Gender Clinics in the United States

For gender transition in the United States prior to World War II, documentation of clinical care is limited; at that time, European clinics, predominantly in Germany, were still defining the medical procedures and expectations for care. The early 1940s show some Americans traveling to Germany for surgery, a few U.S. doctors in Chicago and California beginning to provide hormonal care, and at least one court case petitioning the Supreme Court of California for a legal name change for gender transition reasons. As in Europe, gender transitions of the pre–World War II era were viewed as medical interventions for people with intersex conditions, who were sometimes referred to as “inverts,” meaning the physical body was of one sex but the psychology and mind were of another.

After ...