It’s Friday, so let’s have a #transgender story from #history: Dora Richter wore blue that bright day in April, 1923. It matched her eyes, or so said the young doctor recording her intake interview in the sumptuous surroundings of In den Zelton 10, Berlin, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1) - ThreadSky

bschillace.brandyschillace.com • 29 days ago

It’s Friday, so let’s have a #transgender story from #history:

Dora Richter wore blue that bright day in April, 1923. It matched her eyes, or so said the young
doctor recording her intake interview in the sumptuous surroundings of In den Zelton 10, Berlin, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft
(1)

Comments

elisevik.bsky.social•29 days ago

Thank you for reaching me, today, something I should know but didn't.

elisevik.bsky.social•28 days ago

Teaching, that should be.

And thanks again.

May we have more, please?

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•28 days ago

A lot more, when the book is out, but I also plan to write some shorter articles about her!

elisevik.bsky.social•28 days ago

Keep us posted 🙌❤️

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•29 days ago

—or Institute for Sexual Sciences. Why? Dora had been assigned male at her birth. She’d spent years struggling to conform, bending her spirit to fit into prescribed boxes. The Institute offered something she hadn’t known was possible: a chance to alter her body to match her spirit. (2)

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•29 days ago

Transgender people are NOT some modern invention. We have always existed, and surgical and hormonal
transition has been possible for a hundred years. That we now know of this history is owed in part to the artist Lili Elbe, whose life was made into the film The Danish Girl. But she wasn’t first (3)

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•29 days ago

Dora would become the first person to undergo modern gender confirmation surgery, and yet, almost no one knows her name. Now this is changing; it is getting better, due to the work of other #transgender people, academic and not, who have been faithfully uncovering the past, like Clara Hartman (4)

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•29 days ago

But let’s ask: why s it hard to find Dora? She was not famous; she was not glamorous, well heeled or well supported. She grew up among the working poor, doing jobs at factories and waiting tables, and working as a maid. She had no higher education, no grand aspirations, no claim to titles. (5)

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•29 days ago

It’s why she has been forgotten—but also why we should remember: her experience reveals the rule, not the exception, the quiet life of thousands who struggle to become their truest selves. It’s why I love Dora Richter, her sweet, unsinkable story, her ability to overcome, is within us all. (6)

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•29 days ago

And that’s why she is the main character of my book. I also talk about Hirschfeld, the Institute, the science, the feminists, activists, allies and freedom fighters. But this is Dora’s story—because this is our story. Her tale ends in triumph despite the horror. She lives. She wins. 🗃️🏳️‍⚧️🧪 (end)

luvwins.bsky.social•29 days ago

Thanks for sharing. I’d like to add, gender-affirming surgeries are thousands of years old, not hundreds. Here is a list of the 8 genders recognized in Jewish holy texts. #LuvWins, even thousands of years ago!

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/

bschillace.brandyschillace.com•28 days ago

Oh yes—that’s why I through the ‘modern’ surgery in there. This is the same kind of surgeries we have today (though improved, they are surprisingly similar)

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply