In Memoriam and Transition: Carrie Soloway, MD

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

Carrie Soloway, MD, known to many patients as Dr Harry J. Soloway, died at the age of 88 on November 21, 2025. Soloway came out as a woman to her children at the age of 75 in 2012, and did not publicly seem to care about use of her “deadname” or certain pronouns.¹

Neither did I use current trans pronouns as a psychiatrist in Milwaukee who worked with those transitioning during the late 1990s to when I retired from clinical care in that same year of 2012. During those years, I mainly worked with middle-aged and older individuals who wanted to finally transition genders before they died, in order to live their truth. However, one of the most distressing “adverse effects” if married and with children, was the common break-up of the family after all those prior years living as the other gender. I did not come across any information about whether gender seemed overtly involved in Soloway’s divorce in 1990.

I thought that gender-transitioning patients were the most courageous patients I ever saw, as they had to adjust to such a major physical change and the disapproval of so much of the public.

Although I did not know Dr Soloway, who was about a decade older than me, she worked in my hometown of Chicago as a male psychiatrist, providing everyday treatment until her transition. She also grew up close to where I did in Chicago.

I usually include comments from obituaries about well-known psychiatrists that were covered in the New York Times, but that apparently has not yet appeared for Dr Soloway. However, about a decade ago, her daughter Jill was the subject of a New York Times December 19, 2015 article titled, “Jill Soloway of ‘Transparent’: A Daughter’s Story.”² Jill, later to be called Joey in his own transition, wrote and directed the hit show “Transparent” from 2014-2019, which was based on the Soloway Jewish family. In 2023, the other daughter, Faith Soloway, revived the show as a musical.

Dr Soloway was working on a book of her clinical work tentatively titled, I’m Sorry, But We’re Out of Time when she died. Really, she and the whole family deserve a book about their groundbreaking contributions to the mental health of transgender individuals. We still have escalated suicidality and violence toward them, as well as the federal governmental policies which results in denying some gender-affirming care for youth. Soloway’s advice to young trans people, as conveyed as a guest on the 2017 Podcast “Sagittarian Matters” by Nicole George, is still relevant:

“You have to have a lot of courage, and you have to believe in yourself and not worry too much about what the rest of the world feels about you—That’s their problem.”

References

1. Lapin A. Carrie Soloway, inspiration for trailblazing trans Jewish protagonist of ‘Transparent’, dies at 88. Forward. December 3, 2025. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://forward.com/fast-forward/787357/carrie-soloway-inspiration-for-trailblazing-trans-jewish-protagonist-of-transparent-dies-at-88/

2. Emmrich S. Jill Soloway of ‘Transparent’: a daughter’s story. New York Times. December 19, 2015. Accessed December 9, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/fashion/jill-soloway-transparent-transgender-parent.html