advocate for trans people, recalled, “We were front liners. We didn’t take no shit from nobody. We had nothing to lose” (118). However, members of the gay community did not always return the favor and advocate on behalf of their trans allies. Trans individuals were not always welcome in gay bars and gay rights organizations, specifically those organized around white, middle-class concerns. Following the Stonewall rebellion, Rivera and Johnson decided to provide structures of support and care for their own community, which led to their founding of STAR, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, in 1970 and creation of STAR House, a refuge for homeless NYC transgender youth.5
Meanwhile, alongside the growing political consciousness and mobilization of transgender people, the 1960s saw another historic development: the publication of Harry Benjamin’s (1966) book The Transsexual Phenomenon. A critical and thoughtful polemic, the book turned conventional wisdom regarding gender on its head. It argued that transsexualism cannot be cured; that transsexuals should seek psychiatric help; that in some cases hormonal therapy and surgery may be necessary; and finally, that medical professionals have a responsibility to help transgender people achieve self-realization. Benjamin (1966) suggested that in a modern, technological, and scientifically advanced society, the male/female gender binary was inadequate. Instead, he argued that what we think of as “sex” actually encompassed numerous entities. He advocated thinking about individuals as exhibiting different kinds of sex, such as “endocrine sex,” “anatomical sex,” “psychological sex,” “social sex,” “sex of rearing in childhood,” and “legal sex” (3–9).
While transgender individuals were not necessarily the target audience for books like Benjamin’s Transsexual Phenomenon, many read them and learned about current scientific developments and discourses (Meyerowitz 2002). For Amanda St. Jaymes, a trans woman living in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District during the 1960s, Benjamin’s The Transsexual Phenomenon was “a guidebook for us” (Silverman and Stryker 2005). The book delineated a transsexual identity and taught Amanda and her friends about the language of gender variance. Armed with this discourse, they were able to articulate their wishes for identity and transformation to family, friends, and doctors using the language sanctioned by the medical field.
The 1960s also marked the beginning of the first transgender advocacy organizations with national and international reach, and the start of a print culture that spoke directly to trans communities. In 1960, Virginia Prince, a pharmacologist, medical researcher, and transgender advocate, spearheaded the first trans-themed publication, Transvestia: The Journal of the American Society for Equality in Dress. In 1962, she founded the “Society for Second Self” or “Tri-Ess,” a support and social organization for cross-dressers still active today (Stryker 2008). Geared toward heterosexual cross-dressers, the magazine started off small with a mailing list of only 25 people, and was eventually sold via subscription and in adult bookstores (Ekins and King 2005). Published bimonthly from 1960 to 1980, Transvestia featured articles, photos, life stories, fictional narratives, and letters from readers. Within its pages, Prince, along with her writers and readers, theorized cross-dressing and developed various taxonomies for emerging trans identities. Notably, Prince and her staff sought to distinguish more “respectable,” mainly heterosexual “full-time transvestites” from other gender identities. They created distance between themselves and, for example, part-time cross-dressers, transvestites, drag queens, kinky clothing fetishists, and transsexuals who desired sexual reassignment (Hill 2013). To describe herself and her readers, Prince developed the word “femmepersonation” as an alternative and later, in the 1970s, began to use the word “transgenderist,” which she defined as “a third way between transvestism and transsexuality” (Hill 2013, 377). Transgenderists, as Prince wrote, were “people who have adopted the exterior manifestations of the opposite sex on a full-time basis but without surgical intervention” (cited in Hill 2013, 377). The term “transgenderist” would be taken up, resignified, and modified to “transgender” by scholars and activists in the 1990s.
Throughout the 1960s, print media expanded its purview, addressing diverse trans communities. Some periodicals such as Transformation Magazine (1969) were examples of erotically charged adult entertainment, while others focused on the art and craft of female impersonating. Generally published by commercial entities specializing in fetish culture, they were circulated on the margins of society, sold in adult bookstores and pornography shops. Magazines including Female Mimics, which premiered in 1963, Female Impersonators, which began in 1969, and Drag, which debuted in 1970, depicted the world of professional female impersonators. They reported on drag balls and contests, published photo essays of professional performers, offered “how-to” guides and tips for female impersonation, printed fantasy fiction, and included listings of clubs and venues where performances could be seen. These magazines were visually stirring and brimming with photos. But even more, they operated as nascent public spheres and counterpublics. Their classified sections allowed individuals to post personal ads and reach across time and space to communicate with like-minded others for friendship, companionship, dates, sex, and love. For example, in a 1976 issue of Drag magazine, one reader placed a classified ad looking “to hear from tvs [transvestites] and tss [transsexuals]. I like to read tv stories, especially like to hear from those who can pass in public” (44). Other ads expressed desires for “mature men for dates” (43), “new friends, TVs, females, bi-males and gays” (43), and “exotic get-togethers” (44). Letters to the editor sections revealed just how important these magazines were to readers. In a 1969 issue of Female Impersonators, Myrtle from London requested that the letters to the editor section “be extended to five or six pages … This is my favorite feature.” Likewise, another letter asked the magazine to create a “pen pal section” so readers could learn about each other’s everyday lives and experiences.
In 1964, Reed Erickson, a wealthy transgender man, started one of the largest and most well-funded organizations for transgender advocacy: the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF). The group worked on a variety of socially progressive projects, but its mission was centered on the cause of transsexuality. EEF funded medical research, held conferences, arranged public relations events, and published newsletters and educational leaflets to promote greater understanding of transsexuality (Meyerowitz 2002; Devor and Matte 2007). The organization’s pamphlets, small booklets on various topics of transsexuality, were an authority on the topic written to be accessible to a general audience. EEF also offered emotional support and referral services, circulated resource lists, and furnished medical and legal information. They sponsored speaker series, conducted public talks at colleges and universities, and consulted with medical professionals. In 1964, they funded Harry Benjamin’s research institute, the Harry Benjamin Foundation. Notably, EEF supplied all of the initial funding for the first university Gender Identity Clinic to provide sex change operations in North America at Johns Hopkins University, which opened in 1966 (Devor and Matte 2007). The establishment of the clinic made national news headlines and granted much needed legitimacy to sexual reassignment surgery.
Into the 1970s, trans advocacy and print culture continued to evolve. In 1970, Angela Davis, a transgender woman, activist, and reporter for the underground Los Angeles press, formed TAO, the Transsexual Action Organization, which published the newsletters Moonshadow and Mirage. Her organization became one of the first national transsexual advocacy groups. Davis, a former member of the Gay Liberation Front in LA, brought an ethics of transsexual liberation and countercultural philosophy to both her organization and its publications. In the late 1970s, Merissa Sherrill Lynn founded the New England support group the Tiffany Club, which published its own newsletter in 1978 called the Tapestry. The magazine addressed issues across the gender spectrum. In fact, the word “tapestry” was chosen for the newsletter because it meant a “ ‘weaving’ of all orientations into one.”6 The Tapestry was circulated to other transgender organizations and sold in adult bookstores. Over time the Tapestry would be renamed Transgender Tapestry, and the Tiffany Club would become the International Foundation for Gender Education. Transgender Tapestry covered politics, health, and well-being; featured film and book reviews; and published one of the most comprehensive resource lists spanning everything from doctors to support groups. Leaving the confines of the adult world, the magazine was eventually sold in major bookstores such as Barnes & Noble.
Alongside
