Transvestia

not respond to the advertisement "too shy perhaps even to make an approach by letter, too afraid of the hurt which would result if no reply had been forthcoming" Do you reply to "Contact" advertisements? Or are you as guilty as I am?

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The TV article follows one on homosexuality and the titles seem to have gotten mixed up. The homosexual article is called "One Day In My Double Life", and the TV article is "The Outcast State"! The TV article has double authorship. The beginning and the end are written by Margart Branch, a Psychiatric Social Worker. The filling in the sandwich is by a TV (anonymous of course) who has been living as a woman for six years. I don't think that any of us will agree with all that Mrs. Branch has to say, but it is a relief that she is writing about us. That she writes about an extreme case is probably a con- sequence of her profession, but it is a profound relief not to be lectured on latent homosexuality.

The beginning of the article will be strange to many Americans, "Sexual deviates are some of the loneliness people in the world. The publicity given to homosexuals since the Wolfenden Report has led to discussion of all kinds of levels and although the Report has not been im- plemented, at least the subject can now be discussed in public with greater knowledge and understanding and can be presented on stage and screen without too many cuts from the censor; yet transvestites, who merit at least as much compassion, are still too often treated with con- tempt and ridicule". (The Wolfenden Report is the re- port of a Royal Commission on Homosexuality).

Of course, the cases reported in the press are those of transexuals. One point not mentioned in the article is that it is only too easy for the editor of a prurient newspaper to concentrate on the desires of the transexual for sexual intercourse as a woman and to label that homo- sexuality.

One comment made me blink, "Suicidal thoughts are very common indeed among transvestites." If this is true, we should all have an urgent mission to find our hidden sisters before it is too late.