1929-2008

Transgender activist and artist

Dirkje Kuik (1929-2008) is the best-known Utrecht transgender person. She was an artist. As an activist, she laid the foundation for the change of gender in passports. 

Artist Dirkje Kuik was born William Diederich Kuik in 1929. Dirkje was one of the first public transgender people in the Netherlands. As a young child, she wore dresses, which were unfortunately mocked by her classmates. After periods of bullying and fighting, she decided to wear trousers anyway and went through life as a man for a long time.

Artist

Dirkje studied fine arts at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam, worked as an art critic for the Parool newspaper and drew for Vrij Nederland. Together with Joop Moesman and Henc van Maarseveen, Dirkje founded the graphic company de Luis. Dirkje is best known for her graphic work and illustrations, in her work cityscapes, figure representations and portraits predominate. Dirkje was also active as a writer and poet.

'I never decided to become a woman. I should have been from the start'

Transgender

Dirkje, then still William, married Marieke van Vuren in 1958, who gave her the freedom to wear women's clothes at home. In the mid-1960s, Dirkje and Marieke separated. In 1979, Dirkje changed her first name and gender. For her operation, she travelled to London. She wrote extensively about her sex change, most famously her 'Household book of sultanas' in which she talks about a doctor who donated her a "neovagina" made from "penile remains". Dirkje preferred to describe herself not as transsexual (the common term at the time) but as a gender diaspora patient'.

Activist

After her surgery, life was not easy for Dirkje. Friends turned their backs on her and people only wanted to buy art by the artist William D. Kuik, not Dirkje. After her surgery, Dirkje was also a full-time activist and filed a lawsuit against the Dutch state. She thought people should be able to choose their own name and gender. The Supreme Court ruled in her favour. Soon after, it became possible for transgender people to change their gender before the law as well.

Legacy

In 2008, a museum in honour of her work was set up in Dirkje's former residence at Oudekamp 1 in Utrecht, which existed for about four years. Jos te Water Mulder manages her artistic legacy from the "Dirkje Kuik" foundation.

Simone Versteeg