Christine Jorgensen: When Did She Become a Transsexual?

This is a review when of early news and how it reported on Jorgensen. I’ve found that Jorgensen does not seem to have been referred to as a “transsexual” in newsprint during the first several years that she was out. At the time, she was the #1 most talked about person in the entire world… and yet, the term “transsexual” never seems to have been associated with her experience in the news… At least not until after the publication of Harry Benjamin’s 1966 Transsexual Phenomenon.

This is a random review of google news’ top results for Christine Jorgensen:

1952:

1953

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1962

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1966

1968

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1972

1973

It took until 1973 to find a news report in which Jorgensen was referred to as a “transsexual” using Google’s top archived news search hits for “Christine Jorgensen.”

I happen to have an (apparent rare) 1966 article wherein Jorgensen is referred to as a transsexual:

The Arizona Republic. Phoenix Tucs., Nov. 22, 1966

When I do a google news archive search for “transsexual” (between 1950 and 1969) I only find 10 articles. Try the search yourself.

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