A History of Trans Oppression

While transgender people have historically been seen as integral and accepted parts of society in many cultures, there has also been a history of oppression against trans people (and the rest of the queer community) in many areas of modern society.

Experience in the Holocaust

Content Warning: Anti-trans terminology, violence, oppression

Hitler’s Nazi government viciously targeted transgender and queer communities. This included banning all queer organizations and literature.
The Nazi's originated the pink triangle, a concentration camp badge used to identify queer captives.
Prior to 1933, the German government issued transgender people permits exempting them from laws prohibiting “cross-dressing” and allowing limited name changes. In 1933, the year they came to power, Nazis began to revoke these permits.
Nazis shut down transgender published magazines, closed a transgender political club, and shut down the Institute for Sexual Science (which provided medical care and advocacy for transgender people). Most of the institute’s 12,000 books were burned publicly.
In October 1936, they created a Reich Central Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion. This office had the power to jail indefinitely without trial.
In 1938, Hermann Ferdinand Voss wrote the book “The Problem with Transvestism”, suggesting that transgender people could not be put into concentration camps or be subjected to forced castration. Voss suggested that transgender people were asocial and engaged in criminal activity.
Transgender people, such as H. Bode and Liddy Bacroff, were targeted for their identity, arrested, and sent to concentration camps where they were murdered.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-research-reveals-how-the-nazis-targeted-transgender-people-180982931/
It’s estimated that up to 15,000 people were sent to concentration camps for “homosexual activity”. These captives were branded with the symbol of a pink triangle and many were subject to physical and sexual abuse. These make up just a portion of the over six million people murdered in the Holocaust.
It was not until January 27, 2023 that the German parliament officially recognized that transgender people were targeted as victims of the Nazi regime.

Oppression in the United States

In 1959, Christine Jorgensen (the first widely publicized person to have undergone gender-affirming surgery) was denied a marriage license when attempting to marry a man.
1959: The Cooper Do-nuts Riot. A riot that occurred at the Cooper Do-nuts cafe in Los Angeles after two police officers allegedly attempted to arrest transgender and queer patrons of the cafe.
1965: Over 150 people were denied service at Dewey’s coffee shop and diner in Philadelphia for being “homosexuals” and gender non-conforming. Two sit-in protests were staged in response, leading to several arrests.
1966: Compton’s Cafeteria Riot occurred in San Francisco as a reaction to violent police harassment of transgender people and drag queens.
1969: The Stonewall riots were a series of riots and demonstrations against the violent police raid of Stonewall Inn, in New York City.
In 1971, New Jersey music teacher Paula Grossman was fired after openly transitioning. She appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
In 1976, transgender woman Mary Elizabeth Clark enlisted in the United States military. She was discharged from the Army a year and a half later, only to win a settlement against them.
In 1977, transgender woman Renée Richards had to get a ruling from the New York Supreme Court to allow her to compete in the U.S. Open in tennis.
1979: the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was held on October 14; drawing over 75,000 queer people and straight allies to demand equal civil rights. This march was organized by Phyllis Frye, who became Texas’ first openly transgender judge.
In 1984, transgender pilot Karen Ulane filed a sex discrimination case and was denied by the Seventh Circuit court, which defined “sex discrimination” in Title VII as “discrimination against women”, and denying Ulane’s gender as a woman.
In 1993, a transgender man named Brandon Teena was raped and murdered in Nebraska.
In 1995, a transgender woman named Tyra Hunter died after being denied medical care by ER staff in Washington D.C. due to her gender identity.
In 2005, Izza Lopez filed a lawsuit against the River Oaks Imaging & Diagnostic Group, Inc. for denying her a job for “misrepresenting” her gender.
In 2007, transgender woman Vandy Beth Glenn was fired for transitioning genders.
In 2008, a DC court ruled in favor of Diane Schroer, colonel in the U.S. Army, who was denied a position at the Library of Congress after revealing that she would be transitioning.
Nowadays, we're under attack again by the Modern Trans-Hate Movement.