[The pronouns he/him are used regardless of where Alan was in his transition.]
On October 4, 1890, Alberta Lucille Hart was born in Coffey County, Kansas. Alberta’s father had died when he was young, due to the typhoid fever epidemic. Alberta and his mother, Edna, moved to Oregon, and when Edna remarried, they settled in Albany, Canada. Growing up, Alberta was interested in things that even today most would consider masculine. Hart enjoyed rowing, hunting, and biking. He often spent a lot of time with his grandfather, talking about agriculture. Even as a school kid, Hart wanted short hair and dressed in boyish clothes as much as his parents would allow.
As Hart grew older, he realized that he was attracted to women. Being assigned to the female gender, Hart realized that was abnormal in accordance to the social taboos of the time. This, along with his discomfort of being assigned to a female gender, made him a very awkward person who was often ridiculed at school. To distract himself, Hart dove into his schoolwork, and that made him a very intelligent young person. In 1908, Hart graduated top of his class. He moved to California and attended Stanford University. Here, Hart began to come into himself more. He dressed masculine, but was still seen as a female.
Hart decided to continue studies into medicine, and in 1913, he attended Oregon’s Medical College. It became increasingly clear to Hart that he was different, and sought out psychiatric help from one of his professors, J. Allen Gilbert, at the medical college. Gilbert tried different means of trying to “fix” Hart, but he came to the conclusion that Hart was just “abnormal.”
In 1918, Hart requested that he undergo a full hysterectomy. At this time, a transition to the lack of female reproductive organs would be deemed a full transition. So, Hart underwent the procedure of removing his uterus with the help of Gilbert, and assumed the new name of Alan. He continued to dress masculine, cut his hair short, and did what he could to cement his identity as a man. However, Alan’s past followed him around. He would be gossiped about and shunned when people found out about his past. Despite being incredibly intelligent, the discrimination he faced led to him having to face constant job changes, difficult financial decisions, and made it hard for him to have any sort of social life.
Later in 1918, Alan Hart also eloped with Inez Stark, earned his medical license, and moved to Gardiner to practice medicine. While there, he was recognized by a former classmate from Stanford, and Hart resigned. It was not clearly stated that this was due to his sex-change, but many historians believe that was the primary reason for his resignation. Constantly moving due to Hart’s past put a lot of pressure on Inez. In 1923, the marriage had seemed to fail, and Inez filed for divorce.
Hart returned to Oregon in 1923, and continued his studies. Here, he met a woman named Edna Ruddick. The two got married in 1925, and this marriage was much more successful than the previous one. Three years later, Hart earned a master’s degree in radiology, and was the director of radiology at Tacoma General Hospital. Hart’s work there was incredibly important. He studied tuberculosis and published several works on detection of tuberculosis using X-Rays. In 1948, Hart earned a master’s degree in public health from Yale University. He continued to research tuberculosis, dedicating his life to it.
Edna and Alan stayed together until his death in 1962. Clearly, Hart was an incredibly intelligent and studious person. His early life was full of prejudice and difficult times, which no doubt took a toll on him and on the people surrounding him. As society progressed, Hart was able to truly contribute what he had to society, his work with tuberculosis was essential. He could have done even greater things if not for the scandals that would follow him due to his sex-change. The story of Alan Hart shows us that not only have transgender people existed throughout history, they also are just as human as everyone else and have so much to offer to society.
Sources
Comments