Transvestite certificate

A transvestite certificate was a doctor's note issued by the governments of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic – under the support of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld – identifying a person as a transvestite. "Transvestite" at this time referred to all individuals whose gender identity and preferred clothing was discordant to that associated with their assigned sex, and so included both crossdressing and transgender people.
Between 1908 and up until the 1950s, "perhaps dozens" of such passes were granted by the German police. Mainly given to middle-class, heterosexual, male-to-female transvestites to avoid associations with gay and lesbian culture in Weimar Germany. The certificate said that the individual in question was allowed to wear clothing which corresponded to their gender identity.