Billy Tipson- The Transgender Who Deceived Everyone

Billy Tipton was a jazz pianist and bandleader from the United States.

Tipton spent much of his adult life living and identifying as a man; following his death, friends and relatives were startled to discover that he was transgender.

Billy was assigned the gender of a girl at birth and was born on December 29, 1914, in Oklahoma City. Tipton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was fostered by an aunt after his parents split when he was four.

Tipton, known as "Tippy" in high school, grew interested in music (particularly jazz) and began playing the piano and saxophone.

Tipton was not permitted to join Southwest High School's all-male band. He returned to Oklahoma for his senior year of high school and joined the Connors State College High School band.

Tipton began tying his breasts and displaying stereotypically masculine characteristics around 1933. Tipton "decided to permanently take on the character of a male musician" as he began a more serious music career, choosing the name Billy Lee Tipton. 

Personal Life

Tipton was never formally married, yet five different ladies addressed herself as Mrs. Tipton during his lifetime. Tipton began living with a woman named Non Earl Harrell in 1934. The marriage ended in 1942. Tipton's sex was supposedly disguised from the four ladies who would subsequently call themselves "Mrs. Tipton".

Tipton kept his external sexual traits hidden from them by claiming he had been in a catastrophic vehicle accident that left him with damaged genitals and broken ribs.

Tipton's second relationship, with a singer only known as "June," lasted several years. Tipton lived with Betty Cox, who was 18 at the time they became involved, for seven years. Tipton was regarded as "the most fantastic love of my life" by Cox.

Tipton's relationship with Cox ended in 1954, and he began dating a lady named Maryann. In 1958, the couple relocated to Spokane, Washington. Maryann subsequently alleged that she discovered Tipton's involvement with nightclub dancer Kathleen "Kitty" Kelly in 1960.

Discovering The Lie

In 1989, at the age of 74, Tipton had a medical emergency, while the paramedics were trying to save Tipton's life, his son, William, learned that his father was physically female.

Tipton's son William called paramedics, and as they opened Tipton's pajamas to do resuscitation, they discovered something unusual. Tipton, whom most people assumed was a man with at least five wives and three boys, was actually a woman.

''Did your father ever have a sex change?'' the paramedics asked William, he later stated.

This information "came as a shock to nearly everyone, including the women who had considered themselves his wives, as well as his sons and the musicians who had traveled with him." Later, following financial offers from the media, Kelly and one of their sons went public with the story.

The first newspaper story appeared the day after Tipton's funeral. The story quickly went viral. Two of his adopted boys changed their names shortly after learning of Tipton's assigned sex because they thought Tipton was deceitful.

Since then, the story has piqued the interest of writers and composers. Billy Tipton has become a symbol for the present concern with gender, which can be seen in films like "The Crying Game," plays like "M. Butterfly," and the booming academic area of "queer theory," which is wholly devoted to the question of sexual identity.

Women have adopted male disguises throughout history for economic and social reasons. During the Civil War, an estimated 400 cross-dressing women posed as men and served in the Union Army.

James Barry, a doctor who lived from 1795 to 1863 and is credited with executing the first successful Caesarean section, was mistakenly identified as a man until her death, when her true gender was exposed.