Trans Positive Law Was Being Made Before Stonewall

Since it's TBLG Pride Month and we're celebrating the rights movement Sylvia Rivera and other transwomen helped kick off with the 1969 Stonewall Riots, one of the things we trans peeps get sick of hearing is the lie that our movement is 'too new' or we're 'piggybacking' on the civil rights gains of the GL community.

Au contraire, mes amis.    More like that is the other way around.

One area that's the case is in law.   Positive trans legislation started appearing in the nation's law books over a decade before Stonewall

It commenced in the mid 50's with the first trans friendly birth certificate statute in the state of Illinois.   Louisiana's birth certificate laws were passed in the late 60's with a Republican house, senate and Governor.

The California Supreme Court in 1962 struck down the state anti-crossdressing law that was used to harass not only transwomen, but gays and lesbians as well.

And that's before we even hop across The Pond to France and point out that after Jacqueline-Charlotte Dufresnoy (AKA Coccinelle) had SRS in 1958, France modified its laws to allow details on birth certificates to be amended following genital surgery.      


In addition, when Coccinelle married her first husband Francis Bonnet in 1960 (and later divorced him) it not only was the first transsexual union to be officially acknowledged by the nation of France, it also established a trans person's legal right to marry in that country.

And note to you conservafool Catholics out there, Coccinelle was a lifelong Catholic who booked Notre Dame Cathedral to have that legal trans marriage.  

So yeah, we transpeeps were doing thangs legally before we kicked butt and took names at Stonewall, adn still are.