The 50's had Christine Jorgenson as a transgender newsmaking icon. In the 60's it was April Ashley and Coccinelle. In the 70's it was Renee Richards and Caroline 'Tula' Cossey.In the 80's Sarah Luiz was one of the newsmaking transwomen of that decade. Sarah first burst onto the scene with her very public fight to have her SRS covered by her Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, a battle she eventually won.
Sarah was also hitting the talk show and interview circuit during the 80's and early 90's. In addition to being an inspiration for the transkids and others like myself grappling with the issue at that time, she spread the word that all we transwomen wanted was to live our lives out like everyone else with a minimum of drama.
Here's one of those talk show interviews from the Jane Whitney Show.
Thanks Sarah for standing up and fighting for us then so we could stand tall now.
