Premium Content:

On This Gay Day | Transgender pioneer Virginia Prince died in 2009

Virginia Prince was a pioneer for transgender recognition

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1912, Virginia Prince was assigned male at birth.

From when she was 12 years old she used to often dress in women’s clothes, and began to present as feminine in public. When she was 18, she attended at Church Halloween Party as a woman and won the first prize in a competition for ‘best costume’.

- Advertisement -

After training as a pharmacist, she married and had a son, but the relationship did not last. Her family were shocked when her divorce papers cited “transvestitism” – the term of the time – as the grounds for the divorce.

After consulting a psychiatrist, who advised her to just embrace the desire and accept who she was, Prince became more comfortable with her gender.

In 1960, she began publishing the magazine Transvestia. She started the project by getting 25 friends to donate $4 each to the start-up costs of the publication.

Sold by mail order, and through adult bookstores, Transvestia published bi-monthly, and 100 issues were created between 1960 and 1980. The magazine attracted readers from around the world.

With the magazine she forcefully rejected the notion of the time that people like her were ‘disturbed’, and she was at the forefront of using the term transgender.

However, by the 1970s she was criticised for her promotion of traditional family values and societal norms. She argued that homosexuals, and people who treated gender as a fetish, were not aligned with her views.

She passed away in 2009 in Los Angeles.

Image Virginia Prince: copyright University of Victoria Libraries published under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

This post was first published in 2021 and has been subsequently updated. 

Latest

Review: The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The acclaimed film is coming to the Perth Festival this month.

Soldiers caught stealing Pride flags avoid convictions

The lesbian couple they targeted forgave them via a restorative justice program.

On This Gay Day | In 1982 the fight against HIV begins

The Gay Men's Health Crisis Inc was the first group dedicated to tacking what would later be identified as HIV.

Ash Baroque’s ‘Pig Root’ party returns for a second outing

Performance artist Ash Baroque and their Riot Poof crew...

Newsletter

Don't miss

Review: The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The acclaimed film is coming to the Perth Festival this month.

Soldiers caught stealing Pride flags avoid convictions

The lesbian couple they targeted forgave them via a restorative justice program.

On This Gay Day | In 1982 the fight against HIV begins

The Gay Men's Health Crisis Inc was the first group dedicated to tacking what would later be identified as HIV.

Ash Baroque’s ‘Pig Root’ party returns for a second outing

Performance artist Ash Baroque and their Riot Poof crew...

Wearing pink socks can see you end up in court in Russia

Russia is targeting people for wearing clothing that is not manly enough.

Review: The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The acclaimed film is coming to the Perth Festival this month.

Soldiers caught stealing Pride flags avoid convictions

The lesbian couple they targeted forgave them via a restorative justice program.

On This Gay Day | In 1982 the fight against HIV begins

The Gay Men's Health Crisis Inc was the first group dedicated to tacking what would later be identified as HIV.