Being the country of the emergence of the transsexual phenomenon at the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany then met the necessary conditions for the implementation of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's theories on "sexual intermediaries". After the ransacking by the Nazis of the Institute of Sexology, France takes over in Europe: the artist Michel-Marie Poulain announces her change of gender in Voilà and the deported Marie André Schwidenhammer creates the first organization to help transsexuals.
These two pioneers thus laid the foundations for social visibility that reached its peak with the transgender cabaret culture in Paris in the 1950s and 60s when the French discovered the scandalous Beetle. However, even after "sexual liberation", the judicial, police, and psychiatric authorities put in place repression in order to prevent transsexuals from changing their civil status and making their transition in good conditions.