Steve Dain was an Emeryville High School gym teacher assigned female at birth who began hormone therapy at Stanford University’s Gender Dysphoria Clinic in November 1975. Dain completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Physical Education at UC Berkeley during the 1960s and, according to this article, was near completion of a PhD during 1976.
After taking a leave of absence from teaching in Spring 1976, he gained national attention when Superintendent Lewis Stommel barred Dain from returning to his post in the Fall. While attention from renowned publications such as The New York Times focuses on the civil rights lawsuit, this profile from The Berkeley Barb reveals that Dain considered resigning before facing discrimination, and gives a broader insight on his life.The photographs of Dain harken to his extreme compassion for all living beings, raccoons included.
On another scale, writer John Bryan focuses on Dain’s outward appearance and romantic relationships, revealing larger, societal anxieties about transgender people that adheres to a a 1975 Barb expose on “erotic minorities.” The Stanford Dysphoria Clinic, where Dain attended for surgery and hormone therapy, additionally forced trans people to answer questions regarding their sexuality and romantic relationships in their application for acceptance, which can be found here.
