TransTrans - Transnational Trans* Histories is an exhibition exploring transnational networks of trans people who shaped early gender-diverse histories between the 1900s and the 1960s, showing in the Victorian Pride Gallery from 20 September– 3 November 2024 (https://pridecentre.org.au/pride-gallery/transtrans-transnational-trans-histories/).

The exhibition delves into the interactions among German, North American, and Australian trans communities, as well as their collaborations with scientific researchers around questions of gender diversity. The communities in focus include the LGBTIQ+ subcultures of Weimar Germany, US-based trans* activists such as Carla Erskine who established intimate trans support networks in the 1950s or entertainer singer and actress Christine Jorgensen as well as their Australian counterparts such as Peter Alexander and Lady Paula Howard. The researchers in question, while based globally, were often of German- or Austrian-Jewish background, including Magnus Hirschfeld from the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, Harry Benjamin in the US and Herbert Bower in Melbourne.

This exhibition has been previously shown in Calgary, Berlin and Munich. It was originally conceived by Alex Bakker, Rainer Herrn, Michael Thomas Taylor, and Annette F. Timm and has been adapted for Australian audiences by Birgit Lang and Katie Sutton and the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) and in consultation and conversation with trans community groups including Transgender Victoria and Seahorse Victoria.

Please join us for a curator's talk by Birgit Lang.

picture: Costume party at Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sex Research © Magnus Hirschfeld Society, Berlin.