identified as transsexual in the 1960s and 1970s, until his retirement in 1976. Among the
over 800 letters from transsexuals written to Benjamin, 21 were from youth seeking his
medical assistance. These letters, written from 1963–1976, provide a rare window into the
lives and subjectivities of transsexual youth before the modern transgender movement took
shape. Often taking the form of short autobiographies, these pioneers wrote about the …