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hungry for something on the subject that if they did find something they would want more. But, here were all these people who had bought once and not a second time. How could that be? I finally figured out that the wording of that ad attracted a bunch of gay queens who bought the magazine once. But finding nothing in it that appealed to their way of life, they in effect said, "Why should I buy that rag again, it doesn't have anything in it that does anything for me." So, I reasoned, if I made prospects buy five issues to join FPE I could be pretty sure that they were regular FPs since they wouldn't find anything in TVia that dealt with homosexuality, bondage, humiliation, punishment, fetishism and similar persuasions if that was where they were coming from. Such people would never live past the second issue so it was an effective screen and it worked for a number of years in spite of those who saw it only as a money making scam.

But by 1976 when Tri Sigma was formed, the world had changed quite a bit and everybody was more tolerant, security wasn't quite the problem it used to be, though still important. Therefore, we lightened up the requirement to three issues of TVia or ... The "or" was the book "Understanding Cross Dressing" first published in 1976. This book was written to serve three purposes: 1) to educate the FPs about the nature of their behavior, 2) to educate interested non-FPs such as wives, parents, professionals or just interested people, and 3) to act as a screen for membership in Tri Sigma, since it makes very clear the nature of the FP phenomenon and the nature of the organization for FPs. I'm pleased to say that I have had lots of compliments on the difference it has made in the lives of lots of readers and wives. It has been reprinted since its first printing and that printing is about half gone. It is the only book written dealing solely and fully with the whole behavior pattem so important to all of us. Of course, there are still those who complain of it being a rip off to require buying a book to qualify for membership in an organiza- tion. But if they can dream up a better way of separating the wheat from the chaff, we'll be glad to adopt it for Tri Sigma. But apart from that debate, Tri Sigma has remained very functional and has grown yearly. It is the largest such organization in the country dedicated to what we have come to refer to as "uncomplicated" (by other patterns) heterosexual cross dressers.

But back to the chronology. 1975 was a significant year for me. I wrote a book that had nothing to do with Femmiphilia. It is a kind of a combination science fiction women's lib social commentary. I only

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