Five Transcendant Lives
The number of people identifying as transgender has steadily increased across generations, with 0.15% of Baby Boomers, 0.19% of Gen Xers, 0.51% of Millennials, and 0.79% of Gen Zers of Canada identifying as trans in some way or another. Although there has been an increase, the fact is that trans people have been an undeniable part of society across time. Most of these people weren’t activists or pioneers, which is why the Insider has chosen to honour random, and fascinating, trans people who you’ve probably never heard of for this Trans Visibility Day (March 31st)!
We’wha (1849-1896)
Born in 1849, in what is today New Mexico, We’wha was a member of the matrilineal Zuni tribe. Although they were assigned male at birth, the elders saw in We’wha lhamana traits. The lhamana were male-bodied individuals who took on the roles of women. They were considered a third gender within the tribe and held positions of honour in their community.
In 1879, the U.S. government sent out an expedition to collect artifacts and record the customs of the Zuni tribe. Anthropologist Matilda Coxe Stevenson was immensely impressed by We’wha, calling them ‘the most intelligent person in the village’. A friendship blossomed between the two, and, in late 1885, We’wha joined Stevenson in Washington for a period of six months. This was done to foster a cultural exchange between settlers and native communities, as We’wha valued the preservation of Zuni culture. We’wha was one of the first Zuni to sell art to the settlers, advocating for the value of Indigenous arts. They are now remembered as a pottery and textile artist, as well as a spiritual leader who worked hard to preserve the legacy of the Zuni.
Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954)
Lucy Hicks Anderson was born in 1886 in Kentucky. Despite her assigned gender at birth, she knew from a very young age that she was a woman, which led her parents to consult a physician. Surprisingly, this doctor told them to raise her a girl, which they did. After dropping out of school when she was 15, she started earning money by doing domestic work.
When she was 34, Anderson met her first husband, with whom she moved to Oxnard, California. There, she began a business as a nanny and cook for the wealthy families of the town. Once she had earned enough money, she bought a boarding house, which she ran as a brothel and speakeasy. Since Anderson was generally liked in her community, her illegal businesses were relatively easy to run. She was outed as trans when she was 59, and both her and her second husband went to jail. When they got out, they moved to LA and lived a quiet life until their deaths.
Amelio Robles Avila (1889-1984)
Born in 1889, Amelio Robles Avila was raised as a woman by strict Catholic parents. However, he showed a liking for skills that were traditionally masculine, such as weapons, shooting, and horses. In 1912 he left his town, Xochilpala, to join the Mexican Revolution. He fought with revolutionaries from 1913 to 1918, where his claim to a masculine identity was recognized. During his time in the army, he was known to shoot his pistol with his right hand and hold his cigar with his left. In 1970, he was awarded the medal of Honorary Legionnaire of the Mexican Army. He died in his hometown of old age at 95.
Alan L. Hart (1890-1962)
Alan L. Hart was born on October 4, 1890, in Kansas. Before his transition, Hart briefly attended Stanford in 1910, where he helped establish the university’s first women’s debate team. He later attended the University of Oregon Medical School, where he, ironically, was the first woman to receive the Saylor medal for achieving the highest marks in all departments of the school. During his time in medical school, Hart realized his attraction to women, and later sought out psychiatric treatment to change his sexual orientation. It worked, in a way, as, following a hysterectomy in winter 1917-8, Hart fully transitioned socially, opting for masculine clothing and changing his birth name to Alan.
There is no doubt that Hart was a brilliant doctor, but scandal seemed to follow him everywhere; from 1918 to 1927, he bounced around at least seven states. In 1928, Hart graduated with a masters in radiology from UPenn. Hart is remembered for using X-rays to detect tuberculosis (TB). No one before him considered X-rays as a diagnostic tool to detect TB, but Hart found a way to get ahead of the disease and doubtlessly saved countless lives. Hart later earned another master’s, this time in public health, from Yale, at age 57. Not only was he immensely talented in the scientific field, Hart was also a writer; he published four books!
Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell (1918-2011)
Roberta Cowell was born on April 8, 1918, in the UK. Cowell started her career as a racing driver while she was studying engineering at University College London, where she met the woman she would later marry in 1941. She also joined the Royal Air Force as a pupil pilot during this period. Although she was deemed unfit to fly given her intense motion sickness in 1935, she persisted, and eventually became a fighter pilot in the Second World War. In 1944, Cowell’s plane took a direct hit and crashed in Germany. She survived, but spent five months in a prison camp. In 1946, Cowell went back to racing. She even founded her company Cowell, Whittet & Co, and Lightwater, which tuned and developed cars.
However, Roberta was plagued with intense depression, as she knew that her outward masculine appearance did not match who she truly was. In 1948, Cowell divorced, went on estrogen, and met Michael Dillon, the first transgender man to undergo phalloplasty. Dillon helped Cowell through her transition (we went down a rabbit hole about their relationship; Cowell friend zoned Dillon so hard that he became a Buddhist monk). Cowell’s story went public in 1954, after which she kept competing as a race car driver. Cowell left the public eye in 1972, and later died in 2011.
We hope you enjoyed these brief overviews of these five equally thrilling lives. Sadly, we cannot write about every interesting trans person that has ever existed. If you’re interested in learning more about trans people of history with insane lives, we recommend you look into The Public Universal Friend, One-Eyed Charley, and the Chevalier d’Éon.
