Autobiography of an Androgyne

Earl Lind's 1918 autobiography has been recognized as a pioneering work in the history of transgender literature. Throughout his life, Lind was forced to justify and defend his existence from puritanical authorities. In the first of his trilogy of autobiographical works, he not only demands recognition, but exposes the denial of his existence as nothing but hatred and fear. "Androgynes have of course existed in all ages of history and among all races. In Greek and Latin authors there are many references to them, but these references are not always understood except by the few scholars who are themselves androgynes or at least passive sexual inverts. [...] [T]hese men-women, because misunderstood, have been held in great abomination both in the middle ages and in modern times, but the prejudice against them was not so extreme in antiquity, and a cultured citizen having this nature did not then lose caste on this account." Situating his own identity within this history of oppression, Li