a Transvestia

TRUE STORY

TRAVELLING SALESLADY

Virginia

The last 3 weeks of May and the first week of June were hectic. I spent most of it away from home. The week of the 11 - 16 saw me in San Francisco for the American Psychiatric Assn. meeting. It was kind of exciting this year. There was an evening seminar on HS vs. TS with papers presented by various big-wigs in the field Chaired by Dr. Green of UCLA and introduced by Dr. Benjamin. About half way through various wild haired members of Gay Liberation moved in and began to yell and shout obscenities and accusations at the speakers. It got to be quite a mess. Dr. Green gave a couple of them an oppor- tunity to speak at the podium but they didn't make their case very well. I was recognized as the last person to ask a question and I went up to the podium to do it. First thing I said was, “I'm not a psychia- trist so don't take off on me." All the gays laughed. Then I said, "A minute ago one of your people was here at the mike and said, ‘I'm gay and I'm glad'. I'd like to say that I'm a Transvestite and I'm proud.” For this I got a hand from the gays and they kept quiet so I could have my say.

I told the audience that although the subject was TS nobody had bothered to define it and how could they debate its nature without deciding what they meant by the word. I therefore gave them my definition as presented in the article in TVia No. 60 and went on to tell them that the great majority of those seeking surgery did not qualify, etc. Dr. Green subsequently thanked me for ending the evening on a positive note instead of a confrontation.

Thursday morning there was another session on HS and again the Gay Lib people were there joined by a bunch of young women from Women's Lib. Between them they created so much noise, confusion and distur-

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