Transgender history in the United States

Transgender history in the United States has included a long, difficult struggle for equality. As acceptance and society progress, it is important to remember the hardships and discrimination faced by transgender people for decades. 

Transgender people entered the American public eye during the mid-1950s; trans woman Christine Jorgensen became famous for undergoing sexual reassignment surgery in 1952. However, she was still legally seen as a man, and lost her marriage license when she attempted to marry her male fiancé in 1959. The same year, the Cooper Donuts Riot occurred in Los Angeles, where various transgender and non-heterosexual people fought local police who had been harassing them. The incident is considered one of the first riots for LGBT rights in the country, and helped bring the problem of prejudice towards LGBT people further into the public eye.

The 1960s also came with the appearance of many transgender health organizations; for example, the transgender-help organization Erickson Educational Foundation was formed by a transgender man in 1964. It supplied trans people, their families, and medical professionals with information about transness, leading to the development of what would later become the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Both organizations, which still exist, would assist transgender people with their struggles.

In 1966, transgender women and drag queens in San Francisco in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco faced constant, occasionally violent harassment from local police, similar to the conditions before the riot occurring in 1959. The situation escalated when a police officer attempted to arrest a transgender woman, who then resisted by throwing a cup of coffee at the officer; large numbers of drag queens and transgender people fought back local police. It was another landmark incident, further propelling the public notice of transgender rights three years before the more famous Stonewall riots.

Much of the conflict across the history of transgender people in the United States follows the same pattern of people fighting for themselves after suffering under a prejudiced society. Many of the individuals risked their places in society, losing their jobs, families, and sometimes even their lives in order to stay true to themselves.