https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_history
Transgender people (including non-binary and third gender individuals) have existed in cultures worldwide since ancient times. The modern terms and meanings of "transgender", "gender", "gender identity", and "gender role" only emerged in the 1950s and 1960s.[1][2][3] As a result, opinions vary on how to categorize historical accounts of gender-variant people and identities.
Sumerian and Akkadian texts from 4,500 years ago document priests known as gala who may have been transgender. Likely depictions occur in art around the Mediterranean from 9,000 to 3,700 years ago. In Ancient Greece, Phrygia, and Rome, there were galli priests that some scholars believe to have been trans women. Roman emperor Elagabalus (d. 222 AD) preferred to be called a lady (rather than a lord) and sought sex reassignment surgery, and in the modern day has been seen as a trans figure. Hijras on the Indian subcontinent and kathoeys in Thailand have formed trans-feminine third gender social and spiritual communities since ancient times, with their presence documented for thousands of years in texts which also mention trans male figures. Today, at least half a million hijras live in India and another half million in Bangladesh, legally recognized as a third gender, and many trans people are accepted in Thailand. In Arabia, khanith today (like earlier mukhannathun) fulfill a third gender role attested since the AD 600s. In Africa, many societies have traditional roles for trans women and trans men, some of which survive in the modern era. In the Americas prior to European colonization, as well as in some contemporary North American Indigenous cultures, there are social and ceremonial roles for third gender people, or those whose gender expression transforms, such as the Navajo nádleehi or the Zuni lhamana.
In the Middle Ages, accounts around Europe document transgender people. Kalonymus ben Kalonymus's lament for being born a man instead of a woman has been seen as an early account of gender dysphoria. Eleanor Rykener, a male-bodied Briton arrested in 1394 while living and doing sex work dressed as a woman, has been seen as a trans woman. In the Balkans since the 1400s, female-assigned people have transitioned to live as men called sworn virgins. In Japan, accounts of trans people go back to the Edo period. In Indonesia, there are millions of trans-/third-gender waria, and the bugis of Sulawesi recognize five genders. In Oceania, trans-/third-gender roles like the akava'ine, fa'afafine and fakaleiti exist among the Cook Island Maori, Samoans, and Tongans.
In colonial America, Thomas(ine) Hall in the 1600s adopted clothes and roles of both men and women, while in 1776 the genderless Public Universal Friend refused both birth name and gendered pronouns. During the 1800s, some people began new lives as men and served in the military, including Albert Cashier and James Barry, or otherwise transitioned, like Joseph Lobdell; trans women like Frances Thompson also transitioned. In 1895, trans autobiographer Jennie June and others organized the Cercle Hermaphroditos; in the 1900s, musician Billy Tipton lived as a man, while Lucy Hicks Anderson was supported by her parents and community in being a woman.
Karl M. Baer (in 1906) and Alan L. Hart (1917) underwent early female-to-male reassignment surgeries, while in 1930 and 1931 Dora Richter and Lili Elbe had early male-to-female surgeries including (for Elbe) an ovary and uterus transplant. Baer, Richter and Elbe were aided by Magnus Hirschfeld, whose pioneering work at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft for trans medicine and rights was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933. In 1952, American trans woman Christine Jorgensen's transition brought wide awareness of sex reassignment surgery to North America, while Coccinelle's 1958 transition did the same in Europe. The grassroots fight for trans rights became more visible with trans and gay people fighting back against police in the 1959 Cooper Donuts Riot, 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot, and multi-day Stonewall Riots of 1969. In the 1970s, Lou Sullivan pioneered visibility for gay trans men and organized what became FTM International. At the same time, some feminists opposed the inclusion of trans women, creating what was later known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism. In the 1990s and 2000s, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was started and trans marches became more common; trans people were elected to public offices; and legislative and court actions began recognizing trans people's rights in some countries (especially in the West, India, and southern Africa). At the same time, other countries (especially in the rest of Africa, Central Asia, and Arabia) abridge trans people's rights due to transphobia.
Historiography