TRANSVESTIA
selective in our choice of friends, associates or groups to which we belong.
So Tri Sigma is designed for heterosexual cross dressers who are not interested in other behaviour patterns such as homosexuality lea- ther and rubber fetishism, bondage, punishment and the like. Neither are we an organization for transexuals either pre or post operative. The majority of our members are married and are fathers. This means that they have wives and it is one of the functions of our group to help these wives to understand and accept the fact of their husbands fem- inine side. One of the biggest misunderstandings and fears that wives have upon discovering their husbands interest in feminine things is that they are either homosexual or are anticipating sex change surgery. To go to a group meeting with the usual amount of anxiety and find herself sitting next to a person talking either about his "boy friend" or about his operation would only serve to reinforce her fears. That would make the home life of her husband e ven that much more difficult and might well precipitate a divorce. Tri Sigma is in business to try to make life easier in various ways, not more difficult thus we do not solicit membership by those primarily interested in these var- ious other activities. That will bring criticism from some of those who prattle about freedom to do your own thing, or that such selection constitutes an invasion of privacy or is a form of censorship, etc. They may say what they wish and they may personally do what they wish and join whatever groups they wish, but there are thousands of married, heterosexual cross dressers in this country, many of them with wives who know and are trying to understand. Moreover, these FP's are of necessity concerned about their and their families' se- curity. Thus Tri Sigma is put together to give them an outlet, to provide such assistance and help to wives as it can and to do so in ways that will protect the members anonymity and security. If this sort of thing appeals to you then Tri Sigma is your type of organiz- ation.
There will be two routes to membership in Tri Sigma. One will be the same as it has always been for FPE, reading Transvestia - only we will reduce the number of required issues to three. These must be bought from Chevalier and not bought from stores or borrowed from friends as a means of our being sure that the applicant has indeed read them. This has never been simply a device to sell magazines as some have charged. Rather it is a way of letting the applicant find out the kinds of people that make up the sorority so that he can per-
67