historyisntboring:

bemusedlybespectacled:

elierlick:

Rare photos from trans history: Olympic runner and Zdeněk Koubek styles Cinda Glenn’s hair, 1936. Koubek was one of the first trans men to gain international fame after he transitioned in 1935.

this is inspiring weirdly complex emotions in me. like, it’s the fucking 1930s. I can hear the mid-atlantic newsreel voice. the fact that it plays coy with why he knows so much about women’s hairstyles, but like, as a funny surprise, not as shock and horror. the fact that it never deadnames him or uses incorrect pronouns. the fact that he looks like Mickey Rooney. idk it’s just making me feel feelings.

This post sent me down a rabbit hole about trans and intersex people in sports in the thirties (more common than you’d think, surprisingly!). I’m happy to report that Zdeněk Koubek (1913 – 1986) set two world-records at the time he was competing (800 m at 2:16.4, and medley relay at 3:14.4, both set in 1934), and spent his later years living with his wife in Prague, where he died aged 72.