#mtf4mtf

I booted up the Wayback Machine, and searched up craigslist myself.

I stuck to SF as it was the origin of the site and had the most traffic. It also had the additional benefit of being a historically queer city. I figured this would get me the best results.

The earlier captures of the casual encounters (in other words hookups), personals in 2000-2001 were hard to parse. It wasn't until around 2002 that the gender4gender (m4w, m4m, w4w) language was regularly used.

Very soon after came the m4t and t4m. The (t) could be assumed to mean trans woman by default. Despite this, there were still a not insignificant number of trans men. They however had to specify they were FTM. Usually they were also in search of (presumably cis) male partners.

It wasn't till December of 2004 that I could find someone using t4t.

...Well, it can be assumed that this person is themselves a trans woman, given she doesn't specify ftm, as seen directly below her post. But given they don't have a preference for cisgendered partners, does this mean the same can be assumed of trans ones? Unfortunately the link, as with most here, leads nowhere.

So, there it is. An unsatisfactory answer that leaves more questions in its wake...

Or so I thought.

I was previously only searching in casual encounters, but in late December, 2003, Craigslist added two new links to their personal ads

Misc romance was a lot like casual encounters but tamer. It was worth trying.

And, lo and behold,

February 3rd, 2004, nearly a year earlier. 🎉🎊🥳👏🎉🎊🍾

Finally, FINALLY, we have the actual first instance of t4t I could find. A 30 year old trans lesbian looking to start dating again. Unfortunately, this link is also broken.

This was posted the following day:

I'm sure I missed something. I only searched in one city and didn’t touch the men seeking women, women seeking men, men seeking men, or women seeking women links. I’m also not the most technologically literate person. Besides that who even knows if t4t even originated on craigslist, or if it was brought over from some obscure forum or blog lost to time. Either way, I do highly encourage everyone to look for themselves and add on anything I missed.

And if you're a ftm nancey boy looking for a faggy date, I may be 3 hours away and 21 years late, but if you're still looking, I'm available hmu.