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Jennie June: Difference between revisions
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==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
Jennie June was born into a Puritan family<ref name="Yale" /> in 1874 in Connecticut. | Jennie June was born into a Puritan family<ref name="Yale" /> in 1874 in Connecticut. <ref>The Female Impersonators Part Two, Chapter I<nowiki/>https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Female-Impersonators/Part_2</ref>He was [[sexes#Assigned male at birth|assigned male at birth]]. At the time of his birth, his mother was twenty-eight, and his father thirty-two. June was their fourth child, out of eleven children. | ||
== Education == | ==Education== | ||
June became very shy and introverted when his parents sent him off to a boys' school.<ref>Madison, Mila. "Jennie June and the Cercle Hermaphroditos". ''Transgender Universe''. N.p., March 5, 2016. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> The other students had been sent to boarding school because of being especially boisterous and needing strict discipline. June was not like them at all. June focused his attentions on his studies, and achieved the highest marks ever in his school on all tests. | June became very shy and introverted when his parents sent him off to a boys' school.<ref>Madison, Mila. "Jennie June and the Cercle Hermaphroditos". ''Transgender Universe''. N.p., March 5, 2016. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> The other students had been sent to boarding school because of being especially boisterous and needing strict discipline. June was not like them at all. June focused his attentions on his studies, and achieved the highest marks ever in his school on all tests. | ||
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The suicide rate of LGBT youth is still high today, due to discrimination. | The suicide rate of LGBT youth is still high today, due to discrimination. | ||
== Career == | ==Career== | ||
In his professional life, June presented as a man. He had a reputation for being an innocent who was startled and uncomfortable when men around him made sexual talk. As a result, most people did not suspect another aspect to his life. He was known for being very studious and hard-working.<ref name="OutHistory 2" /><ref name="Gilded 2">Museum of the City of New York, "Transgender in Gilded New York." ''Hidden Voices.'' Page 2. https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | In his professional life, June presented as a man. He had a reputation for being an innocent who was startled and uncomfortable when men around him made sexual talk. As a result, most people did not suspect another aspect to his life. He was known for being very studious and hard-working.<ref name="OutHistory 2" /><ref name="Gilded 2">Museum of the City of New York, "Transgender in Gilded New York." ''Hidden Voices.'' Page 2. https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | ||
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June was a law clerk for Clark Bell, who was the editor of the publishing company of the Medico-Legal Journal. This is the same company that published June's autobiographies. June likely used this personal contact with Bell in order to get the books into print.<ref name="Gilded 4">Museum of the City of New York, "Transgender in Gilded New York." ''Hidden Voices.'' Page 4. https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | June was a law clerk for Clark Bell, who was the editor of the publishing company of the Medico-Legal Journal. This is the same company that published June's autobiographies. June likely used this personal contact with Bell in order to get the books into print.<ref name="Gilded 4">Museum of the City of New York, "Transgender in Gilded New York." ''Hidden Voices.'' Page 4. https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/learn-at-home-2020/grade-12-learn-at-home-social-studies-compiled.pdf?sfvrsn=812fa9bf_4 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | ||
== Identity and transition == | ==Identity and transition== | ||
During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, people did not yet use words like transgender, transsexual, or gay. June described himself with all of these contemporary words for his gender and sexual variance: | During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, people did not yet use words like transgender, transsexual, or gay. June described himself with all of these contemporary words for his gender and sexual variance: | ||
* [[androgyne]], an ancient word meaning having a combination of masculine and feminine qualities | *[[androgyne]], an ancient word meaning having a combination of masculine and feminine qualities | ||
* [[history of nonbinary gender#1890s|invert]], a new contemporary word from psychiatry and sexology for all kinds of people who we would now call LGBT+ | *[[history of nonbinary gender#1890s|invert]], a new contemporary word from psychiatry and sexology for all kinds of people who we would now call LGBT+ | ||
* [[history of nonbinary gender#1870s|urning]], a new contemporary word meaning someone assigned male at birth who is attracted to men, and this word was created by urnings themselves who advocated for their rights | *[[history of nonbinary gender#1870s|urning]], a new contemporary word meaning someone assigned male at birth who is attracted to men, and this word was created by urnings themselves who advocated for their rights | ||
* bisexual, in the more old-fashioned sense of being somehow both male and female (June said he was never attracted to women at all) | * bisexual, in the more old-fashioned sense of being somehow both male and female (June said he was never attracted to women at all) | ||
* instinctive female impersonator, meaning that it was his nature to want to live as a woman | * instinctive female impersonator, meaning that it was his nature to want to live as a woman | ||
* fairie, a word widely used in the contemporary underworld for people who were assigned male at birth, and who had receptive sex with men<ref name="auto1 xxiv">Jennie June, ''Autobiography of an Androgyne.'' p. xxiv. https://books.google.com/books?id=KXxTbGocCvQC&lpg=PA68&ots=G_-s_fmwR8&dq=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&pg=PR24#v=onepage&q=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&f=false [https://web.archive.org/web/20230603060629/https://books.google.com/books?id=KXxTbGocCvQC&lpg=PA68&ots=G_-s_fmwR8&dq=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&pg=PR24 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | *fairie, a word widely used in the contemporary underworld for people who were assigned male at birth, and who had receptive sex with men<ref name="auto1 xxiv">Jennie June, ''Autobiography of an Androgyne.'' p. xxiv. https://books.google.com/books?id=KXxTbGocCvQC&lpg=PA68&ots=G_-s_fmwR8&dq=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&pg=PR24#v=onepage&q=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&f=false [https://web.archive.org/web/20230603060629/https://books.google.com/books?id=KXxTbGocCvQC&lpg=PA68&ots=G_-s_fmwR8&dq=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&pg=PR24 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | ||
Many of these names reflect the contemporary way of thought, which saw no difference between gender identity (what you are) and sexual orientation (who you want to be with). There was a popular misconception during that era that if a man was attracted to men, then it must be because he was somehow partly a woman, in brain or even body. Some contemporaries recognized this was not true for everyone, arguing that men who liked men could be just as manly.<ref>Edward Carpenter. "The Intermediate Sex." ''Love's Coming-of-Age.'' London: Swan Sonneschen & Co., 1906. Transcribed at Sacred Texts. Accessed July 3, 2020. https://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm [https://web.archive.org/web/20230415224246/https://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> However, for June, it was a suitable description of how he felt. | Many of these names reflect the contemporary way of thought, which saw no difference between gender identity (what you are) and sexual orientation (who you want to be with). There was a popular misconception during that era that if a man was attracted to men, then it must be because he was somehow partly a woman, in brain or even body. Some contemporaries recognized this was not true for everyone, arguing that men who liked men could be just as manly.<ref>Edward Carpenter. "The Intermediate Sex." ''Love's Coming-of-Age.'' London: Swan Sonneschen & Co., 1906. Transcribed at Sacred Texts. Accessed July 3, 2020. https://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm [https://web.archive.org/web/20230415224246/https://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/lca/lca09.htm Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> However, for June, it was a suitable description of how he felt. | ||
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At the age of 28, June fulfilled his lifelong desire to have an [[orchiectomy]], removal of the testicles. June expected this would make him healthier and decrease his extreme and "disturbing" desires for sex, and eliminate some masculine features he disliked, such as facial hair.<ref name="Meyerowitz 2010">Meyerowitz, J. "Thinking Sex With An Androgyne". ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'' 17.1 (2010): 97–105. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> During that era, there was the incorrect but widespread medical belief that night emissions would damage a person's intelligence, and June was fearful of that possibility.<ref name="OutHistory 2" /> Castration was also one of the commonly recommended treatments thought to cure males of inversion.<ref name="Auto1 p68" /> | At the age of 28, June fulfilled his lifelong desire to have an [[orchiectomy]], removal of the testicles. June expected this would make him healthier and decrease his extreme and "disturbing" desires for sex, and eliminate some masculine features he disliked, such as facial hair.<ref name="Meyerowitz 2010">Meyerowitz, J. "Thinking Sex With An Androgyne". ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'' 17.1 (2010): 97–105. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> During that era, there was the incorrect but widespread medical belief that night emissions would damage a person's intelligence, and June was fearful of that possibility.<ref name="OutHistory 2" /> Castration was also one of the commonly recommended treatments thought to cure males of inversion.<ref name="Auto1 p68" /> | ||
== Community and activism == | ==Community and activism== | ||
As a young adult, June found safe havens in places such as Paresis Hall in New York City to express his feminine identity. Paresis Hall, or Columbia Hall, was one of many establishments considered the center of homosexual nightlife where male prostitutes would do as female prostitutes did, soliciting men under an effeminate persona. Places like Paresis Hall provided a place where people like June could gather and feel more free to express themselves and socialize with similar people in a time when cross dressing was socially unacceptable and illegal.<ref>Gross, Tasha. "LGBTQ History: Cooper Square and Bowery". ''LGBTQ History: Cooper Square and Bowery''. N.p., December 4, 2014. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> | As a young adult, June found safe havens in places such as Paresis Hall in New York City to express his feminine identity. Paresis Hall, or Columbia Hall, was one of many establishments considered the center of homosexual nightlife where male prostitutes would do as female prostitutes did, soliciting men under an effeminate persona. Places like Paresis Hall provided a place where people like June could gather and feel more free to express themselves and socialize with similar people in a time when cross dressing was socially unacceptable and illegal.<ref>Gross, Tasha. "LGBTQ History: Cooper Square and Bowery". ''LGBTQ History: Cooper Square and Bowery''. N.p., December 4, 2014. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> | ||
June then formed the Cercle Hermaphroditos in 1895, along with other androgynes who frequented Paresis Hall. The purpose of the organization was to "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution," and to show that being an invert was natural.<ref>Katz, Jonathan Ned. "Transgender Memoir of 1921 Found". ''Humanities and Social Sciences Online''. N.p., 10 October 2010. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> This is one of the earliest known organizations in the US for LGBT rights.<ref name="OutHistory intro">Out History. "Introduction." ''Earl Lind (Raph Werther - Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921.'' October 11, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2020. https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref><ref>Susan Stryker, "Why the T in LGBT is here to stay." ''Salon.'' October 11, 2007. | June then formed the Cercle Hermaphroditos in 1895, along with other androgynes who frequented Paresis Hall. The purpose of the organization was to "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution," and to show that being an invert was natural.<ref>Katz, Jonathan Ned. "Transgender Memoir of 1921 Found". ''Humanities and Social Sciences Online''. N.p., 10 October 2010. Web. Retrieved April 13, 2017.</ref> This is one of the earliest known organizations in the US for LGBT rights.<ref name="OutHistory intro">Out History. "Introduction." ''Earl Lind (Raph Werther - Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921.'' October 11, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2020. https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref><ref>Susan Stryker, "Why the T in LGBT is here to stay." ''Salon.'' October 11, 2007. http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/ [https://web.archive.org/web/20230602230359/https://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/transgender_2/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | ||
== Autobiographies == | ==Autobiographies == | ||
June published his first autobiography, ''The Autobiography of an Androgyne'' in 1918, and his second ''The Female-Impersonators'' in 1922. This makes June one of the earliest instances of someone who is transgender or [[gender variance|gender nonconforming]] in American history to publicize their own story. In June's preface to the book, June explains that he has kept diaries of his life and that his autobiography has been taken from those. | June published his first autobiography, ''The Autobiography of an Androgyne'' in 1918, and his second ''The Female-Impersonators'' in 1922. This makes June one of the earliest instances of someone who is transgender or [[gender variance|gender nonconforming]] in American history to publicize their own story. In June's preface to the book, June explains that he has kept diaries of his life and that his autobiography has been taken from those. | ||
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The memoir describes in detail many personal narratives as well as June's sexual encounters and desires, including the story of his castration, but also contains pleas for understanding and acceptance of "fairies". ''The Autobiography of an Androgyne'' also describes how June felt that he lived a double life in the sense that he was an educated, middle-class white male scholar, but also had intense yearnings for performing sexual acts that distressed him. | The memoir describes in detail many personal narratives as well as June's sexual encounters and desires, including the story of his castration, but also contains pleas for understanding and acceptance of "fairies". ''The Autobiography of an Androgyne'' also describes how June felt that he lived a double life in the sense that he was an educated, middle-class white male scholar, but also had intense yearnings for performing sexual acts that distressed him. | ||
== ''The Riddle of the Underworld'' == | ==''The Riddle of the Underworld''== | ||
In 2010, Dr. Randall Sell, a professor at Drexel University, was intrigued by the first two volumes of the trilogy. Dr. Sell made an almost twenty year search for the long-lost third volume of June's autobiography. He asked every scholar of gay history he could meet, but none knew where to find it. Dr. Sell finally discovered the manuscript in the archives of the National Library of Medicine.<ref name="OutHistory sell">Randall Sell. "Randall Sell: Encountering Earl Lind, Ralph Werther, Jennie June." ''Earl Lind (Raph Werther - Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921.'' Out History. October 11, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2020. https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | In 2010, Dr. Randall Sell, a professor at Drexel University, was intrigued by the first two volumes of the trilogy. Dr. Sell made an almost twenty year search for the long-lost third volume of June's autobiography. He asked every scholar of gay history he could meet, but none knew where to find it. Dr. Sell finally discovered the manuscript in the archives of the National Library of Medicine.<ref name="OutHistory sell">Randall Sell. "Randall Sell: Encountering Earl Lind, Ralph Werther, Jennie June." ''Earl Lind (Raph Werther - Jennie June): The Riddle of the Underworld, 1921.'' Out History. October 11, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2020. https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro [https://web.archive.org/web/20230621082140/https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/intro/intro Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | ||
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==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* The [[Public Universal Friend]], an 18th century genderless person also from a religious family in New England | *The [[Public Universal Friend]], an 18th century genderless person also from a religious family in New England | ||
* [[History of nonbinary gender]] | *[[History of nonbinary gender]] | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{reflist}} | {{reflist}} | ||
== External links == | ==External links == | ||
*{{wikisource author-inline|Earl Lind|Jennie June}} | *{{wikisource author-inline|Earl Lind|Jennie June}} | ||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190326230323/http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind Out History's Information and Transcription of ''The Riddle of the Underworld''] | *[https://web.archive.org/web/20190326230323/http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind Out History's Information and Transcription of ''The Riddle of the Underworld''] | ||