While the discussion is open for how modern labels can fit historical figures, that discussion should always be the opening of a door rather than the shutting of a box. In the case of Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar there is value in talking about modern identity labels, but to assign one or even a number would be to flatten the reality of her life. Disguising herself as a man to escape marriage and finding herself falling in love and marrying a woman in her new life, this Swedish queer woman has an extensive list of complications that add to her storied life. 

To exist as a transgender person is to be in a perpetual state of proving yourself. To family, to friends, to doctors, to religious authorities, and often to yourself. In a society where the genitals determine how people are treated, what jobs are available, what marriages are legally sanctioned, and how they are expected to behave, undermining the strict system set before them is an inherently dangerous task. This is true now, and it was true in 1808 when Ferdinand Andreas Bruce was born.