Transgender Pioneers

August 1966. Trans trailblazers rise up against police harassment at their San Francisco safe haven: Compton's Cafeteria. Helping to shed light on this pre-Stonewall milestone are the stories of three pioneers who shattered social norms and boldly lived as they chose: Prohibition-era entrepreneur Lucy Hicks Anderson, one of the first documented Black trans people in the U.S.; Jack Starr, a turn-of-the-century enigma who made headlines for gender nonconformity; and Christine Jorgensen, the 1950s global phenomenon famous for using her celebrity to educate and entertain.