Mario Martino

Mario Martino (also known as Angelo Tournabene) is a former nun and transsexual male author. He is known for writing one of the first autobiographies on the trans male experience. He also worked with the Labyrinth Foundation in Yonkers, New York.

Mario Martino
Other namesAngelo Tornabene
Occupation(s)(previously) Nun
Nurse, author and trans rights activist
Known forEarly trans male autobiographer

Work prior to gender transition

As a nun, he was removed from his convent when it became clear that he had sexual feelings for women.[1] In his autobiography, Martino explicitly connects his sexual orientation to his gender identity, saying "I was a boy. I felt like one, I dressed like one, I fought like one. Later I was to love like one."[2][3]

While working as a laboratory technician prior to his gender transition, Martino and other technicians took a 17-ketosteroid urine test, where it was found that he had "the 17-ketosteroids of a 17-year-old male".[4] While working in the laboratory he met his wife, a registered nurse named Rebecca.[4][5]

Autobiography

Emergence: A Transsexual Autobiography was published by Martino in 1977, alongside a collaborator named Harriet.[lower-alpha 1] The book discussed his gender dysphoria, a lack of attachment to traditional feminine pursuits, his sexual attraction towards women and not men,[6] and difficulty coming to terms with his gender identity as a child, and how these contradicted with his Italian-Catholic upbringing.[7]

Martino's autobiography has been described as "the first complete autobiography of a trans-sexual who has undergone medical treatment to change to male from female".[5][8] It was notable for including explicit mentions of sexual activity, which are often absent from transgender autobiographical accounts.[9]

Gender transition and aftermath

Martino's gender transition consisted of a double mastectomy, a hysterectomy, phalloplasty and hormonal treatment.[10] While transitioning, he nearly died after three surgeries proved unsuccessful.[11] However, following surgery, he was able to obtain a new drivers' license, an amended birth certificate and college certificate under his preferred name.[10]

Despite this, Martino faced discrimination by employers and school admissions officials, having been fired from his job in a nursing home when officials were told of his gender identity.[1] One landlord kicked Martino out of his house, and he "lost out on several good jobs because of" his trans identity. "I still cannot get a teaching position in a college because of it", Martino said in 1980.[11]

He worked with the Labyrinth Foundation, a facility in Yonkers, New York for counseling those with gender dysphoria.[11] He and his wife gave marriage and psychological counselling to trans people.[5]

References
  1. Only identified by her first name
  1. Clark, Steve (11 March 1979). "Transsexual tells of his 'Emergence'". The Herald Statesman. p. 96.
  2. Vipond, Evan (2 January 2019). "Becoming Culturally (Un)intelligible: Exploring the Terrain of Trans Life Writing". A/B: Auto/Biography Studies. 34 (1): 19–43. doi:10.1080/08989575.2019.1542813. hdl:10315/33778. S2CID 149817621.
  3. Roughgarden, Joan (14 September 2013). Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. Univ of California Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-520-95797-8.
  4. Newman, Donna Joy (29 November 1977). "'I didn't know I wasn't a boy': Story of the Transformation of Marie to Mario". Detroit Free Press. Chicago Tribune. p. 27.
  5. "Former Franciscan nun tells of sex-change". The Windsor Star. Toronto (CP). 24 January 1978. p. 17.
  6. Hausman, Bernice L. (Autumn 2000). "Do Boys Have to Be Boys? Gender, Narrativity, and the John/Joan Case". NWSA Journal. 12 (3): 124. ISSN 1040-0656. JSTOR 4316765. S2CID 13078758. For example, in his 1977 book, Emergence, female-to-male transsexual Mario Martino writes of feeling that no matter what he did (as Marie), he could not produce a convincing identity as a woman, which in his view included making baby Pablum in the right consistency without using up the whole box, and being in love with men, not women (Martino 1977). Martino's discussion of his inability to match conventional standards of femininity-rehearsal for motherhood, heterosexuality-is based on the "natural attitude" toward gender; in the context of this ontology, he understands his birth as a female to be a mistake.
  7. Beemyn, Brett Genny (2015). "Autobiography, Transsexual". glbtq, Inc. Archived. p. 2
  8. Londono, Ernesto (18 May 2015). "Increasingly Visible, Transgender Americans Defy Stereotypes". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  9. Latham, J R (March 2016). "Trans men's sexual narrative-practices: Introducing STS to trans and sexuality studies". Sexualities. 19 (3): 353, 355–356. doi:10.1177/1363460715583609. S2CID 147597591.
  10. Barkham, John (30 August 1977). "Transsexual surgery was only answer". Lincoln Journal Star. p. 8.
  11. "'Surgery has allowed society to see me as I see myself'". Morning News. 22 April 1980. p. 17.
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