Kalonymus was a Jewish philosopher, writer and translator who lived in Rome and France from the years of 1218 to 1328. He translated many medical works from Arabic to Hebrew as well as participated in works of critique and original works.

In one of their original works, Even Bohan, Kalonymus authored a poem titled, “On Becoming a Woman” which modern day readers and historians view as a deep and genuine expression of gender dysphoria. In the work, Kalonymus describes at length a life which they could have led, had God made them a woman, goes on to describe a happier and more fulfilling life than living life as a man, refers to their genitalia as a deformity and also references living and loving a man as their partner. It ends deferring to their birth sex as their gender, and accepting bitterly their place in the world as a man, though clearly seeming extremely discontented.

Some have viewed the work as satire or as an expression of homosexuality, but to any sensitive reader, it rings true to describing gender dysphoria in an age when medical or social transition was not usually possible.