In 1883, Frank Dubois was known in rural Wisconsin as a hard-working man, married to a young woman named Gertrude Fuller. What drew national attention to his seemingly unremarkable life was that he was revealed to be anatomically female. In the new book True Sex, The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the 20th Century, author Emily Skidmore uncovers the stories of eighteen trans men who lived in the United States between 1876 and 1936. Despite their “unexceptional” quality, the stories about their lives are surprising and moving, challenging much of what we think we know about queer history. Emily Skidmore is a professor of history at Texas Tech University. Mindy Todd hosts this interview on The Point.
