Billy Tipton was born in a female body
Billy Tipton was very popular in the jazz scene between the 40s and 50s. He created a number of hits with his Billy Tip Tipton Trio but even though he was given the opportunity to open for Liberace, he chose to turn it down and disappeared from the public scene.
Billy Tipton was married five times in his life and he adopted three children. His family would describe him as a loving man who cared very much about his children. A collapse that led to his death in 1989 has shocked the whole world because the paramedics that tried to save him discovered that he was not biologically male.
This news shocked even his family, who had no idea Tipton was in fact, female. The musician was born in a female body, named Dorothy Tipton, and began dressing as a man in order to be able to join the jazz scene.
In order to look like a man, Tipton used a prosthetic device and wore Ace bandages. Additionally, he lived a very private life just because he wanted his secret to remain hidden.
As Diane Middlebrook, author of the book Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton has explained, the “Tipton story is about the indeterminacy of gender identity.”
“I believe Billy’s relationship to herself was female. She was the actor; he was the role,” Middlebrook continued saying.
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