Some claim that the reason transsexual people have not yet gained full equality under the law is that there exists a word that is inclusive of both transsexuals with crossdressers: “transgender”. In their minds, it is this tangential connection to the crossdresser – not the oppressive system – that’s the problem.  How rooted in the historical record is this sentiment?

Consider the following 52 year-old newspaper article from 1959:

Some Things Worry You About World

The story of the Miami housewife who, it turned out, had once been a man, was a shocker. But not just because it involved sex surgery.

After all, if science can correct such mistakes of nature as the absence of hair or decay of teeth, or dimming eyesight or fading hearing, it is only reasonable to expect such physiological fillips as this.

The minister who performed the marriage ceremony for this former boy who is not a girl “was shocked,” to learn the story.

“I’m going to call my doctor and get some tranquilizers,” said the Rev. A. H. Stainback. “I wonder what the deacons will say.”

It is not the trans-sexuals and transvedtites that cause us worry about the world. It is ministers who, in time of crisis, reach for tranquilizers rather than prayer and worry about what, not the Lord, but the deacons will say.

– The Hutchinson News, Page 4, Tues, Nov 17, 1959

Remember that just months before this article came out, trans women had been rioting in the streets for their rights in the Dewey’s Riots of LA. It was still illegal to do one’s real-life test throughout America due to anti-crossdressing laws. As this article highlights, during this time there were consequences for being out of the closet.

I personally find it interesting that even back then, wherever I see anti-equality measures pushed (from pro-slavery initiatives to chauvinism), I will inevitably find the  a fundamentalist’s fingerprints all over the effort. I, like the author of this article, am very clear about where the oppression I face comes from and it’s not coming from my non-transsexual brothers and sisters.