History of transgender people in the United Kingdom
Transgender History in Britain is long and complex, and does not always conform to the same modern or medical definition, with gender roles frequently changing during the first millennium CE under varying ruling groups such as the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. Early Transgender history can said to begin with Roman Britain, when the Roman conquest of Britain was successful at colonising Britainnia, as the Britons used a vernacular language, therefore not leaving extensive written records. Definitions of gender changed to fit patriarchal Roman gender roles such as the Pater familias at this time which lowered inheritance, political and marriage rights of British Celtic women to the legal status of Women in ancient Rome for example. These patriarchal ideas emerged with the cultural and legal implications of the Roman conquest of Britain and resumed in English practices and identity. Transgender people in Roman society are known to have been engaged in the worship of Cybele as Galli. Anglo Saxon Society also continued its persecution of transgender or gender non-conforming peoples, referring to them as bæddel or bædling. More research is required on Medieval England and Transgender identity, but authors have also begun to question the roles of transgender people through reexamining evidence such as old gravesites like the 10th century Birka of Viking persons. Persecution by the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century played a role in persecuting LGBT groups from the 12th century onwards (see Council of London in 1102). This has continued when Pope Benedict XVI condemned the contents of the Equality Act 2010. This was responded to by the British transgender community with his state visit in the same year being opposed by transgender women like Adèle Anderson. During the Early Medieval period, whilst gender roles were strictly defined, some people such as John/Eleanor Rykener prove that gender non-conformity was present in Britain. At the time, the term hermaphrodite or less frequently androgyny was used to refer to transgender, non-binary and queer peoples during the medieval Early Modern English period. Medieval Welsh and French literature such as the Mabinogion mentions the story of Gilfaethwy and Gwydion, and Le Roman de Silence which also contain Transgender themes, but often perpetuate the idea of gender conformity and only returning to one's sex assignment at birth. During the Elizabethan and Stuart era, roles for transgender people were limited, but were reflected somewhat in genderfluid roles in theatre. This became suppressed during the rise of Oliver Cromwell, but returned with the Glorious Revolution (see the Arts section). From the 18th century on, greater number of male identifying transgender people, such as Charles Hamilton began to be identified as 'female husbands'. This neologist phrase was penned by Henry Fielding for his 1746 play 'Female Husband'. Increased awareness and language about the condition eventually led to the term 'Transgender' and Gender Dysphoria being coined in the 20th century, with continued activism leading to greater visibility and public awareness of issues faced by the Trans community in the present day. Many outdated labels include transvestite (1910 by Magnus Hirschfeld), tranny/transsexual (1949) and hermaphrodite. New terminology only began to be introduced into the English language with the emergence of more visible transgender activism in the early 20th century, with terminology initially being adopted in from Germany by gay and transgender writers like Edward Carpenter and Thomas Baty from the work of Karl Ulrich's Uranian theories, and the term "transgender" coined in 1965, shortened to 'trans' in 1996. Other terms such as "androgyne" were first used in English in 1552. Perhaps deriving from the patriarchal nature of its society, British theatre has often played with notions of sexuality and gender. Early examples such as the portrayals found in 17th-century plays like William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" (1611) in the character of Imogen, and Thomas Randolph's "Amyntas" (1630), portray supernatural and comic tropes and show how gender and sex was seen and understood as fluctuating ideas. Other literary traditions such as science fiction also enabled British writers to engage and ask questions regarding the role of gender and class (such as " The Blazing World") merged in British culture and contemporary society, as well as female-to-male crossdressers were frequently portrayed as heroines in English literature. Later throughout the 17th until the 20th centuries further theatrical roles such as the Restoration Rake, later Macaroni, Grand Dame (found in Pantomime) and the "drag artists performing in camp and shipboard theatricals ... during the Great War" explored and gave acceptable boundaries for queer people living in a cis-heteronormative environment. Crossdressing in silent films began when Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel took the tradition of female impersonation in the English music halls when they went to North America in 1910. In the early 20th century, writers (most famously Virginia Woolf) began to engage with new ideas of sexuality and gender identity. In 21st-century retellings, reworking and reappraisal in queer theory of old folklore and mythology such as Tam Lin and Hervor, plays such as "As You Like It" and works of science fiction have also been popular as an emerging form of transliterature. Non-binary people as a group have long existed in the UK, however recorded instance of Non-binary people are scarce due to misconceptions and conflation around gender and sex, and erasure in the written record over time. Non-binary still suffer from the lingering effects of transphobia and lingering effects of systematic racism under British colonisation. Cross-dressing is noted to have occurred in British society from the 14th century on. In 1394, John/Eleanor Rykener a prostitute working mainly in London (near Cheapside), but also active in Oxford, was arrested for cross-dressing and interrogated. In 1685, Arabella Hunt divorced her 'husband' Amy Poulter on the grounds that their marriage as two women is not recognised under the law, however initially complaining that Poulter was a "hermaphrodite". In 1732, 'Princess Seraphina' (noted as the first drag queen in England) charged Tom Gordon with stealing his crossdresser clothing. In 1812, surgeon James Miranda Barry was found to be biologically female on examination at death and the infamous Boulton and Park case in 1870 took place under heightened Victorian societal legal and moral pressure on transgender peoples, both being acquitted in 1871. In the early 20th century, gender nonconforming or third gender ideas begin to become widespread and accepted between the 1920–1940s. In the 1960s and 1970s, designers like Michael Fish began to promote androgynous fashion, which were made popular by musicians such as Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. As the 1980s progressed, the acceptability of gendered clothing began to break down (such as Annie Lennox) and by the 21st century the gender spectrum had begun to become mainstream in fashion with unisex clothing becoming popular. Intersex peoples have a long history in Britain, with early history particularly in Wales, often falling under the Greek notion of androgyny derived from Ancient Greek and Roman ideals inherently found in the creation myths such as Aphrodite. An early English colonial subject of the American colonies to challenge binary gender roles was Thomas(ine) Hall, a servant who, in the 1620s, alternately dressed in both men's and women's clothing. Hall is likely to have been intersex as they were ordered by the Virginia court to wear both men's breeches and a woman's apron and cap simultaneously by John Pott. However other examples such as Mary Henly, a female-assigned individual in Massachusetts, was charged with illegally wearing men's clothing in 1692, as her wearing an opposing gender marker was "seeming to confound the course of nature. "
During the Victorian era, medical authors introduced the terms "true hermaphrodite" for an individual who has both ovarian and testicular tissue, verified under a microscope, "male pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with testicular tissue, but either female or ambiguous sexual anatomy, and "female pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with ovarian tissue, but either male or ambiguous sexual anatomy. In 1915 The terms 'intersex' for the individual and 'intersexuality' for the phenomenon were coined in the German language by endocrinologist Richard Goldschmidt after studies on gypsy moths. One year later, Goldschmidt used the term to describe pseudohermaphroditism in humans, and in 1932 in Germany, the first intersex surgery to female is carried out. Surgeries in the UK for intersex people were undertaken at Charing Cross Hospital at this time. With the introduction of new writing on the topic, the topic of Intersex peoples began to introduced into the academic circles in the UK in the 1940s to 1960s when a more prevailing notion of tolerance began to take root.
Overview
This article addresses the history of transgender people across the British Isles in the United Kingdom, the British colonies and the Kingdom of England until the present day. People dressing and living differently from their sex assignment at birth and contributing to various aspects of British history and culture have been documented from the 14th century to the present day.