A core premise of the trans movement is that trans identities are real, earnest, and natural. Anti-trans argumentation often frames the trans movement of the last 20 years as a fad. The modern concept of transgender identity (previously “transsexuality”) has only existed in the English-speaking world since roughly the 1950s. Likewise, terms such as “non-binary” and “genderqueer” began to emerge in the 1990s. However, Americans have been socially transitioning since the early colonial period.

Although they did not identify as “trans,” some historical Americans are retrospectively considered trans and/or nonbinary by modern standards. One of the earliest recorded examples was Thomas(ine) Hall, an English colonial servant. Thomas(ine) Hall was born in England in the early 1600s and immigrated to colonial Virginia in the 1620s. Hall was known to wear both masculine and feminine clothing at different times and interchangeably fill male and female social roles. Though assigned female, Hall was declared “both a man and a woman” (“Life Story: Thomas(ine) Hall.” Women and the American Story) after a series of interviews and examinations and required to wear a mix of male and female attire.