New Historical Collection on Gender-Affirming Care at Stanford

In celebration of Pride Month, we are showcasing a recently processed Medical History Center collection on gender-affirming care. Stanford began offering gender-affirming care to trans people in 1968, making it one of the first places in the United States where such care was available. A collection of archival documents about what was then called Stanford’s “gender dysphoria clinic” is now open to researchers in Lane Library’s Medical History Center. You can find an inventory of that collection online.

This collection reflects the birth and evolution of Stanford University’s Gender Dysphoria Program, its rise to prominence in the field of gender-affirming care, and the career of its director, Dr. Donald R. Laub. It covers the period from just before the program’s creation in 1968 through the 1970s. The bulk of the material is newspaper articles, however, press releases, reports, correspondence, photographs, and journal articles are also represented.

Items of potential interest include newspaper articles detailing the lives and treatment of transgender patients of the program, papers written by Dr. Laub and Dr. Fisk on transgender studies, and copies of some of the informational and legal forms supplied to patients. Material in the “Articles about the program in general” section could also be used to chart the trends seen across the United States in attitudes towards transgender healthcare and people between the 1960s and 1980s.

For more information about the collection, please contact the Historical Curator, Dr. Drew Bourn, and visit the Medical History Center website.