Transvestia

Then there were several circumstances which led to an experience with TV. While attending polytechnic I became more and more estranged from my parents, mo- ther and I had never been particularly close, and father seemed to disapprove of almost everything I did. Also they seemed to fight quite a lot, and father was spending a lot of time in the pub. Finally, one night a terrific row broke out, during which I discovered that he was not my real father. From then on I did not seem to get al- ong with them, and did not care what they thought of

me.

There occurred about this time (1954) several things which perhaps shaped my later attitudes. In one of the national daily papers "The Daily Sketch", there appeared a human interest story with photographs of a little boy dressed as a girl. The boy was about five years old and the son of a minor official of the Iranish Embassy. There was an interview with his mother, who said she had want- ed a daughter and intended to keep the boy in long hair and dresses until he was at least seven years old. The story gave their address (in the Earl's Court of Kenning- ton, West London), and mentioned that he went to pri- mary school where he was treated as a little girl. For some reason this thrilled me tremendously. I can not account for this feeling, only that perhaps I must have somehow envied the child. Anyway I frequently made excuses to go to Earl's Court, walking past the house hoping to catch a sight of the boy on his way to or from school. I never did see him, perhaps the family moved as the result of the publicity, for the story raised a lot of comment in the newspaper where it appeared.

The letters to the Editor column of most British pa- pers is usually full of assorted trivia, ie. a letter ap- pears that someone has a cat which has lived seventeen years and for months after people write in with their cat's claim to greater longevity. In the same way this story gave rise to letters on the subject for months after. I was enthralled by these letters, anxiously buying the paper each day to read the letters. There were letters from mothers who approved, saying that they also put their sons in dresses because they thought dresses much prettier than trousers, mothers who had kept their sons in long curls until they were quite old, mothers who made

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