Is being trans a new thing?

There’s been a recent and visible boom of trans people feeling safe and accepted enough to be out and proud: in politics and media, throughout our communities, our friends and family members, and around the world. This hasn’t always been the case. It’s well within living memory that public trans figures and role models were far and few between, if they existed at all.

So, it makes sense to look at this shift and wonder what happened – is being trans a new phenomenon? Are there more trans people than ever before? Where did they come from?

All of these are big and complex questions, so let’s dive in and answer them.

Are trans people new?

While the simple answer is no, it depends on how we’re using the word ‘trans’.

The word trans only emerged into popular usage in the 1960s and 1970s1, and so if we’re using it to only mean people who have defined themselves as “trans”, that history extends back less than a century. But if that’s true, then we can also say that there are no heterosexuals in history before 1868, when the word was first coined by Karl-Maria Kertbeny.

However, if we’re talking about people who moved away from the gender they were presumed to be at birth (which is the broad definition of trans) or lived cross-gender lives, there is evidence that people like this have existed in almost every culture and continent from before records were written down.

What exactly this means differed across time periods and cultures, but even without shared language, these experiences and behaviours resonate across history. The study of trans history explores this group, who may not have had access to the information, community connection, and language we have now, but whose experiences are in many ways like trans people today.

“Even though the term transgender is modern, people have moved from one gender to another for a very long time. And transgender history looks at that movement.” – Emily Skidmore, Associate Professor, U.S. History, Gender and Sexuality, Texas Tech University 

While a great deal of trans history covers the lives and experiences of 20th century U.S. and U.K. individuals2, people who lived cross-gender lives have existed and lived in virtually every society since before written history, including in First Nations clan groups across Australia3 (read more on our Trans Mob page), the U.S.4,5, and around the world in India6,7, Europe8,9, Thailand10,11, the Pacific Islands12, throughout Africa13, and beyond.

While there are names throughout history that are particularly well known, the names of people who have worked to make trans lives safer, easier, and celebrated are innumerable.

We asked our communities around Australia to share their trans pioneers, and we got quite the list indeed. Thank you to our trans trailblazers, to those who have fought for us all and to the many whose lives were cut short far too early. Your activism and advocacy work remains crucial, and we honour the many shoulders we stand on and continue to walk beside.

 

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How can we call historic figures trans when the word wasn’t invented yet?

Language isn’t set in stone, and we often create or repurpose words to describe things that we don’t have words for yet.

The passage of time, an increase of global populations, and the advent of the internet has given modern society new ways to connect and understand in ways that would have seemed very farfetched, to our ancestors. Trans is a great example of this: originating with doctors, then reclaimed by community members to name an experience that didn’t have common language beforehand.

One reason we use this language, (especially umbrella terms) is to talk about, and fight for, the range of similar experiences of not being cis, experiences which we can see reflected in people throughout history.

This is not any different to looking at early members of homo sapiens and calling them the “first humans”. These people definitely didn’t use those words at the time (they were barely using any words at all, let’s be real), but it’s a useful way of looking back and categorising groups with similar experiences for the sake of being able to talk about them clearly.

When we look at historical figures, they might not have used the language we use now, but we can see that they had similar desires, needs, and actions to other trans people throughout history, and even today.

Why are there more trans people than before?

This is probably not the case, though there are some very good reasons why it might seem that way.

Some trans people talk about their experience of having the feeling of being trans, but not knowing how to respond to it until they see or hear about the existence of other trans people. Historically, the chances of this happening were much smaller, but over the past decades, as visibility of trans people has increased, more people have been able to realise that it’s a real thing and have found that it’s possible to affirm their own gender as a result.

This is personal too, as more trans people are affirming themselves publicly, the more likely you are to have a trans friend, partner, family member or coworker. For some people, it’s meeting another trans person in real life that sparks that final decision to affirm their gender. Often the very first trans person we meet is ourselves, so community is important.

As this visibility has increased, legal protections and gender affirming medical care have also become more available, and with them, people feeling safer and more able to live out and affirm themselves in ways that they want.

Conservative estimates say around 2%14 of Australia’s population is trans, and chances are that this number isn’t any higher than before, but that today more people feel able to count themselves into this category than ever before.

Are people making up genders?

People aren’t only affirming themselves as men and women, either, but as a range of other genders too, such as the wonderful emergence of non-binary, agender, genderqueer, gender fluid, demi boys, demi girls, gender flexible, and more.

When thinking about these, it’s helpful to remember that the categories of man and woman were also constructed to describe broad experiences of gender, and to enforce gender roles.

It can also be helpful to think about your relationship to your own gender. The process we go through when making sense of who we are, and learning to describe that, is deeply personal and unique for people of every gender.

This might mean when someone says that they are a gender, to not respond by trying to imagine being agender, but instead to consider how you feel your own gender. For many cis people it feels solid and comfortable, and it can be helpful to think that a trans person may have the same feeling about their gender, even if it’s one you don’t fully understand.


Would it even matter if someone did invent a new gender?

Even if someone were to make up a gender, why would it matter? Thinking about gender in new ways can sometimes feel destabilising, difficult, or even like a threat, but what does it actually mean for you? Think about the ways that it could affect your day-to-day life – chances are it would hardly change anything much at all. You’re still your gender, and they are their gender, it doesn’t get much simpler than that.

That said, often people aren’t making up genders, but finding language to best describe how their gender fits and feels, and sometimes this language is what can feel quite new.

Is recognising that trans people exist enough?

So, you’ve gotten your head around it – trans people have always existed, and that’s great! Now what?

While recognition and celebration are important and excellent ways to be an ally, just doing that doesn’t always result in us having the rights, protections, living conditions, and safety we deserve. It’s the role of allies to not just affirm the trans people in their lives, but to advocate, fight, and to be there for them.

For more information about how to support trans people, visit the Allies section of TransHub.


Being trans-affirming vs gender affirming

Gender affirming (gender affirmation, affirming gender etc.) means the steps or processes we take to affirm our gender, whether that be socially, medically and/or legally. In sentences we could say ‘gender affirming healthcare’, ‘I affirmed my gender’, ‘I would like to start gender affirming hormones’, ‘this haircut is really affirming my gender’

Trans-affirming is something for services and spaces to strive for and deliver that ensures trans people are respected, protected and affirmed. Questions to consider when reflecting on how trans-affirming your service and space is:

– Environment – How is my service, workplace or space explicitly and visibly trans-affirming?
– Self-determination – Can trans clients and employees self-determine how they affirm their gender here?
– Affirmation – How does my service, workplace or space affirm trans clients’ and employees’ names, pronouns and gender?
– Rights – How are trans clients and employees protected here?

These terms sound like they might mean the same thing but it’s worth understanding the differences.

What are we fighting for?

While trans people’s rights have come a long way in past decades, there’s still a lot to fight for.

In NSW, we still are working to improve legal gender recognition, to strengthen the anti-discrimination act, and in advocating against legislation that is harmful to any trans or gender diverse people in their lives, homes, workplaces, or relationships.

ACON’s Blueprint for Improving the Health and Wellbeing of the Trans and Gender Diverse Community in NSW15 covers a range of priorities for health and wellbeing as outlined by NSW’s trans communities, such as affordable and available gender-affirming healthcare, clear pathways for accessing that care, records and IDs reflecting people’s gender accurately, and our identities and needs reflected in a range of settings such as workplaces, education, and elsewhere.

TransHub was developed in response to the Blueprint, to be a site where trans people and our allies and health professionals can find simple, accurate information that was written by and for our community, but it’s just one step on the path to better affirming trans people across the nation.

While there are many fights ahead, and our allies are as important as ever, we’re not worried about the future. Trans people have existed for as long as there have been people, and we’re not going anywhere.

Trans History Report (National & NSW)

In 2022 ‘A History of Trans Health Care in Australia’ was published which documented trans and gender diverse history in within Australia. The report, compiled and authored by historian Professor Noah Riseman, contains a wealth of interviews, oral history and first-hand evidence of the thriving and diverse history of trans people in this country.

A History of Trans Health Care in Australia

Report-on-trans-health-care-history-AusPATH-Noah-Riseman-2022Download

A New South Wales specific report was also developed in 2022. Produced for ACON and the Gender Centre, this details NSW’s trans history, ranging from trans mob who occupied the lands well before European colonisation, up until present day.

New South Wales Trans History

NSW-Trans-History-Report-Noah-Riseman-2022Download

From anti-discrimination law, birth certificate reform, public protest and police accountability, with this report and all the work our communities continue to do, we pay tribute to the hard work and achievements of our trans legends and visionaries.

Trans Mob – Anwernekenhe

In 1994 the ‘Anwernekenhe’ (meaning ‘us mob’ in Arrernte language) conference was held, bringing together 66 gay First Nations men and sistergirls. This historic conference was held at Hamilton Downs, 75km north-west of Alice Springs in Northern Territory from Sunday 31st October to Friday 4th November 1994. It is believed to be the first forum of its kind to be held anywhere in the world.

The attendees made recommendations for AIDS Councils and LGBTQ+ health services working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that are still relevant today.

Anwernekenhe-1994Download

For more resources and information about trans history around the continent, we recommend you check out TGV’s Transgender History Report, Seahorse NSW’s history, Mx Margaret Jones’ A brief history of trans and intersex events and organisations in Western Australia, and the Australia Queer Archives.

All illustrations on this page by Briar Rolfe. 

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