The Truth Behind Gladys Bentley's Miraculous "Return" To Womanhood
How Doctors ‘Cured’ a Famous Black Artist of Homosexuality in the 1950s.
In August 1952, Ebony Magazine released I Am a Woman Again: the sensational story of Gladys Bentley’s return to womanhood through the miracle of Western medicine—written in Gladys’s own heartfelt words.
Gladys Bentley was a gifted African-American female musician and entertainer. She gained prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and quickly rose to a level of success that offered her a lifestyle of well-deserved praise, fame, and luxury.
Gladys was openly lesbian, and she embraced her gender nonconformity both on and off stage. She broke racial and sexual boundaries of her time through her personal style, and even married a white woman through a civil union in 1931.
But behind the veil, Gladys suffered immensely from unhealed childhood wounds, and endlessly sought to fill the void of love that she did not receive as a little girl.
She ached for a life that represented normalcy and happiness—all of which had been depicted to her through the traditional lens of womanhood. Unfortunately, a conventional woman was the exact opposite of what Gladys was, so there were some corrections to be made.
In the early 20th century, some medical doctors prescribed experimental hormone treatments to their homosexual patients as a means of conversion therapy.
Gladys, a lesbian yearning for deeper fulfillment in life, attempted to rid herself of her wayward attractions and masculine swagger by pumping more estrogen into her body.
Ultimately, her claim was that this hormone treatment was her miraculous salvation, allowing her to finally exist as a “real woman”.
Because of this treatment, she was able to comfortably pursue an enriched lifestyle complete with heterosexual marriage, dresses, and domesticity. On a religious level, she claimed to have finally found redemption from her sins.
Gladys Bentley’s story beautifully complements the previous essay I published on Pauli Murray:
Both women were trailblazing black lesbian artists of the early 20th century who struggled so deeply with their homosexuality and masculine presentation that they sought hormone therapy to “correct” what felt wrong...To seek a life of normalcy, love, and happiness.
In fact, I found their stories so complementary that I included a sample of Gladys Bentley’s music in the podcast version of my essay on Pauli Murray.
The key difference here is that Pauli Murray speculated whether she was a biological male as a result of her masculinity, and she actively sought testosterone therapy to correct a perceived intersex condition. She knew that she could not rid herself of her attractions to women, but she at least wanted to love women the “right” way: as a man.
On the other hand, Gladys Bentley simply felt that she was not woman enough, and wanted to embrace her womanhood in its fullness.
However, unlike in Pauli Murray’s case, Gladys’s doctor indicated that her homosexuality was evidence of dysfunction within her sexed organs. She was prescribed hormones in order to correct her “manly” qualities, so that she could embody a truer version of womanhood.
This essay outlines the story of Gladys Bentley, punctuating the life chapters that led up to the moment where she injected herself with hormones to become a “woman again”— from her early childhood, to her wild success as one of the most celebrated black lesbian musicians of her time.
Here, I will offer my insights on the most obvious reasons behind Gladys’s decision, including childhood trauma, homophobia, gender stereotypes, religion, and finances.
I also share how I personally connected with Gladys’s story in the wake of writing about my former relationship with a black lesbian who still embraced regressive ideals of womanhood after many years identifying as a transgender man.
Gladys was prescribed HRT during a vulnerable moment in her life, when she was searching for answers. This essay outlines the exact diagnosis and prescription her doctor gave her, and how his approach mirrors practices in modern-day transgender clinics.
I speculate how Gladys’s usage of hormones may have contributed to her premature death in 1960.
There is a great deal of overlap between what the Trans movement refers to as “gender affirming care” and Gladys’s conversion therapy.
As I have shown in my original essay on Pauli Murray, hormone replacement therapy has deep roots in homosexual conversion therapy. What Western medicine now calls “gender transition” is merely an extension of that.
When we take a deeper look at Gladys’s story, those parallels between our past and present are made abundantly clear. Indeed, her case is an overlooked piece of our history that can help us understand the landscape we are living in today.
Much of what I share about Gladys Bentley is based on her own words from the Ebony Magazine article where she so vulnerably and articulately poured her heart out.
Clips of the original article with photos and quotes of Gladys will be shared in this piece, alongside my own commentary.