User:Stutzman702/Transvestite pass

The Personal Lives of People With the Pass
It is unknown how many people used Magnus Hirschfield's transvestite pass. Of the documented cases most of them were given to white middle class transgender women. In the media, it only described a bourgeois transgender experience rather than the multitude of transgender communities at the time in Germany. This influenced the process as Transgender patients were told to follow more middle class values such as not dressing too extravagantly or feminine, and not interacting with those who were outside the heterosexual norms. They were expected to follow these guidelines because police were told to only arrest if they thought they were committing “gross mischief” or prostitution. Many people who had passed had to distance themselves from the LGBTQ+ German community due to prejudice from both others in the transgender community and the homophobia of that time. While homosexuality and cross-dressing was not allowed, being transgender had no official legal consequences. For the transvestite passes, there are not many reported cases where someone was female to male. One of the transgender men, Katharina T, passed the first examination to be approved for the pass but was eventually denied to change their name legally. It was more uncommon for transgender men to be given passes due to German society in the interwar period associating them with the queer community. Transgender women were given passes but also faced difficulties with changing their name. Not much is known about the personal lives of these people who had the pass, but there were famous transgender people such as Lili Elbe who were able to successfully get the pass and were able to change their name legally.