In the mid-90s I found an important phone number in the back of a magazine. These were pre-internet days for me when magazines were a main source of information on most topics. I found this particular magazine in an adult bookstore, despite the fact that it could hardly be considered pornographic. Its offensiveness was simply that it contained pictures and stories of men who liked to dress as women. Still, I was too embarrassed to purchase it, so I memorized the number just long enough to write it down once I got back to my car. The number was for a local chapter of a crossdressing support group called Tri-Ess.
This was also a time before cell phones were ubiquitous, so I had to call Tri-Ess on a weekday from my glass-walled office at work. An elderly-sounding lady named Virginia answered and told me it was her job to interview me before I could attend my first meeting, just to make sure my intentions were honorable. She asked me about my history as a crossdresser and I began answering her in a somewhat hushed tone, so as not to be overheard by my nearby co-workers. Virginia was struggling to hear me and I could tell she was getting frustrated. I felt our connection begin to slip away and this opportunity was far too important to me to let that happen, so I dug deep for courage, raised my voice, and let my personal history pour out. I don’t know if anyone else in the office heard my story, but thankfully Virginia did and she invited me to join the club.
My first Tri-Ess meeting was in a cavernous Holiday Inn conference room. Despite the drab setting, I felt like a debutante at her coming-out ball at the age of 26. It was truly thrilling! My favorite memory from that evening was listening to Virginia’s stories of crossdressing in the 1940s and 50s. She was about the same age as my grandmother and I felt like a bright-eyed young lady attentively soaking up her exciting tales. At the time, I knew she was a crossdressing pioneer who co-founded Tri-Ess, but I didn’t realize how incredibly important she was in blazing the very trail that I was taking my first, high-heeled steps on.
Virginia established the roots for Tri-Ess with a crossdressing social group called the Hose and Heels Club, which had its first meeting in a little church in Hollywood, California in 1960. The twelve original members arrived in male dress with a pair of stockings and high heels in a bag. Then they simultaneously put them on so nobody had anything on anyone else. The members quickly became friends and began having fully dressed meetings at each other’s homes.
About the same time, Virginia co-founded Transvestia magazine which published its first issue in 1961. The mission statement for Transvestia was to serve “the needs of those heterosexual persons who have become aware of their ‘other side’ and seek to express it.” The magazine began with 25 subscribers, each of whom contributed four dollars to get the initial issue off the ground. It caught on quickly and could soon be found in adult bookstores throughout the United States. Transvestia was in publication for more than twenty years and for many crossdressers around the country, and later the world, this magazine would be the first time they would ever see pictures and hear stories from others just like them.
Virginia was the editor and subscribers would contribute content by sharing their photos and stories (remind anyone of a website we know?). I recently discovered that the University of Victoria in Canada digitized nearly the entire Transvestia catalog from Virginia’s personal collection and it is available to the public for free. Every issue includes a cover girl and her personal story. I have read many of these profiles and find them endlessly fascinating. They are from a totally different time and world, yet the feelings and emotions expressed are very similar to our own. Some things never change.
Each issue contains dozens of photos, all in dramatic black and white. Personally, I love the fashions from this era. Everyone looks so elegant, feminine and stylish, but beyond the clothes, these ladies get all the details right as well. Their accessories, poses, and carefully chosen settings are all perfectly on point. Striking looks include a housewife in a tailored dress posing in her kitchen, a perky young woman in capri pants, headscarf, and sunglasses aside a tail-finned Cadillac and a chic, sophisticated woman in an evening gown descending a staircase. Across the board, these ladies present their very best and are a true inspiration.
Virginia was not one to rest on her laurels. In 1962, a year after starting Transvetia, she organized its subscribers into a nationwide sorority called Phi Pi Epsilon and the Hose and Heels Club became the Alpha chapter. This was the beginning of what would become the first transvestite organization in history. New chapters rapidly sprung up throughout America. For the first time, in cities all over the county, crossdressers could connect with each other and attend meetings to socialize, make friends and find support.
I’m absolutely floored when I think about the bravery of these women. Imagine how hard it must have been to share your secret in the mid-twentieth century. Simply taking photos presented a risk that they might be caught – they weren’t snapping away on smartphones, they were shooting on film which was often processed and printed by a stranger. As nerve-wracking as that sounds, imagine venturing out dressed in public, even for a walk or a drive. This was a time when crossdressing was actually illegal – both New York City and Los Angeles still had ordinances that made “masquerading” as a woman in public a criminal act. You could not only go to jail, but you could lose your family, friends, and career in the process. There was a great deal at stake and still, these courageous ladies were willing to share their pictures and stories and form connections with each other.
Virginia was fearless and did a tremendous amount to advance a positive image of crossdressing in the public eye at a time when it was dangerous to do so. She traveled the globe, en femme, speaking on behalf of crossdressers at universities, medical schools, psychiatric conferences, and on more than a hundred radio and television talk shows. She wrote books and published research papers that helped shape much of what we understand about transvestism today. If you want to know more, I urge you all to start with Transvestia issue #100, which is Virginia’s life story in her own words.
I certainly will never forget sharing my personal story for the first time and I feel fortunate that it was Virginia on the other end of that call. I see now that I was adding my story to the hundreds of stories that Virginia had been told over the decades. The pages of Transvestia hold many of these stories for us to read and acknowledge today, and with every new story that we share on CDH, we are adding to the fabric of that glamorous tapestry. I believe that connecting with the generations that came before us and leaving a record for the ones yet to come is something we should all strive to do for the sisterhood!
Here are a few questions from my editor to spark discussion:
- Are you familiar with some early history of crossdressing?
- Have you met in person with others at crossdresser meetings or conventions and how was your experience?
- Imagine how brave you must have been to come out of the closet as a crossdresser back in the 1950s or 1960s?
Thank you girls for taking the time to read my article and I encourage you to look up Virginia’s Transvestia magazine editions on line.
And please take the time to send in either a comment to my article or to answer one or more of the questions we’ve posed to you above!
Sincerely, Marie
(The portrait of Virginia courtesy of University of Victoria Libraries, Transgender Archives.)
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Hello Marie. I’ve never heard of Transvestia or its founder so thank you so much for such a detailed well written article. We certainly need to remember and honor the girls who blazed the trail before us. They took such huge chances to be themselves. I’m old enough to remember when there was no internet, no smart phones or places advertising for people like us. It was all underground and hidden with only small advertisements found in the back of some magazines in sex shops. You were lucky if there even was a sex shop near you being they were… Read more »
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. While those early internet days made finding information difficult, it was nothing compared to 40s, 50s and 60s. I doubt I would have been half as brave either!
I joined Tri-Ess around 2000 and was part of a newly formed New England chapter soon after that. I stayed with them for a few years and made the 5 hour drive once a month to attend the meetings and occasionally other functions. My main problem with the National group (not so much my local chapter) was the homophobic stance that they took. I wrote to them asking they drop the “heterosexual" prefix that they always used as I felt it discriminated against gay and bisexual cross dressers but they never did. Eventually I did leave the group. The New… Read more »
Thanks for your comments, Celeste. I was only a member of Tri-Ess for a short period of time. I was younger than most of the members and was also searching for a more inclusive and less structured place to spread my crossdressing wings, which is something I actually found a few years later. That said, Tri-Ess was an important stepping stone in my growth and I remember it fondly. They offered a safe space for me to dress on-site, which was important because I had very little privacy in those days of having roommates. Virginia was far from homophobic, but… Read more »
[quote data-userid=”62356″ data-postid=”485120″]
Virginia was far from homophobic, but she did intend to create a magazine and social/support club for heterosexual crossdressers.
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Obviously, the very nature of having a narrow focus can exclude others from that group. Doing so can also help a group survive, even thrive without added diversion or interruption.
Thanks for your article describing the past beyond some of our ages. I have only recently delved into on-line crossdressing photos/archives and I will certainly check out this archive.
Found This:
https://vault.library.uvic.ca/collections/6576cedf-1282-4089-8351-08f73f4199b4
Thank you for sharing this link
So fascinating Marie! I love to hear about the origins and the trailblazers of dressing the more I read the more I want to know. This hobby of ours has existed forever and those that came before us had things even harder than we do today. We owe it to them to honor their memory and help along the next generation. Thanks for sharing this article with us! it really does shine a light on the folks who have made us able to express ourselves as freely as we can today.
Thank you, Melanie!
Marie thank you for writing your article about Virginia Prince. I went to Lee Brewsters in NYC in the late 70s and found articles written by her. I remember reading them and other writings , which made realize I wasn’t alone. I saw her once at Fantasia Fair years later. Thank God for people like her and others that with their writings helped so many of us.
Terri
Lee Brewster was another important icon. Lucky you for getting to visit her shop in the 70s. I’m so fascinated with NYC of that era. Did you get to see her perform?
I really loved researching this article. I came across a number of amazing people and stories and often they would intersect. Different people doing different things, but all of them playing an important role in pushing CD/TG/Gay liberation forward.
I, too, visited Lee Brewster’s “Mardi Gras Boutique" during the early 1970’s when it was on 10th avenue not far from Times Square. I eagerly obtained each issue of his magazine “Drag." Each January 1 he would host a gathering in the store. His life story is fascinating.
Lynn McDonough
Lee Brewster helped so many people in our community. When I visited his 10th Avenue location I was very nervous. I purchased a copy of a book called “My husband wears my clothes" it was so life changing for me. I went back to the store and bought my 1st wig. On the bulletin board there was a notice about monthly drag parties in a private home on Long Island. I went to my 1st party in 1979 I think and met people just like me. It was literally a life changing experience.
Thank you for sharing! I love hearing stories like this. Wish I could have been there.
Hi Marie! I love your writing style and thanks for bringing Transvestia to my attention! I am going through the very first copy thanks to Celeste’s link. And I’m sure I’ll get bleary-eyed reading the rest! Hugs, Barb
Thanks, Barb! There is certainly a lot to read. I’ve just scratched the surface!
Marie, your article was well presented and I enjoyed reading it. Thank you!!
Thanks, Alice!
Thank you, Marie, for writing this very well composed and researched article on the early history of our cross dressing passion. Yes, much is owed to Virginia Prince, a very beautiful lady in so many ways! I first contacted Tri-ESS in 1980, while serving in the US Navy, after seeing a small ad in a male magazine. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to learn there were many others like me, including their supportive spouses, who were active in a local chapter in Norfolk, Virginia, which is where I was stationed at that time. That chapter, like so many others,… Read more »
Thank you for your comments. Personally, I don’t have a lot of information about Tri-Ess, other than what I’ve written about here. I was only a member for a short period of time and that was about 25 years ago. We don’t even have a local chapter anymore. I won’t and can’t speak to the organization itself, but I suspect contributing factors to its decline have been sites like CDH that serve a similar purpose of connecting like-minded people. It’s also easier for us to go out and be seen in the world, so we are not as dependent on… Read more »
All good points Marie! Also, Virginia Prince was well aware of what was required to keep a local Tri-ESS group running healthy and growing. In modern times, local groups began to “wing it" on their own, ignoring Tri-ESS guidelines and making up their own rules as they went along. Ultimately, that is what led to their demise, IMHO, and that is why there are so few Tri-ESS groups left today.
@mariec Since this topic has been revived again, it has been well over two years since my last comment. Moreover, since I resigned from the local Tri-ESS group here in Atlanta, I have had the opportunity to attend other social and support groups in the Atlanta area. Those visits have provided me with much information as to how various groups differ in character and the way they function. Briefly, why are these other groups thriving and growing? Diversity and Enthusiasm. Getting stuck in a rut, always doing the same things the same way, and not changing with the times, is… Read more »
To be personally connected to these decades of history the way you are through your call to Virginia and hearing her stories in person is something you clearly treasure and rightly so. The dilemma you found yourself in, needing to raise your voice to connect with someone who would understand but fearful of who else would hear once you spoke loud enough, is like a metaphor for existence in some ways. It can be a passing phase for some, or a lifetime for others. The experiences of others, especially many members here, in different eras and different circumstances is something… Read more »
So well said, Jill. As always, you present an interesting and thoughtful perspective in the most elegant of ways. Thank you.
Thanks Marie, I thought your article was interesting, and informative. I have some awareness of the history but very little detail so I look forward to reading the Transvestia archive and am spurred to start googling the subject. Regarding the braveness of individuals in those days, well I hope it goes without saying that without them, all of us here now would have a much tougher time of it. It’s one thing to dress up and worry about ‘xyz’ happening. But you don’t have to worry about being viewed as a criminal, and subject to ‘judicial’ penalties. At least in… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for your comments, Marti.