For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, best known by her stage name Coccinelle. She was a French actress, entertainer, singer and the first widely publicized post-war gender reassignment case in Europe.

 

Coccinelle was a successful performer and media sensation. She built a singing career, singing the title track of Premier Rendez-Vous, a 1941 film directed by Henri Decoin. She founded the organization “Devenir Femme” (To Become Woman) with her third husband, a transgender man named Thierry Wilson. The organisation was founded to provide emotional and practical support for those seeking gender reassignment surgery. She knew how important this was, as after she was able to be legally recognised as a woman, she expressed relief as “it meant I could no longer be arrested by the vice squad for impersonating a man.”

 

She helped establish the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity. Coccinelle established the right for transgender persons’ to exercise the legal right to marry; her first marriage was the first union to be officially acknowledged by the government of France as well as the Catholic Church.