INFLUENCIAL PEOPLE
Lili Elbe
Lili Elbe was a Danish painter and transgender woman
who was one of the earliest recipients of sex reassignment
surgery. Born in 1882, she was a successful painter under
her birth name, Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener. Before
her surgery she moved to Paris, with her wife, where
Elbe was able to live openly as a woman, attending balls
and social events while pretending she was Einar's sister.
After transitioning in 1930, she changed her legal name
to Lili Ilse Elvenes and stopped painting; later adopting
the surname Elbe. Elbe died from complications following
her procedure on September 13th 1931, with her semiautobiographical story being published posthumously
in 1933 under the title Man into Woman: An Authentic
Record of a Change of Sex. While she never experienced
the full transformation she was looking for, the time she
did spend as a woman were reportedly the best of her life.
"His ultimate hope
was to die in order
that Lili might awaken
to a new life."
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