Lili Elbe

#LiliElbe (December 28, 1882 – September 13, 1931): Known to modern audiences from the book and subsequent film “The Danish Girl,” Elbe was a Danish painter who was one of the earliest recipients of gender-affirming surgery. Though always knowing her truth, she lived in the shadows in terms of her Trans identity, but married Gerda Gottlieb and then moved to Paris, where she could assume a new identity as Gottlieb’s sister-in-law. Gottlieb was a painter in her own right, and there are paintings of Elbe as a feminine model. In 1930, Elbe decided to begin transitioning and sought the assistance of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Germany. Evidence of her multiple surgeries no longer exists as the Institute was sacked by Nazis and the building was bombed by the Allies during World War II. Elbe’s transition became national news in her native Denmark, where her marriage was also annulled. Soon thereafter, Elbe began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune. Elbe wished to marry Lejeune and look into options to have children with him, and underwent a vaginoplasty surgery (making her one of the earliest Trans women to undergo the procedure). Unfortunately, her immune system rejected the transplanted uterus, leading to an infection, and eventual cardiac arrest. Elbe died just shy of her 49th birthday. #LGBTQIA #TransLivesMatter #PrideMonth #YouCannotEraseUs