Phoebe Smith
| Phoebe Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 11, 1939 Irwin County, Georgia |
| 🏫 Education | Roosevelt High School, Atlanta, Georgia |
| 💼 Occupation | Statistical Analyst |
| 👔 Employer | Georgia Department of Family and Children's Services (Retired) |
| Known for | Transgender activist.Editor and Publisher of Transsexual Voice Magazine (1981-1995) and two autobiographies. |
Phoebe Smith (born October 11, 1939, near Tifton, Georgia) is an author, editor, transgender activist, and retired statistical analyst for Georgia's Department of Family and Children's Services.
Education[edit]
Roosevelt High School, Atlanta, GA, 1954–1956. Massey Business School, Atlanta, GA, 1957.
Activism[edit]
Smith's activism on behalf of herself and others has spanned seven decades. After being contacted by Assistant Director Zelda Supplee, Smith responded to all mail requests for information and support sent to the Erickson Educational Foundation, the first nonprofit established to provide information about transsexualism (1970-1972).[1] She began speaking publicly about transsexualism at a time when few others dared to do so.[2] Because of her public visibility at a time when transsexuals lived in stealth, Smith was the subject of a number of articles in the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution newspapers. [3][4][5][6] In 1979 she published Phoebe, an autobiography.[7] From 1981 through 1995 she edited and published The Transsexual Voice, the first periodical for and about transsexuals. The monthly magazine was a lifeline and critical source of information for transsexuals in an era when information was scarce and often inaccurate and was a huge help to thousands who otherwise had no information or support. For a decade and a half she answered correspondence, providing advice and referrals to often desperate people, and filled the magazine with news and useful information. A number of issues are preserved in digital format at the Digital Transgender Archive. In 2014, she published a second autobiography, Phoebe: From Sharecropper's Son to Who's Who in American Women. In 1988 she was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Metamorphosis Medical Research Foundation, and in 1989 she was presented with the Christine Jorgensen Award by the XX Club of New England. The following year, Canadian trans activist Rupert Raj wrote in the pages of the trans newsletter XX Minutes, "PHOEBE SMITH is a household word to countless members of the transgender community--an oasis of information and peer-support in the arid desert of gender conflict and sex reassignment."[8] Without her work, transsexual people in the United States would have had no coherent way to correspond or gain information.
Smith is finally gaining recognition for her decades of work as an activist. She was recently honored by the GLBT Historical Society of California and filmmaker Philip Lewis has interviewed her on camera.
Personal[edit]
Smith had feminine interests and was called sissy by classmates in the lower grades and queer by her fellow high school students. In 1954 a neighbor gave her a magazine that included an article about what was then called sex change surgery. Determined to have the operation, Smith quit school in the 11th grade. Unable to find professional help, she worked a succession of jobs and wrote hundreds of letters to doctors and local, state, and national officials, pleading for help, and getting none. Several of the professionals she consulted were sexually inappropriate with her; Joanne Meyerowitz describes this in her book How Sex Changed.[9] In early 1969 Smith's parents sent her a cashier's check which provided her with the funds to have sex reassignment surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. Her surgeon was Jesus Barbosa.[10][11] After consultations with gynecologist Leo Wollman and endocrinologist Harry Benjamin, she returned to Tijuana in January, 1970 for a second operation. She was then employed by the State of Georgia and worked in various professional capacities until she reached retirement age. She published her autobiography in 1979 and launched The Transsexual Voice in 1981.
Smith continues to speak out on transgender issues.
References[edit]
- ↑ Supplee, Zelda (Spring 1970). "Mail response to Look article". Erickson Educational Foundation Newsletter. 3: 1.
- ↑ Supplee, Zelda (Spring 1970). "West Georgia College Learns". Erickson Educational Foundation Newsletter. 3: 3.
- ↑ Hebert, Dick (December 20, 1965). "Long-ill Tim gets new hope to solve endocrine malady". Atlanta Constitution.
- ↑ Sinclair, Molly (September 29, 1969). "She found her own true self". Atlanta Constitution.
- ↑ Hudspeth, Ron (December 14, 1979). "MARTA bus driver deserves salute for help to elderly". Atlanta Journal.
- ↑ Wallburn, Lee (July 3, 1983). "Change is good for the soul". Atlanta Weekly.
- ↑ "The bookworm: Phoebe, by Phoebe Smith". The Gateway: 7–8. April 1980.
- ↑ Raj, Rupert (August 1898). "Tribute to: Phoebe Smith". XX Minutes: 3.
- ↑ Meyerowitz, Joanne (2004). How sex changed: A history of transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0674009258. Search this book on
- ↑ Zagria (November 22, 2017). "Phoebe Smith (1939--) Part I: Retail worker". A Gender Variance Who's Who. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
- ↑ Zagria (November 23, 2017). "Phoebe Smith (1939--) Part II: State worker, activist". A Gender Variance Who's Who. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
Other Links[edit]
Digital Transgender Archive. https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=The+Transsexual+Voice&f%5Bcreator_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Smith%2C+Phoebe. Accessed 29 December, 2022.
Lewis, Philip. Phoebe CC. Film in progress.
Smith, Phoebe. (1979). Phoebe. Atlanta, GA: Phoebe Smith.
Smith, Phoebe. (2014). From sharecropper's son to Who's Who in American Women. Atlanta GA: Phoebe Smith.
The Transsexual Voice. Monthly magazine published from 1981 to 1995 by Phoebe Smith, Atlanta Georgia.
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