Caroline Cossey was born in 1954 in England. She is a British model who went by the name Tula and wrote two memoirs under that identity. For Your Eyes Only, a 1981 James Bond film, featured her. After her role in the film, she was outed as transgender by the British tabloid News of the World. She was the first trans woman to model for Playboy in 1991. Since then, Cossey has campaigned for her right to marry legally and be recognized as a woman.
9. April Ashley
April Ashley MBE was born on this day in 1935. She is an actress, model, and novelist from England. She was one of the first British persons known to have had sex reassignment surgery after being outed as a transgender woman by The Sunday People newspaper in 1961. Her marriage was declared null and void in a well-known court case known as Corbett v Corbett. She was recognized as a woman by the U.K. government in 2014.
10. Harisu
Harisu, Lee Kyung-stage Eun’s name, is a South Korean singer, was born in 1975. She is a singer, model, and actress from South Korea. She is the first transgender entertainer in the Republic of Korea, and she was the second person in Korea to officially alter their gender in 2002. Her stage name is a play on “hot problem” in English.
11. Jamie Clayton
Jamie Clayton was born in California in the United States in 1978. She is an actress and model from the United States. Clayton is best known for Nomi Marks’s roles on Netflix’s Sense8, Sasha Booker on Designated Survivor’s third season, and Tess Van De Berg on Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q.
12. Roberta Close
Roberta Close was born in 1964. She is a Brazilian fashion model. She was a transgender model to appear in Playboy’s Brazilian edition. She is the first transgender model to be featured in the Brazilian Playboy. Roberta Close was born as a boy and later transitioned into a woman.
13. Nong Toom
Parinya Charoenphol was born in Thailand in 1981. She also knows the stage name, Parinya Kiatbusaba, and Nong Toom nickname. Thailand’s former Muay Thai (Thai boxing) champion, model, and actress. Before surgery, she was a kathoey, a Thai term for a transsexual lady.
14. Lea T
Lea T was born in 1981 as Leandra Medeiros Cerezo. She’s a transsexual fashion model from Brazil who was reared in Italy. Her professional last name, “T,” stands for Tisci, and she has been dubbed Riccardo Tisci’s “muse.”
15. Jenna Talackova
Jenna Talackova is a Czech actress who was born in 1988. She is a model and television personality from Canada who rose to prominence in 2012 after winning a legal struggle to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant after being previously disqualified due to her gender identity. She has also appeared on such television programs as “IGN Inside Gameshow” and “Celebrity Wife Swap.” She was formerly called Jenna Talackova-Jacques, an heiress to the Talackovic family fortune.
16. Geena Rocero
In 1983, Geena Rocero was born. She is a New York City-based Filipino-American model, TED speaker, and transgender campaigner. Rocero is the founder of Gender Proud, a media production firm that recounts transgender people’s stories worldwide to promote justice and equality. In addition, Rocero has lectured at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the White House regarding transgender rights.
17. Juliana Huxtable
Juliana Huxtable is a British actress born in 1987 in the U.S. She is an artist, writer, performer, and DJ from the United States older men seeking women. Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Project Native Informant, Artists Space, the New Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts are just a few places where Huxtable has shown and performed. In addition, Huxtable is a member of the House of Ladosha collective in New York City and the author of two books. She previously lived and worked in New York City, and since 2020, she has been based in Berlin.