Following is a timeline of selected works and events in the history of gender identity research. It is not intended to be a complete chronology, but merely a guide in historically contextualizing research in gender identity.
| 1905 | Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, by Sigmund Freud, published |
| 1910 | Magnus Hirschfeld, a German sexologist and an openly gay man, publishes The Transvestites, coining the term |
| 1919 | Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science, the first clinic to serve transgendered people on a regular basis, opens in Berlin, Germany |
| 1920 | Jonathan Gilbert publishes Homosexuality and Its Treatment , a case study of Dr. Alan Hart, who would today be described as a female-to-male transsexual |
| 1930 | Lili Elbe undergoes SRS in Germany, later dying after removal of unsuccessfully transplanted ovaries |
| 1931 | Felix Abraham publishes “Genital Reassignment of Two Male Transvestites” |
| 1933 | Institute for Sexual Science closed by the Nazis |
| 1952 | Christine Jorgensen undergoes SRS and returns to a US media frenzy |
| 1955 | The term “gender role” first appears in print |
| 1966 | Harry Benjamin publishes The Transsexual Phenomena |
| New clinic for transsexuals opens at The Johns Hopkins Hospital | |
| 1967 | Money publishes “The genetics of homosexuality” |
| 1969 | Green & Money publish Transsexualism and sex reassignment. |
| The Stonewall riots | |
| 1970 | Money publishes “Sex reassignment” |
| 1973 | American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from DSM ; subsequent version includes “ego-dystonic homosexuality” as a diagnosis |
| 1974 | Green publishes Sexual Identity Conflict in Children and Adults |
| 1975 | Money publishes case study on John/Joan, whose penis was destroyed by a botched circumcision and who was reassigned female, with his identical twin brother functioning as a “control” in the “experiment of opportunity” |
| 1975 | Money & Tucker publish Sexual Signatures: On Being a Man or a Woman |
| 1979 | First draft of Harry Benjamin Standards of Care approved by the Sixth Annual Gender Dysphoria Symposium |
| 1979 | Janice Raymond publishes The Transsexual Empire |
| 1980 | DSM-III published: gender identity disorder is added as diagnosis |
| Paul Walker organizes the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association | |
| Teenage “John/Joan” learns the details of his birth and immediately reverts to living as a boy. | |
| 1986 | Homosexual diagnosis removed entirely from the DSM-IIIR |
| 1987 | Green publishes The ‘Sissy Boy Syndrome’ and the development of homosexuality. |
| 1988 | Blanchard & Clemmensen of Clarke Institute publish “A Test of the DSM-III-R’s Implicit Assumption that Fetishistic Arousal and Gender Dysphoria are Mutually Exclusive” in the Journal of Sex Research |
| Rekers’ “The formation of a homosexual orientation” appears in a publication of The Center for Child and Family Policy | |
| 1989 | Billy Tipton, jazz musician, dies and is discovered to be female after presenting as a man since 1933. |
| 1990 | Rekers, et al publish “Long-term effects of treatment for childhood gender disturbance” |
| 1994 | DSM-IV published |
| 1996 | Money publishes Man & Woman, Boy & Girl |
| 1997 | Isay’s call for removal of childhood GID from the DSM published in Psychiatric Times |
| 1998 | In Medical Law, Money publishes “Case consultation: ablatio penis,” in which he suggests the boy might be raised as a boy |
| Japan allows first legal SRS to be performed on an FTM | |
| The Royal College of Psychiatrists publishes report, “Gender Identity Disorders in Children and Adolescents” | |
| 1999 | Green mentions existence of gay and lesbian transsexuals in his presidential address at the XVI Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Symposium |
| 2000 | DSM-IV-TR published |
| 2002 | Chung, et al publish article on size of BSTc region of brain in trans women in The Journal of Neuroscience |