got a job as a chief at an Iowa State College fraternity. Nothing beyond this point is known about her, and it is unknown if she ever made it to Europe.

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Ajita Wilson

Ajita Wilson (January 12, 1950 – May 26, 1987) was an American actress who starred in European exploitation and hardcore films in the 1970s and 1980s. Wilson was born in Brooklyn. She also did some fashion modeling work. Wilson died from a brain hemorrhage on May 26, 1987, at age 37.

Wilson in 1976

Sir Lady Java

Sir Lady Java, also known simply as Lady Java (born 1943) is an American transgender rights activist, exotic dancer, singer, comedian, and actress. Active on stage, television, radio and film from the mid-1960s to 1970s, she is a popular and influential personality in the Los Angeles-area African-American LGBT community. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1943. Java transitioned at a young age with the support of her mother, and began singing and dancing in local nightclubs. By 1965, she had moved to Los Angeles, California, and become a mainstay of the nightclub circuit, where she was associated with such figures as Redd Foxx, Sammy Davis Jr., Richard Pryor, Rudy Ray Moore, and Don Rickles. She cited Lena Horne, Mae West, and Josephine Baker as inspirations for her performances, which involved dancing, impersonations, singing, and comedy. She was frequently featured in such magazines as Jet, HEP, the LA Advocate, and Variety. In the early fall of 1967, after a successful two-week engagement at Redd Foxx's club which Java was seeking to extend, the Los Angeles Police Department began shutting down the now-famous Java's performances, citing Rule Number 9, a local ordinance prohibiting the "impersonation by means of costume or dress a person of the opposite sex," and threatening to fine clubs that hosted her. In response, Java picketed. Redd Foxx's club on October 21 and hired the American Civil Liberties Union in a bid to overturn the rule. The courts eventually rejected Java's case with the ACLU, stipulating that only club owners could sue. Rule Number 9 ultimately was struck down after a separate dispute in 1969. In 1978, Java performed with Lena Horne at a birthday party for nightclub owner and columnist Gertrude Gipson. From the 1980s, Java kept a lower public profile. Since retiring from performance and recovering from a stroke, she has made a limited return to public life, appearing locally in southern California and giving interviews. In June 2016, she was a guest of honor at the 18th annual Trans Pride L.A. festival alongside CeCe McDonald. Java has been recognized as a trailblazer.

Ava Betty Brown

Described by the Chicago Defender in 1957 as “Chicago’s version of Christine Jorgenson,” Ava Betty Brown, like many other Black trans women of the time, had to work much harder simply to exist. American scholar C. Riley Snorton highlights this disparity in his book, "Black on Both Sides: a Racial History of Trans Identity," giving voice to figures like Brown who not only fought for the rights of trans people, but also faced state-sanctioned anti-black racism still present today.

Changed For Life

 

Terri Leigh O'Connell

Terri Leigh O'Connell (born July 7, 1964) is a former motorsports racing champion, artist, author, and fashion model. Terri O'Connell (born J.T. Hayes) won national championships in go-kart/midget car/sprint car competitions across the country. She rose to compete in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series; driving the No. 91 Crossroads City of Corinth Ford Thunderbird for Donlavey Racing in 1990 at North Carolina Motor Speedway, now known as Rockingham Speedway. O'Connell amassed over 500 career victories throughout her career. O'Connell never psychologically felt like a man. She had sex reassignment surgery in 1994 following a near-fatal 1991 motor accident. "I was trapped upside down, engine throttle stuck, fuel running all over the racetrack and me. The accident didn't scare me, but the thought that I hadn't lived life to its full potential just ran chill bumps up and down my body." She legally changed her name from J. T. Hayes to Terri O'Connell. O'Connell, a former model, also created the first apparel company for the female race fan called "Speedsters" in 1995. She also owns an Apparel/Art Company, "Dangerous Curves Society". In 2011, O'Connell began racing again as part of an all female driving team headed up by Dick Barbour Racing of Atlanta, Georgia.

Egyptian trans woman fearlessly speaks about her transformation

"I left Egypt as a boy, but I had a dress in my luggage."

2017-08-09 08:22

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By Rayana KhalafContributor

Source: Facebook

She fled Egypt as a male assigned at birth, to become a confident woman in Germany married to a man she loves ... Carla Massoud does not shy away from talking about her past.

The Egyptian woman has taken the internet by storm ever since she began sharing her transformation story from male to female on social media.

She was recently featured in a video with BBC Arabic, in which she speaks about her journey from Egypt - where her father and schoolmates physically abused her for identifying as female - to Germany, where she now resides with her husband. 

"Since I was a child, I never felt like the other boys," she says in the video, explaining that she never felt comfortable playing with her male classmates. "I felt like I was different." 

When she confessed to her parents about her true identity, her father did not take it well, as he attacked and aggressively assaulted her. "It was the worst day in my life," she says. "His reaction was very violent."

Her father subsequently sent her to several doctors, and tests revealed that female hormones dominated her body.

Her mother, however, was the only who supported her.  "Whether you are a he or a she, you're still my son or daughter and I will never give up on you," Massoud quotes her mother as saying. 

Source: Youtube (Screenshot)

With her father refusing to accept her female identity, Massoud underwent hormone replacement therapy and was administered with the male hormone, testosterone, at nine years old.  

Still, by the time she became a teenager, she developed breasts and hips, making her a target for bullies at school, she says. 

She encountered her first harassment incident in seventh grade when students attacked her and tore her clothes off to check her private parts. 

"The students wanted to know if I was a girl or a boy," she explains. 

In 2013, with the help of her mother, Massoud traveled to Germany and applied for a protection program for transsexual individuals.

"I left Egypt as a boy, but I had a dress in my luggage," she says, adding that the first thing she did when she arrived in Berlin was take off her masculine clothes and put on the dress.

There, she transformed to female and filed a lawsuit to have her gender and name changed from Curlis to Kirillos.

She has since gotten married to a German man called Robert Zimmermann, whom she often shares pictures with and expresses love for on social media. 

For the past two years, Massoud has been active on social media, fearlessly speaking about being a transsexual and calling out people who do not respect the LGBTQ+ community.

"Our Arab communities, or those governed by traditions, consider [LGBTQ+ people] one of two things: either deviations or kofr (infidels). But in reality, it's neither," she says on her Youtube channel.

"Under all the labels, there's a human [...] who has the right to live in a safe community."

StepFeed has reached out to Massoud for comment. 

Not the first inspirational Egyptian woman to refuse to let society stand in the way

Source: Tumblr

Several transsexual women have made waves in Egypt.

Renowned Egyptian transsexual actress Hanan Al-Tawil, who died in 2004 under mysterious circumstances, is credited with being the first openly transsexual Arab.

In 1988, Sally Mursi (née Sayyed) caused a stir in Egypt and the Muslim world after she went under the knife to become Sally, even leading the Grand Mufti at the time to intervene. 

Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy released a fatwa at the time making it spiritually legal for a transgendered individual to change to his or her appropriate gender.