Harry Allen (trans man)


Harry Allen or Harry Livingston was an American transgender man from the Pacific Northwest who was the subject of ongoing sensationalist local and national newspaper coverage from 1900 until his death in 1922. The newspapers covered his petty crimes associated with life on the margins of society such as prostitution and alcohol offenses.
Allen was born in Washington to Robert P. Pickerell and Jennie Gordon.
He received disproportionate attention in reaction to his unapologetic rejection to social demands that he dress and behave according to female norms. These titillating and exploitative stories — "great police blotter copy" — consistently referred to him with feminine pronouns and used his birth name, Nell Pickerell, even while also reporting that Allen did take offense at this, and was outspoken in his insistence that he not be, in modern terms, misgendered. His name had been Harry Livingston from around 1900 until 1911, and then Harry Allen after.
Allen died of syphilitic meningitis in 1922, at the age of 40.

Newspaper articles

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