THE RELEVANT QUEER: Christine Jorgensen, Actress, Performer and Trans Icon

“The important thing is identity. You don’t [transition] for sexual reasons, you do it because of who you are.”

TRQ: Christine Jorgensen Born May 30, 1926

Actress and performer Christine Jorgensen was born on May 30, 1926. She is most known for her highly publicised sex reassignment surgery in 1952. Initially embraced by the media, Jorgensen used her celebrity to become an outspoken advocate for a broader cultural understanding of transsexuals.

Jorgensen was born in The Bronx, New York City. Her parents George and Florence provided a supportive family environment, though Jorgensen described herself as a “frail, blonde, introverted little boy” who felt trapped trapped in the wrong body.

By the time she reached puberty, Jorgensen was miserable. A crush on a male friend confused her. A practicing Lutheran, Jorgensen did not identify as homosexual.

“I had seen enough to know that homosexuality brought with it social segregation and ostracism that I couldn’t add to my own deep feeling of not belonging,” Jorgensen wrote in her biography.

Doctor and documentary filmmaker Teit Ritzau says that “the young Jorgensen never identified himself with homosexuality but rather as a woman who happened to be in a man’s body.”

After graduating from Christopher Columbus High School in 1945, she was drafted into the U.S. Army. After becoming ill, she was honourably discharged in less than two years. Jorgensen unsuccessfully attempted a photography career in Hollywood.

Afterwards she enrolled at Mohawk Valley Community College, the Progressive School of Photography in New Haven, Connecticut, and then the Manhattan Medical and Dental Assistant School. There she read about endocrinologists conducting hormone experiments on animals.

Jorgensen started taking estrogen and researching sex reassignment surgeries in Sweden. Her parents were Danish-born, and on a trip to visit family in Copenhagen in 1950, she underwent hormone replacement therapy under endocrinologist Christian Hamburger. In September 1951, she underwent an orchiectomy at Gentofte Hospital.

A month later, she wrote to friends that she was in “marvellous spirits.” In November 1952, she underwent a penectomy at Copenhagen University Hospital. When Jorgensen returned to the U.S., the New York Daily News ran a front-page headline announcing “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty.”

The American media and public greeted Jorgensen with curiosity and respect. She turned to making public appearances to make a living. Hollywood and the theatre world embraced her with many contracts and invites to the most exclusive and glamorous social events. In turn, Jorgensen embraced the role of the glamorous and gracious lady. Into the 1960s she toured with a nightclub act and earned $5,000 a week.

“The answer to the problem must not lie in sleeping pills and suicides that look like accidents, or in jail sentences, but rather in life and the freedom to live it.”— Christine Jorgensen

In her personal life, Jorgensen came close to marriage twice. The first relationship ended after the engagement. Her relationship with Howard Knox ended after the register’s office refused Jorgensen a marriage license because her birth certificate listed her as male.

Jorgensen also took many opportunities to educating the public about transsexuality. In 1967 she moved to California and published Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography. The book was adapted for film in 1970 as The Christine Jorgensen Story. Her work and personal dignity humanised transsexuality.

“We didn’t start the sexual revolution but I think we gave it a good kick in the pants!” — Christine Jorgensen

She continued to perform in nightclubs through early 1980s. In 1984, she performed in Copenhagen and appeared in Paradiset er ikke til salg (“Paradise Is Not for Sale”), the documentary by Teit Ritzau. She also reunited with the doctors who helped her transition. On May 3, 1989, Christine Jorgensen succumbed to bladder and lung cancer. She was 62.

In 2012 the Legacy Walk inducted Jorgensen into their public display celebrating LGBTQ+ people, culture and history. She was also an inaugural honoree in the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco in 2014. In 2019, Jorgensen was one 50 inaugural Americans on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City.  In October 2020 HBOMax released “Equal”, a four-part docuseries following leaders and unsung heroes within the LGBTQ movement. Episode 2 of “Equal” focuses on Christine Jorgensen and is portrayed by Jamie Clayton.

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

Sources:

BBC

GLBTQ Archive

Legacy Project Chicago

NY Times

Wams NY History

Washington Post