man in her late thirties. Those at the party who did not know me, immediately took Sue at face value and treated her as a guest who had come without a costume. I was amazed at the way I found that I could fit in- to Sue's personality in every de- tail without rehearsal. My wife knowing me very well, realized immediately that THIS was much more than a successful "performance." So I told her about the unfulfilled desires of the past years. She was totally astonished but her attitude now is very understanding. Still, she wants to avoid contact with Sue. All of this is somewhat irrele- vant to the purpose of this let- ter, but in the light of Virginia's book, I thought that you might be interested in one perfectly normal wife's reaction. Since the costume party a year ago, Sue and I had three exhilerating evenings with a friend a girl who could accept Sue as a girl- friend because her associations with me as a man were much more superficial. On those evenings, Betty and I have gone out to restaurants in my area and I have discovered that Sue despite a height of 6'2" - has been entirely accepted as a tall, attractive girl. Only once did I have any sense that I was being "read." In all this time, despite some efforts, I have been unable to contact any other men who feel like me. I found a mainly mixed organization of Tvs but I found them unsatisfactory. I located Virginia's book and soon learned more about me. Since I fit very closely with the nor- to fit very closely with the nor- mal member of The Society For The Second Self, I hope that Washington, D.C. has a local chapter which I could join. I have no doubt that the 'Society' is for me. I am firmly hetero- sexual, happily married with two children, college educated, a pro-

고

LAW

chon Day

"I bet I'm the first case of being the other woman in my wife's divorce suit."

fessional and a committed, prac- ticing Christian. What I am look- ing for is a way to express the feminine side of my personality in a way which does not hurt any of my other emotional, religious and professional links. (Washington, D.C.)

Sue

Dear Carol: (The following letter is from a sister in Germany and I am leaving the language of the letter very much as she wrote it, since the letter seems to mean more the way she has expressed herself) One day before Christ- mas, I appreciate your very kind letter with the copy of Transves- tia. I was very very happy to hear from you and I cannot tell how good it was for my feelings to hear from some people who have the same problem like me. Sud- denly there was the thinking, that I am not alone on this world with the femininity in my male body. Now I am full of hope, that it will be able to understand and live easier with my situa- tion. But perhaps it will be better to tell you something about me and my situation. I'm still very

young, now I am 24 years old, living in a little village in the near of Marburg, an old university town, where I'm studying biolo- gy. Since I can remember, I al- ways had the problem with my maleness. Just as a little boy 1 dressed in the clothes of my mother and my sisters. But I paid attention that somebody did not discover me and all was a big secret for me. But the desire to live like a woman be- came greater and greater and did never leave me. But I could not understand myself (and cannot totally today) and a long time I hate my strange behavior and al- ways when I dressed I had a very bad conscious later. A very long time in my life I thought about my sexuality, because I thought, maybe you are gay or perverse and so on. But I never had a sex- ual feeling for men. But I want to know what it is with me. So I decided to speak with my girl- friend about my problems. It was terrible for me, because I was very afraid and was ashamed very much. First she was very shocked