La Coccinelle

Picture this, 1940s France sometime after Allied liberation and a group of teenagers are attending their friend's party when a teenage boy is admired for wearing a red dress with black polka dots. This boy had a longing to be a girl and a feeling deep down that they were one. Then in 1958, this boy became a woman in Morocco called Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy or as she was mostly known La as Coccinelle (Ladybird/ Ladybug) in French. Jacqueline got her stage name La Coccinelle from her pre transitioned night out at a party in a red dress with black polka dots from her friends as it reminded them of ladybirds who have black spots on their red elytra (shell) to ward of predators who would assume they are poisonous to eat.

When I said that Jacqueline became a woman in Morocco, I meant that she underwent surgery in Casablanca (yes, the same one from the vintage black and white movie that comes on at Christmas) that saw her being given feminine parts in place of masculine parts. Despite that, Coccinelle had been performing and living as a woman for a couple of years previously. Most transgender people would live socially as their preferred gender before having their surgeries and undergoing hormone replacement therapy. During this time, Coccinelle defied the laws in France at the time regarding gender like she could've been arrested before her gender affirming surgery for wearing women's clothes while still being a man. In fact, her transition put a spotlight on LGBTQ+ rights as did her marriage to Francis Bonnet which made it legally and religiously possible for a transgender person to get married.
Other than being one of the first openly transitioned transwoman in France La Coccinelle was a performer, mostly a singer but she was also in a couple of films like the Spanish romantic drama Días de viejo color (days of old colour).
Coccinelle campaigned for Trans-rights throughout her life when she wasn't performing. Even 17 years after her death La Coccinelle is still loved today.