Jorgensen, Christine

Christine Jorgensen was an American ex-service member of Danish American heritage. When, in December 1952, reporters learned she had received medical treatments in Denmark to feminize her body and had changed her first name from George to Christine, news coverage was extensive, even hysterical. For the first time, the Western world was wakened to the possibility that sex was not permanent but might be subject to change.

Jorgensen was born in 1926 in the Bronx borough of New York City and grew up introverted and feminine in demeanor. She felt a psychological distance from boys while being frequently sexually [Page 468]attracted to them. As she matured, she felt, as she put it, lost between the sexes and began to wish she were a girl. After graduating ...