RANSVESTIA

land a volunteer job with a central Marin convalescent hospital.

His interest in women's cloth- ing started early, he recalled. "Since I was 4. I've wanted to get into women's clothes. I just loved it. They were so soft. I couldn't see anything wrong with it."

The crucial difference between his behavior and that of a transves- tite, he said, is his self-image, even when wearing a skirt and blouse, of being male.

"I don't like the idea of imper- sonating a female. I get no sexual arousal out of putting on women's clothes."

Last spring, he said, he under- went a series of tests, he said, in San Francisco to determine if transsex- ual surgery might be advisable because of his preference for fe-

male attire. The tests revealed his strong heterosexual drive and he was told that a sex change opera- tion was not the answer.

Caught in a kind of never- never land. Cushing decided to try to form his own support group for men such as himself. He's settled on the name: Do Clothes Make the Person?

Men or women who would like to join the group can reach him at P.O. Box 343, San Rafael. 94902.

Cushing said he believes there are many men in the Bay Area who find dressing in women's attire pleasurable without being sexually exciting.

"I'm not out to convert Ameri- ca," he declared. "All I want to do is let men choose; to make wearing a dress optional, so there's no indigni- ty."

BUT MADAME -- IF YOUR HUSBAND IS SIX FOOT TEN, THIS WILL BE A MINISKIRT!

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THE SHOPPE