MA GNUS HI RSCHFELD WA S, WITHOUTQUESTION, a key player in the development of taxonomies of sexual identities. Most significantly, he is credited with naming two categories that continue to this day: transvestite and transsexual. 1 His work on transvestites, Die Transvestiten (The Transvestites), published in 1910, includes first-person narratives of crossdressers, Hirschfeld’s commentaries on these case histories, and theoretical generalizations based on his analysis. Although the primary data for these cases was destroyed by Nazis in 1933, the book remains, rich with detail, offering crucial aspects of his respondents’ experiences. Yet even a cursory examination of these lives shows how our current understanding of “transvestite”(often narrowly considered as someone who crossdresses for sexual excitement) is different from Hirschfeld’s. Moreover, Hirschfeld often ignored or simply failed to understand what his participants were telling him. Even when his informants were clear about an issue, he discounted crucial aspects of their stories. These aporias and sleights of hand with his case studies reveal crucial disagreements and tensions between Hirschfeld and his subjects. Focusing on these contentious matters, while privileging the accounts offered by his respondents, leads to a more complicated picture of sexuality and gender in late-nineteenth-century Germany.