Alan L. Hart - Controversy

Controversy

Scholarship on Hart's life has disagreed bitterly on whether he should be characterised as transsexual, transgender, or lesbian, while activists and advocates for various groups have claimed Hart as a representative.

Jonathan Ned Katz, who in Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (1976) first identified Hart as the pseudonymous "H" in Joseph Gilbert's 1920s case notes, described Hart as a lesbian and depicted his case as one where contemporary strictures against lesbianism were so strong that a 'woman' like Hart had to adopt a male identity to pursue love affairs with women. Katz contended again in his 1983 Gay/Lesbian Almanac: A New Documentary that Hart was "clearly a lesbian, a woman-loving woman", but has since said he would not make such claims today.

Against Katz's claims, others like Jillian Todd Weiss have asserted that Hart experienced himself as a man from early childhood, identifying transphobia and "blatant disregard for transgender identities" in the claim that Hart was 'really' a woman. Hart's widow refused interviews to Katz, offended by his categorization of her husband (and by extension, herself) as lesbian.

Some historians note that Hart never described himself as a transsexual, but the term was not published until the 1920s, and not widely used until the 1960s, near Hart's death. It is also true that Hart worked hard to keep his pre-transition identity secret, and would hardly have sought to publicly claim a transsexual identity. Others, then, have contended that Hart was a transsexual pioneer, who lived after his transition exclusively as a man, just as modern transsexuals do.

Joy Parks describes the battle, especially within Portland, Oregon GLBT communities over Hart's identity as "extremely ugly" and one in which "neither side appeared particularly victorious."