Denise A. Norris is an American

transgender activist The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health ...

who co-founded the transgender rights activist organisation,

The Transexual Menace The Transexual Menace, or The Menace, was a transgender rights activist organization founded in New York City in 1993. It was the first direct action group of its kind, and grew to be a national organisation with 24 chapters. History and activiti ...

with

Riki Wilchins Riki Anne Wilchins (born 1952) is an American activist whose work has focused on the impact of gender norms. Background Wilchins founded the first national transgender advocacy group (GenderPAC). Their analysis and work broadened over time t ...

in 1993. In 2012, she received the Stonewall Spirit of Pride Award from the

Stonewall National Museum and Archives Stonewall National Museum and Archives (SNMA, officially Stonewall Library & Archives Inc.) is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization in Fort Lauderdale, Florida that promotes understanding through preserving, interpreting and sharing the ...

for her contributions to the transgender community. In 2014, she created the Institute for Transgender Economic Advancement.

Biography

Denise Norris was born around 1962. From the age of about 5, she had inexplicable feelings while playing with her mother's makeup. She started cross-dressing at the age of 15 and sneaked out of the house late at night in the clothes of the opposite sex. She was arrested for "impersonating a female", she was quickly released and the charges were dropped. In 1980, Denise Norris enrolled as a freshman at the

University of Albany A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

from Garden City, Long Island. In 1981, according to Norris, there were no psychological services or support for LGBT students. She describes that time as “bleak.” Mislabeled as a "science geek", her gender confusion caused her to fail in her studies. As a sophomore, she left school after the fall semester. She transferred to

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

on Long Island, but that didn't help. She dropped out again and did not complete her bachelor's degree. In 1989, Norris began hormone therapy and lived full-time as a woman. In 1992, she underwent

gender-affirming surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

at Montefiore Medical Center in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. She was hired as an IT director at a nonprofit company in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. She became a transgender advocate and legally changed her name and gender. In 2009, she was hired by Accenture and works from home in the Catskill Mountains.

Personal life

Denise Norris got married and had a daughter, Courtney. The marriage ended in divorce.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Denise Adelphi University people American civil rights activists American transgender women Year of birth missing (living people) University at Albany, SUNY alumni Transgender rights activists Living people