title: Transgender history

text: Beginning in the 1970s, trans woman Maryam Khatoon Molkara wrote to Ruhollah Khomeini asking for support to live as a woman, and building on a 1963 decision that corrective surgery for intersex people was not against Islamic law, he agreed. After the Islamic Revolution, Molkara was institutionalized and forced to detransition, but later released, and in 1985 personally convinced Ahmad Khomeini to decree transition and sex reassignment surgery allowed in Islamic law; she advocated for transgender rights until her death in 2012.


title: Transgender history

text: In 1998, Israeli pop singer Dana International became the first trans person to enter and win the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2008, singer and trans woman Aderet became popular in Israel and neighboring Lebanon.


title: Transgender history

text: The second week of June is the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, during international LGBT Pride month. In 2008 it coincided with the building of an LGBT Centre in Tel Aviv. In 2015, the parade was led by Gila Goldstein, who in the 1960s became one of the first Israelis to receive sex reassignment surgery. The festival is popular, with over 200,000 participants in 2016.


title: Transgender history

text: Israel is sometimes accused, including by transgender Palestinians, of pinkwashing—projecting a gay and trans-friendly image to appear more progressive or distract from mistreatment of Palestinians—while others argue its actions on trans issues should be regarded as sincere. Trans people in Israel face widespread harassment and difficulty in accessing employment and healthcare; half have been physically attacked.


title: Transgender history

text: Eunuchs, who served in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to late 19th century (and were commonly exiled to Egypt after their terms, where black eunuchs had served pre-Ottoman rulers as civil servants since the 10th century) have sometimes been viewed as a kind of third gender or an alternative male gender.


title: Transgender history

text: In Kazakhstan, since 2009, trans people who undergo sterilizing sex reassignment surgery can change gender on legal documents, but have few other rights.


title: Transgender history

text: In Kyrgyzstan, especially since the drafting of discriminatory legislation in 2014, trans people face widespread discrimination in access to work, and such severe and widespread violence that many move to Russia. In Uzbekistan, too, trans people are often beaten, raped, or murdered, though laws adopted by the Soviets in the 1980s under Western pressure enable a few Uzbeks to transition.


title: Transgender history

text: Trans people also face harassment in Tajikistan, where reportedly just three reassignment surgeries were performed between 2006 and 2016, and Turkmenistan, a repressive state notorious for violating human rights.


title: Transgender history

text: Eunuchs (who existed in China since 4000 years ago, were imperial servants by 3000 years ago, and were common as civil servants by the time of the Qing dynasty until a century ago) have sometimes been viewed as a third sex, or a transgender practice, and Chinese histories have often expressed the relationship of a ruler to his officials in the terms of a male relationship to females.


title: Transgender history

text: Cross-gender behavior has long been common in Chinese theatre, especially in "dan" roles, since at least the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today, Jin Xing is a well-known entertainer and trans woman.


title: Transgender history

text: In the mid-1930s, after Yao Jinping's father went missing during the war with Japan, the 19-year-old reported having lost all feminine traits and become a man (and was said to have an Adam's apple and flattened breasts) and left to find him; the event was widely reported on by the press. Du He, who wrote an account of it, insisted Yao did become a man, and Yao has been compared to both Lili Elbe (who underwent sex reassignment in the same decade) and Hua Mulan (a mythical wartime crossdresser).


title: Transgender history

text: In the 1950s, doctors in Taiwan forced Xie Jianshun, an intersex man, to undergo male-to-female sex reassignment surgery; Taiwanese press compared the former soldier to Christine Jorgensen, who had sought out surgery, and the decade-long media frenzy over Xie led to increased coverage of intersex and transgender people in general.


title: Transgender history

text: In the 1990s, transgender studies was established as an academic discipline. Transgender people are considered a "sexual minority" in China, where widespread transphobia means trans people face discrimination in accessing housing, education, work, and healthcare. China requires trans people to get the consent of their families before sex reassignment surgery, leading many to buy hormones on the black market and attempt surgeries on themselves.


title: Transgender history

text: Historical documentation of male- and female-assigned transgender people is extensive, especially in the Edo period. Trans-masculine people were found especially in Yoshiwara, Edo's red-light district, and in the modern era have worked in "onabe" bars since the 1960s. At the start of the Edo period in 1603, Izumo no Okuni founded kabuki (dressing as a handsome man to tryst with a woman in one popular performance, and being honored with a statue near where she performed which depicts her as a cross-dressing samurai with a sword and fan); in 1629, when the Tokugawa shogunate banned women from acting, male performers took on the roles of women. Some, such as "onnagata" actor Yoshizawa Ayame I (1673–1729) dressed, behaved and ate like women even outside the theatre.


title: Transgender history

text: Outside the entertainment industry, however, trans people face stigma, and in 2004 Japan passed a law requiring trans people who want to change their gender marker to have sex reassignment surgery and be sterilized, be single, and have no children under age 20, which the supreme court upheld in 2019. In 2017, Japan became one of the first countries in the modern world to elect an openly trans man to office, electing Tomoya Hosoda as a city councillor in Iruma.


title: Transgender history

text: Under the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh's trans community was expelled or killed, and trans women and men were raped, jailed, or killed. Some escaped and live as refugees in the US. In Cambodia today, trans or traditional third-gender people are often harassed and denied employment; some do sex work.


title: Transgender history

text: Indian texts from as early as 3000 years ago document a third gender, which has been connected to the "hijras" who have formed a category of third-gender or trans-feminine people on the Indian subcontinent since ancient times. In the "Rigveda" (from roughly 3500 years ago), it is said that before creation the world lacked all distinctions, including of sex and gender, a state ancient poets expressed with images like men with wombs or breasts. The "Mahabharata" (from 2–3000 years ago) tells of a trans man, Shikhandi. In the "Ramayana" (from roughly 2000 years ago), when Rama asks "men and women" not to follow him, hijras remain and he blesses them. Most hijras are assigned male at birth (and may or may not castrate themselves), but some are intersex and a few are assigned female. Hijras wear feminine clothing and usually adopt feminine names, often live together in households (often regardless of differences in caste or religion) and relate to each other as female fictive kin (sisters, daughters, etc.), and perform at events such as births and weddings.


title: Transgender history

text: The Buddhist "Tipitaka", composed about 2100 years ago, documents four gender categories: female, male, "pandaka", and "ubhatobyanjanaka". It says the Buddha was tolerant of monks transitioning to nuns, at least initially, though trans people did face some stigma, and the possibility of monastic transition was later curtailed when the tradition of female monasticism was extinguished in Theravada Buddhism, and between the third to fifth century, Indian Buddhists were hostile to transgender people. These trans- and third-gender categories have been connected to the § kathoeys who exist in Thailand.


title: Transgender history

text: Beginning in the 1870s, the colonial authorities attempted to eliminate hijras, prohibiting their performances and transvestism. In India, since independence, several state governments have introduced specific welfare programs to redress historical discrimination against hijras and transgender people. Today, there are at least 490,000 hijras in India, and an estimated 10,000 to 500,000 in Bangladesh, and they are legally recognized as a third gender in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. In 1999, Kamla Jaan became the first hijra elected mayor of an Indian city, Katni, and around the same time Shabnam Mausi was elected as a legislator from Gorakhpur. In Bangladesh, in 2019, several trans people filed to run for parliament, which currently has no trans or hijra members.


title: Transgender history

text: In Hinduism, Ardhanarishvara, a half-male, half-female fusion of Shiva and Shakti, is one of several deities important to many hijras and transgender Hindus, and has been called an androgynous and transgender deity.


title: Transgender history

text: Indonesia has a trans-/third-gender category of people called "waria". It has been estimated that there are over 7 million "waria" in the Indonesian population of 240-260 million people.


title: Transgender history

text: The Bugis of Sulawesi recognize three sexes (male, female, intersex) and five genders: "makkunrai", comparable to cisgender women; "oroané", to cisgender men; "calabai", to trans women; "calalai", to trans men; and "bissu", an androgynous gender.


title: Transgender history

text: An all-transgender netball team from Indonesia competed at the 1994 Gay Games in New York City. The team had been the Indonesian national champions.


title: Transgender history

text: Today, male-assigned people who adopt a feminine gender expression and are transgender or gay are termed "bakla" and sometimes considered a third gender. Historically, cross-gender babaylan shamans were respected and termed or in Luzon and "asog" in the Visayan Islands until outlawed in 1625 and suppressed by Spanish colonial authorities. The Teduray people in Mindanao accepted two trans identities, ("one who became a man") and ("one who became a woman") into at least the 1960s. Crossdressing was practiced during American colonial rule. Singer and actress Helen Cruz was a prominent trans figure, especially in the 1960s, and pioneer of Swardspeak.


title: Transgender history

text: Some (especially Thai) scholars identify the third- and fourth genders documented in the "Tipitaka" with the "kathoey", a third-gender category which was already a part of traditional Thai and Khmer culture by that the time that scripture was composed about 2100 years ago. Some (especially Thai) Buddhists say Ananda (Buddha's cousin and attendant) was born a "kathoey"/transgender in many previous lives, but that it was to expiate for a past misdeed.


title: Transgender history

text: The category of "kathoey" was historically open to male-assigned, female-assigned and intersex people. Since the 1970s, the term has come to be used (by others) to denote mainly male-assigned transvestites or trans women, the latter of whom usually refer to themselves simply as ' ("women"); a minority refer to themselves as ' ("second-type women") or ' ("second-type females"), and only very few refer to themselves as '. "Kathoey" is often rendered into English as "ladyboy".


title: Transgender history

text: Thailand has become a center for performing sex reassignment surgery, and now performs more than any other country. In 2015, the government proposed recognizing third-gender people in the constitution, but instead only retained protections for individuals regardless of "phet" ("sex") which was interpreted to include trans people; a third gender is not recognized on identity documents.


title: Transgender history

text: Drawings and figures from around 9,000 to 3,700 years ago, depicting androgynous and genderless humans in domestic, religious and funerary settings, occur around the Mediterranean.


title: Transgender history

text: Near what is today Prague, a burial from 4,900 to 4,500 years ago was found of a biologically male skeleton in a woman's outfit with feminine grave goods, which some archaeologists consider an early transgender burial.


title: Transgender history

text: In Ancient Greece, Phrygia, and the Roman Republic and Empire, Cybele and Attis were worshiped by galli priests (documented from around 200 BCE to around 300 CE) who wore feminine clothes, referred to themselves as women, and often castrated themselves, and have therefore been seen as early transgender figures.


title: Transgender history

text: In Rome, cross-dressing was also practiced during "Saturnalia", which some argue reinforced established gender identities by making such practices unacceptable outside that rite. Romans also viewed cross-dressing negatively and imposed it as a punishment, as when Charondas of Catane decreed deserters wear female clothes for three days or when, after Crassus' defeat, the Persians hung a lookalike of the dead general clad as a woman.


title: Transgender history

text: Women who cross-dressed as men could have access to male opportunities, as depicted in the fictional story of an Athenian woman dressing as a man to vote in the "ekklesia" in Aristophane's "Ekklesiazusae", or when Agnodice of Athens dressed as a man to get a degree in medicine, Axiothea from Phlius cross-dressed to attend Plato's lectures, and the wife of Calvisius Sabinus dressed as a soldier to join a military camp.


title: Transgender history

text: Roman emperor Elagabalus ( 204222) is said by Roman historians to have depilated, worn makeup and wigs, rejected being called a lord and preferred being called a lady, and offered vast sums of money to any physician who could provide the imperial body with female genitalia. Despite marrying several women, the Syrian's most stable relationship was with chariot driver Hierocles, and Cassius Dio says Elagabalus delighted in being called Hierocles' mistress, wife, and queen. The Severan emperor has therefore been seen by some writers as transgender or transsexual.


title: Transgender history

text: In the 500s, Anastasia the Patrician fled life in the court of Justinian I in Constantinople to spend twenty-eight years (until death) dressed as a male monk in Egypt, coming to be viewed by some today as a transgender saint. Coptic texts from that era (the fifth to ninth centuries), like texts from around Europe, tell of many female-assigned people transitioning to live as men; in one, a monastic named Hilaria (child of Zeno) dresses as a man, brings about a reduction in breast size and cessation of menstruation through asceticism, and comes to be accepted by fellow monks as a male, Hilarion, and by some modern scholars as trans; the story of Marinos (Marina), another Byzantine, who became a monk in Lebanon, is similar.


title: Transgender history

text: Other Byzantine hagiographies describe eunuchs, who occupied a kind of third-gender status, like Ignatios of Constantinople (who became patriarch of Constantinople and a saint).


title: Transgender history

text: Norse society stigmatized effeminacy (especially sexual passivity, but also—it is sometimes said—transgender and cross-dressing behavior), calling it "ergi", At the same time, the characteristics the Norse revered in their gods were complicated; Odin was skilled in effeminate "seiðr" magic, and assumed the form of a woman in several myths, and Loki too changed gender on several occasions (for which reason some modern works label or depict the trickster deity as genderfluid).


title: Transgender history

text: In 2017, archaeologists found that the bones of a Viking buried in Birka with masculine grave goods were female; some suggested the burial could be a trans man, but the original archaeologists said they did not want to apply a "modern" term and preferred to see the person as a woman.


title: Transgender history

text: A 2021 study concluded that a grave from 1050 to 1300 in Hattula, Finland, containing a body buried in feminine clothing with brooches, valuable furs and a hiltless sword (with a second sword later buried above the original grave), which earlier researchers speculated to be two bodies (a male and female) or a powerful woman, was one person with Klinefelter syndrome and that "the overall context of the grave indicates that it was a respected person whose gender identity may well have been non-binary".


title: Transgender history

text: In the 1322 book "Even Boḥan", Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (from Provence, France) wrote a poem expressing lament at and cursing having been born a boy, calling a penis as a "defect" and wishing to have been created as a woman, which some writers see as an expression of gender dysphoria and identification as a trans woman.


title: Transgender history

text: In 1394, London authorities arrested a male-bodied sex worker in women's clothing who went by the name Eleanor Rykener. Rykener reported having first gotten women's clothing, and learned embroidery (perhaps completing an apprenticeship, as female apprentices did) and how to sleep with men for pay, from Elizabeth Brouderer; Rykener also slept with women. Rykener's testimony offers a glimpse into medieval sexual identities. Carolyn Dinshaw suggests Rykener's living and working in Oxford as a woman for some time indicates Rykener enjoyed doing so, and Cordelia Beattie says "it is evident [Rykener] could pass as a woman", and passing "in everyday life would have involved other gendered behaviour"; historian Ruth Mazo Karras argues Rykener was a trans woman, and could also be described as bisexual. Historian Judith Bennett argues people were familiar enough with hermaphroditism that "Rykener's repeated forays into the space between 'male' and 'female' might have been as unremarkable in the streets of fourteenth-century London as they would be in Soho today", while Robert Mills argues officials would have been even more concerned by Rykener's switching of gender roles than by sex work.


title: Transgender history

text: A few medieval works explore female-to-male transformation and trans figures. In the 13th century French "Roman de Silence", Nature and Nurture personified try to sway a child born a girl but raised a boy, who longs to do some feminine things but also long enjoys life as a man before being put into a female identity and clothing at the end of the story; Silence has been viewed as (at least temporarily) transgender. Christine de Pizan's "Livre de la mutacion de Fortune" (1403) opens "I who was formerly a woman, am now in fact a man [...] my current self-description is the truth. But I shall describe by means of fiction the fact of my transformation" using the metaphor of Iphis and Ianthe (a myth John Gower's "Iphis and Ianthe" also took up), leading some modern scholars to also view "Fortune"s protagonist (and Gower's) as transgender.


title: Transgender history

text: Trans figures and non-normative gender traits were acknowledged by the medieval church, and were often interpreted as expressions of God's plan, rather than deviations from it. Many transgender saints and clergy members were celebrated and uplifted by the medieval church. Trans people were canonized in the early days of Christianity on account of their "extraordinary lives" and the view that they were extraordinarily blessed by God. However, as the medieval church developed stricter policies and procedures, its view of trans people changed.


title: Transgender history

text: Marinos is often used as an example of a transgender person in the clergy. Sources vary, but Marinos likely lived somewhere between the fifth and eighth century near modern-day Syria. Marinos, though assigned female at birth, chose to enter a monastery as a monk, following his father and saying the modesty and abstinence that came with the life of a monk would protect his identity. He was expelled from the monastery after a woman accused him of impregnating her, but never refuted the claims made against him, as doing so would involve revealing his genitals; instead, he fathered the child and was eventually allowed back into the monastery along with his son. His sex was only discovered after his death. He is named a saint by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.


title: Transgender history

text: The theme of "sexual disguise" was popular, especially in early monasticism. Numerous female hermits living alone in the desert dressed identical to male hermits. Mary of Egypt, who was born in Alexandria in the early fifth century, is one popular example of an "emasculated female saint." In depictions of her after her conversion to ascetic life, both in visual art and in personal accounts, Mary is portrayed as seemingly genderless. When she stripped herself of all aspects of her previous identity, she also seemed to have shed her gender. Thecla, a contemporary of the apostle Paul, shaved her head and adopted a man's dress in order to prove her devotion and piety. She, like Mary of Egypt, shed her female identity in pursuit of a devoutly religious lifestyle.


title: Transgender history

text: Historian Caroline Walker Bynum has explored the idea of Jesus as an androgynous figure. In the 12th century, the idea of "mother Jesus" began showing up more and more in religious texts. In many Cistercian texts, Jesus is described as both the son of God, and the mother of all people. He is ascribed traits like nurturing and affectionate, which were not used to describe men at the time, presenting Jesus as somewhere between distinctly male and distinctly female.


title: Transgender history

text: Trans ideas continued to show up in religious writing throughout the Middle Ages. One story that bridged the gap between secular and religious ideas of transness is the fictional story of Blanchandin, which gives insight into attitudes towards transgender people in the Middle Ages. The fourteenth-century chanson de geste "Tristan de Nanteuil" details how Blanchandin was physically transformed from woman to man in order to father St. Gilles, being visited by an angel who gives him testicles and a penis. Rather than being portrayed as a transgression against the natural order of things, this transition is seen as a "radiant expression of God's will". Blanchandin was viewed as having a special relationship to God and to his mission on earth.


title: Transgender history

text: Around the turn of the thirteenth century, the church’s view of trans people began to change. The church developed a firmer stance on issues including non-normative gender expressions. As tensions rose between Christianity and Judaism, so did the divide between who was a part of the church and who was not. Individuals who did not fit neatly into the gender binary did not fit into the church. Religious doctrine insisted that intersex individuals choose one sex organ or the other to perform sexual acts with, lest they be accused of engaging in sodomy. The Cathars, who erased all ideas of sex and gender from their belief system, were labeled as heretics. The church’s reaction to the Cathars exemplified a greater trend within the medieval church, one that did not accept rejection of the gender binary.


title: Transgender history

text: Balkan sworn virgins such as Stana Cerović are people assigned female at birth who transition to live as men, out of personal desire or at the urging of family or necessity; they dress as men, socialize with men, do men's activities, and are usually referred to with masculine pronouns in and outside their presence. They take their name from the vow of celibacy they traditionally swore. The gender, found among several national and religious groups in the Balkans (including Muslims and Christians in Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia and Dalmatia), dates to at least the 15th century. It is thought to be the only traditional, formally socially defined trans-masculine gender role in Europe, but it has been suggested that it may be a survival of a more widespread pre-Christian European gender category.


title: Transgender history

text: In Serbia today, since 2019, trans people are able to change legal gender after approval from a psychiatrist and an endocrinologist, without undergoing surgery; one notable trans woman is , a former army major.


title: Transgender history

text: Since 2017, Belgians have the right to change legal gender without sterilization. Many Belgian hospitals specialize in sex reassignment surgery, attracting patients from other countries such as France. On 1 October 2020, Petra De Sutter was sworn in as a deputy prime minister of Belgium under Alexander De Croo, becoming the most senior trans politician in Europe; De Sutter was previously a Belgian senator and a Member of the European Parliament, and is a gynaecologist and the head of the department of reproductive medicine at Ghent University Hospital.


title: Transgender history

text: Lili Elbe was a Danish trans woman and one of the first recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Elbe was assigned male at birth and was a successful painter before transitioning. She transitioned in 1930 and changed her legal name to Lili Ilse Elvenes, and died in 1931 from complications after overy and uterus transplants.


title: Transgender history

text: Denmark is also known for its role in the transition of American Christine Jorgensen, whose operations were performed in Copenhagen starting in 1951.


title: Transgender history

text: In 2017 Denmark became the first country in the world to remove transgender identities from its list of disorders of mental health.


title: Transgender history

text: Christine de Pisan makes one of the early accounts of gender transitioning in her autobiographical allegorical poem Le Livre de la mutation de fortune .


title: Transgender history

text: The Chevalier d'Éon (1728–1810) was a French diplomat and soldier who appeared publicly as a man and pursued masculine occupations for 49 years, but during that time successfully infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by presenting as a woman, and later promoted (and may have engineered) rumours that d'Éon had been assigned female at birth, and thereafter agreed with the French government to dress in women's clothing, doing so from 1777 until death. Doctors who examined d'Éon's body after death discovered "male organs in every respect perfectly formed", but also feminine characteristics; modern scholars think d'Eon may have been a trans woman and/or intersex.


title: Transgender history

text: Herculine Barbin (1838–1868) was a French intersex individual assigned female at birth and raised as a girl. After a doctor's examination at age 22, Barbin was reassigned male, and legal papers followed declaring Barbin officially male. Barbin changed names to Abel Barbin, and wrote memoirs using female pronouns for the period before transition, and male pronouns thereafter, which were recovered (following Barbin's suicide at age 30) and published in France in 1872, and in English in 1980. Judith Butler refers to Michel Foucault's commentary on Barbin in their book "Gender Trouble".


title: Transgender history

text: Coccinelle (Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, 1931 – 2006) was a French actress, entertainer and singer who made her debut as a transgender showgirl in 1953, and became the first person widely publicized as getting gender reassignment case in post-war Europe, where she became an international celebrity and a renowned club singer. Coccinelle worked extensively as an activist on behalf of transgender people in later life, founding the organization "Devenir Femme" ("To Become Woman").


title: Transgender history

text: In March 2020, Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes elected—and in May, inaugurated—Marie Cau as mayor, making her the first openly transgender mayor in France.


title: Transgender history

text: In the early 1900s, transgender people became a subject of popular interest in Germany, covered by several biographies and the sympathetic liberal press in Berlin. In 1906, Karl M. Baer became one of the first known trans men to have sex reassignment surgery, and in 1907 gained full legal recognition of his gender with a new birth certificate, married his first wife, and published a semifictionalized autobiography, "Aus eines Mannes Mädchenjahren" ("Memoirs of a Man's Maiden Years"); in 1938, he emigrated to Palestine. The same year, Brazilian socialite Dina Alma de Paradeda moved to Breslau and became engaged to a male teacher, before committing suicide, after which a doctor revealed that her body was male. This made her one of the first trans women known by name in Central Europe or of South American origin. A biography published in 1907, "Tagebuch einer männlichen Braut" ("Diary of a male bride"), was supposedly based on her diary.


title: Transgender history

text: During the Weimar Republic, Berlin was a liberal city with one of the most active LGBT rights movements in the world. Magnus Hirschfeld co-founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (WhK) in Berlin and sought social recognition of homosexual and transgender men and women; with branches in several countries, the committee was (on a small scale) the first international LGBT organization. In 1919, Hirschfeld co-founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, a sexology research institute with a research library, a large archive, and a marriage and sex counseling office. The institute was a worldwide pioneer in the call for civil rights and social acceptance for homosexual and transgender people. Hirschfeld coined the word "transvestite". In 1930 and 1931, with Hirschfeld's (and other doctors') help, Dora Richter became the first known trans woman to undergo vaginoplasty, along with removal of the penis (following removal of testicles several years earlier), and Lili Elbe underwent similar surgeries in Dresden, including an unsuccessful ovary and uterus transplant, complications from which resulted in her death. In 1933, the Nazis burned the institute's library.


title: Transgender history

text: On June 12, 2003, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Van Kück, a German trans woman whose insurance company denied her reimbursement for sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy, who sued under Article 6 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Transgender history

text: Traditional Neapolitan culture recognized "femminielli", a sort of third gender of male-assigned people with markedly feminine gender expression and an androphilic/homosexual orientation, who remain largely unstigmatized.


title: Transgender history

text: In 2006 Vladimir Luxuria became the first openly transgender woman elected to the Italian Parliament and the first transgender member of a parliament in Europe.


title: Transgender history

text: In 2015, the Court of Cassation ruled that sterilization and sex reassignment surgery was not required in order to obtain a legal gender change.


title: Transgender history

text: Since 2013—when the government passed a law against "promoting" "non-traditional relations"—Russia has become notoriously hostile, with trans people facing increasing harassment. Dmitri Isaev's clinic, which provided medical authorization for half the sex reassignment surgeries, was forced to operate in secret. In 2019, a court in Saint Petersburg, Russia's most liberal city, ordered a business which had fired a woman when she transitioned to reinstate her.


title: Transgender history

text: Among the Itelmens of Siberia, a third gender category of the koekchuch was recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries, individuals who were assigned male at birth but dressed as women did.


title: Transgender history

text: According to historians Dan Healey and Francesca Stella, scholarship on trans identities in the Soviet Union has been fragmentary and that "a comprehensive history of the Soviet transsexual is needed."


title: Transgender history

text: Following the revolutions of 1917, LGBT rights in the Soviet Union expanded greatly, including a greater awareness of gender diversity. Nikolai Koltsov, director of the Institute of Experimental Biology, stated that there was "an infinite quantity of intermediate sexes," and Evgenii Fedorovich M., a State Political Directorate employee who had been born Evgeniia Fedorovna M. and who presented as a man, stated that "people live among us who do not fit neither the one nor the other gender" who "will begin to feel a sense of responsibility before society and become useful to it only when that society stops oppressing them and strangling them due to its lack of consciousness and its petty-bourgeois barbarity." In 1929, the People's Commissariat for Health organised a conference on "transvestites," including discussions about people seeking to change sexes and culminating in a resolution calling for same-sex marriage to be officially recognised. However, much of the relative openness of the 1920s was reversed in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin, including the re-criminalisation of homosexuality in 1933.


title: Transgender history

text: In 1961, an interview with a trans woman was featured in the press where she recounted the abuse she faced from doctors, including being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and being physically beaten.


title: Transgender history

text: In 1968, in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, surgeon Viktor Kalnberz, who had invented a penile implant that had already seen relatively widespread use in the Soviet Union and Europe to treat erectile dysfunction, was approached by a trans man on the subject of sex reassignment surgery. After the patient underwent consultations with several specialists, including an endocrinologist and a psychiatrist, Kalnberz was able to obtain authorisation from the Latvian Ministry of Health to perform the surgery over the course of 1970 to 1972. Kalnberz's actions were subsequently reviewed by a special committee, which found that the operation had been medically necessary, but he was formally reprimanded by the Soviet Ministry of Health.


title: Transgender history

text: There are records of several individuals in Spain in the 1500s who were raised as girls subsequently adopting male identities under various circumstances who some historians think were transgender, including Eleno de Céspedes and Catalina de Erauso.


title: Transgender history

text: During the Franco era, thousands of trans women and gay men were jailed, and today fight for compensation. In 2007, a law took effect allowing trans people to change gender markers in documents such as birth certificates and passports without undergoing sterilization and sex reassignment surgery.


title: Transgender history

text: Bülent Ersoy, a Turkish singer who was assigned male at birth, had a gender reassignment surgery in April 1981. Rüzgar Erkoçlar, a Turkish actor who was assigned female at birth, came out as a trans in February 2013.


title: Transgender history

text: Irish-born surgeon James Barry had a long career as a surgeon and rose to the second highest medical office in the British Army, improving conditions for wounded soldiers and the inhabitants of Cape Town, South Africa, and performing one of the first caesarean sections in which both the mother and child survived.


title: Transgender history

text: In 1946, the first sex-reassignment phalloplasty was performed by one British surgeon on another, Harold Gillies on Michael Dillon (an earlier phalloplasty was done on a cisgender man in 1936 in Russia).


title: Transgender history

text: In 1961, English model April Ashley was outed as transgender; she is one of the earliest Britons known to have had sex reassignment surgery, and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2012 for promoting trans equality.


title: Transgender history

text: In 2004, the Gender Recognition Act passed, giving transgender people legal recognition of their gender before the law subject to certain conditions.


title: Transgender history

text: The first reported case of an Australian undertaking a sex change operation was an ex-RAAF Staff Sergeant Robert James Brooks in February 1956.


title: Transgender history

text: The Gender Dysphoria Clinic at Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne was established by Dr Trudy Kennedy and Dr Herbert Bower in 1975. It moved to Monash Medical Centre in 1989 and closed in 2009.


title: Transgender history

text: Australia's first transgender rights and advocacy organizations were established in 1979: the Melbourne-based Victorian Transsexual Coalition and the Victorian Transsexual Association; followed in 1981 by the Sydney-based Australian Transsexual Association, which included prominent activist, academic and author Roberta Perkins.


title: Transgender history

text: In 1995, Georgina Beyer became the first openly trans mayor in the world when Carterton, New Zealand elected her, and in 1999, she became the first transgender member of a parliament, winning election to represent Wairarapa; in 2003, the former sex worker helped pass the Prostitution Reform Bill decriminalizing sex work.


title: Transgender history

text: Some Maori use the terms "whakawahine" ("like a woman"), "tangata ira tane" ("human man") to refer to trans-woman- and trans-man-like categories. The related term "fakafifine" denotes male-assigned people in Niue who fulfill a feminine third gender. Similarly, in the Cook Islands, "akava'ine" is a Cook Islands Māori (Rarotongan) word which, due to cross-cultural contact with other Polynesians living in New Zealand (especially the Samoan fa'afafine), has been used since the 2000s to refer to transgender people of Māori descent from the Cook Islands.


title: Transgender history

text: In Samoa, the "fa'afafine" ("in the manner of women") are a third gender with uncertain origins which go back at least to the beginning of the twentieth century. Fa'afafine are assigned male at birth, and express both masculine and feminine gender traits, performing a role otherwise performed by women. The word "fa'atamaloa" is sometimes used for a trans-male or tomboyish gender category or role.


title: Transgender history

text: In Tonga, the related term "fakafefine" or more commonly "fakaleiti" ("in the manner of ladies") denotes male-assigned people who dress and work as women and may partner with men, and call themselves simply "leiti" ("ladies"). They are common—one of the children of former king Taufa'ahau Tupou IV (d. 2006) is a "leiti"—and still held in high regard, though colonization and westernization have introduced some transphobia.


title: Transgender history

text: In Fiji, "vakasalewalewa" (also written "vaka sa lewa lewa") are male-assigned people who perform roles usually carried out by women. In Tahiti, the "rae rae" fulfil a similar role.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Plantagenet by virtue of being a direct male-line descendant of Edmund of Langley, King Edward III's fourth surviving son. However, it was through his mother, Anne Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, that Richard inherited his strongest claim to the throne. He also inherited vast estates and served in various offices of state in Ireland, France and England, a country he ultimately governed as Lord Protector during the madness of King Henry VI.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: His conflicts with Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, and other members of Henry's court, as well as his competing claim to the throne, were leading factors in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses. Richard eventually attempted to take the throne, but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become king on Henry's death. However, within a few weeks of securing this agreement, the Act of Accord, he died in the Battle of Wakefield. Two of his sons, Edward IV and Richard III, later ascended the throne.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Richard of York was born on 22 September 1411, the son of Richard, Earl of Cambridge (1385–1415), and his wife Anne Mortimer (1388–1411). Both his parents were descended from King Edward III of England (1312–1377): his father was son of Edmund, 1st Duke of York (founder of the House of York), fourth surviving son of Edward III, whereas his mother Anne Mortimer was a great-granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Edward's second son. After the death in 1425 of Anne's childless brother Edmund, Earl of March, this ancestry supplied her son Richard, of the House of York, with a claim to the English throne that was arguably superior to that of the reigning House of Lancaster, descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Richard had an only sister, Isabel. Richard's mother, Anne Mortimer, died during or shortly after his birth, and his father the Earl of Cambridge was beheaded in 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot against the Lancastrian King Henry V. Within a few months of his father's death, Richard's childless uncle, Edward, 2nd Duke of York, was slain at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and so Richard inherited Edward's title and lands, becoming 3rd duke of York. The lesser title but greater estates of the Mortimer family, along with their claim to the throne, also descended to him on the death of his maternal uncle Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, in 1425.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Richard of York already held a strong claim to the English throne, being the heir general of Edward III while also related to the same king in a direct male line of descent. Once he inherited the vast Mortimer estates, he also became the wealthiest and most powerful noble in England, second only to the king himself. An account shows that York's net income from Welsh and marcher lands alone was £3,430 (about £350,000 today) in the year 1443–44.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Upon the death of the Earl of Cambridge, Richard became a ward of the crown. As he was an orphan, his property was managed by royal officials. Despite his father's plot against the king, along with his provocative ancestry—one which had been used in the past as a rallying point by enemies of the House of Lancaster—Richard was allowed to inherit his family estates without any legal constraints. His considerable lands as duke of York meant that his wardship was a valuable gift of the crown, and in December 1423 this was sold to Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Little is recorded of Richard's early life. As a royal ward, in 1416 he was placed under the guardianship of the Lancastrian retainer Robert Waterton, under whose tutelage he remained until 1423, in a low public profile. Then, as ward of the Earl of Westmorland, York was brought up in the Neville family hearth until his majority. The earl had fathered an enormous family, having had twenty-two children, and had many daughters needing husbands; as was his right, he betrothed the thirteen-year-old Richard to his nine-year-old daughter Cecily Neville in 1424. The marriage, which took place by October 1429, meant that Richard was now related to much of the English upper aristocracy, many of whose members had themselves married into the Neville family. In October 1425, when Ralph Neville died, he bequeathed the wardship of York to his widow, Joan Beaufort. By now the wardship was even more valuable, as Richard had inherited the vast Mortimer estates on the death of the Earl of March.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Over the next few years, York was drawn more closely into the circle around the young king. On 19 May 1426 he was knighted at Leicester by John, Duke of Bedford, the younger brother of King Henry V. He was present at the coronation of King Henry VI on 6 November 1429 in Westminster Abbey, and on 20 January 1430 he acted as Constable of England for a duel in the presence of the king at Smithfield. He then followed Henry to France, being present at his coronation as king of France in Notre-Dame in 1431. Finally, on 12 May 1432, he came into his inheritance and was granted full control of his estates. On 22 April 1433, York was admitted to the knightly Order of the Garter.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: As York reached majority, events were unfolding in France which would tie him to the events of the ongoing Hundred Years' War. In the spring of 1434, York attended a great council meeting at Westminster which attempted to conciliate the king's uncles, the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester (heads of the regency government), over disagreements regarding the conduct of the war in France. Henry V's conquests in France could not be sustained forever, as England either needed to conquer more territory to ensure permanent French subordination, or to concede territory to gain a negotiated settlement. During Henry VI's minority, his Council took advantage of French weakness and the alliance with Burgundy to increase England's possessions, but following the Treaty of Arras of 1435, Burgundy ceased to recognise the English king's claim to the French throne.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In May 1436, a few months after Bedford's death, York was appointed to succeed him as commander of the English forces in France. York's appointment was one of a number of stop-gap measures after the death of Bedford to try to retain French possessions until the young King Henry VI could assume personal rule. His actual departure was delayed due to disagreements pertaining to the terms of his indentures. Rather than receiving the same powers Bedford had enjoyed as "regent", York was forced to settle for a lesser role as "lieutenant-general and governor", by which he was not allowed to appoint major financial and military officials.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York landed in France on 7 June 1436, disembarking at Honfleur. This was the duke's first military command. The fall of Paris (his original destination) led to his army being redirected to Rouen. Working with Bedford's captains, York had some success, recovering many lost areas in Normandy while establishing good order and justice in the duchy. The campaigns were mainly conducted by Lord Talbot, one of the leading English captains of the day, but York also played a part in stopping and reversing French advances, recapturing Fécamp and a number of towns in the Pays de Caux.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: However, he was dissatisfied with the terms under which he was appointed, as he had to find much of the money to pay his troops and other expenses from his own estates. York was keen to leave France as soon as his original twelve-month term of office expired, but he was instructed to remain until the arrival of his successor, the Earl of Warwick, and he did not return to England until November 1437. In spite of York's position as one of the leading nobles of the realm, he was not included in Henry VI's Council on his return.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Henry VI turned to York again in 1440 after peace negotiations failed. He was reappointed Lieutenant of France on 2 July, this time with the same powers that the late Bedford had earlier been granted. As in 1437, York was able to count on the loyalty of Bedford's supporters, including Sir John Fastolf, Sir William Oldhall and Sir William ap Thomas. He was promised an annual income of £20,000 to support his position. Duchess Cecily accompanied him to Normandy, and his children Edward, Edmund and Elizabeth were all born in Rouen.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York reached France in 1441 and quickly moved down the Seine towards Pontoise, which was besieged by the French. Though York failed to bring the French to battle, he and Lord Talbot—in what would be the highlight of York's military career—led a brilliant campaign involving several river crossings around the Seine and Oise, chasing them almost up to the walls of Paris. In the end, all of York's efforts were in vain, for the French took Pontoise by assault in September 1441. This was to be York's only military action during his second lieutenancy.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In 1442, York continued to hold the line in Normandy. He signed a treaty with Isabel, duchess of Burgundy, at Dijon on 23 April 1443, which created an indefinite truce between England and Burgundy. Funding the war effort was becoming an increasing issue: though he was paid his annuity of £20,000 in 1441–2, York did not receive anything more from England until February 1444.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: However, in 1443 Henry VI put the newly created Duke of Somerset, John Beaufort, in charge of an army of 8,000 men, initially intended for the relief of Gascony. This denied York much-needed men and resources at a time when he was struggling to hold the borders of Normandy. Not only that, but the terms of Somerset's appointment could have caused York to feel that his own role as effective regent over the whole of Lancastrian France was reduced to that of governor of Normandy. The English establishment in Normandy expressed strong opposition to the measure, but the delegation York sent to remonstrate against the decision was unsuccessful. Somerset's campaign itself also added to the insult: his conduct brought England to odds with the dukes of Brittany and Alençon, disrupting York's attempts (conducted during 1442–43) to involve the English in an alliance of French nobles. Somerset's army achieved nothing and eventually returned to Normandy, where Somerset died in 1444. This may have been the start of the hatred that York harboured for the Beaufort family, a resentment that would later turn into civil war.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: English policy now turned back to a negotiated peace (or at least a truce) with France, so the remainder of York's time in France was spent in routine administration and domestic matters. York met Margaret of Anjou, the intended bride for Henry VI, on 18 March 1445 at Pontoise.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York appears to have kept a low profile in English politics before his final return to England, in 1445. King Henry VI seems to have been reluctant to employ York, who was not invited to the first royal council at the end of the regency in November 1437.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York returned to England on 20 October 1445 at the end of his five-year appointment in France. He must have had reasonable expectations of reappointment. However, he had become associated with the English in Normandy who were opposed to the policy of Henry VI's Council towards France, some of whom had followed him to England (for example, Sir William Oldhall and Sir Andrew Ogard). Eventually (on 24 December 1446) the lieutenancy went to Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, who had succeeded his brother John. During 1446 and 1447, York attended meetings of Henry VI's Council and of Parliament, but most of his time was spent in the administration of his estates on the Welsh border.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York's attitude toward the Council's surrender of the French province of Maine, in return for an extension of the truce with France and a French bride for Henry, must have contributed to his appointment on 30 July 1447 as Lieutenant of Ireland. In some ways it was a logical appointment, as Richard was also Earl of Ulster and had considerable estates in Ireland, but it was also a convenient way of removing him from both England and France. His term of office was for ten years, ruling him out of consideration for any other high office during that period.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Domestic matters kept him in England until June 1449, but when he did eventually leave for Ireland, it was with Cecily (who was pregnant at the time) and an army of around 600 men. This suggests a stay of some time was envisaged. However, claiming a lack of money to defend English possessions, York decided to return to England. His financial state may indeed have been problematic, since by the mid-1440s he was owed £38,666 by the crown, (equivalent to £ in current value) and the income from his estates was declining.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In 1450, the defeats and failures of the English royal government of the previous ten years boiled over into serious political unrest. In January Adam Moleyns, Lord Privy Seal and Bishop of Chichester, was lynched. In May the chief councillor of the king, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was murdered on his way into exile. The House of Commons demanded that the king take back many of the grants of land and money he had made to his favourites.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In June, Kent and Sussex rose in revolt. Led by Jack Cade (taking the name Mortimer), they took control of London and killed James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele, the Lord High Treasurer of England. In August, the final towns held in Normandy fell to the French and refugees flooded back to England.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: On 7 September, York landed at Beaumaris, Anglesey. Evading an attempt by Henry to intercept him, and gathering followers as he went, York arrived in London on 27 September. After an inconclusive (and possibly violent) meeting with the king, York continued to recruit, both in East Anglia and the west. The violence in London was such that Somerset, back in England after the collapse of English Normandy, was put in the Tower of London for his own safety.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York's public stance was that of a reformer, demanding better government and the prosecution of the "traitors" who had lost northern France. Judging by his later actions, there may also have been a more hidden motive—the destruction of Somerset, who was soon released from the Tower. York's men made several attacks on the properties and servants of the Duke of Somerset, who was to be the focus of attack in parliament.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York and his ally, the Duke of Norfolk, returned to London in November with large and threatening retinues. The London mob was mobilised to put pressure on parliament itself. However, although granted another office, that of Justice of the Forest south of the Trent, York still lacked any real support outside Parliament and his own retainers. In December Parliament elected York's chamberlain, Sir William Oldhall, as speaker.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In April 1451, Somerset was released from the Tower and appointed Captain of Calais. One of York's councillors, Thomas Young, the MP for Bristol, was sent to the Tower when he proposed that York be recognised as heir to the throne, and Parliament was dissolved. Henry VI was prompted into belated reforms, which went some way to restore public order and improve the royal finances. Frustrated by his lack of political power, York retired to Ludlow.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In 1452, York made another bid for power, but not to become king himself. Protesting his loyalty, he aimed to be recognised as Henry VI's heir to the throne (Henry was childless after seven years of marriage), while also continuing to try to destroy the Duke of Somerset. Henry may have preferred Somerset to succeed him over York, as Somerset was a Beaufort descendant.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Gathering men on the march from Ludlow, York headed for London, only to find the city gates barred against him on Henry's orders. At Dartford in Kent, with his army outnumbered, and the support of only two of the nobility (the Earl of Devon and Lord Cobham), York was forced to come to an agreement with Henry. He was allowed to present his complaints against Somerset to the king, but was then taken to London and after two weeks of virtual house arrest, was forced to swear an oath of allegiance at St Paul's Cathedral.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: By the summer of 1453, York seemed to have lost his power struggle. Henry embarked on a series of judicial tours, punishing York's tenants who had been involved in the debacle at Dartford. The queen consort, Margaret of Anjou, was pregnant, and even if she should miscarry, the marriage of the newly ennobled Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, to Margaret Beaufort provided for an alternative line of succession. By July, York had lost both of his offices, Lieutenant of Ireland and Justice of the Forest south of the Trent.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Then, in August 1453, Henry VI suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown, perhaps brought on by the news of the defeat at the Battle of Castillon in Gascony, which finally drove English forces from France. He became completely unresponsive, unable to speak, and had to be led from room to room. The Council tried to carry on as though the king's disability would be brief, but they had to admit eventually that something had to be done. In October, invitations for a Great Council were issued, and although Somerset tried to have him excluded, York (the premier duke of the realm) was included. Somerset's fears were to prove well grounded, for in November he was committed to the Tower.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: On 22 March 1454, Cardinal John Kemp, the Chancellor, died, making continued government in the King's name constitutionally impossible. Henry could not be induced to respond to any suggestion as to who might replace Kemp. Despite the opposition of Margaret of Anjou, York was appointed Protector of the Realm and Chief Councillor on 27 March 1454. York's appointment of his brother-in-law, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, as Chancellor was significant. Henry's burst of activity in 1453 had seen him try to stem the violence caused by various disputes between noble families. These disputes gradually polarised around the long-standing Percy–Neville feud. Unfortunately for Henry, Somerset (and therefore the king) became identified with the Percy cause. This drove the Nevilles into the arms of York, who now for the first time had support among a section of the nobility.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: According to the historian Robin Storey: "If Henry's insanity was a tragedy, his recovery was a national disaster." When he recovered his reason in January 1455, after 17 months of near catatonia, Henry lost little time in reversing York's actions. Somerset was released and restored to favour. York was deprived of the Captaincy of Calais (which was granted to Somerset once again) and of the office of Protector. Salisbury resigned as Chancellor. York, Salisbury, and Salisbury's eldest son, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, were threatened when a Great Council was called to meet on 21 May in Leicester (away from Somerset's enemies in London). York and his Neville relations recruited in the north and probably along the Welsh border. By the time Somerset realised what was happening, there was no time to raise a large force to support the king.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Once York took his army south of Leicester, thus barring the route to the Great Council, the dispute between him and the king regarding Somerset would have to be settled by force. On 22 May, the king and Somerset arrived at St Albans with a hastily assembled and poorly equipped army of around 2,000. York, Warwick, and Salisbury were already there with a larger and better-equipped army. More importantly, at least some of their soldiers would have had experience in the frequent border skirmishes with the Kingdom of Scotland and the occasionally rebellious people of Wales.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: The First Battle of St Albans that followed hardly deserves the term battle. Possibly as few as 50 men were killed, but among them were some of the prominent leaders of the Lancastrian party, such as Somerset himself, Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford. York and the Nevilles had therefore succeeded in killing their enemies, while York's capture of the king gave him the chance to resume the power he had lost in 1453. It was vital to keep Henry alive, as his death would have led, not to York becoming king himself, but to the minority rule of Henry's two-year-old son Edward of Westminster. Since York's support among the nobility was small, he would be unable to dominate a minority Council led by Margaret of Anjou.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In the custody of York, the king was returned to London with York and Salisbury riding alongside, and with Warwick bearing the royal sword in front. On 25 May, Henry received the crown from York in a clearly symbolic display of power. York made himself Constable of England and appointed Warwick Captain of Calais. York's position was enhanced when some of the nobility agreed to join his government, including Salisbury's brother William Neville, Lord Fauconberg, who had served under York in France.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: For the rest of the summer, York held the king prisoner, either in Hertford Castle or in London (to be enthroned in Parliament in July). When Parliament met again in November, the throne was empty, and it was reported that the king was ill again. York resumed the office of Protector; although he surrendered it when the king recovered in February 1456, it seemed that this time Henry was willing to accept that York and his supporters would play a major part in the government of the realm.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Salisbury and Warwick continued to serve as councillors, and Warwick was confirmed as Captain of Calais. In June, York himself was sent north to defend the border against a threatened invasion by James II of Scotland. However, the king once again came under the control of a dominant figure, this time one harder to replace than Suffolk or Somerset: for the rest of his reign, it would be the queen, Margaret of Anjou, who would control the king.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Although Margaret of Anjou had now taken the place formerly held by Suffolk or Somerset, her position, at least at first, was not as dominant. York had his Lieutenancy of Ireland renewed, and he continued to attend meetings of the Council. However, in August 1456 the court moved to Coventry, in the heart of the queen's lands. How York was treated now depended on how powerful the queen's views were. York was regarded with suspicion on three fronts: he threatened the succession of the young Prince of Wales; he was apparently negotiating for the marriage of his eldest son Edward into the Burgundian ruling family; and as a supporter of the Nevilles, he was contributing to the major cause of disturbance in the kingdom—the Percy–Neville feud.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Here, the Nevilles lost ground. Salisbury gradually ceased to attend meetings of the council. When his brother Robert Neville, Bishop of Durham, died in 1457, the new appointment was Laurence Booth. Booth was a member of the queen's inner circle. The Percys were shown greater favour both at court and in the struggle for power on the Scottish border.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Henry's attempts at reconciliation between the factions divided by the killings at St Albans reached their climax with The Love Day on 25 March 1458. However, the lords concerned had earlier turned London into an armed camp, and the public expressions of amity seemed not to have lasted beyond the ceremony.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In June 1459 a Great Council was summoned to meet at Coventry. York, the Nevilles and some other lords refused to appear, fearing that the armed forces that had been commanded to assemble the previous month had been summoned to arrest them. Instead, York and Salisbury recruited in their strongholds and met Warwick, who had brought with him his troops from Calais, at Worcester. Parliament was summoned to meet at Coventry in November, but without York and the Nevilles. This could only mean that they were to be accused of treason.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York and his supporters raised their armies, but they were initially dispersed throughout the country. Salisbury beat back a Lancastrian ambush at the Battle of Blore Heath on 23 September 1459, while his son Warwick evaded another army under the command of the Duke of Somerset, and afterwards, they both joined their forces with York. On 11 October, York tried to move south but was forced to head for Ludlow. On 12 October, at the Battle of Ludford Bridge, York once again faced Henry just as he had at Dartford seven years earlier. Warwick's troops from Calais refused to fight, and the rebels fled—York to Ireland, Warwick, Salisbury, and York's son Edward to Calais. York's wife Cecily and their two younger sons (George and Richard) were captured in Ludlow Castle and imprisoned at Coventry.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York's flight worked to his advantage. He was still Lieutenant of Ireland and attempts to replace him failed. The Parliament of Ireland backed him, providing offers of both military and financial support. Warwick's (possibly inadvertent) return to Calais also proved fortunate. His control of the English Channel meant that pro-Yorkist propaganda, emphasising loyalty to the king while decrying his wicked councillors, could be spread around southern England. Such was the Yorkists' naval dominance that Warwick was able to sail to Ireland in March 1460, meet York and return to Calais in May. Warwick's control of Calais was to prove to be influential with the wool merchants in London.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In December 1459 York, Warwick and Salisbury suffered attainder. Their lives were forfeit, and their lands reverted to the king; their heirs would not inherit. This was the most extreme punishment a member of the nobility could suffer, and York was now in the same situation as Henry of Bolingbroke (the future King Henry IV) in 1398. Only a successful invasion of England would restore his fortune. Assuming the invasion was successful, York had three options: become Protector again, disinherit the king's son so that York would succeed, or claim the throne for himself.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: On 26 June, Warwick and Salisbury landed at Sandwich. The men of Kent rose to join them. London opened its gates to the Nevilles on 2 July. They marched north into the Midlands, and on 10 July, they defeated the royal army at the Battle of Northampton (through treachery among the king's troops), and captured Henry, whom they brought back to London.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York remained in Ireland. He did not set foot in England until 9 September, and when he did, he acted as a king. Marching under the arms of his maternal great-great-grandfather Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, he displayed a banner of the coat of arms of England as he approached London.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: A Parliament called to meet on 7 October repealed all the legislation of the Coventry parliament the previous year. On 10 October, York arrived in London and took residence in the royal palace. Entering Parliament with his sword borne upright before him, he made for the empty throne and placed his hand upon it, as if to occupy it. He may have expected the assembled peers to acclaim him as king, as they had acclaimed Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. Instead, there was silence. Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asked whether he wished to see the king. York replied, "I know of no person in this realm the which oweth not to wait on me, rather than I of him." This high-handed reply did not impress the Lords.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: The next day, Richard advanced his claim to the crown by hereditary right in proper form. However, his narrow support among his peers led to failure once again. After weeks of negotiation, the best that could be achieved was the Act of Accord, by which York and his heirs were recognised as Henry's successors. However, in October 1460 Parliament did grant York extraordinary executive powers to protect the realm, and made him Lord Protector of England. He was also given the lands and income of the Prince of Wales, but was not granted the title itself or made Earl of Chester or Duke of Cornwall. With the king effectively in custody, York and Warwick were the "de facto" rulers of the country.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: While this was happening, the Lancastrian loyalists were rallying and arming in the north of England. Faced with the threat of attack from the Percys, and with Margaret of Anjou trying to gain the support of the new King of Scotland James III, York, Salisbury and York's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, headed north on 2 December. They arrived at York's stronghold of Sandal Castle on 21 December to find the situation bad and getting worse. Forces loyal to Henry controlled the city of York, and nearby Pontefract Castle was also in hostile hands. The Lancastrian armies were commanded by some of York's implacable enemies such as Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland and John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, whose fathers had been killed at the Battle of Saint Albans, and included several northern lords who were jealous of York's and Salisbury's wealth and influence in the North.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: On 30 December, York and his forces sortied from Sandal Castle. Their reasons for doing so are not clear; they were variously claimed to be a result of deception by the Lancastrian forces, or treachery by northern lords who York mistakenly believed to be his allies, or simple rashness on York's part. The larger Lancastrian force destroyed York's army in the resulting Battle of Wakefield. York was killed in the battle. The precise nature of his end was variously reported; he was either unhorsed, wounded and overcome fighting to the death or captured, given a mocking crown of bulrushes and then beheaded. Edmund of Rutland was intercepted as he tried to flee and was executed, possibly by Clifford in revenge for the death of his own father at the First Battle of St Albans. Salisbury escaped, but was captured and executed the following night.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: York was buried at Pontefract, but his severed head was put on a pike by the victorious Lancastrian armies and displayed over Micklegate Bar at York, wearing a paper crown. His remains were later moved to Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Within a few weeks of Richard of York's death, his eldest surviving son was acclaimed King Edward IV and finally established the House of York on the throne following a decisive victory over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton. After an occasionally tumultuous reign, he died in 1483 and was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, Edward V, who was himself succeeded after 86 days by his uncle, York's youngest son, Richard III.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Richard of York's grandchildren included Edward V and Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth married Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty, and became the mother of Henry VIII, Margaret Tudor and Mary Tudor. All future English monarchs would come from the line of Henry VII and Elizabeth, and therefore from Richard of York himself.


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: In theatre, Richard appears in Shakespeare's plays "Henry VI, Part 1", in "Henry VI, Part 2" and in "Henry VI, Part 3".


title: Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York

text: Richard of York is the subject of the popular mnemonic "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain" to remember the colours of a rainbow in order (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet—ROYGBIV).


title: July

text: July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the fourth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., it being the month of his birth. Before then it was called Quintilis, being the fifth month of the calendar that started with March.


title: July

text: It is on average the warmest month in most of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the second month of summer, and the coldest month in much of the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the second month of winter. The second half of the year commences in July. In the Southern Hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere.


title: July

text: "Dog days" are considered to begin in early July in the Northern Hemisphere, when the hot sultry weather of summer usually starts. Spring lambs born in late winter or early spring are usually sold before 1 July.


title: July

text: "(All Baha'i, Islamic, and Jewish observances begin at the sundown before the date listed, and end at sundown of the date in question unless otherwise noted.)"


title: Ted McGinley

text: Ted Martin McGinley (born May 30, 1958) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jefferson D'Arcy on the television sitcom "Married... with Children" and as Charley Shanowski on the ABC sitcom "Hope & Faith". He was a late regular on "Happy Days", "Dynasty" and "The Love Boat" and is known for playing the villainous role of Stan Gable in the film "Revenge of the Nerds" and several made-for-television sequels.


title: Ted McGinley

text: McGinley was born in Newport Beach, California, the son of Bob and Emily McGinley. His paternal grandfather was an Irish immigrant. At Newport Harbor High School, he focused on athletics and swimming and was a star player on the water polo team. He also worked as a lifeguard at the beach during summers. After graduation, McGinley attended USC on a water polo scholarship, majoring in urban planning and real estate.


title: Ted McGinley

text: At USC, McGinley was captain and two-time MVP of the water polo team as well as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. However, in his sophomore year, following recommendation from his girlfriend, McGinley began modeling as a way to break onto the acting scene. With his scholarship not renewed, he left USC and moved to New York in 1979.


title: Ted McGinley

text: After a casting director spotted a picture of him in "GQ", McGinley was cast on the comedy series "Happy Days" as Roger Phillips (nephew of the Cunninghams), a role he played from 1980 to 1984. During the run of "Happy Days", he landed a role in the comedy film "Young Doctors in Love" (1982).


title: Ted McGinley

text: After "Happy Days" ended in 1984, McGinley appeared in "Revenge of the Nerds" where he played Stanley Gable, the head of the jock-run Alpha Beta fraternity and the primary antagonist of the Lambda Lambda Lambda nerd fraternity; he reprised the role in the third and fourth movies in the "Nerds" franchise, both produced for television. He went on to appear in regular roles on television series including "The Love Boat" and "Dynasty". He then played the role of Al Bundy's best friend Jefferson D'Arcy on "Married... with Children" from 1991 to 1997, describing it as a "great, great gig." He had recurring roles on Aaron Sorkin's television series "Sports Night" as Dana's boyfriend Gordon, and "The West Wing" as a television news anchor. From 2003 to 2006, he played Charley Shanowski on "Hope & Faith".


title: Ted McGinley

text: Two years later, he was selected for a role in "Charlie Lawrence", a situation comedy about a freshman congressman from New Mexico, played by Nathan Lane. McGinley played Graydon Ford, the neighbor of Lane's title character, who was a member of the opposing political party. McGinley was also in the pilot for the 2002 CBS show "Life of the Party", playing a senator.


title: Ted McGinley

text: His guest star roles include series such as "Fantasy Island" (1982), "Hotel" (1985–87), "Perfect Strangers" (1988), "B.L. Stryker" (1989), "Evening Shade" (1990), "Dream On" (1991), "The John Larroquette Show" (1995–96; 1997–1998), "The Practice" (2001), and "Justice League" (2002).


title: Ted McGinley

text: During and shortly after the run of "Married … With Children", McGinley was a part of many film and television movies, playing different types of characters. In 1993, he played Mr. Scream in "Wayne's World 2". That same year, McGinley affected a Southern accent in his role in the miniseries "Wild Justice", which was poorly received by critics. Some of his television movie roles were very dark. In 1996, he was the star of "Deadly Web", a movie that aired on NBC in 1996 and co–starred his wife, Gigi Rice. The movie was about a woman who was stalked on the Internet. McGinley played one of his darkest roles in 1998 in the television movie "Every Mother's Worst Fear". He played Mitch Carson, a sexual predator who lures a teenage girl into his house, where he holds her captive and tortures her.


title: Ted McGinley

text: In 2008, McGinley became a contestant on the seventh season of "Dancing with the Stars", and was paired with pro dancer Inna Brayer. He was the second contestant to be eliminated in the competition.


title: Ted McGinley

text: McGinley was called "the patron saint of shark-jumping" by jumptheshark.com founder Jon Hein. This is a reference to the popular and enduring shows which have featured him in their latter years, often to replace a departing regular cast member. Hein writes that this is not a comment "on Ted's fine acting skills" and that "he has a great sense of humor about it, too." In one episode of "Married... with Children", McGinley himself spoofed his reputation by asking Al Bundy, "Another picture, Captain? I mean, Fonzie? ...Al?" In 2003, McGinley told Melanie McFarland of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer", "I've had a lot of fun with it. To be honest with you, it's meant people are still talking about me. It's kind of doing me a favor. And people keep hiring me, so I know that I'm okay, jumping the shark."


title: Ted McGinley

text: In 2011, McGinley again made fun of his "shark-jumping" abilities in "Mitefall!", the final episode of "". In the episode, Bat-Mite (voiced by Paul Reubens) wants the show to be cancelled to usher in a new TV show called "Beware the Batman". To that end, he starts replacing aspects of the show, including switching Aquaman's regular voice actor (John DiMaggio) with McGinley. Ambush Bug (voiced by McGinley's "Happy Days" co-star Henry Winkler) helps to reverse the situation, in part by getting McGinley to break character (and mention his six-year stint on "Married... with Children") and leave, forcing DiMaggio's voice back into Aquaman.


title: Ted McGinley

text: McGinley married actress Gigi Rice in 1991 and they have two sons, Beau (born 1994) and Quinn. They reside in Los Angeles.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Rang De Basanti () is a 2006 Indian drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and co-written by Rensil D'Silva. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Aamir Khan, Siddharth, R. Madhavan, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor and British actress Alice Patten. It follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian revolutionary movement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them to fight against the corruption of their own government.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Shot primarily in New Delhi, The film was released globally on 20 January 2006. Upon release, the film broke all opening box office records in India, becoming the country's highest-grossing film in its opening weekend and holding the highest opening-day collections for a Hindi film. It received critical acclaim, winning the National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and being nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 BAFTA Awards.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: "Rang De Basanti" was chosen as India's official entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category, though it did not ultimately yield a nomination for either award. A. R. Rahman's soundtrack, which earned positive reviews, had two of its tracks considered for an Academy Award nomination.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: In London, film student Sue McKinley finds the diary of her grandfather James, who served as a Colonel for the British Raj in the 1930s. James oversaw the capture and execution of five Indian freedom fighters - Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Ram Prasad Bismil - and has written in his diary about his admiration for their revolutionary spirit in spite of working for the British Empire.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Inspired by the revolutionaries' story, Sue decides to make a film on them and travels to India, where she searches for actors with the help of her friend Sonia, an international studies student at the University of Delhi. Amid a string of unsuccessful auditions, Sue meets Sonia's friends: Daljit "DJ" Singh, Karan Singhania, Sukhi Ram and Aslam Khan. She immediately decides to cast them in her film, with DJ as Chandra Shekhar Azad, Karan Singhania as Bhagat Singh, Aslam Khan as Ashfaqulla Khan, and Sukhi Ram as Shivaram Rajguru.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: DJ, Aslam, Sukhi and the spendthrift Karan, who is the son of political businessman Rajnath Singhania, are carefree and cynical about their futures, and while they easily get along with Sue, they remain uninterested in working on a film expressing patriotism towards India. Tensions arise when Sue casts the boys' rival, the right-wing party activist Laxman Pandey as Bismil. However, over the course of working on the film, Pandey grows closer to the others. Sue begins a relationship with DJ.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: The group becomes devastated when their friend Ajay Singh Rathod, a flight lieutenant in the Indian Air Force and Sonia's fiancé, is killed when his MiG-21 jet malfunctions and crashes. The government attributes the accident to pilot error and closes the case, but Sonia and her friends refuse to accept the official explanation, remembering Ajay as a skilled pilot who died while steering the plane away from crashing into a populous city. They learn that the corrupt Defense Minister, Shastri, signed a contract importing cheap parts for MiG-21 aircraft in exchange for a personal favor. Karan, however, is severely jolted when he realizes that Rajnath was involved in orchestrating the deal.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Galvanized against the corruption of the government by their efforts working on the film, the group organizes a peaceful protest at the India Gate war memorial, but the police arrive and violently break up the demonstration with Ajay's mother going into a coma. Laxman realizes that his senior party official, Raghuvir Mishra, was in league with the government officials ordered the police to stop the protest and becomes disillusioned with his own party. Inspired by the revolutionaries, the group decides to take action themselves and they assassinate Shastri to avenge Ajay's death, while Karan confronts and murders Rajnath.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: The media reports that Shastri was killed by terrorists and celebrates him as a martyr. The group decides to publicly clarify their intent behind the assassination, and take over the All India Radio station after evacuating its employees and alerting Karan's friend Rahul, who works there and is live at the moment. Karan goes on air and calls out the defense ministry's corruption to the public. The police arrive at the station under instructions to kill them. Sukhi is shot dead, while Aslam and Laxman are killed by a grenade and DJ is severely injured. DJ reunites with Karan in the recording room as the latter finishes his public statement, and the two of them get killed together.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: News of the boys' death enrages the public, spurring a wave of demonstrations against the Indian government. Ajay's mother awakes from her coma. The film ends with Sue describing the personal impact of meeting the boys and working on the film, while the deceased boys are seen in an afterlife-like state meeting a young Bhagat Singh in his family garden.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Rakeysh Mehra took seven years to research and develop the story, including three to write the script. While some raised doubts about his morale following the failure of his last film, "Aks", at the box office, he retorted by saying that it would not affect him at all. He added that not only did his storytelling technique improve, but past mistakes had helped him improve his filmmaking abilities.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Rakeysh said the following in a scriptwriter's conference conducted by the Film Writers Association in the year 2008, "I was making a documentary called "Mamooli Ram", on Amul, the milk revolution with Kamalesh Pandey. We were sitting in a small hotel room in Nanded, drinking. We started singing songs, and we both realized we liked similar songs. And so Rang De Basanti was born. He was angry with the system, I was helpless with the system. We wanted to do so much. But we really can't do anything and it was born out of anger. He wrote a story called "Ahuti", meaning sacrifice. "Ahuti" was about the armed revolution in India, between the years 1919 and 1931. It started with Ashfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, went on to Chandrashekhar Azad and so on. We had this amazing screenplay called "Ahuti", which we had also termed as "The Young Guns of India", which started with a train robbery, Azad on a horse and so on. I said, "let's do "The Young Guns of India"". We were going to go on the floor, and suddenly there were a couple of film on Bhagat Singh made. But they came and went. Not because they were good or bad films, not because they were written badly or not written so badly. I'm not being judgmental about them. And this is very important: because they did not reflect the sentiment of today's time. Nobody in the audience could identify with something which was past. It wasn't that there wasn't an idea of patriotism in us, but it was sleeping somewhere. And you had to kind of relate to it in today's world. So a couple of bottles of vodka again, and three days later, with a couple of vodkas down, Kamlesh Ji comes up with 'You know what, I think I've cracked it'."


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Development of "Rang De Basanti" originated with several ideas Mehra came up with early on but later dropped or greatly evolved into new directions. One of these involved a group of youngsters who worked in an automobile repair shop, while another was about the life of Bhagat Singh, Indian freedom revolutionary. During this time, he personally conducted a survey with a group of youths in New Delhi and Mumbai about the Indian revolutionaries he was planning on depicting, which indicated that many of youngsters did not recognise the names of some of the most prominent revolutionaries. This led Mehra to believe that the sense of "patriotism had blurred" in the young generation. Because of this, he dropped his original plans in favour of a new idea in which a British documentary filmmaker on a visit to India realizes that the local "kids are more Western than her". This new story, which eventually formed the basis for "Rang De Basanti"'s script, was influenced by Mehra's upbringing, youth and experiences over the years, including his desire to join the Indian Air Force while in school, as well as his recollections of listening to Independence Day speeches and watching patriotic films such as "Mother India". Although Mehra denies that the film is autobiographical, he confessed that the character sketches were loosely inspired by himself and his friends.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Mehra approached Angad Paul after having been impressed with his production work on British films "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch". Paul, who was keen to work in India, liked Mehra's story and agreed to produce the film, bringing with him David Reid and Adam Bohling as executive producers. Despite having no prior knowledge of Hindi cinema, Reid and Bohling's belief in the script was strong enough that they each were willing to work at half their normal rate. While it was originally suggested that language versions of the film would be made concurrently, in English (as "Paint it Yellow") and Hindi, the plans for an English version were dropped during development. Mehra believed that English-language version felt alien and that "one can tell a film in just one language". After the English version was dropped, the writer Kamlesh Pandey was brought on board to pen the first draft of "Rang De Basanti" in Hindi, marking the start of his screenwriting career. Thereafter Mehra and co-writer Rensil D'Silva took over the script, working on it for about two years. Prasoon Joshi, the film's lyricist, worked on the dialogue, marking his foray into screenwriting.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: "Rang De Basanti" suffered a significant setback when one of the initial producers ultimately failed to contribute any funds towards it; the shortfall left production looking uncertain just two months away from the beginning of principal photography. However, after Aamir Khan agreed to act in the film, Mehra approached Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures with the script. Screwvala, who supported Mehra from the beginning of the production, had faith in the film, reasoning that in historical films, "the treatment and execution is very different from regular masala fare", and that such films "find favour with the audience owing to their elaborate sets and period costumes". The budget was reported as Rs. 250 million (approximately US$5.5 million), and, despite going a little over the initially planned budget, Mehra did not have any serious disagreements with UTV.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: The film's script originally had a different climax, originally showing the protagonists on the run. The climax was rewritten, as the idea of them running away wasn't liked mutually, as they should have the last stand resembling that of Bhagat Singh. Years earlier, Khan had written his own story with the climax in a radio station, which he adapted for the climax of "Rang De Basanti".


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Aamir Khan agreed to act in "Rang De Basanti" immediately after reading Mehra's script. Mehra described his character as a simple man with a strong sense of integrity and dignity. Khan, who would turn 40 during the shoot, lost about with a strict diet and exercise regime to more convincingly depict a man in his late twenties. Atul Kulkarni and Kunal Kapoor were publicly attached to the film by the time it was officially announced; Kapoor had been the assistant director to Mehra during the filming of "Aks" and was already familiar with the material Mehra had been developing. Mehra gave Kulkarni biographies of Ram Prasad Bismil as preparation, including Bismil's autobiography. Early rumours indicated that actors Arjun Rampal and Arjan Bajwa would be amongst the male leads, but these roles ultimately were filled by Siddharth and Sharman Joshi. Mehra and Khan also offered Siddharth's role to Hrithik Roshan, but he declined in favour of "Krrish."


title: Rang De Basanti

text: "Rang De Basanti" marked Siddharth's Bollywood debut, following on the success of his Telugu film "Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana". Having previously worked as an assistant director, Siddharth praised Mehra as being "by far the most ambitious technical filmmaker in Indian cinema". R. Madhavan, despite being a well-known Tamil cinema actor, took the smaller role of a fighter aircraft pilot because he was convinced of the film's potential and wanted to be a part of it. Om Puri appears in a two-scene cameo as Aslam's staunch Muslim father.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Soha Ali Khan and Alice Patten immediately became Mehra's clear favourites for each of their roles during casting, which led to Patten flying to Mumbai for a screen test with the entire cast. She was informed that she had won the documentary filmmaker role after she returned home to the United Kingdom. Soha, portraying the pilot's fiancée, was filming Rituparna Ghosh's "Antarmahal" and David Dhawan's comedy "Shaadi No. 1" concurrently with her work in "Rang De Basanti". In particular, the demands of her emotional scenes in "Antarmahal" often left her exhausted, thus requiring "a lot of personal overhauling" to ensure that her performance in "Rang De Basanti" was unaffected. During filming, reports indicated that co-stars Siddharth and Soha had become romantically involved with each other. Alongside the two lead actresses, Lakh Tandon played the role of Aamir's Grand Father and Kirron Kher played the mother of Khan's character.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: The film, which was shot in New Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Punjab, was officially launched at a hotel on 1 February 2005. When shooting began, Mehra made an announcement to his crew saying that they would enjoy their holiday only in July.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Instead of filming at the actual locations from the script, other locations were selected for picturisation. One such scene is where Soha Ali Khan is filmed at the India Habitat Center that masquerades as the University of Delhi. On similar lines, New Delhi's Modern School at Barakhamba Road served as the location for all the scenes pertinent to All India Radio station, which is shown to be stormed by the youngsters in the film. The Delhi Tourism department was happy to encourage filming in the city if it helped promote tourism, though any filming near India Gate was prohibited due to the ensuing bureaucratic paperwork. Similar issues with bureaucracy were faced by Mehra while filming at the Jaipur Fort. To use a historical location for filming, they had to seek permissions of seven officials ranging from the local police to the Archaeological Survey of India office. Nahargarh Fort, which oversees the city of Jaipur, was another such historical location where one of the songs was filmed. Besides these locations, the filming was also done at Amritsar's Harmandir Sahib Gurudwara. For Aamir Khan, a Muslim, it was for the first time that he was playing a North Indian Punjabi character and it took him some time to get the right dialect and diction. While speaking about his experience of visiting the Gurudwara for the first time, he said:


title: Rang De Basanti

text: It's one of the most peaceful places I've been to. As you enter the place there's a certain serenity that surrounds you. I really enjoyed being there. The first shot we took was of our feet entering the water just as you pass the doorway of the temple. The water was cold but it was great!


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Once the locations were finalised, the team of Lovleen Bains and Arjun Bhasin was chosen for designing the look of "Rang De Basanti". Bhasin had previously worked on "" (1996) and "Dil Chahta Hai" (2001), the latter of which featured Aamir Khan, and he was referred to Mehra by Khan due to their previous association. Since the film's plot focused on men in their late twenties, Bhasin designed their look accordingly. Although he was responsible for Khan's rebellious look, Sharman Joshi's (who played "Sukhi") lovable persona or Madhavan's dignified appearance, Bhasin credited Bains for her major contributions to the film. Khan's hair was styled by Avan Contractor, who came up with soft curls falling over Khan's forehead. This new look, which took Contractor one hour to come up with, surprised the audience at the film's launch.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: In post-production, the visual effects were handled by Tata Elxsi's Visual Computing Labs. The military aircraft they created was so realistic that the Indian Air Force called to check the producer's permission of using an actual MiG-21.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: On "Rang De Basanti"'s release, the Film Certification Board of India sought the views of Indian Defence Ministry due to scenes that depicted the use of MiG-21 fighter aircraft. But after viewing the movie the ministry found no problems and allowed UTV to release the film. There were also some issues with Animal Welfare Board of India due to the banned Indian horse race.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: The soundtrack of "Rang De Basanti", which was released by Sony BMG, featured music composed by A. R. Rahman and lyrics penned by Prasoon Joshi and Blaaze, an India-based rapper. From the film's announcement in April 2005, Rahman was slated to compose the music. In a press conference with pop singer Nelly Furtado, he said that she was to originally have featured on the soundtrack, although this was ultimately prevented from happening due to a change in producers and other factors. Aamir Khan, with his knowledge of Hindi and Urdu, worked with Rahman and Joshi for the soundtrack. In addition, Mehra and Rahman chose him to sing for one of the songs.


title: Rang De Basanti

text: Joshi, one of the lyricists, was impressed with the director, Rakeysh Mehra, who was ready to adjust to his style of writing as well as his creativity. Confessing that the film's soundtrack was his favourite out of all his previous works, Joshi felt that it "was a wonderful experience getting to know the mindset of today's youth and to pen down their feelings". Speaking about one of his songs, "Luka Chuppi", in which veteran Lata Mangeshkar sang with Rahman, Joshi said that it was developed while discussing with Rahman the scene about a mother losing her son. Joshi wrote the lyrics about the mother and son playing hide-and-seek with the sad reality of the son being hidden forever. He confessed to have been in tears while Mangeshkar was singing the song. The soundtrack won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, and had two of its tracks, "Khalbali" and "Luka Chuppi", considered for an Academy Award for Best Original Song nomination.