ransvestia

d. The Gender Type: To a non-homosexual male almost anything having to do with females has an erotic content, thus dressing at even an early age is generally accompanied by masturbation. This exacts a double toll in guilt because (1) he is a boy and he should not be dressing up in girls' clothes, and (2) masturbation is im- moral, bad, sinful or whatever and he should not be doing that either (fortunately this attitude is changing). But the difference between the fetishist and the Gender Type begins when the cloth- ing continues to be worn for increasing lengths of time AFTER orgasm has been accomplished. Then the wearer begins to discern another type of pleasure... that of femininity itself... the gender satisfaction which is the finding of the rest of his total SELF. SHE then develops little by little over the years if she is enabled to make any kind of contact with other human beings whether they are FPs or not. Her self concept and awareness develops just as with anyone from childhood on up.

Having gone all this route of guilt, shame, isolation, fear of discovery, etc., personally for about 25 years, my privacy was shattered in the course of a divorce action and my name, picture, occupation and all were splashed across the newspapers. When the trauma had eased I felt that since I had lost everything in that exposure there was nothing more to lose and I could therefore afford to try to help my sisters who still had much to lose and still lived in fear and guilt and isolation. So 14 years ago I began publishing the magazine TRANSVESTIA. Its purpose was and is to help the individual achieve understanding of the nature of his be- havior, primarily that it was neither homosexual nor psychopathic and through this knowledge to develop self acceptance and thereby achieve peace of mind.

The magazine destroyed isolation and the concept of being the only boy or man in the world who liked girls sexually but liked his own fem- ininity too. The magazine permitted statements about SELF.. "I wrote that story." It encouraged the selection of a feminine name - no mean psychic achievement, incidentally. When pictures in feminine attire were submitted it was a real statement, for although those who saw the picture didn't know who "that girl" was, that girl herself could have the feeling, "see, I have admitted to the world (and therefore to myself) that I am a feminine personality too." This meant coming out of the closet.

But the magazine was not enough, because humans are gregarious and not until you can deal with other people - even in a microcosm-are

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