American G.I. goes from man to woman

In 1952, this incredible story gripped the United States

Greetings Gold and Silver Level Templar Knights. In 1952, the American public was obsessed with the story of an American G.I. who had flown to Denmark as a man - and returned home as a woman. So, you think transgender is a new issue? Think again. This is a fascinating story.

The United States is mired in a very ill-tempered debate on transgender rights, especially with the election of the first transgender person to the US House of Representatives: Sarah McBride. And the presence of trans soldiers in the US military is set to become a hot political issue in 2025. So, how strange to discover that over seventy years ago, in 1952, American newspapers reported very positively the news that an American G.I. - George Jorgensen - had gone to Denmark for sex reassignment surgery. George had changed sex and was now Christine Jorgensen.

The news went global and was even covered in Australia - as can be seen below. And it's a fascinating story - so keep reading.

"Boy meets girl phenomenon with a twist"

George Jorgensen was an all-American G.I. But he had never been happy, as George, in his own skin. He realised he was not gay - but a woman in a man's body. So, he set out to become a woman, changing his name to Christine. The public was enthralled when the story broke. And from this point, we will call Christine 'she' to use the pronoun that was used at the time by everybody, including journalists.

Christine's parents were Danish - though she was Bronx, New York born and bred. The connection to Denmark was fortuitous because it was that country which pioneered sex reassignment surgery in the early 1950s. And Christine became an early medical success story. On returning back to the United States as a woman, the New York Daily News broke the story, forcing Christine to go public. Though she soon embraced her new found fame - and 1950s journalists were surprisingly sympathetic.

In December 1952, the Times Herald told its readers that the American G.I. had become "a beautiful blonde, with lovely legs and silken hair". The same month saw the Detroit Free Press report that the "boy meets girl phenomenon has been enacted with a new twist". Christine had emerged from her surgery as a "stunning young woman".

Her parents, working-class immigrants to America, were completely supportive. Her father told journalists that Christine "deserves an award higher than the Congressional Medal. She volunteered to undergo this guinea-pig treatment for herself and to help others". He went on to say that his wife and himself had thought deeply about whether Christine had "violated any of God's laws, or any of the laws of our country" and decided no. "She has just straightened out something that hundreds of thousands of others ought to".

Seeking advice from a transgender Scottish aristocrat

Christine told reporters, while "lolling luxuriously in a silken dressing gown", that the publicity was all a bit scary and so she was going to seek advice from a male Scottish physician, Dr. Ewan Forbes-Semphill, who had previously been female, born as Elizabeth. This sex change operation had been conducted in pre-Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

After transitioning from female to male, Ewan married his housekeeper, Isobella Mitchell. In 1952, he changed his name legally and began living as a man - declaring that there had simply been a "ghastly mistake" at birth. Incredibly, Ewan went on to inherit the title of Baronet from his father. That was contested in the courts by a male cousin and the legal case was referred right up to the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, who sided with Ewan in 1968. In other words, the British government gave Ewan its seal of approval on his sex change.

The Detroit Free Press contrasted the two transgender celebrities in their 1952 article (see below).

The American Medical Association met in Denver, in December 1952, and a journalist from the Associated Press talked to doctors about the new sex reassignment procedure. The resulting article carried a headline about doctors correcting nature. "The American G.I. who changed in sex from man to woman does not walk alone in the mysteryland of human sex".

Many lived in true doubt about their own sex with some living "a hell of mental torture". One urologist told the journalist that he estimated one in a thousand Americans was a "pseudo-hermaphrodite". This condition had been known about since Ancient Greece when it featured in their myths and legends. Doctors needed to be vigilant when babies were born to check if early surgery was required to put things right - the article stated. Another newspaper mused about how all human beings are, to some degree, bisexual. In 1952, the newspaper reading public were clearly able to handle these opinions.

Christine (with her surname spelt wrong), Ewan, and another English sex reassignment case - Mark Weston (previously Mary) - were pictured.

Two English siblings change sex in the 1930s

Mark Weston - the third person pictured - had been the female international shot-put champion in 1934 - as Mary - and British female javelin champion in 1927. But as early as 1928, Mark felt uncomfortable about competing as a woman - his birth sex. So, by 1936, he had undergone sex reassignment surgery in England. A physician at the Charing Cross Hospital in that year issued a medical form stating that Mark had been brought up as a woman but "is a male and should continue life as such". In 1942, Mark's sister Hilda became Harry, aged 26, but sadly a few months later committed suicide by hanging.

The Christine Jorgensen story

Christine's life was not easy in the post-war era - despite some of the sympathetic coverage. By the 1960s, she was ready to publish her biography. "After fifteen years of being sneered at, of being called everything under the sun, I'm no longer a freak," she told a newspaper in 1968. By then, the reporter noted, teenagers had never heard of Christine even though she had caused a huge stir back in 1952.

Christine talked about the mixed response she received in 1952: "Some people thought me a courageous pioneer, others regarded me as disgusting and immoral: some of the clergy considered that I had committed an ungodly act." She was disappointed that her own faith and beliefs had never been a subject of interest. "Make the body fit the soul," she summed up her view of years of medical treatments.