Quotes from Christine Jorgensen

The most frustrating and difficult part of such an accusation is that the writer has a column at his disposal, and the victim has no such platform from which to retaliate. One can only sit back in anger, and let the scandalmongers play the same old insistent tune on their pornograph.

I've often wondered why there should be some people who want everything about me to be false or masculine, or what my critics would say if I suddenly appeared with close-cropped hair, no makeup and in men's clothing. I strongly suspect that, too, would leave them unsatisfied.

Unfortunately, this type of character defamation often follows the victim doggedly, and on occasion, has done irreparable damage. If retractions are printed, which is rare in the offending newspapers, they are seldom noted by the reader. I think it can be compared adequately to taking a bag full of feathers to a high hill and throwing them into the wind--retrieving all of them would be an impossible job.

You have lost a son, but gained somebody new.

Nature made a mistake which I have had corrected and I am your daughter.

We didn't start the sexual revolution but I think we gave it a good kick in the pants!

I don't need anyone's opinion. I've got my own.

Apparently, I was going to have to get used to the idea of being stared at and inspected. People were going to be interested and inquisitive, I decided, and I would just have to accept it as logical, if I was going to function in the world at all.

I don't believe that I could stop loving someone without retaining some sort of fondness for him. He was, by then, a part of my past, but I know he will always own that small part of me which I gave to him and which he did not know existed.

Comedians used Christine jokes with abandon, frequently when I was present, as even my name was good for a surefire laugh. Many of the stories were very unappetizing, and almost always dealt with the more lewd and phonographic aspects of sex. Probably it's because I was the subject of the commentary, but I've never quite understood why it reached such levels of popularity, though I admit that the sources showed phenomenal imagination.

Almost everybody I met had a Christine Jorgensen joke.

I think as I look at the foamy white clouds How wonderful it would be to live among them And to have their protecting films as shelter To float along through eternity, Never to have the stress and turmoil of the earth disrupt my life. Always to be detached from the earth's pulling forces Just to be alone with the elements. The elements--the one thing human minds can't control Always moving as they like.

I was to suffer considerably from the wide acceptance of the dictionary's limited definition of the word, transvestite. Perhaps my discomfort was not without some reason, for since then, a number of medical authorities have posed the question of whether or not it is advisable to apply new terms to cases such as mine.

Almost invariably when my name was mentioned, it carried the added phrase, an ex-GI. There seemed to be something fascinating about the fact that I'd been in the army, and I wonder now if that paradox wasn't a large contributing factor in the mountains of publicity that followed.

With all the evils of publicity and its causes for distress, I also realized no matter how unwilling a subject, the opportunities that it offered ultimately could only be counted on the credit side. I knew that if the sudden notoriety had catapulted me into a lucrative career and exciting new experiences, then I must use it in my life as a force for good. I hoped in the future that I would receive no more mention than my accomplishments or abilities deserved.

In spite of every precaution to preserve my privacy, some details of my surgery did leak out in the press...it was an extremely personal and intimate procedure in my medical history, I had no wish to share its details with the rest of the world, any more than a complete hysterectomy would be advertised by another woman.

Can you realize what success for me will mean to literally thousands of people? For I am not alone in this affliction. It may mean new hope and life to so many people. I think we (the doctors and I) are fighting this the right way--make the body fit the soul, rather than vice versa. For me, it is the heart, the look in the eyes, tone of voice, and the way one thinks that makes the real person.

I stepped out of the doorway, onto the top step, and met a scene of such chaos and utter madness that I've never been able to recall it all clearly. I had trouble remembering the details of the bedlam the next day, let alone years later.

I thought for a moment that I had entered Dante's inferno, as flashbulbs exploded from all directions and newsreel cameras whirred. A crowd of three hundred shoving reporters, newsreel and still photographers had converged, all jockeying for position and camera angles. I learned later it was the largest assemblage of press representatives in the history of the airport.

The past was yesterday, and yesterday had ended last night.

As I remember, the only newspaper that reported my return with any degree of conservatism was the New York Times, which carried a brief column containing a few pertinent facts and lived up to its motto: All the news that's fit to print.

Unable to reach me and gather the real facts, rival newspapers proceeded to enlarge on the slightest item to keep the Jorgensen story moving before the public. If I sneezed, it was duly reported as an event.

When that raffish assortment arrived at the New York airport, a reporter discovered that one of the shipping cartons was clearly imprinted with the words Petal Soft Toilet Tissue, and he proceeded to publish my guilty secret. It's obvious now, I think, that I've always traveled in the grand manner.

I think the future of life lies in the hands of the biochemists, when there won't be any cures, but rather preventives.