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Where were you in the 1970s?

Were you in college? Maybe high school? Perhaps you were still in elementary school, or a toddler or, quite possibly, not even born yet.

For me, the 1970s was the best of times, and the worst of times. It was the decade when I grew to legal adulthood, got married, had a child, and quickly divorced. All the while, silently, privately, dealing with the knowledge that the REAL me was not the person everyone else saw on the outside.

Although many reading this can commiserate with my situation, due to a generational gap between them and me, they don't fully understand the societal differences between our experiences.

That is why this article attached resonates so strongly for me.

It is a newspaper clipping from the BUFFALO NEWS of August 20, 1978. Ancient history for some; almost yesterday for my cluttered memory bank.

It is an article about a trans woman pseudonymously named "Monica" for this piece. Described as "a 30 year-old skilled tradesman" from the Buffalo, New York suburb of Cheektowaga.

"If people persist in applying a masculine name and the masculine pronoun to her, Monica says, they will only make it harder for her to successfully live a whole year as a woman--which is required by her psychiatrist before she undergoes surgery."

At the time the article was written, Monica had been taking female hormones "off and on for the past five years." A treatment which the author of the story notes with some surprise:

"If she were introduced to you as Monica Nelson, you'd probably accept her as a woman in spite of her male-like features, which are not very uncommon in women. Only her voice might cause you to think twice."

Are you cringing yet? If not, read on.

Monica is quoted as asking, "What is a woman?" A query which in recent years has even been put to a prospective Supreme Court justice by a Untied States senator.

The article's author is unequivocal in his definition.

"To most people, a person is a woman if she has a female body and organs--whether by birth or medical procedures. But now the issue is complicated by the chromosome test, which can detect a transsexual but has been know to come up with the 'wrong' answer, too, says Monica."

Monica was right, despite the skepticism of the reporter. Although the medical "science" of the time thought there might be a difference in between chromosomal makeup of a transgender and cis persons, subsequently it was found out not to be true. Chromosome testing is only helpful in determining if someone is intersex, a fairly rare condition for people who "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".

Curiously, a Monica's undisclosed religious preference seems to have a relatively progressive view of gender affirming surgery.

"Her religion defines her planned transformation as merely a medical matter." A stand in stark contrast with the current position of religions such as the Catholic Church, which recently listed gender affirming surgery among its "Grave violations of human dignity."

The reporter asks Monica if anything "could change her mind" about having her upcoming surgery.

"'As far as I know, nothing, [Monica] says smiling. 'But I'm seeing a psychiatrist. If somebody could thoroughly convince me psychologically I was dong the wrong thing, I'd seriously reconsider it'"

At this point, Monica schools the interviewer, who apparently thought gender affirming care was optional instead of necessary.

"People should do their homework about transsexuals. We don't have a real choice. It's an overriding compulsion since childhood."

When giving biographical information about Monica's life, the author repeated a popular misconception, "So far, no one has been able to pin-point a definite traumatic childhood experience that might have aggravated a predisposition to transsexualism." Coming at the subject as if traumatic stress was the CAUSE of someone being transgender rather than a RESULT. As noted in a 2023 article in a child psychiatry journal: "Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth often experience acute and chronic traumatic stressors related to identity-based marginalization and discrimination."

One of the most glaring accepted misconceptions of the era can be found in the position taken by Monica's insurance carrier which was partially paying for her upcoming surgery.

"...we have paid for several such operations. We consider it a mental disorder which can only be resolved only by surgery."

This view has long been debunked in numerous studies by researchers and seems almost medieval in comparison to modern understanding.

If there is any doubt as to concurrent oppression of the period, it becomes explicitly apparent in the description of Monica's sad reality.

"[Monica] hopes to be protected from difficulties with the law by carrying a letter from her local psychiatrist granting her permission to wear women's clothing on grounds that she suffers a neuro-endocrinological condition known as transsexualism and is preparing for transgender operation."

"[Monica's] closest friends and her medical and religious advisers have agreed that it's a medical problem, she says, but many other people have reacted with alarm and treated her like a pervert."

Yet, in some ways, Monica herself bought into the prejudices of the era reflected by her own startling words.

"Monica can't stand homosexuals. 'They're counterproductive to the well-being of society,' she says."

"'But I feel in a way that what I'm doing is counterproductive to society. Yet they've tried everything to help people like me. Shock treatments. Behavior modification. All it does is make us more paranoid about doing what our feelings urge us to do'"

The article finishes with a possible explanation for Monica's views and for the views of American society as a whole.

"[Monica's] religious views have their roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition. She once studied the scriptures as a part-time student at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, but she finds no direct answer in her plight in the Bible."

This article and the era of the 1970s may seem like ancient history to you, but it remains fresh in my mind and those of my generation. I read this and it all seems far too painfully familiar.

There is no doubt that the transgender community continues to be marginalized, singled out for persecution and even legally excluded. But despite that reality, some progress has been made, if only incrementally. And far, far too slowly.

--- Anni