Trans History Timeline

This document has been my attempt to compile and organize a history of trans people, including elements of culture, struggles for justice, interactions with the medical establishment, and legal impediments and victories.

If one were to print it out in a single document, it would be well over forty pages long and still feels like it is in its preliminary stages but could serve as a jumping off point for lots of folks.  I think it currently over-represents white middle class trans women history, with additional skews towards America and the North East.

It is important to note that in America, Black trans people have been among the earliest and most continual presences in trans history and activism, going back through the early 19th century at least.

NB: Well into the assemblage of this timeline, I discovered the full extent of Zagria’s A Gender Variance Who’s Who.  Her website has been an invaluable resource in assembling this document.  It is the most extensive single online source for transgender history that I have found and a number of the items I include here are items I discovered first there. 

• Language and Jargon

• Beyond the Anglosphere and Beyond Cisgender

• Ancient (before 500 BCE) and Classical (500 BCE to 500 CE) Eras

• Medieval Era (500 CE to 1500 CE)

• Modern Era (1500 CE to Present)

  • Early Modern Era (1500 CE to 1800 CE)

  • Nineteenth Century

  • Twentieth Century

    • Through the end of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1900 - 1933)

    • 1934-1949

    • 1950s and 1960s Out of the Shadows 

    • Stonewall and its Aftermath 1969 - 1978

    • 1979-1989

    • 1990s

  • Twenty-first Century

    • 2000s

    • 2010s

    • 2020s

• Major Sources and Additional Reading