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WITH A NEW AFTERWORD

or of Stone Hutch Blurs

‘Men and women have had

their histories. This is the history

book for the rest of us.
” – katf. bornstein

author of Gendei Outlaw

TRANS
GENDE

Warriors

TRANS

gender
WARRIORS

MAKING HISTORY

FROM JOAN OF ARC

TO DENNIS RODMAN

LESLIE FEINBERG

Beacon Press

BOSTON

BEACON PRESS

25 Beacon Street

Boston, Massachusetts

02108-2892

Beacon Press books are published under the

auspices ofthe Unitarian Universalist Association

ofCongregations.

© 1996 by Leslie Feinberg

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States ofAmerica

01 00 99 98 97 8 76543 2

Book Design and Formatting

by Lucinda Hitchcock

EPIGRAPH CREDITS

Part One: “Before the Scales, Tomorrow,” by Otto

Rene Castillo from Poetry Like Bread: Poets ofthe

Political Imagination From Curbstone Press, edited bv

Martin Espada, Curbstone Press, 1994. Translation

copyright ©1971 by Margaret Randall. Reprinted

with permission by Curbstone Press.

Part Two: Schlipp, P. A. Albert Einstein, Philosopher-

Scientist. NewYork: Tudor, 1950.

Part Three: “Still I Rise,” from And Still I Rise, bv

Maya Angelou. Copyright ©1978 by Mava

Angelou. Reprinted by permission of Random

House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feinberg, Leslie, 1949-

Transgender warriors: making history from

Joan ofArc to Dennis Rodman / Leslie Feinberg.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn 0-8070-7940-5 (cloth)

isbn 0-8070-7941-3 (paper)

1. Transsexualism – History. 2. Transvestism –

History. 3. Gender identity – History. I. Tide

hq77.9.f44 1997

305.3 -dc21 96-37682

Part Four: Written by Karl Marx in the spring of

1845. First published bv Frederick Engels in

Stuttgart in the 1888 Appendix to the separate edi-

tion of his book LudwigFeuerbach und der Ausgang

der klassischen deutschen Philosophie.

Part Five: From Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches by
AudreLorde. Copyright ©1984 bv Audre Lorde.

The Crossing Press Feminist Series, Freedom. Cali-

fornia: 1984.

DEDICATED TO

TWO TRANSGENDER WARRIORS

WHO FELL IN BATTLE

Brandon Teena

Marsha P. Johnson

CONTENTS

PART

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

one TheJourney Begins 3

two My Path to Consciousness 1

1

three The Give Away 21

four They Called Her “Hommasse” 31

five Our Sacred Past 39

six Why Bigotry Began 49

seven But They Had Slaves! 55

eight Natural Becomes “Unnatural” 61

nine “Holy War ” against Trans People 6 7

ten Leading the Charge 75

eleven NotJust Passing 83

twelve From Germany to Stonewall 91

thirteen To Be or Not to Be 101

fourteen Sisterhood: Make It Real! 109

fifteen Making History 121

Portrait Gallery 131

APPENDIX A.

International Gender Bill ofRights 1 65

APPENDIX B.

Transgender Organizations 1 71

APPENDIX C.

Transgender Publications 177

Notes 1S1

Selected Bibliography 1 95

Photo Credits 1 99

Index 205

Contents VII

PREFACE

I’ve heard the question all my life. The answer is not so simple, since there are no
pronouns in the English language as complex as I am, and I do not want to simplify

myself in order to neatly fit one or the other. There are millions more like me in the
United States alone.

We have a history filled with militant hero/ines. Yet therein lies the rub! How can
I tell you about their battles when the words woman and man, feminine and masculine,

are almost the only words that exist in the English language to describe all the vicis-

situdes of bodies and styles of expression?

Living struggles accelerate changes in language. I heard language evolve during

the 1960s, when I came out into the drag bars of western New York and southern
Ontario. At that time, the only words used to describe us cut and seared – yelled at

us from the window of a screeching car, filled with potential bashers. There were no

words that we’d go out of our way to use that made us feel good about ourselves.

When we all first heard the word “gay,” some of my friends vehemently opposed
the word on the grounds that it made us sound happy. “No one will ever use ‘gay’,”

my friends assured me, each offering an alternative word, none ofwhich took root.
I learned that language can’t be ordered individually, as if from a Sears catalog. It is

forged collectively, in the fiery heat of struggle.

Right now, much of the sensitive language that was won by the liberation move-

ments in the United States during the sixties and seventies is bearing the brunt of a

right-wing backlash against being “politically correct.” Where I come from, being

“politically correct” means using language that respects other peoples’ oppressions

and wounds. This chosen language needs to be defended.

The words I use in this book may become outdated in a very short time, because

the transgender movement is still young and defining itself. But while the slogans

lettered on the banners may change quickly, the struggle will rage on. Since I am

writing this book as a contribution to the demand for transgender liberation, the

language I’m using in this book is not aimed at definingbut at defending the diverse

communities that are coalescing.

Preface IX

I don’t have a personal stake in whether the trans liberation movement results in

a new third pronoun, or gender-neutral pronouns, like the ones, such as ze (she/he)

and hit (her/his)
,
being experimented with in cyberspace. It is not the words in and

of themselves that are important to me – it’s our lives. The struggle of trans people
over the centuries is not his-story or her-story. It is owr-story.

I’ve been called a he-she, butch, bulldagger, cross-dresser, passing woman,

female-to-male transvestite, and drag king. The word I prefer to use to describe

myself is transgender.

Today the word transgender has at least two colloquial meanings. It has been

used as an umbrella term to include everyone who challenges the boundaries of sex

and gender. It is also used to draw a distinction between those who reassign the sex

they were labeled at birth, and those of us whose gender expression is considered

inappropriate for our sex. Presently, many organizations – from Transgender

Nation in San Francisco to Monmouth Ocean Transgender on theJersey shore – use
this term inclusively.

I asked many self-identified transgender activists who are named or pictured in

this book who they believed were included under the umbrella term. Those polled

named: transsexuals, transgenders, transvestites, transgenderists, bigenders, drag

queens, drag kings, cross-dressers, masculine women, feminine men, intersexuals

(people referred to in the past as “hermaphrodites”), androgynes, cross-genders,

shape-shifters, passing women, passing men, gender-benders, gender-blenders,

bearded women, and women bodybuilders who have crossed the line ofwhat is con-
sidered socially acceptable for a female body.

But the word transgender is increasingly being used in a more specific way as

well. The term transgenderist was first introduced into the English language by trans

warrior Virginia Prince. Virginia told me, “I coined the noun transgenderist in 1987

or ’88. There had to be some name for people like myselfwho trans the gender bar-

rier – meaning somebody who lives full time in the gender opposite to their

anatomy. I have not transed the sex barrier.”

As the overall transgender movement has developed, more people are exploring

this distinction between a person’s sex – female, intersexual, male – and their gen-

der expression – feminine, androgynous, masculine, and other variations. Many

national and local gender magazines and community groups are starting to use

TS/TG: transsexual and transgender.

Under Western law, doctors glance at the genitals of an infant and pronounce

the baby female or male, and that’s that. Transsexual men and women traverse the

boundary of the sex they were assigned at birth.

And in dominant Western cultures, the gender expression of babies is assumed

at birth: pink for girls, blue for boys; girls are expected to grow up feminine, boys

masculine. Transgender people traverse, bridge, or blur the boundary of the gender

expression they were assigned at birth.

However, not all transsexuals choose surgery or hormones; some transgender

people do. I am transgender and I have shaped myself surgically and hormonal^

twice in my life, and I reserve the right to do it again.

But while our movement has introduced some new terminology, all the words

X TRANSGENDER WARRIORS: Making History

used to refer to our communities still suffer from limitations. For example, terms

like cross-dress, cross-gender, male-to-female, and female-to-male reinforce the

idea that there are only two distinct ways to be – you’re either one or the other – and

that’s just not true. Bigender means people have both a feminine side and a mascu-

line side. In the past, most bigendered individuals were lumped together under the

category of cross-dressers. However, some people live their whole lives cross-

dressed; others are referred to as part-time cross-dressers. Perhaps if gender

oppression didn’t exist, some of those part-timers would enjoy the freedom to

cross-dress all the time. But bigendered people want to be able to express both facets

ofwho they are.

Although I defend any person’s right to use transvestite as a s^Z/definition, I use

the term sparingly in this book. Although some trans publications and organiza-

tions still use “transvestite” or the abbreviation “TV” in their titles, many people who

are labeled transvestites have rejected the term because it invokes concepts of psy-

chological pathology, sexual fetishism, and obsession, when there’s really nothing

at all unhealthy about this form of self-expression. And the medical and psychiatric

industries have always defined transvestites as males, but there are many female

cross-dressers as well.

The words cross-dresser, transvestite, and drag convey the sense that these intri-

cate expressions of self revolve solely around clothing. This creates the impression

that ifyou’re so oppressed because ofwhat you’re wearing, you canjust change your

outfit! But anyone who saw La Cage aux Folks remembers that the drag queen never

seemed more feminine than when she was crammed into a three-piece “man’s” suit

and taught to butter bread like a “real man.” Because it is our entire spirit – the

essence of who we are – that doesn’t conform to narrow gender stereotypes, many

people who in the past have been referred to as cross-dressers, transvestites, drag

queens, and drag kings today define themselves as Iransgender.

All together, our many communities challenge all sex and gender borders and

restrictions. The glue that cements these diverse communities together is the

defense of the right of each individual to define themselves.

As I write this book, the word trans is being used increasingly by the gender com-

munity as a term uniting the entire coalition. If the term had already enjoyed pop-

ular recognition, I would have titled this book Trans Warriors. But since the word

transgender is still most recognizable to people all over the world, I use it in its most

inclusive sense: to refer to all courageous trans warriors of every sex and gender –

those who led battles and rebellions throughout history and those who today

muster the courage to battle for their identities and for their very lives.

Transgender Warriors is not an exhaustive trans history, or even the history of the

rise and development of the modern trans movement. Instead, it is a fresh look at

sex and gender in history and the interrelationships of class, nationality, race, and

sexuality. Have all societies recognized only two sexes? Have people who traversed

the boundaries of sex and gender always been so demonized? Why is sex-reassign-

ment or cross-dressing a matter of law?

But how could I find the answers to these questions when it means wending my

way through diverse societies in which the concepts of sex and gender shift like sand

Preface xi

dunes over the ages? And as a white, transgender researcher, how can I avoid foist-
ing my own interpretations on the cultures of oppressed peoples’ nationalities?

I tackled this problem in several ways. First, I focused a great deal of attention on

Western Europe, not out ofunexamined Eurocentrism, but because I hold the pow-

ers that ruled there for centuries responsible for campaigns of hatred and bigotry

that are today woven into the fabric of Western cultures and have been imposed

upon colonized peoples all over the world. Setting the blame for these attitudes

squarely on the shoulders of the European ruling classes is part of my contribution
to the anti-imperialist movements.

I’ve also included photos from cultures all over the world, and I’ve sought out

people from those countries and nationalities to help me create short, factual cap-
tions. I tried very hard not to interpret or compare these different cultural expres-

sions. These photographs are not meant to imply that the individuals pictured

identify themselves as transgender in the modern, Western sense of the word.

Instead, I’ve presented their images as a challenge to the currently accepted West-

ern dominant view that woman and man are all that exist, and that there is only one
way to be a woman or a man.

I don’t take a view that an individual’s gender expression is exclusively a product

of either biology or culture. If gender is solely biologically determined, why do rural

women, for example, tend to be more “masculine” than urban women? On the
other hand, if gender expression is simply something we are taught, why has such a

huge trans segment of the population not learned it? If two sexes are an immutable

biological fact, why have so many societies recognized more than two? Yet while

biology is not destiny, there are some biological markers on the human anatomical

spectrum. So is sex a social construct, or is the rigid categorization of sexes the cul-

tural component? Clearly there must be a complex interaction between individuals

and their societies.

My interest in this subject is not merely theoretical. You probably already know
that those ofus who cross the cultural boundaries of sex and gender are paying a ter-

rible price. We face discrimination and physical violence. We are denied the right to
live and work with dignity and respect. It takes so much courage to live our lives that

sometimes just leaving our homes in the morning and facing the world as who we

really are is in itself an act of resistance. But perhaps you didn’t know that we have a

history of fighting against such injustice, and that today we are forging a movement

for liberation. Since I couldn’t include photos of all the hard-working leading

activists who make up our movement, I have included a collection of photos that

begins to illustrate the depth and breadth of sex and gender identities, balanced bv

race, nationality, and region. No one book could include all the sundry identities of
trans individuals and organizations, which range from the Short Mountain Fairies

from Tennessee to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in San Francisco.

It is time for us to write as experts on our own histories. For too long our light has

been refracted through other people’s prisms. My goal in this book is to fashion his-

tory, politics, and theory into a steely weapon with which to defend a very oppressed

segment of the population.

I grew up thinking that the hatred I faced because of my gender expression was

XII TRANSGENDER WARRIORS: Making History

simply a by-product of human nature, and that it must be my fault that I was a target
for such outrage. I don’t want any young person to ever believe that’s true again,

and so I wrote this book to lay bare the roots and tendrils of sex and gender oppres-

sion.

Today, a great deal of “gender theory” is abstracted from human experience. But

if theory is not the crystallized resin of experience, it ceases to be a guide to action.

I offer history, politics, and theory that live and breathe because they are rooted in

the experience of real people who fought flesh-and-blood battles for freedom. And

mywork is not solely devoted to chronicling the past, but is a component ofmy orga-

nizing to help shape the future.

This is the heart of my life’s work. When I clenched my fists and shouted back at
slurs aimed to strip me of my humanity, this was the certainty behind my anger.
When I sputtered in pain at well-meaning individuals who told me, “I just don’t get

what you are?” – this is what I meant. Today, Transgender Warriors is my answer. This

is the core of my pride.

Preface XIII

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’ve been forced to pack up

and move quickly many times in the last twenty years – spurred by my inability to
pay the rent or, all too often, by a serious threat to my life that couldn’t be faced
down. Yet no matter how much I was forced to leave behind, I always schlepped
my cartons of transgender research with me. Thanks to my true friends who got
up in the middle of the night, wiped the sleep from their eyes, and helped me
move. You rescued my life, and my work.

Over the decades, my writings on trans oppression, resistance, and history
have appeared as articles in Workers World newspaper, and Liberation and Marxism

magazine. I have spoken about these topics at countless political meetings, street

rallies, and activist conferences. So I thank the members ofWorkers World Party
– ofevery nationality, sex, age, ability, gender, and sexuality – for liberating space

for me, helping me develop, and defending a podium from which I could speak
about trans liberation as a vital component of the struggle for economic and

socialjustice.

Some special thanks. To Gregory Dunkel for waking me some twenty years
ago to the need to archive the images I’d found, and then helping me every step
of the way. To Sara Flounders, for proving to be such a good friend and ally to the

trans communities – and to me. My gratitude and love for Dorothy Ballan is right
here in my heart. I’m especiallv grateful for the unflagging support from my
transsexual, transgender, drag, and intersexual comrades – especially Kristianna

Tho’mas.

In 1992 I wrote the pamphlet Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time

Has Come, which became the basis for my slide show. I traveled the country show-
ing slides in places as diverse as an auditorium at Brown University and a back

room of a pizzeria/bar in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thousands of you asked ques-

tions during or after the program, which contributed to this finished work.

Maybe you sent me a clipping, photo, or book reference. You’ve all offered me
support. I am grateful for this kindness and solidarity.
My gratitude to each of the trans warriors included in this book. But many

other transsexual, transgender, drag, intersexual, and bigender warriors gave

Acknowledgments xv

me a heap of help and support, including: Holly Boswell, Cheryl Chase, Loren
Cameron, Dallas Denny and the valuable resources of the National Transgender
Library and Archive, Lissa Fried, Dana Friedman, Davina Anne Gabriel, James
Green, David Harris, Mike Hernandez, Craig Hickman, Morgan Holmes, Nancy
Nangeroni, Linda and Cynthia Phillips, Bet Power, Sky Renfro, Martine and Bina

Rothblatt, Ruben, Gail Sondegaard, Susan Stryker, Virginia Prince, Lynn

Walker, Riki Wilchins, andJessy Xavier.

Chrystos, you really served as editor of Chapter 3; I loved working with you!

Thanks to other friends and allies who also gently helped me to express my soli-
darity with people ofother nationalities in the most sensitive possible way: Yamila

Azize-Vargas, my beloved Nic Billey, Ben the Dancer, Spotted Eagle, Elias Fara-
jaje-Jones, Curtis Harris, Larry Holmes, Leota Lone Dog, Aurora Levins

Morales, Pauline Park, Geeta Patel, Doyle Robertson, Barbara Smith, Sabrina

Sojourner, and Wesley Thomas.

Then there was the research. Leslie Kahn, you are my goddess of transgender
library research. Miriam Hammer, I will always remember you coming to my
home at the eleventh hour after I’d lost my manuscript and research to a com-
puter virus. Thanks to Allan Berube, Melanie Breen, Paddy Colligan, Randy P.

Conner, Bill Dragoin, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Jonathan Ned Katz, and Julie
Wheelwright.

My warmest thanks to Morgan Gwenwald and Mariette Pathy Allen – who
worked on this project as photographic consultants and advisors. Amv Steiner.
thanks! And I owe a debt of gratitude to the many brilliant documentary and art
photographers, amateur shutterbugs, graphic artists, and a wildly popular car-

toonist – who all contributed to this book. Special thanks to Marcus Alonso,

Alison Bechdel, Loren Cameron, Stephanie Dumaine, Greg Dunkel, Robert

Giard, Steve Gillis, Andrew Holbrooke, Jennie Livingston, Viviane Moos, John

Nafpliotis, Lyn Neely, V.Jon Nivens, Cathy Opie, M. P. Schildmeyer, Bette Spero,

Pierre Verger, and Gary Wilson. And my regards to the darkroom folks, particu-
larly Ligia Boters and BrianYoung at Phototechnica, and the guys at Hong Color.

As I saw how much archivists, librarians, and researchers all over the world
cared about preserving our collective past and making it accessible, mv respect
for their work soared. Special thanks to archivistJanet Miller, and your Uncom-

mon Vision, and the staffs of the Schomburg Collection, Museum of the Ameri-
can Indian, Smithsonian Institute (especially Vertis), Library of Congress, State

Hermitage Museum of Russia, Mansell Collection, British Library, National
Library of Wales, Royal Anthropological Institute, British Museum, Louvre,

American Library Association, Bettmann Archive, New York Public Library,
Musee de Beaux Arts de Rouen, Staatliche Museen, Clarke Historical Library,

Verger Institute, Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Cleveland Museum ofArt, Guild-

hall Library, and Art Resource.

For support that came in many forms, my gratitude to: John Catalinotto.
Kate Clinton, Hillel Cohen, Annette Dragon, Bob Diaz, Ferron, Nanette

Gartrell, Diane McPherson, Dee Mosbacher, Joy Schaefer, Adrienne Rich.

Beth Zemsky, and Carlos Zuriiga.

XVI TRANSGENDER WARRIORS: Making History

To my agent, Charlotte Sheedy – it’s an honor to work with a pioneer who
marked the trail for so many of us. To Deb Chasman, my editor at Beacon –

you’ve demonstrated that editing genius is sharp style, and a whole lot of sensi-

tivity. My gratitude to Ken Wong for grammatically scrubbing this book. And I
thank the whole staff at Beacon for their contributions – not the least of which

was enthusiastic support.

Thanks to those whose astute reading ofmy drafts greatly developed this book
– especially Elly Bulkin and Deirdre Sinnott. For teaching me how to be ajour-
nalist, over two decades, I credit you, Deirdre Griswold – longtime editor, long-

time friend.

Now I go a bit deeper. Thanks to my sons – Ben and Ransom – for loving and
supporting your Drag Dad. I love you each dearly. To my sister Catherine, and my
“chosen family” – Star, Shelley, Robin, Brent and my mom Wyontmusqui – how
else can I thank you for your love except to love you right back.

To my wife, my inspiration, and my dearest friend, poet-warrior Minnie Bruce
Pratt – 1 couldn’t have gotten through this without you. I’ve stoop-picked beans

and stretch-picked apples, but this book was the hardest work I’ve ever done.

Your brilliance, insight, and generous love got me through each day. How could
I possibly thank you in the way you deserve? Tell you what – As we grow old hap-

pily – one day at a time – I’ll try to find the ways.

The sum total of everyone’s contributions to this book is a collective act of sol-

idarity with trans liberation. Since the movement to bring a better world into

birth developed me and my world view, I give this book – and every cent of the
advance royalties, an author’s wages – back to the struggle to end all oppression.

Acknowledgments xvn

TRANS
GENDER

Warriors

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

And when the enthusiastic

story ofour time

is told,

for those

who are yet to be born

but announce themselves

with more generousface,

we will come out ahead

— those who have suffered mostfrom. it.

from “Before the Scales, Tomorrow,”

BY OTTO RENE CASTILLO,

Guatemalan Revolutionary,

EXECUTED IN 1967.

Part One

WHEN I WAS BORN

in 1949, the doctor confidently declared, “It’s a girl.” That might have been the last

time anyone was so sure. I grew up a very masculine girl. It’s a simple statement to

write, but it was a terrifying reality to live.

I was raised in the 1950s – an era marked by rigidly enforced social conformity

and fear of difference. Our family lived in the Bell Aircraft factory housing projects.

The roads were not paved; the coal truck, ice man’s van, and knife-sharpener’s cart

crunched along narrow strips of gravel.

I tried to mesh two parallel worlds as a child – the one I saw with my own eyes and
the one I was taught. For example, I witnessed powerful adult women in our work-
ing-class projects handling every challenge of life, while coping with too many kids

and not enough money. Although I hated seeing them so beaten down by poverty, I

loved their laughter and their strength. But, on television I saw women depicted as
foolish and not very bright. Every cultural message taught me that women were only
capable ofbeing wives, mothers, housekeepers – seen, not heard. So, was it true that

women were the “weak” sex?

In school I leafed through my geography textbooks and saw people of many dif-
ferent hues from countries far, far from my home. Before we moved to Buffalo, my
family had lived in a desert town in Arizona. There, people who were darker skinned

and shared different customs from mine were a sizeable segment of the population.

Yet in the small world of the projects, most of the kids in my grade school, and my

teachers, were white. The entire city was segregated right down the middle – east

and west. In school I listened as some teachers paid lip service to “tolerance” but I

frequently heard adults mouth racist slurs, driven by hate.

I saw a lot of love. Love of parents, flag, country, and deity were mandatory. But I

also observed other loves – between girls and boys, and boys and boys, and girls and

girls. There was the love of kids and dogs in my neighborhood, soldier buddies in

foxholes in movies, students and teachers at school. Passionate, platonic, sensual,

dutiful, devoted, reluctant, loyal, shy, reverent. Yet I was taught there was only one

official meaning of the word love- the kind between men and women that leads to

Part One /Chi TheJourney Begins 3

right: The author at

about the age of nine.

far right: Christine

Jorgensen in her home

in 1984, sitting below a

portrait of herself.

bottom right: Inside the

police van are some of

the ninety-nine arrested

for wearing women’s

clothing at a 1939

raid on a New York

City “Masque Ball.”

marriage. No adult ever mentioned men loving men or women loving women in my
presence. I never heard it discussed anywhere. There was no word at that time in my
English language to express the sheerjoy of loving someone of the same sex.

And I learned very early on that boys were expected to wear “men’s” clothes, and
girls were not. When a man put on women’s garb, it was considered a crudejoke. By
the time my family got a television, I cringed as my folks guffawed when “Uncle
Miltie” Berle donned a dress. It hit too close to home. I longed to wear the boys’

clothing I saw in the Sears catalog.

My own gender expression felt quite natural. I liked my hair short and I felt most
relaxed in sneakers,jeans and a t-shirt. However, when I was most at home with how

I looked, adults did a double-take or stopped short when they saw me. The question

.

“Is that a boy or a girl?” hounded me throughout my childhood. The answer didn’t
matter much. The very fact that strangers had to ask the question already marked

me as a gender outlaw.
My choice of clothing was not the only alarm bell that rang my difference. If my

more feminine younger sister had worn “boy’s” clothes, she might have seemed styl-

ish and cute. Dressing all little girls and all little boys in “sex-appropriate” clothing

actually called attention to our gender differences. Those of us who didn’t fit stuck

out like sore thumbs.

Being different in the 1950s was no small matter. McCarthy’s anti-communist witch

hunts were in full frenzy. Like most children, I caught snippets of adult conversa-

tions. So I was terrified that communists were hiding under my bed and might grab

my ankles at night. I heard that people who were labeled “reds” would discover their

4 TRANSGENDER WARRIORS: Making History

names and addresses listed in local newspapers, be fired from their jobs, and be

forced to pack up their families and move away. What was their crime? I couldn’t

make out the adults’ whispers. But the lesson seeped down: keep your mouth shut;

don’t rock the boat. I overheard angry, hammering accusations on …