TRANSVESTIA

We went down to the Federal Building and all the way along they let me understand that they regarded me as a homosexual. This was an era when the post office department thought it was going to stamp our homosexuality in America and they were doing all sorts of things to various people. I had already had letters from readers in various parts of the country relating how postal inspectors had harassed them, seized copies of mine and other literature and in one case all of one person's femme clothes which were in the back of his car trunk. So, it was evident that they were clamping down all over. Well, I got my fabled one phone call and got hold of my attorney's office. So one of his people would be present at the arraignment about 4 p.m. that afternoon and it was now about 2 p.m. They put me in a fair sized conference room with bars on one side and a locked door on the other. There was a conference table in the middle and a couple of chairs and nothing else. So I climbed on the table, stretched out on my back and went to sleep to pass the time. Eventually, the arraign- ment was held, bail set and my attorney had brought a bondsman who put up the bail; and then he drove me back to the office where I gave him a check for the bail.

Well, my wife and I went down to see the Assistant District Attorney several times but he said there was little he could to because once the post office department turned a case over to them, they had to prosecute. So, eventually it came to trial and I pleaded guilty not only because I did send the letter but because to have pleaded not guilty would have meant a prolonged trial and the possibility of publicity which would have proved very embarrassing to my father who was rather prominent in professional circles in the city at the time. So, when the hearing came up the judge asked the D.A. what were the circumstances of the case and he mentioned the letter briefly and then went into a harangue about the magazine and how we had to put a stop to such things and that an example had to be made, etc., etc. and he wanted the magazine discontinued and the post office box closed.

The judge then turned to me and asked how did I respond to that. I replied that while I did write the letter in question it was the only one I had ever written of that sort and that I did so thinking the recipient was a woman, but more importantly I didn't see what that had to do with the magazine which had never contained anything off color, prurient, sexy, obscene or whatever and moreover it had saved a

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