Christopher "Christoph" Lee (September 4, 1964 – December 22, 2012) was an American

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

activist, and award-winning filmmaker in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

community. He was also the co-founder of Tranny Fest, now called the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF). In 2002 he was the first openly

trans man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

Grand Marshal of San Francisco Pride. Lee's death and the designation of his assigned gender at birth on his death certificate rather than his self-identified gender was the impetus behind the "Respect After Death Act", AB 1577, which was passed in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on September 26, 2014.

Personal life

Christopher Lee was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, California. An obituary describes him as "a powerful and fierce

two-spirit Two-spirit (also two spirit, 2S or, occasionally, twospirited) is a modern, , umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) ...

being" and "an integral part of the recovery community".

Activism

In 1997, Lee collaborated with Al Austin and Elise Hurwitz to establish Tranny Fest (later renamed the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival), the first transgender film and arts festival in the world.

Death and memorial

Christopher Lee died by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

on December 22, 2012, after suffering from depression and mental illness. Community healing ceremonies, tribute film festivals, and

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

archives were dedicated to his memory. As Lee had not updated the gender on his birth certificate, the coroner labeled Lee as "female" on his death certificate, sparking legal controversy and debate. Lee's family presented documentation indicating that Lee self-identified as a "Female to Male transgender man". With the support of the

Transgender Law Center The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. They were originally California's first "fully staffed, state-wide transgender legal organization" and were initially a fisca ...

and Chino Scott-Chung, the "Respect After Death Act", AB 1577, was introduced to California Assemblywoman

Toni Atkins Toni Gayle Atkins (born August 1, 1962) is an American politician serving as the 51st and current President pro tempore of the California State Senate since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 69th Speaker of the ...

. The bill's mission was to help fill out death certificates for transgender people. AB 1577 was passed by California Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...

on September 26, 2014.

Honors and awards

Lee was the first female-to-male transgender Grand Marshal of San Francisco Pride (2002). In June 2019, Lee was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the

National LGBTQ Wall of Honor The National LGBTQ Wall of Honor is an American memorial wall in New York City dedicated to LGBTQ "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes." The wall is located inside of the Stonewall Inn and is a part of the Stonewall National Monument, the first U. ...

within the

Stonewall National Monument Stonewall National Monument is a U.S. national monument in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The designated area includes the Stonewall Inn, the Christopher Park, and nearby streets including ...

(SNM) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the s ...

. The SNM is the first

U.S. national monument In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...

dedicated to

LGBTQ rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishment for homosexualit ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

Filmography

* ''Christopher's Chronicles'' (1996) * ''Trappings of Transhood'' (1997) * ''Alley of the TrannyBoys'' (1998) * ''Sex Flesh in Blood'' (1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Christopher LGBT people from California 1964 births 2012 suicides 2012 deaths American transgender people Transgender rights activists Transgender men Suicides in California 21st-century American LGBT people Two-spirit people Transgender history in the United States