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A fact from Herculine Barbin (memoir) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 May 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
"Herculine Barbin was born in 1838 as a female. Unlawfully in love with another woman,[3] she was forced to transform into a male in 1860 because of a judge's orders.[4] After the sex transformation, Barbin's name was changed, and Barbin was referred as either Camille or Abel.[5] In 1868, Barbin committed suicide due to her inability to make the transition from female to male.[4]"
This is all wrong - firstly, Barbin accepted his new definition as a male and therefore should be referred to with the masculine. His memoirs do not imply that he forced to change, he agreed to after being urged to after confessing to his bishop. Camille is a name that appears in his memoirs, it is understood he wasn't referred to as such during his life and it is probably a pseudonym invented in case he decided to publish them; he certainly wasn't referred to as Camille after his sex was changed. Finally, how can we know the exact reasons that he chose to kill himself? He doesn't make mention of struggling with the transition in his memoirs, only describes his life as being generally full of grief and loneliness: we should not make the assumption that he killed himself for this reason and this reason only, if he himself did not mention it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.71.121.161 (talk) 10:31, 15 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
