An Old Timey Podcast - 119: Trailblazing Trans Doctor Saved Lives (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Decades before the term “transgender” was coined, Alan Hart became one of the first trans men in the United States to undergo a medically-assisted transition. In part one of this two-part series, we delve into Alan’s life before he transitioned. Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Kristin pulled from: “Trailblazing transgender doctor saved countless lives,” by Leo DeLuca for Scientific American “Homo-sexuality and its treatment,” by J. Allen Gilbert for the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease“Alan Hart” by Morgen Young for Oregon Encyclopedia“This Kansas-born transgender doctor made a lifesaving tuberculosis breakthrough,” by Jacob Smollen for KCUR“Alan L. Hart: An innovative pioneer in radiology and transgender rights,” by Athena Reich and Katharine A. Colbert for PubMed Central“Dr. A. Lucille Hart wore male attire,” The Capital Journal, Feb. 1918“Intern unmasked as girl graduate of Oregon school,” The Oregon Daily Journal, Feb. 1918“Dr. Hart does work in male attire,” Albany Democrat, Feb, 1918“Dr. Hart explains change to male attire,” Albany Democrat, March 1918“Mrs. Robert Bamford dies at age of 78,” Albany Democrat-Herald, Feb. 1921“R.A. Bamford, aged 88, dies, pioneer of 61,” Albany Democrat-Herald July 1924“Manifesting Manhood: Dr. Alan Hart’s transformation and the embodiment of sex in early 20th century sexology,” by Colin P. CloseAre you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts!Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Kristen Caruso. And I'm Normie C. And on this episode, I'll be talking about a trailblazing trans doctor. Ooh, hoo-hoo. Trailblazing. That's right, baby. You're not ready for all these trails that are being blazed right in front of you in this two-part series. Oh, in a multi-part? That's right. That's right. Kristen. Hang on to your shorts.

You're hitting all of the Q zone right now. Norm, that's a made-up thing. Trailblazer, multi-part. Uh-huh. The only thing left is slavery mentioned in this episode. It is not mentioned in this episode. Unless we go on a very strange tangent, which we might. You never know with this podcast.

Speaking of this podcast, folks, if you enjoy listening to this small, sexy, independent podcast, head on over to patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. And for just $5 a month, you can listen to our entire back catalog of bonus episodes. Plus, you can chitty chat in the Discord. The bonus episode for August is pretty fun. What's happening? Pretty fun.

It's about a mentalist who gets stuck in a cave. You know, for everyone who's watching this on YouTube, I hope you can all appreciate Norm's kind of grabby hand gestures he did with the word mentalist. It felt a little odd, but we're not cutting it because, you know, it was just too good. Well, and if you're boycotting YouTube, if you're like, I'm not going to YouTube to watch this video, join us at the $10 level at patreon.com slash old-timey podcast, where you get full video ad-free and early.

Plus, you had to play trivia with us, and you get our exclusive segment at the end of each episode called The Slop. That's right, where we talk about anything and everything. And I think today, what are we doing on the slop, Kristen? Norm, don't ruin it yet because we might have something organic come up. But in case we are not organic and we are a canned veggie, I do have something planned. Okay. Patreon.com slash old-timey podcast.

And with that, Kristen, tell us about a trailblazing trans doctor that's a multi-part series and does not mention slavery. Fine. I will. Alan Hart was a doctor. a radiologist, a researcher, a novelist. He saved countless lives when he began using x-rays to screen for tuberculosis at a time when that was not regularly done. He was smart and creative, but also scarred and maybe a little scared. When he died in 1962, he left behind two locked boxes. The boxes contained his personal photos, personal letters, personal writing. In other words, the stuff of his private life. In his will,

Alan instructed his attorney to destroy the contents of those locked boxes, and the attorney did as they were told. And just like that, all of that stuff that said so much about Alan Hart's history and his legacy and his life was gone. It was sad, but it kind of made sense. Alan had spent his whole life trying to exist as the person he knew himself to be. And his biggest trauma, an unimaginable trauma, came again and again when people took information about his past and spread it with the intent to humiliate him and damage him. The fear of being outed meant that Alan spent a lot of his life on the move,

constantly looking over his shoulder. But in death, Alan Hart ensured that the information that had been so cruelly used against him, that had upended his life again and again, would be destroyed. In that sense, he controlled the narrative of his own life. But Norm, none of us have that much control over the world. And in a way, let's all thank the good Lord we don't, because today, thanks to research that happened decades after Alan Hart's death, we can celebrate him as an incredibly courageous, trailblazing trans doctor, a fascinating person who went through so much shit, but still managed to have a pretty nice life and do a lot of good in the world. So let's get into it.

Oh, okay. Okay, okay? Oh, but first, we got to do a whole bunch of throat clearing. Are you ready? Throat clearing. Yeah. This is like, before I get to this, but also before I get to this and this, this whole episode's going to be that. I hope you're excited.

Okay. Okay, so first off, folks, I am a cisgender woman, or as I like to put it, a standard-issue gal. Ooh, a SIG. I really like that joke. I hope people aren't offended by it. Standard-issued gal. Just a well-intentioned Midwestern white lady who is not an expert in transgender issues, but who nonetheless is about to deliver a two-part series on a transgender male.

who lived and died before the word transgender was even coined. And if that doesn't make you nervous, I don't know what will. But I assure you, dear listeners, much like Julia Roberts and pretty woman, I've got a heart of gold. I mean well, I want the fairy tale where I tell this story flawlessly. But if I fuck it up, please tell me, and I will listen and I will improve. Ding. Very good, Kristen. Okay, another thing.

Another thing. Oh, okay. One more disclaimer. Yes. Alan Hart was a trans man, meaning that he was assigned female at birth, which of course means that Alan was not his birth name. His birth name did not suit him at all. Neither did she her pronouns.

So I'm going to be referring to Alan as Alan for the entirety of this story. And I'm going to refer to him using he-him pronouns. for the entirety of the story, including the period before his transition, because as Lady Gaga once sang, All right, just thanks. Lady Gaga did sing, just dance. Hang on, hang on. Oh, born this way. That's better.

That seems more appropriate for what you were trying to say. But also, you know, maybe Alan wanted to dance. You just don't know. Dda, da dance. Right out of the womb, just like Ali McBeal, the dancing baby. Wow, you know, I was afraid Allie McBeal wouldn't come up in this episode. I was also afraid slavery wouldn't come up. But here we go, hitting all the grates.

Kristen, you said this, you know, we don't know what direction this podcast is going to go. Oh, I'm sorry. I've got another. Oh, my God. I'm sorry. Last one. Last one. I swear.

I swear. Now, on your old podcast, didn't you have an old-timey disclaimer? Yes. So this is literally old-timey disclaimer. Yeah, I guess so. But you, you know what? you don't really understand the meaning of old-timey disclaimer. That was a different thing.

That's not what I'm doing now. This is me being like, and another thing, and I'm also nervous about this. This is a totally different, weird thing I'm doing. I don't think we should be talking about this. Honestly. So old-timey disclaimer on your old podcast was this is just about an old subject. Yeah, and like it meant that, you know, there are a bunch of different sources and like people, you know, like different articles disagree. and it's kind of like, I'm just using the most popular thing.

Okay. That was that disclaimer. Gotcha. This. This is, I'm a nervous Sig. Yeah. And I just want to let you all know I'm doing my best out here. Truly.

Okay. I have known about Allen Hart for a while and I've been like, oh, he would be such a cool episode. But I was like, but what if I mess it up? And so it has sat in my folder. for two years until finally I was like, you know what, I'm going to try. And that's your daily tale of bravery. A woman sitting in her own home telling a story with a nice top on but sweatpants on the bottom. Yeah.

You know, I heard you listening to Gloria Stefan earlier this week, If I could reach higher. That was you writing this script. So congratulations, Kristen. We're all proud of you. I still have to clear my throat about the other thing, though. Oh. Okay.

So, um, this story, I really think as far as trailblazing stories about a trans person, this one's really pretty positive, but we are going to talk about some suicide stuff in here. And that's just a warning. I was about to say, if that's not your thing, listen to another episode. That's not your thing. I hope it's not anybody. Suicide's my thing. No.

Anyway, this portion is done. And now we're starting the episode. And not a moment too soon because we've been recording for 12 minutes. All right. Picture it. October 4th, 1890, little baby Allen was born in Hall's Summit, Kansas. Kansas. That's right.

Western Kansas, Central, Eastern. It's very important that we know this. Oh, is it? Here's my next line. And if you, like me, are like, where is Hall's Summit? And what do I need to know about it? The answers to your questions are nowhere and nothing. Because two years later, Alan's dad died.

And Alan's mom moved him to Oregon so that they could be closer to her parents. So basically, you don't care where Hall Summit is. I mean, I looked it up when I first started getting into this story. And I was like, huh. And if you think that that information is still in my brain, then you don't. then you don't know your wife. It's gone down the drain at the sewage treatment plant. It is gone.

It's floating with some poos. So we moved to Oregon. That's right. By all accounts, it seems that Allen's early life was pretty good. But also, you know, maybe a little confusing. Confusing because he knew from a very early age that he was a boy. He liked to wear boys' clothing. He liked to play with toys that boys played with.

He never liked dolls. In fact, one time when a little girl came over and wanted to play house, he was like, oh, fine, but I get to be the dad. Absolutely. Did you play that way when you were a kid? I always insisted on being the mom. I was the child. My older sister was the mom and I was the kid.

Okay. That makes sense. And now you're a non-threatening boy. Yes. As he grew older, he found that he had crushes on women. When he read books about people falling in love, he always put himself in the role of the man. Also, and some people don't think this is relevant, but I do. He loved learning about wars.

Ooh, a very manly thing. Okay, you sound like you were dying over there. I was dying of boredom. Oh, shit, slavery's coming up. He loved playing like Civil War. There you go. Which the Civil War was fought over what, Kristen? States rights.

Just kidding. Slavery. I mean. That was a hilarious joke. You're still technically right. But that included the right to own people. Yeah, yeah. When he envisioned what his life would look like as an adult, he always saw himself as a man.

And that was a real Dorito to the brain because Alan had been assigned female at birth. Dorito to the brain. That's a thing, Norm. You know, lobotomies, this is basically grosser and crispier, you know? I'd rather have a Dorito to the brain than a lobotomy, I think. I think they'll do the same thing. Those things are sharp. Now here's something refreshing.

A sprite? Shut up. Even though it was the early 1900s, and Allen's family didn't yet have the opportunity to watch Will and Grace, let alone see Laverne Cox kill it as Sophia Burs. set in Orange is the New Black, they were surprisingly chill. They allowed him to present as a boy at home. That's not to say that they were perfect, who is, but they really seemed intent on raising a good human, someone who cared about others, someone who worked hard. Yeah, that's cool. Another factor that I

think is maybe only interesting to me is that back in this time period, they weren't so set on like, how do I say this? Like little kids, uh, genders. So like this idea of like, boys wear blue and girls wear pink. That I think didn't even come out until like the 50s.

I once learned all about this. I think it's fascinating. But back in these times like, boys and girls all kind of wore the same clothing up until a certain age. They all wore their hair long. And so yeah, it just wasn't a factor when he was really young.

and they continued to let it kind of not be a factor. I feel like we've talked about this before. It's a subject that fascinates me, and I shoehorned into many a conversation. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. And yeah, I feel like I've seen old-timey photos of, like, you know, little baby boys, and they're wearing, like, long, little baby dresses and stuff.

Thank you, Norm. I love you. Okay, that's what's so funny to me is, like, sometimes in these articles about Alan, they'll show him as a little boy, and to our modern eyes, it's like, oh, yes, look at him, you know, as a girl. And I was like, well, no, that's only how we see that now. Like every little boy looked like that too, with the long hair wearing a dress. Yeah.

Twas the fashion of the time. Anyway, looking at it from a distance, it seems that Alan thrived as a young person. In high school, he proved himself to be a really good right. He could play the mandolin like nobody's business. He excelled academically. But there was always that struggle, that indescribably shitty feeling that the way the world saw him was so different from how he saw himself. His peers mocked him for it. Alan was presenting as female. He had long hair and he wore women's clothes. But he was clearly very different from the girls at school. and the truth was he wanted to be seen as a guy.

There's evidence of this in his writing from that time period. So his grandfather's name was Robert Allen Bamford. And in school, Allen often liked to write his essays using the name Robert Allen Bamford Jr. And even though he was presenting as female, people were mostly cool with that. You know, probably because there's a big history of people using pen names in writing and women using male pen names. Yeah, that was a thing. When he submitted his writing to local publications, he often did so just using his initials. One time, he sent an essay into a publication, and in the byline he wrote,

Submitted by an anonymous boy. Ooh, I like that. I knew you would. In 1908, he enrolled in Albany College, which is now Lewis and Clark College, a very pretty campus. Ooh, Lewis and Clark College. Yeah. Who's that named after? We have no idea.

And sadly, no way of knowing. Lost to history. He joined the debate team. He took them to state, and they won. A master debater. Okay, let's keep it classy. Damn it, Norm. I'm trying my best here.

All right, why not? Oh. Oh, I missus used the soundboard. Sorry. Well, that's fun. He wrote for the school newspaper. and the yearbook, a classic combination that makes you really popular with your peers. Ask anybody.

This is the reason you chose this topic. Yeah. Yeah. I want to cover all the brave souls who were on their school newspaper and their yearbook. You salute them. They've been through some stuff. Hashtag never forget. He drove cars.

He developed really intense friendships with women and would get really upset when men paid attention to them. Which was confusing because they were just friends, right? Yeah, totally. Okay, Fortune Feemster has a bit in one of her stand-up specials that I've always loved. And it was about, like, before she realized she was gay. And she would just have these really intense friendships with other women. And then get just irrationally angry when they wanted to go hang out with Dave or some dumbass. And it's just like, I don't know, there's something kind of hard.

heartwarming to me about this time period of where, like, Alan's kind of trying to figure himself out a little bit. But going through that, those motions of, like, I've got big feelings. Yeah. About Emily going to the dance. And I'm not sure why. Yeah. I need to be curious about this. But then, oh, man, he met Eva Cushman and holy moly.

Cushman. Yeah. Don't act like you're into the cush. I wasn't thinking of that. You signed your dare pledge. I did more than signed the dare pledge, Kristen. You took a blood oath. I took an oath.

Alan and Eva spent a ton of time together. Alan went on a couple dates with Eva's brother, you know, for appearances' sake. But for the most part, Alan and Eva were together constantly. Alan was smitten. And maybe he went a little overboard trying to impress Eva. Uh-oh. Okay, here's what happened next. I do love these stories.

I do, too. I feel like people are going to find this maybe a little relatable, not in a great way. But here we go. Okay, so Alan came into some money from his father's estate. I imagine that he got that money for school. He was supposed to spend it at college. But here's the thing. If you're trying to impress someone, money can be a very effective tool.

He can. When he and Eva went out, Alan always paid. He bought her gifts. He drove her places. He liked that role. He liked taking care of her. Over time, they began cuddling and then kissing and then... Ooh.

Alan was finding himself. But he was in that weird transition period from childhood to adulthood. He was a few years into college, but I think still living at home. And although he'd always gotten along with his mom, now things were really tense. He came to see his mom as his enemy because his mom kept telling him what to do and to not stay out too late and to be home all the time and just basically not be cool. And as I established, he was on the newspaper and the yearbook, so he was obviously very cool. Right. Hey, Alan, I went through this as well, man.

I get it. Oh, yeah? You want to talk about how cool you were? No, I'm talking about having an overbearing parent. It's like, you're not allowed to go out. You have to stay home. You did go through that. Yeah, we're not going to get into the detail.

Okay. So it's probably no big surprise that in 1910, he decided to transfer to a different school a bit further away from home. He transferred to Stanford. Ever heard of it? Ooh, go trees. What? No, they're the Cardinals.

Oh. But I feel like their logo is like a tree. Well, their logo might be a tree, but that's not their mascot. Mascott's a cardinal. You've got a Google machine right in front of you. I'm a little gun shy on the computer lately. I got a computer virus. Oh, my gosh.

And I went into a spiral. I can't believe you are bringing this up. You were so traumatized by the virus. Do you want to tell the people? No. Okay. You shouldn't have downloaded all that weird porn, Norm. I've warned you.

Here's what happened, okay. I was looking at a... People aren't going to believe this story. No, they're not. They're not. But I swear this is what happened. I went to a landscaping company's website, and this pop-up came up. He was looking for bushes.com, and this is what happened.

This pop-up came up, and it was like, verify, you're a human, and I clicked it. And then it was like, hey, Ron. this, we couldn't verify, you're real, run this program to verify. And I was on autopilot mode. I was just like, okay, and I ran it. And sure enough, virus. Folks, if you want to see a man beat himself up for days, watch Norman download a virus onto his own computer.

I tell you what. It was sad. We are over it now. But I just got to say, if people were to take bets on who in this household was going to be the one to download a virus after their own computer. I know. Do you think anyone would have chosen you? Literally no one.

Oh, man, I was a mess. For three days, I was a mess. But we're over it. We're good. We are okay. Let's get back to Stanford. Yeah, please. They are the trees.

The Stanford tree is the mascot. I love that. The Cardinal Tree. Stanford's team name is Cardinal, referring to the vivid Stanford Cardinal Red Color. Hmm. Not the songbird. Hmm.

Interesting. Before you get off that website, could you just run a quick program? Stop it. I need, you know what? I need my own sound board over here so I can ping you with some sounds. No, I don't think we need that. Uh-huh. Okay, so he transfers to Stanford, but he didn't want to be away from Eva, so he asked her to come with him.

And when Eva was like, well, my parents can't afford to send me to Stanford, Alan, chivalrous chap that he was, was like, no problem, I've got you covered, I will pay for all your living expenses. Don't you worry about a thing? I want to date Alan. We all do. Now, question for you, did Alan have enough money for these grand gestures? Well, I'm guessing no. Well, here's a thing.

at the moment he did. But did he have a limitless pool of money? No, but that was a problem for future Alan, okay? Yeah, future Alan's problem, he's going to go to in and out over and over and over. You're going to run out of funds. Alan flourished at Stanford. He started the school's first women's debate club.

He became a leader in the women's glee club. He joined the mandolin club, the social service club, the physiology club, and the philosophy club. He went pre-med, baby. He made a lot of great friends. He and Eva went on fantastic dates. They went to the opera, to the theater, to concerts. Don't worry about money.

He bought Eva gifts and clothes. The works, don't worry about money. Living in San Francisco afforded him more freedoms, more freedom to explore his masculinity, to not just wear tomboyish clothing, but to actually get tailored, nice men's clothing. He was looking good, Don't worry about money.

He started smoking and drinking and going to what an old-timey article referred to as fast cafes. And what I'm taking to mean kind of sketchy cafes, don't worry about the money. And all that newfound freedom created some tension in Alan and Eva's relationship, a relationship that was still very much a secret. their relationship needed to appear to be, at the very most, a super, super close platonic friendship between two totally heterosexual gals. Long-term friends. Yes.

Yeah. But Alan didn't really want to play that role. And arguably, he couldn't. And that created a problem between him and Eva. Eva didn't like that he was now only wearing masculine clothes. It was one thing when they were just hanging out, but when they went out for formal occasions, she wanted him to wear a dress.

Was Eva a lesbian? Yeah, I think so. She could have been by. Sure. It's interesting like this thing of, it's okay if you dress that way in these settings, but when we go somewhere fancy, you need to put on a dress, I feel like this comes up for people at weddings all the time.

Explain. Well, like, you know, we're all just going about our business. And a lot of people dress in a kind of gender neutral way and you don't even notice it. But then they're like invited to be a bridesmaid in someone's wedding. And it's like, wait, hold on, you want me to wear a big flowy dress? I mean, that's just not. You know, it just creates all of this tension. I see what you're saying.

I see what you're saying. So you're saying like in modern times, it's very common to see a woman in public in jeans and a t-shirt, but if they go to a wedding, they're going to wear a big floy dress. Is that what you're saying? I mean, no, I'm saying more like, if you don't want to dress in a super feminine way,

if that just doesn't mesh well with your identity, I think maybe people don't necessarily think about that a lot because in casual settings, we're not paying as much attention to like how feminine or masculine someone's clothes are. But then a person will ask you to be a member of their wedding party and expect you to be in a flowy dress. Even though you don't want to dress feminine. And then it's like, well, how do I have that conversation? Anyway, we're going on a whole tangent. I got you. I got you.

The gears are starting to turn. I think the virus got into my head. did you download it there too? I may have. Also, Eva didn't approve of the smoking or the drinking or the fast cafes, but Alan just loved the smoking and the drinking and the fast cafes. I want to look up Fast Cafe. Okay.

You know what? I can tell you a little more about it. I was holding this back. Don't hold back, baby. So, you know, he met a sex worker there, claimed that nothing happened. But, like, you know, I think it was just a place where there could maybe be some gambling, some drinking, some smoking, some, you know. Cuddles for cash cutie. That's right.

That's what I think a fast cafe was. I don't think we're talking about Panera, you know. Okay. He just couldn't stay away from Panera. Panera, but everyone's wearing a bikini. And Eva said that place hasn't been good in decades. You've got to leave. What if Panera pivoted that way?

if they're like, this isn't working, let's kind of go the Twin Peaks Hooters model. Oh, dear God. It's just sexy people serving up hospital food. I like that idea. Sexy nurse? Oh, sexy nurse. Okay, now that's the idea is they go full hospital.

Yeah. And everyone's a sexy nurse. And then everyone's happy. And when they bring out your French baguette, you know, it's a big buff dude with a lab coat. on and he just opens his coat and there's the baguette, flops down on the table. I like this. You know what?

This podcast is over. We're opening this restaurant. Yeah. There was also the issue of exclusivity. They were very committed to each other. But the sad truth was that what they were doing was dangerous. And so if a guy asked Eva out, she would usually go. Yeah.

And, you know, what could Alan do about that? that. Nothing. And it's almost like he wasn't allowed to feel any type of way about that. So there was this tension, but life was still good. They kept going. Alan kept spending. Don't worry about the money. But then, oh, biscuits. Should I worry about the money? He should have worried about the money. We should all be worried about the money. Alan had to admit that he was, in fact, very deeply in debt, like super deep. Alan and Eva went back to Albany College. And by the time he graduated in 1912, Alan definitely had the grades and the brains for med school, but he did not have the money. He was so ashamed. His relationship with Eva was officially on the rocks.

And around this time, he met another lady. She was 12 years older than him. She came from a wealthy Southern family, and she'd recently broken off an engagement. She helped Alan get back on his feet, financially. And Norm, the drama queen and you might be asking if there was a messy overlap between the relationship with Eva and this new Southern gal. Yeah, definitely. I just, I have to know. You're always wanting to know about the drama. My God. The answer is yes, it was very messy. There was a lot of jealousy and a lot of feelings, which I imagine were amplified by the fact that everyone was in the closet. Oh, and then some new chick popped up and the

Southern gal was really mad and accused Alan of wanting to bang the new gal. And Alan was very offended by that accusation. But of course, the truth was that Alan did, in fact, want to bang the new gal. Yep. What a mess. This is an age gap love here, Kristen. Yes. How are you feeling about this?

I think that in these times, well, and in a lot of times, it's like it was so dangerous to try to find someone who you could be with. And so I think it makes sense that there were a lot of age gap relationships because it's like how do you find someone? How do you trust somebody? How do you make that connection? It's true. Now, Norm, I bet you think that Alan was so busy juggling chicks that he didn't have time to think about med school. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. In 1913, he enrolled at the University of Oregon Medical School, which is now known as Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. What a mouthful. Go back to the old name.

I know. Hey, we are on the precipice of World War I. You said 1913? Are we talking about World War I at all? You know what? What? I'm not planning to mention it really. No mention of World War I?

No, no, there's going to be a mention. But it's just so funny to me that I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right. Anyway. Who cares? Am I right? I don't know. Sorry, I just, I got a little excited because I was like, oh, how does Alan deal with, you know, this whole thing at war? Good question.

Medical school could serve on the front lines as like a, you know, medical assistant person. He's going to be a doctor. Sorry, the word I was looking for was medic. Medical assistant person. And you have to pause between each. each word and then kind of look away. I'm telling you, the virus got in me. So he's in med school, but Alan was definitely different from the other students.

All of them were cisgender men. But he responded to that isolation the way he always had. He studied harder. He threw himself into academics. And when it came to academics, no one could touch him. He quickly rose to the top of the class. Suck on that, everybody. The cream rises to the top.

Mm-hmm. But he wasn't happy. He was bright and he was clearly charming and funny. He had so much promise. He was so ambitious. But he also had all these secrets. At that time, even just being gay was considered not just a social taboo,

but a criminal act, a medical perversion. Mm-hmm. But Alan wasn't gay. He was something else entirely. He wasn't. a woman who wanted to be with women. He was a man who'd been assigned female at birth. He didn't even have a word for what he was. And there is such profound loneliness in being a certain way, being

wired a certain way, or just having an experience, and not even having the language to name it. It's possible that Alan thought he was the only person on earth who felt the way he felt. At one point, Alan attempted suicide. Those suicidal ideations stayed with him as he struggled under the weight of societal expectations. Everything that he was doing, embracing his masculinity, dating women, it all felt so natural to him. But society told him that it wasn't natural, that he was not natural. At one point when he'd been 21, he'd had sex with a man just to see what it was like. and he was like, ugh, no thanks.

Not for me. He left at like three in the morning as soon as the guy fell asleep. Well, you know what? Alan tried. I see you struggling with the words of like, almost like, hey, you tried the green beans, kid, and we appreciate that. You don't ever have to have them again. Yeah, it's kind of what I'm feeling about it.

I think it makes sense to be like, you know, when things are that difficult, And it's like, gosh, it'd be easier if I just fit in with everybody. Let me give it a try. And no. Well, you're trying to figure out who you are. And it's like, well, let me just try this. And, yeah, not for Alan. Yeah.

And now here he was, older and a success by so many societal measures. But there was that one thing, that nameless thing that was so central to every aspect of his life. He couldn't outrun it. Even though Alan was really popular, he faced a fair amount of criticism from his peers. They wanted to know why he dressed the way he did. They developed little theories about him. It made Alan uncomfortable, uncomfortable enough that during his second year in med school, he began to search through various medical books, desperate for an answer.

What was going on with him? Why was he so different? Why wasn't he like the girls? and was it a problem that he wasn't like them? Okay, so I don't know what exactly Alan found in his research. Only that his research led him to the conclusion that he was a sexual invert. So that is not a term we use today, obviously. But it was used back then often to describe someone whose desires or behaviors were that of the opposite sex.

Gotcha. Alan very likely learned that there was a big spectrum for sex. sexual inverts. If you were gay, you were a sexual invert. If you were a woman who acted in a kind of masculine way, okay, you might be a sexual invert. I'm sorry, I'm starting to sound like Jeff Foxworth. You might be a redneck. You might be a sexual invert. That would kill. It would. Just imagine. It would slay. And all of this likely led Alan to the conclusion that since he knew he was completely male, he was fully inverted. Initially, that discovery made him miserable. It made him ashamed. But it does seem that over time, he was able to kind of wrap his head around it. He took

comfort as a medical student in knowing that he'd always been this way. It was ingrained in him. He hadn't done anything wrong. This was just who he was. Fully inverted. Yeah. It's like a maverick in Top Gun. What? Well, he bragged in Top Gun school that he encountered like an enemy plane and he said, by the way, I was fully inverted. The plane was totally... I'm so glad you brought that.

When you said fully inverted, I immediately thought of Top Guns. I'm sorry. No, you know what? When I was finishing this script up, I was like, God damn it, I didn't mention Top Gun once in this whole script. And I'm glad that you helped me with that. Have you ever seen Top Gun? Yeah, you made me watch it.

No, I did. Yes, you did. You're obsessed with Top Gun. Everyone, he's obsessed with Top Gun. You made me watch it. That was my favorite movie as a kid. Yeah. Fully inverted.

Uh-huh. Takes on a whole new meaning. If Tom Cruise had been around in 1910, totally different meaning. Yeah, if he said, I'm fully inverted in 1910. Mm-hmm. Okay, so slight tangent. although not as much of a tangent as Top Gun. Yeah, apologies.

But I became really obsessed briefly with wondering like, what exactly did Alan read at that time about himself in these medical textbooks? What was he able to find? Okay, folks, I found someone's thesis from 2014 that they, by the grace of God, uploaded to the Internet, and they were evidently just as obsessed with this as I am. So they did the research of like, okay, what medical books were available at that time that would have dealt with these topics? What would have been likely to have been in that university library? What would Allen have seen?

And so this is kind of the conclusion they came to. There's evidence that in reading all of this discourse about sexual inversion, he likely came across stories about people who'd been assigned female at birth, but were able to successfully pass as men. And although those resources weren't meant to be how-to guides, it's entirely possible that in doing that research, maybe Alan realized that he was not completely alone. And maybe there was a path forward where he could live his life, not just knowing that he was a man, but actually presenting to the world as a man.

And that gave him hope. So that's what's fascinating to me is what we know for sure is that he found information. It initially devastated him, but over time he was able to find hope. And so I do think it makes sense that he read some stuff. A lot of the literature at that time

talked about like, okay, you know, when we're first created, like we have, you know, we could go female, go male. Right. And the stuff at that time basically said, in some people, your body gets confused and oopsie goes one way too far. And so it kind of gave Alan this idea like, holy shit, this whole time I've been wondering if I could change myself, if this is some moral failing on my part, if I have messed up in

some way. But no, I'm wired this way. Yeah. And that gave him comfort. Well, to find like a medical explanation for how he was feeling. That had to be such a relief, I would think. And obviously, it's not a relief because it's not like the textbooks were like, good for you. You're going to love your life.

No, they were like, this is a problem. Yeah. They weren't like, we support you. No. But I do think, like even I'm thinking about myself and my own diagnoses. And, you know, so before I was diagnosed with ADHD, which, you know, was a late in life thing for me. And when I told everyone, everyone was like, well, yeah, no shit, you've got ADHD. But there was something.

With your quadruple drinks on your desk. Yeah, that's so many drinks. No, but there's something about like, before that diagnosis, I would beat myself up all the time for being lazy, you know, just like not being able to get started on stuff. And it's not like hearing, oh, you've got ADHD makes it all better or makes it cool, but it does give you some relief of like, oh, I'm not just a piece of shit. Seriously, I'm being serious. And it explains the behavior. Yeah, it explains it. For myself, I was recently diagnosed with the ID10T classification because I downloaded a virus.

to my computer on purpose. And you know what? There's no cure for ID-10D. There is. You just have to reboot. You got to do a fresh wipe. You got to do a clean wipe of the system. You got a Dorito to the brain.

Yeah, exactly. Which is what I did to my computer, actually. Anyway, I'm done talking about my virus, okay? Very shameful part of my week last week. I'm actually glad you told it because, like, we all do dumb shit all the time. And I think the worst part is when we're too embarrassed to tell anybody. And then when you do the dumb shit, then you feel like you're the only one who's ever done the dumb shit, you know, because we don't talk about it. Yeah.

Anyway, let's continue. So around this time when he makes these discoveries in his research, he met a new woman. Now, stop me if this sounds familiar, but things got real serious, real fast. This woman was unhappily married. She had a young child and her husband was. living in another state at the time. It was one of those like, oh yes, and soon we're going to go live with him, you know. Yep, any day now. But she and Alan spent time together. They went out, they laughed, they developed feelings, they started. And then they began to kind of fantasize.

The woman said she'd divorce her husband. And Alan was like, yeah. And after I graduate med school, we'll go out east together. And, you know, we won't be able to live together, but we can be together. and I'll financially support you. I'll financially support your child. And maybe we could see each other a couple evenings a week. And maybe you could spend the night every now and then. And oh, my God, everything will be wonderful. And the woman did divorce her husband.

And oh, my God, that was so amazing. And then she just kind of stopped hanging around Alan. It was so confusing. Alan later said that it felt like he'd been thrown overboard. He was heartbroken. And then all of a sudden, after ghosting him, she showed back up, this time was some old guy. What? She said she was engaged to the old guy.

What? But that she only wanted the old guy for his money. Hmm. Don't worry. I still love you, baby. What do you think Allen did next? Had an affair with this woman while she was with the old dude. I think this is so relatable.

Okay, so I feel like what we want. Ellen to do is be like, okay, we're done. But of course, that's never the way these things were. No. He was in love. He was desperate. And so what did he do? Well, he tried to woo her. He spent money on her. So much money on her. I do think this is interesting. I kind of feel like I have a theory that maybe he felt insecure about the fact that he wasn't presenting as a man. And so maybe when you feel insecure about that and you know you're not offering kind of what the other person fully wants or fully needs in order to feel comfortable like being a public couple with you. Then maybe you overcompensate with like the most lavish gifts ever or saying,

hey, I will financially support you in your child. Well, yeah, you have to like create a loving relationship in a unique way because obviously Alan can't be with. this woman publicly, right? Yeah. So you just have to create your own kind of unique relationship. But what I'm saying is like it's not even about the relationship so much. It's about him trying to prove his worth.

Yeah. He feels like he feels like money is the way to do it. Because what else can he do, you know? Yeah. So he pulls out all the stops. He does his best, but it didn't change things. she was going to marry that guy. Alan didn't stand a chance.

He probably never stood a chance. The woman told him that she loved him, but also told him that she didn't have the nerve to handle all the criticism she would get for being with him. And he was devastated by that. He began to drink more heavily than before. He tried to stay busy. He tried to avoid women.

He decided he would never love another woman again. Very dramatic. Oh man, we've all been there though, right? Like, this hurts so bad, I've got a solution and I'll never love again. It's funny to me to be going through this story. And of course, on the one hand, I'm a little mad at this lady, but on the other hand, this was what, 1916, 1917? Mm-hmm. She's making the right call for her life, I think.

Yeah. I mean... She met the Monopoly, man. Yeah, and hopefully he croaks soon. And she has all his money that helps her raise her child. And then, you know, she can spend a ton of time with the ladies. And when guys ask her out, she can be like, oh, my gosh, I'm still mourning the loss of my dear old toad husband.

My late husband, Theodore, who is a whale oil. Tycoon. Alan was down. He didn't want to die by suicide, but he thought about it more and more. It felt like his options were more limited than he'd ever imagined. That June, Alan graduated from med school,

the top of his class. Nice. And of course, that was supposed to be a joyous time, and maybe it was in some ways. But he'd envisioned going out into the world and maybe going by a male name permanently. But the school had issued, issued his medical degree under his birth name, which meant that once again, the possibilities

for his future life got smaller, less bright. If they just issued it under his initials, he could have worked with that. I'm sorry if this has been mentioned, but what was Alan's birth name? Okay, I'm glad you asked that question. And I'm choosing not to share that. Trans people consider that a dead name. Mm-hmm. And one of the things like, this is why I'd been so nervous to tell this story, because I didn't want to fuck it up.

600 disclaimers. Yeah, so I did some reading about like, hey, what's the right way to tell a trans person story? And one of the things they mentioned was don't use the dead name. Mm-hmm. And don't use the outdated pronouns.

Go with the name they wanted to. which I realize is maybe a little confusing from a storytelling perspective that, you know, I have to keep reminding like, okay, he's presenting as female. But, yeah, that's not a name that ever suited him. And so out of respect, I'm just not saying it. Okay. There we go. I'm just a curious hope. The internet told me not to.

So I'm not saying it. Yeah, listen to the internet. Yeah. So this med school diploma created some real problems. He had wanted to maybe have it under the name Robert, and it was actually filed that way in parentheses. So clearly someone at the college felt for him. But the official diploma said his birth name. Initials would have been a good solution.

It would have been a great solution. Now, anyone who wanted to check his credentials wouldn't find a record of his having graduated from med school. He would be stuck continuing to present himself. as female. Except he couldn't. He just couldn't do it anymore. So not long after he graduated med school, he decided to meet with one of the college's psychiatry professors, Dr. J. Allen Gilbert. That is a great name for a psychiatrist. It is, isn't it? Yes. At their first meeting, Alan told the professor that he had a problem. It was a phobia of loud noises.

Was that just to get an in? I feel like, again, I think relatable, like, that thing of like, okay, I've got this issue, and I'm way too scared to tell you what it really is. So let me also, you know what, I've never liked loud noises and let's talk about that. And Dr. Gilbert was like, okay, sure, loud noises, uh-huh. And they explored that some, but Dr. Gilbert didn't really feel like that was the real issue. Yeah, they sniffed that out right away, I bet. Well, and he did.

So Dr. Gilbert had had Alan as a student in class before. So he was familiar, you know. Dr. Gilbert snuck up behind Alan with a pair of symbols and clashed them. And Alan didn't even react. Yeah, he's like, you know what? I don't think this is the real problem. I think you're faking this. Okay, honest to God, I had no idea where you were going with that, with the symbols behind him.

I was like, what the, but a very good job. You watched a cartoon. It's been a while. Dr. Gilbert was struck by Alan. Here was this 26-year-old, ambitious, intelligent, great person, but there was clearly something eating away at him. Dr. Gilbert gave Alan the old-timey psychiatrist special. We're talking hypnosis, word association, the works.

Ooh, hypnosis. And as he did that, he noticed something. Whatever it was that was bothering Alan had nothing to do with loud noises. and even though it was risky, he decided to be kind of blunt. He said, quote, even our short investigation up to this point seems to indicate that the whole trouble is connected in some way with sex. And Alan tensed up at the word sex. He changed the subject.

He averted his eyes. And he left the room abruptly. Dr. Gilbert sat there, wondering if he just messed it all up. Alan needed help. He wanted help. but he had every reason in the world to hide, and he was used to hiding. Hiding felt safe, kind of. But something had changed in the last few years.

He couldn't keep going like this. He could not keep hiding. So two weeks after that first meeting, he came back to Dr. Gilbert's office, and he was really uneasy. He struggled to make eye contact, and finally he came out with it. He told the doctor that what he was about to say was something he'd only disclosed to a very small number of friends. And then Alan shared everything, his family history, his attraction to women,

the fact that he'd always seen himself as a man. Dr. Gilbert listened. By all accounts, it seems that Dr. Gilbert really cared for Alan. He wanted what was best for him. But it was 1917. And even though we always say that there are no bad ideas in brainstorming, you should know that Dr. Gilbert's first idea was to help Alan become a genuine, conventional, home goods, loving, manny, petty, having W-O-M-A-N.

I'm every woman. Just listen to this song, a whole bunch, Alan. They tried hypnosis. You're not going to believe it, but it didn't work. Neither did any of the other treatments. Dr. Gilbert wanted to keep going, but Alan put a stop to it. Alan realized if this treatment actually works, if I truly find a way to think of myself as a woman,

then I won't really be myself. I want to be myself. I am a man. And in fact, the thought of living as a woman makes me physically ill. And here's a problematic moment. He told Dr. Gilbert that he loathed the female type of mind. He loathed the female type of mind. We call that misogyny.

You don't even know what you're saying in so sexes. He told Dr. Gilbert, I don't want to do any more treatments where the goal is to make me a woman. I want to do something that will affirm my actual gender identity. I want to be able to live as a man. I want to get a hysterectomy. Oh. Yeah.

What Alan wanted was to stop having periods. But it's interesting to note that he also presented Dr. Gilbert with an argument co-opted from the at-the-time, very popular, eugenics movement. That's a sticky subject. Sticky. More like rotten to the core. Quick side note, the eugenics movement was a horrifying time when we tried to improve the human population through selective breeding. Mm-hmm. The Nazis were a big fan.

Hang on, spoiler alert. I was just about to get to the Nazis. Slow down on the Nazis. I know they're everywhere. During that time period, a lot of people were sterilized against their will and often without their knowledge. This was done so that we could start birthing the right kind of people. And later, when this little group called the Nazis Norman, they were like, oh, America. I'm sorry, that was a terrible, true, an accent.

Ooh, America. We really like what you're doing with that eugenics movement stuff. And we were like, what? Wait, the Nazis like us for this. Never mind. We haven't done that in like six months. So, yeah, not great. But at this moment, in 1917, in desperate need of a hysterectomy,

Alan told Dr. Gilbert, I have an abnormal inversion and should therefore be sterilized. Now, I'm an ignorant hoe. Okay. What is a hysterectomy exactly? Is that when you just completely remove, like, the uterus? Yeah, so it's, yeah, it's like you can remove all or part of the uterus. Okay. I'm guessing Alan, one of the whole shabang.

Whole kitten caboodle, gone. If you're in there, just take it all. You know what? And clean things up a bit. Yeah. I'm a minimalist. Uh-huh. What do you think of that?

You know, that's an interesting argument for getting that procedure during that time. Yeah. You can present as like, I'm abnormal and weird and, you know, this eugenics thing's very popular, so I shouldn't be breeding because I'm abnormal and weird. So, yeah, take all my parts out. Yeah. I think that's interesting. I'm so fascinated and I wish we knew Alan's true feeling. I think it's very interesting to note that he was a very accomplished debater.

Master debater. Yes, I was avoiding using that term, but he was. He was. And so that makes me think, well, here's a very good argument that could be justified by the medical community at that time. Absolutely. And I hope that's all this was. I hope Alan didn't really see himself as a problem, you know? But it's possible that it was a little bit of both.

Yeah. That he wanted to not have periods. And he's like, you know what? Hey, I don't think I'm going to get pregnant, but let's just make sure that never happens, right? Well, you know, based on the time period and what was going on in society, it's very possible. Alan thought that. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Gilbert was a little resistant. He no doubt knew about the work that Magnus Hirschfeld was doing in Germany. I didn't go too in depth with that here, but Magnus Hirschfeld was way ahead of his time in terms of doing operations. And so, like, that stuff was kind of happening in Germany, but it was not happening in the United States. If it was, it wasn't being talked about. Yeah. If Alan went through with a hysterectomy, he would be a trailblazer. And according to some sources, he'd be the very first documented transgender man to have a medical transition in the United States.

Dr. Gilbert thought it over. Alan was highly intelligent. He had good judgment. And also, this is always a factor in some of these stories. Dr. Gilbert was like, hey, you know, I have seen Polaroids of Alan dressed like a man. And I'll be damned he really does look like a man. man, so I think this should be fine. This was always, I mean, in the D.B. Cooper episode I did where they thought maybe a trans person

had been D.B. Cooper. Yeah, yeah. We brought that up too, where the doctor was like, well, you know, I thought she would really look like a woman. So that's, I said, sure, let's, let's go forward with it. Yeah. Alan underwent a hysterectomy. And afterward, he cut his hair. He adopted his new name, Alan Hart. He registered for the, the draft, which is the only thing I'm going to say about World War I. Yes. He applied for jobs as a man. It was so exciting.

Until that point, he'd been working at the Red Cross under his birth name, presenting as a woman. But now he could go off into the world truly, fully as himself. It was a beautiful thing. He got an internship at San Francisco Hospital. He was doing it. He was living as a man. He began dating a woman named Inaz Stark, and Alan was head over heels. Inaz knew Alan's history, she loved him.

Everything was going so well. Sure, there was danger, and there had to be fear, but there was also this freedom, the kind of beautiful freedom that Alan had never fully experienced before his transition. He was living as a man, presenting as a man. He was doing the work he'd trained so hard to do. He was in love with a beautiful woman. She was a teacher no less, a good gal. The sky was the limit for Alan Hart.

For six months, that's how Alan lived. In a state of peace, bliss, maybe. Of course, the ambition was always there, too. Like any ambitious boy, he was always thinking about the next step. And he wanted to take that next step at Lane Hospital. Alan had been the top graduate at his medical school. he was doing a bang-up job at his internship. So he went to Lane Hospital and he applied for a job.

And that's when it all went to shit. It's possible that Alan didn't realize that when he applied for that job, he'd been spotted by a former med school classmate. Possible that he didn't feel the stare of that former classmate. Possible that he didn't sense the moment of recognition or the former classmate's sinister desire to take that knowledge and spread it. near and far. In next week's episode,

Alan gets outed in newspapers across the Pacific Northwest, and he fights back. Ooh. Yeah. Gosh, news, win in newspapers? Yeah. Yikes. It's awful.

Yeah. But I love Alan. I wanted to ask more about the hysterectomy, because that seems like a major procedure. It is. Especially during that time. Oh, yeah. The recovery must have.

have been, you know, drink a bottle of whiskey for a week or something. I don't know. Yeah, anytime you're having any kind of medical trouble, alcohol, opium should help, bloodletting, you know, the works. Dr. Hubert Montgomery's tonic. Mm-hmm. Sure. Right.

Cures everything. Well, I don't know anything about this story. Yeah. This is all new to me. So thank you for sharing it, Kristen. Yeah. Yeah. I hope I didn't mess anything up.

I hope you didn't either. Kristen, we are going to talk to the internet gods now. Oh, we are? Mm-hmm. Oh, wait, you know what? Okay, I said maybe something organic would pop up. Yeah. I was thinking, you know, thinking about Alan and him spending money he didn't have trying to impress the ladies.

Yeah. Do you have any stories you would like to? of me spending money to impress women. I was specifically thinking about that time we were in Williamsburg, Virginia, and we had first started dating, and you took me out to dinner, and you were sweating the whole time looking at the menu prices. So you want to make the slop about me being a poor, unemployed senior in college who lived with my parents? No, we don't have to.

That's what you want the slop? to be about, we can do it. I thought it would be fun and relatable in time into the story. I didn't realize you were going to take it like to shame town. No, it's fine. Oh, it's fine. I'll just be humiliated in front of all my friends. That's fine.

That we'll make the slop about that time of my life. Here we go, folks. All right, everyone. Folks, we just wrapped up another segment of the slop, exclusive to our $10 pig butter investors, where we talked about one of Christ's, and I's first little trips as a couple. And I was a poor college kid trying to impress Kristen.

It was, I mean, it's a sweet story. Now, will you reveal what we were going to do originally on the Slop? Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, we should tell what we were going to do originally. And then if people want to hear that, we can do it next week or something. All right. What we were planning to do was there are all these quizzes on the internet about, like how to tell if you are actually a Disney adult.

I was going to give Norm the quiz. He was going to give me the quiz. And then we were going to get our verdicts. Although we all know that Norm's a Disney adult. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Yeah. What if you fail the quiz?

Honestly, that would be a little disappointing. I feel like there's a spectrum for Disney adults, you know? And I feel like I'm on there somewhere. You know. Yeah. I'm into Disney, but not like super. Super into Disney, but, you know. I had a good time at Disney World.

Oh, my God, I had the best. And your uncle's a big fan of my Donald Duck shirt. Everyone's a big fan of your Donald Duck shirt. It's true, yeah. Very prized possession of mine. Well, Kristen, shall we wrap up this episode? Yeah. We're looking forward to part two.

But until then, you know what they say about history hosts? We always cite our sources. That's right. For this episode, I got my information from the New York Times, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. newspapers.com, Oregon Encyclopedia.com, Connecticuthistory.org, and more.

Check the show notes for a full list of our sources. Have we gotten our August edition of the Journal of Nervous Mental Illnesses? That was clearly a very long article from 1920. I'm sure they've renamed that thing. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to an old-timey podcast. Please give us a five-star review

wherever you listen to podcasts. And while you're at it, subscribe. support us on Patreon at patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. Join the Reddit community, our slash old-timey podcast. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram at Old Timey Podcast. You can also follow us individually on Instagram. I'm at Kristen Pitts-Keruso, and this guy over here is at Gaming Historian. And until next time, Tudaloo, Tata, and Shiri-O.

Where is it? Oh, bye. Yeah, you got a... Bye. Bye. Yeah. Thank you.