Christine Jorgensen was a truly pioneering trans woman in America. She was the first individual to gain acclaim in the US for having gender-affirming procedures. She was formerly a man.
Her fascinating tale illuminates how, almost immediately, she became a pop culture icon. She was also treated more kindly than one might expect for a transgender person born in 1926, and the Norwegian Societies of Greater New York named her “Person of the Year” in 1953.
Christine was raised in the Bronx, New York, and was given the birth name George William Jorgensen Jr. She described herself as a “frail, white, shy little child who ran from fistfights and rough-and-fall games.”
After graduating, Christine was drafted into the US Army for World War II. Following her time in the army, she gained permission to move to Denmark, where she had female-affirming care, which began in 1951.
“All is both sexes in varying levels. I am more of a person than a man. Of course, I can never have kids, but that does not mean that I can never have healthy sexual relations. I am currently in the position of a person who has had a hysterectomy.”
When she returned to America in December 1952, Jorgensen was immediately recognized on the New York Daily News’ front page under the heading “Ex GI becomes blonde beauty.”
The post read: “Operations Transform Bronx Youth. George Jorgensen Jr., the son of a Bronx woodworker, fought in the Army for two years and received an honorable discharge in 1946.
“Then George is no more. After six activities, Jorgenson’s intercourse has been changed and now she is a dramatic woman, working as a photographer in Denmark.
“Parents were informed of the big change in a letter Christine Jorgensen (that’s her new name) sent to them recently”.
Gender Reassignment Surgeries
With the aid of renowned Dr. Joseph Angelo and estrogen in the form of ethinylestradiol, Christine made the transition.
Christine even met Danish endocrinologist Dr. Christian Hamburger, a professional in restorative hormone therapy, while visiting family in Copenhagen.
She underwent hormone replacement therapy under Dr Hamburger’s manner, and chose the name Christine in honour of him.
Hamburger persuaded Jorgensen to adopt a feminine identity and begin dressing up in people as a woman.
As the hormones started to take influence, Hamburger noted the modifications.
The patient had a bald piece on the church, and the first sign was an increase in the size of the glandular cells. Eventually, the body completely transformed from a man to a female form.
The first of a series of operations to switch Jorgensen’s reproductive organs from a male to a woman took more than a year of testosterone therapy.
Jorgensen was likewise assessed by a counselor, Dr Georg Sturup, who accepted that she wanted to proceed with gender reassignment surgeries.
“As you can see by the enclosed photographs, taken just before the procedure, I have changed a great deal. However, the various adjustments are significantly more crucial. Consider the quiet, terrible person who left America? Well, that man is no more and, as you can see, I’m in beautiful spirits” – Christine Jorgensen
Sturup was successful in asking the Swedish government to change the law to permit circumcision for operation purposes.
In an interview, Jorgensen said, “I was a little anxious because there were too many people at that time who insisted I was crazy. Dr. Hamburger, however, didn’t find it to be particularly odd.
In 1951, Christine had an orchiectomy (a surgical procedure in which one or both testicles are removed), and in 1952, she had a penectomy (penis removal through surgery). Describing it, she said: “My second operation, as the previous one, was not such a major work of surgery as it may imply”.
After the process, Christine wrote to her parents in New York: “Nature made a mistake which I have had corrected, and then I am your child”.
Lastly, in the US, she had a vaginoplasty, performed under the direction of Dr Angelo.
The First Trans Star
Following the New York Daily News history, Christine became a star. In a 1953 problem of The American Weekly, she wrote about her own journey under the title The Story of My Life.
She returned to the US a star, and Idlewild Airport (then JFK) welcomed her with a crowd of friends and editors.
Hollywood embraced her while Christine used her attention to support trans individuals. She was also given the New York-based Scandinavian Society’s Woman of the Year award.
“I guess they all want to get a peek”, she said.
She went on to make a life as an artist, performer and bar song, and in one action performed ‘I Enjoy Being a Girl’ while wearing a Wonder Woman costume.
Christine Jorgensen’s individual lifestyle
Following her vaginoplasty, Jorgensen became engaged to a man named John Traub, but it was called off. In 1959, she got engaged to American health physician, Howard J Knox.
But, because Christine was listed as a man on her baby document, the couple were unable to obtain a marriage certificate.
In 1967, she moved to California and wrote her book Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography. It was eventually renamed The Christine Jorgensen Story on television.
She spoke about her experiences as a trans director and people figure while arranging visits to university campuses and other locations in the 1970s and 1980s.
Christine died in 1989, at the age of 62, of urine and lung cancers. In the year of her suicide, she said:
“I am very glad now, looking back, that I was on that road edge 36 years back when a motion started. The physical revolution was going to begin with or without me. Although we may never have started it, we nevertheless gave it a nice quick kick in the pants.”
