A letter from Linda Lee

Linda Lee wrote for Drag magazine and then Female Mimics for 15 years or so.  She is now a children’s magician.
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Thank you for your Gender Variance Who's Who. (Lovely term "gender variance"; so much less "loaded" than a lot of the other terms used.).

The index brought back good memories of people I knew, some well, some only very slightly, and lots that I didn't know but was highly aware of.

I wrote for Lee Brewster for about five years or so until DRAG folded, then moved to FEMALE MIMICS for another 8-10 or so...

The one time I visited NYC, Lee threw a dinner for me at Luchow's (the first place in America that Harry Benjamin ate, he told me in a letter...) and I met Chrysis briefly. Stunning!

I met Kristi Kelly through a friend and interviewed her at some length. We went out to dinner and had intended to get together again the next time I was in L.A. and then, within a couple of months came news of the plane crash. I spoke at her funeral which was one of the harder things I've done and I didn't get through it without tears.

Steve Dain I met through the SAR programs I participated in for the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco and we stayed in friendly touch even after I stopped speaking at them. I hadn't heard from him in a while and found out about his passing a bit later though I had suspected that something had happened.

talking to the Human Sexuality class at a local college

I especially appreciated your piece on Marie-Pierre Pruvot. I knew she'd become a teacher but was delighted that she seems to have been such a respected and honored one. It's pleasant, too, to know that she is still enjoying her life. I wish that there were English translations of her books.

As I initially looked at the names in your list, I had the line from the old poem running through my mind, "Gone. Gone. All are gone..." but looking at the pieces about them, I realize that those people are alive in me, as I would not be the person I am, if I had not known them.

So I am very grateful that you've brought them into my immediate thoughts again, and, again, my thanks for the exceptional work you've done and the recollections it has given me.
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Linda is still at P.O. Box 23001, Oakland, CA 94623. 

Lou Reed mentions a Linda Lee in his song “Cool it Down”, but if it was intended to refer to this Linda Lee, she doesn’t know about, and the lyrics do not match her any more that Reed’s “Sister Reed” match Sylvia Rivera.