History is full of trans people — it has just rarely been willing to name them. For as long as humans have existed, there have been people who lived outside the gender assigned to them at birth, who wore different clothes, took different names, and loved in ways that defied the categories of their time.
In ancient Sumer, more than 4,000 years ago, texts describe a "third gender" of priests called gala, who held sacred roles in temple worship. In the Roman Empire, the priests of Cybele, called Galli, lived as women and were respected religious figures. These are not modern readings projected backward — they are documented historical realities.
In 18th-century Europe, Chevalier d'Éon was a French diplomat, spy, and soldier who lived the second half of their life as a woman. Celebrated across England and France, d'Éon became a cultural phenomenon, the subject of widespread fascination and considerable respect. Their story challenges the assumption that trans visibility is a purely modern phenomenon.
In the United States, We'wha was a lhamana — a two-spirit Zuni person who served as a cultural ambassador to Washington, DC, in 1886, meeting President Grover Cleveland. Two-spirit traditions exist across hundreds of Indigenous cultures throughout the Americas, recognising gender diversity as a gift rather than a deviation.
In the 20th century, trans women were at the forefront of the Stonewall uprising in 1969. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera — both trans women of colour — were among the first to resist police raids at the Stonewall Inn. Their activism laid the groundwork for the entire modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, yet their contributions were routinely erased from the mainstream narrative for decades.
Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of gender-affirming surgery in the 1930s, lived her truth in an era of enormous medical and social risk. Her story, like so many trans histories, is one of courage that exceeds what most of us will ever be called upon to demonstrate.
Knowing this history matters. It tells trans people that they are not new, not a trend, not a product of social contagion. They are part of a long and extraordinary human lineage. Their ancestors lived, loved, and changed the world. And so will they.