Steve Dain

Steve Dain (July 9, 1939 – October 10, 2007) was an American educator and activist who fought to keep his job as a schoolteacher after receiving gender-affirming surgery. Following his legal battle with the school district and his resignation in 1978, which was covered in the national press, he became an advocate for transgender rights and a mentor to other trans men.

Early life

Dain was born on July 9, 1939. He grew up in Oakland, CA, and attended high school at Oakland Tech, graduating in 1957. Dain attended UC Berkeley, receiving his B.A. in 1961 and his Master's degree in Physical Education and Child Development in 1963.

In 1976, Dain took six months' sick leave to seek gender-affirming hormone therapy and surgery at Stanford with Dr. Donald Laub, legally changed his name, and grew a beard and mustache. When he returned to Emery High that summer, community reactions were mixed, with students showing curiosity about what had happened while parents and the school superintendent raised concerns. Dain sued for wrongful termination and was successfully reinstated, but the board moved to fire him for wrongful use of medical leave.

Later career and death

Unable to return to his teaching career, Dain worked as a tile-setter and in construction, then pursued and attained a Chiropractic Degree from Life Chiropractic College West in 1988, after which he opened a practice in Union City. He attended a second Christmas party in 1979 with then-wife Patty Costello; other attendees included the activist and folksinger Joan Baez, Merla Zellerbach, Rollo May, Janet Gray Hayes, and defense attorney George T. Davis.

He was sought out as a mentor by other members of the trans community who read of his firing in the news, several recalling that his photo was the first photo of a trans man they had ever seen.

In his diaries, activist Lou Sullivan describes reading about Dain in the Los Angeles Times and writes that when the two met in 1979, Dain encouraged Sullivan to proceed with transitioning. The two stayed in contact until Sullivan's death in 1991.

Writer Max Wolf Valerio met Dain after Green, and notes, "In those days, most trans men in the Bay area went off on a pilgrimage to meet him as we entered medical transition. [...] It was nearly a ritual, a rite of passage to meet with Steve."

Apologies and honors

Dain received an official posthumous apology from the Emery School Board in 2021, stating: "We regret the harmful actions taken by the district at that time. Mr. Dain was right to expect to return to his job."

The Emeryville City Council renamed the street that the gym faces in Dain's honor.