Finding Aid to the Harry Benjamin Licenses and Awards, 1915-1975

Licenses to practice medicine and awards from medical groups for Dr. Harry Benjamin, 1915-1975. Benjamin was a clinical specialist in transexualism and an advocate for transgender people.

Dr. Harry Benjamin was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1885. He moved to New York in the 1920s and started a practice focusing on endocrinology and gender identity. Up to the 1960s, he was the go-to person for transgender people seeking medical treatment in the United States. Dr. Benjamin assisted Christine Jorgensen, Reed Erickson, Renée Richards, and numerous others to medically alter their physiology. He also provided them and other transgender people with social and legal support. In the 1960s, Benjamin helped establish the Harry Benjamin Foundation to assist transgender people in obtaining surgery. Benjamin retired in the 1970s and the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) was named in his honor.

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Item Information:

Identifier: rf55z7713
Collection: Discovery Resources
Institution: ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
Creator(s): ONE Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Date Created: 2014
Dates Covered: 1915 to 1975
Genre: Finding Aids
Subject(s): Harry Benjamin
Topic(s): Awards
Physicians--Licenses
Sexology
Resource Type: Text
Language: English
Related URL: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c80c4zxh/
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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