LILI Elbe née Einar Wegener was intersex. Lili Elbe née Einar Wegener was not transsexual.
The word ‘transsexual’ was not commonly used in Lili Elbe’s era. The word ‘intersex’ certainly was – it was created in 1901 and was current from then onwards. Please respect the facts. And please stop insulting Lili Elbe’s memory by using the male pronoun. She was a woman. Use the female pronoun. Her name was Lili Elbe.
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Editorial comment by Gina Wilson:
THE true history of Lili Elbe is the story of a remarkable person who was a pioneer and an accidental activist, much as Herculine Barbin was.
Their struggles, the sensationalism and the discrimination they endured should inform every one of us today how the popular belief in the mythical sex binary punishes those who do not neatly fit either sex.
The recent reporting on the lives of Indian athlete Santhi Soundararajan and Mokgadi Caster Semenya illustrates this.
One hundred years and more of reporting on intersex and the media still sensationalizes, humiliates and vilifies intersex people.
