Christine Jorgensen was born on May 30, 1926, in the Bronx, New York City. She was drafted into the U.S. military in 1945 and served for a year, then was honorably discharged due to an illness. She began a process of gender-affirming care in 1948 and her gender reassignment surgery, completed in Denmark in 1952, became highly publicized in the United States. She made frequent public appearances, worked as an actress and nightclub singer, and wrote a book, Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography; she used her significant platform to encourage acceptance of trans people. She died on May 3, 1989, and has been honored on Chicago's Legacy Walk, the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood, and the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall National Monument. Her life is explored in more detail in Challenging Gender Boundaries: A Trans Biography Project by Students of Catherine Jacquet.