% History

Contrary to what some may believe, transgender people have existed
throughout human history. We are a very underrepresented group of
people, and we've mostly been ignored throughout history.

However, transgender people have been documented in one form or another,
in most human cultures throughout history.

General history
===============

WikiPedia has a page briefly documenting transgender history in various
countries on earth: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history>

This article is specifically about transgender history (the other
article is about LGBT in general):
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_history>

Iraq (previously named Mesopotamia)
===================================

Wikipedia has a good article documenting transgender history in Iraq:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history_in_Iraq>

Iraq is and has always been a horrible place to live for transgender
people, and LGBT people generally. There are reports that their
government sends death squads to kill transgender people.

Iran
====

Wikipedia has a good article about Iran:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexuality_in_Iran> (warning: the
article uses the outdated term *transsexual*)

Iran has historically been very bad for transgender people, but they
perform more surgeries than most other countries (they are 2nd only to
Thailand) and allows people to transition.

However, transgender people are *forced* to have surgery and Iran does
not recognise non-binary people at all. Iran has homophobic laws which
means that gay/lesbian/bisexual people are regularly imprisoned, beaten
or killed. Iran's government only considers heterosexual transgender
people; being gay in Iran is still illegal.

Their culture is, and has historically been, very hostile towards
transgender people.

Third Reich (Nazi Germany)
==========================

Transgender people were treated horribly under the Nazi government in
Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. This article touches on that:
<https://veryfemmeandantifascist.tumblr.com/post/103245249690/treatment-of-trans-people-during-the-holocaust>

Just before the 1930s, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (in Germany) was working on
experimental research into surgeries for transgender people, and ran one
of the worlds first clinics for helping transgender people to overcome
gender dysphoria. They even prescribed hormones.

After the Nazis took power in the 1930s, his offices were raided and
destroyed. Transgender people, along with the rest of the LGBT
community, were tortured, killed and imprisoned by the Nazis.

We're seeing the beginnings of the same events in modern times. With
the election of Donald Trump in the United States, transgender people
are at risk of going through the same treatment. The philosophy and
policies advocated by Trump are extremely nationalist, fascist and he
has used similar rhetoric to Adolf Hitler during his election campaign
in 2016; he described Muslims and Mexicans as criminals, and since
becoming president he has begun implementing policies that discriminate
against such groups - and the LGBT community - already. His vice
president believes in conversion therapy, and several of his cabinet
members are from neo-nazi media organisations.

The same thing could happen in France (under Marine le Pen) and
Netherlands (under Geert Wilders). Wilders' politics have always been
extremely rightwing, and based on racism (his popularity surged on a
platform of racism and he has extremely nationalist policies; his party
in the Netherlands is currently leading in Dutch opinion polls, in the
run up to the 2017 elections. Marine le Pen's National Front has shared
platforms with neo-nazi parties in the past, and also advocates policies
very similar to those of the nazis.

Of course, everyone calls them the alt-right these days. We at transit
still call them Nazis. Fascism has always been hostile towards LGBT, and
transgender people in particular. The fight against fascism is still
very much alive today.

