The Cercle Hermaphroditos was the first known informal

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 ...

advocacy organisation in the United States, founded in 1895 in New York City "to unite for defense against the world’s bitter persecution". The group met at

Paresis Hall Columbia Hall, commonly known as Paresis Hall, was a brothel and gay bar in New York City in the 1890s. Located on the Bowery near Cooper Union, the Hall was managed by James T. Ellison, and took its common nickname from a general term for syphil ...

, also called Columbia Hall or simply "the Hall," which was a center of homosexual nightlife in New York City. There, male sex workers would solicit men under an effeminate persona. In a time when

cross dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

was socially unacceptable and a punishable crime, places like Paresis Hall provided a place where self-described "instinctive female-impersonators,"

androgynes Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics i ...

queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...

, or

Uranians The Uranians were a 19th-century clandestine group of up to several dozen male homosexual poets and prose writers who principally wrote on the subject of the love of (or by) adolescent boys. In a strict definition they were an English literary an ...

could gather and feel more free to express themselves and socialize with similar people. These were

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

and

Edwardian era The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

words-- with their own nuances of meaning-- for people who were born male, felt they were at least partly women in mind or spirit, and preferred having sex with men; people who today might call themselves transgender women, nonbinary people, or feminine gay men, in the jargon of today's LGBT communities.Jennie June, ''Autobiography of an Androgyne.'' p. xxiv. https://books.google.com/books?id=KXxTbGocCvQC&lpg=PA68&ots=G_-s_fmwR8&dq=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&pg=PR24#v=onepage&q=%22Robert%20S.%20Newton%22%20alienist&f=false''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 61. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=falseKarl Heinrich Ulrichs, "Critical arrow." 1879. Excerpt reprinted in: ''We are everywhere: A historical sourcebook of gay and lesbian politics.'' P. 64-65. https://books.google.com/books?id=rDG3xdtDutkC&lpg=PA64&dq=urning&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=urning&f=false The nature of Paresis Hall during this period is known to historians today from a variety of sources. However, the Cercle Hermaphroditos is more apocryphal, known chiefly from the autiobiography of an "instinctive female-impersonator," Jennie June, who provides the main surviving description of it. June says all the group's members knew one another only by

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

s, for reasons of safety.Jonathan Ned Katz. "Earl Lind: The Cercle Hermaphroditos, c. 1895" ''OutHistory.'' Retrieved April 21, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210421022723/http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/earl-lind/related/cercle-hermaphroditos The group was led by pseudonymous

Roland Reeves Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

. Little evidence of the Cercle's existence is known to survive today, outside of June's autobiography. If it issued any pamphlets, none are yet known to historians. For this reason, some historians have raised questions about whether the Cercle existed at all. The Cercle is noted by transgender historian

Susan Stryker Susan O'Neal Stryker (born 1961) is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Stu ...

as "the first known informal organization in the United States to concern itself with what we might now call transgender social justice issues".

References

Bibliography

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External links

Cercle Hermaphroditos, ''circa'' 1895
Transgender organizations in the United States 1895 establishments in New York City Transgender history in the United States Organizations established in 1895 19th century in LGBT history Defunct LGBT organizations based in New York City {{LGBT-org-stub