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29 July 2015

30 trans persons in or from eastern Europe who changed things by example or achievement


Physicians:
  1. Franciszek Neugebauer (1856 – 1914) Polish author of seminal Hermaphroditismus beim Menschen. 1908, which is still untranslated. GVWW   PL.Wikipedia
  2. Ludwig L. Lenz (1889 – 1966) from Poznań, Poland, major surgeon at Hirschfeld's institute. GVWW   DE.Wikipedia
  3. Eugene de Savitsch (1902 - ?) St Petersburg-born author of Homosexuality, Transvestism and Change of Sex, 1938. GVWW
  4. Georges Zavitzianos (1909 – 1995) Greek psychoanalyst in Canada and then US, proposer of concept of homeovestism. GVWW
  5. Kurt Freund (1914 – 1996) Czechoslavak penile plethysmographer who emigrated to Toronto, and invented the binary made famous by Ray Blanchard. GVWW   EN.Wikipedia
  6. Aron Belkin (1928 - 2003) Soviet endocrinologist and psychoanalyst, who pioneered gender changes in the 1960s.  Obituary
  7. Viktor Kalnberz (1928 - ) Latvian surgeon, 1st ftm operation in USSR. GVWW
  8. Sava Perovic (1937 - 2010), Serbian sex change surgeon. YouTube
Writers
  1. Jerzy Kosinski (1933 – 1991) Polish novelist who wrote in English. Several trans characters. Discussion.
  2. Sanda Davis (1955 - ) Romanian now resident in Ontario, author of Am I a Man or a Woman? where "introjections", alternate identities, become the dominant personality. GVWW
Persons
  1. Corded Ware culture grave, 4500+BP apparently of trans woman. Newsarticle.
  2. Yelizaveta Petrovna Romanova (1709 – 1762) Empress of all the Russias from 1741, demanded drag balls at court so that she could transvest. GVWW
  3. Vasil Popovici (1815 – 1905) monk in the Orthodox Monastery at Țibucani in north east Romania. GVWW
  4. Felicitas Von Vestvali (1824 – 1890) from Szcsecin, Poland, actor of male roles in opera and theatre. GVWW

  5. Emil Vacano/Signora Sangumeta (1840 – 1982) Czech woman school-rider and a circus rider. Male novelist. GVWW
  6. Sandor Vay (1859 - 1918) Hungarian aristocrat and novelist. GVWW     HU.Wikipedia

  7. Mikas Karadzic (1862 – 1934) Montenegrin farmer, soldier. GVWW

  8. Michael Semeniuk (18?? - 1909) head waiter in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary (now Chernowitz in Ukraine). GVWW
  9. Zaitzev (189? - ?) noted beauty, who frequented gay balls and private parties in Moscow and then Petrograd in the early years after the Revolution. GVWW
  10. Aleksandr Pavlovich (189? - ?) market trader in Astrakhan. GVWW
  11. Evgenii Fedorovich (1898 - ?) Soviet Agent. GVWW
  12. K (189? - ?) Kazan, Tartarstan, registered as female 1937 and removed from the military recruitment rolls. GVWW
  13. Tonë Bikaj (1901 – 1971) fought with Albanian partisans in WWII, later imprisoned and upset at being treated as a woman. Emigrated to Montenegro. GVWW
  14. Anton Prinner (1902 - 1983) Hungarian artist in France.  GVWW 

  15. Shura/Aleksandr Mikhailovich (1905 - ?) White Russian refugee in Beijing in 1930s, where her body masculinised (possibly Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) GVWW
  16. Zdenek Koubkov (1913 - ?) Czechoslovak athlete in 1934 Women's World Games, became a man the next year. GVWW

  17. Fetah Ejupi (1926 - ?) from 1944 in Yugoslav People's Liberation Army for 2 years before outed by a doctor. Then on village council. GVWW
  18. Jurgis Mačiūnas/George Maciunas (1931 – 1978) from Kaunas, Lithuania, moved to New York where co-founded the Fluxus art movement. EN.Wikipedia
  19. Holly Ahlberg (1934 - ) Photographer and artist from Latvia. GVWW
  20. Inna (1938 - ) Latvian engineer, 1st ftm surgery in USSR 1972 GVWW
  21. Desiré Dubounet (1951 - ) US fugitive in Budapest, LGBT activist, performer. GVWW 

  22. Paola Revenioti (1959 - ) Greek photographer, poet, activist. GVWW 

  23. Terzea Spencerova (195? - ) Czech author of Jsem trand'ak NewsArticle
  24. Anna Grodzka (1954 - ) Palikot Member of Polish Parliament 2011-5. GVWW     PL.WIKIPEDIA     Homopedia 

  25. L (1978 - ) Lithuanian who went to the European Court of Human Rights in 2006, where he won a ruling that Lithuania should recognise his gender. Lithuania chose to pay him €45,000 and not do so. GVWW
  26. Helena Vukovic (1972 - ) Serbian ex-army Major.   NewsArticle
  27. Rafalala (1982 - ) Polish artist, activist. GVWW    Homopedia  

  28. Masha Bast (198? - ) chair for the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights. GVWW

  29. Roman Sorokin (198? - ) Russian trans man, political refugee in France. GVWW
  30. Andreja Pejic (1991 - ) Bosnian-Australian model. EN.Wikipedia 

26 July 2015

Maritza/Mark Cummings (1964–) Part II: serial monogamy and dissent

Continued from Part I

In 2012 Mark met his second wife female partner, Jessica Lynn (1974 - ), in a transgender show girl bar. Jessica transitioned in her 30s with the help of a therapist after two failed suicide attempts and a few years as a gay man. She took Mark's surname even before though they were married never registered their relationship. They had each others name tattooed on their bodies.
"In spite of our differences, Aries and Cancer, I have never loved anyone as much as I love her".
They started the internet program Transition Radio, which featured extensive video interviews with various US trans persons and others. A recreational vehicle was purchased, they set up a new blog Transgender Highway and traveled around the US. Mark published a health guide for travelers.
In 2013 their relationship was featured in both The New York Post and The Daily Mail.
Mark and Jessica

In 2014 Mark was interviewed in LGBTQIA where he spoke about how he felt
"honored to be part of the many great inspirational Trans men that [Lynn Conway] has showcased on her site. Success is a very personal word and means many different things to many people. I personally believe that being successful means being happy with who you are and what you have accomplished." and "“I believe being transgender is a gift a Spiritual awakening that is manifesting in physical form … We as transgender individuals have a major responsibility to enlighten the world. Instead we are blending in and doing much of the same, this solves nothing and that is why we continue the hamster wheel".
Later that year, Mark was told that he had been selected for the 2014 GLAAD Trans100, (a list that seems to have been removed from the internet).  However he made critical statements about Janet Mock and her interview by Piers Morgan. He was then deselected. On his Facebook page he wrote:
"I am seeing a very strange twist in our community, and why are we all of a sudden admiring individuals who have recently come out as advocates with little to no experience in that role. One is an actress, the other stealth for many years working at Peoples magazine behind a cubicle and now decides to write a book and is identifying as a fierce advocate? Both trans woman of color, which seems to be a very prominent twist these days as if they are the only ones in the trans community who have suffered and constantly harp on how bad they have it, leaving behind the rest of us. Separating themselves, creating their own groups and associations and hijacking the community at large."
For this he was denounced as prejudiced against persons of color. In July Mark and Jessica sympathetically interviewed Cathy Brennan, the Maryland attorney associated with antagonism towards trans persons. Shortly afterwards they broke up as a couple.

Mark's third wife is Lynna Lopez who also took his surname when they married in June 2015.
Lynna & Mark
“Falling in love for the first time in my life has allowed me to feel my true nature, which
is my feminine self".
Lynna is now co-host on Transition Radio, which has changed its message. Mark now denounces the therapist and surgeon who enabled him to transition:
“I went on Testosterone, and 5 months later, I had my precious breast and my amazing reproductive organs ripped out of me, all in a quest to be a ‘man’. What sane person does this, and what medical professional who swears to do no harm goes along with this diabolical plan? I am sorry but now that I have come to my senses and see what this vile community has become, I see the reason for the vileness and the darkness in its intent.”
Transition Radio lost all its sponsors, and Lynn Conway removed Mark form her Successful Trans Men site. Mark/Maritza is also now speaking out against supporting trans kids and especially against prescribing puberty blockers to them. The New York Times gave him a platform where he argued that no-one should transition before their mid-20s.  He has said: "And it’s usually a Munchausen by proxy-driven mother and it’s always a kind of wimpy dad-kind of thing going on, mom wears the pants in the family.”

 Transition Radio featured DirtyWhiteBoi, who in return published an interview on her blog with Matitza:
"I always felt different but never the typical programed response the community harps on. In my opinion there is no such thing as being born in the wrong body. It’s a neurological impairment, behavioral and mental issue, nothing wrong with the body. … I think much different now. But unfortunately, the changes are so deep, that it is hard to go back. I do identify as a female, I will never deny my truth. … I regret all my surgeries, they are butchery and not necessary. Hysto and top surgery. … I got sick of the trans community and how they badger people. I saw the vile behavior, the lies, I could not longer be part of that. They have deeper issues than gender problems and are in denial about it. Its time the gender specialists stepped up and did their job and looked at the deeper issues."
When Dawn Ennis writing for The Advocate asked Mark to nominate a sponsor or well-known public figure to speak on his behalf, he suggested Cathy Brennan.  Mark still chooses to be addressed by male pronouns as that has been the case for the 12 past years.  He says that  he and Lopez now identify  as “two-spirit” or “gender-variant,” saying, “We all have this duality".
TransitionRadio    Vidensbanken     TransgenderHighway
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With each wife, Cummings discovers love for the first time!!   A gentleman would not take that attitude to his previous wives.

"And it’s usually a Munchausen by proxy-driven mother and it’s always a kind of wimpy dad-kind of thing going on, mom wears the pants in the family.”  This is of course a return to Robert Stoller, the 1950s and the sexist idea that homosexuality, transgender and many other psychoanalytic conditions are caused by a weak absent father and a dominant mother.

Whether or not Cummings is racist, to denounce him as prejudiced against 'persons of color' is problematical as he himself is Hispanic.

Whilst not aligning with Cummings' position, some of the issues that he has raised should be getting more discussion within the trans community: 
  • The issue of the increase in numbers of trans persons over the last 50 years as due to the toxic chemicals in the environment has the virtue of being the only theory that explins the increase in numbers.   The classic account is by Christine Johnson, 2004.  PDF.   It is summarized in Deborah Rudacille's The Riddle of Gender, 2006, Chp  7.
  • the increasing practice of adulating trans persons when they step out of the closet or from stealth and shunting aside the activists who have been working for years or decades.  Cummings was rather careless in naming only black celebrities.  He should have paid more attention to what happened to Peter Tatchell.   There is no shortage of white celebrities who could have been mentioned: Bono, Beck, Maloney, Jenner.

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Dawn Ennis' article on the Cummings includes "Brennan’s statement, however, contradicts a February finding by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine who concluded 'there is increasing evidence of a biological basis for gender identity'."   As Gender Identity Watch was delighted to point out, this sentence is not to be found in the journal article in question.   The claim was not needed for Ennis's article, and it was a sloppy error to make. 

23 July 2015

Mark Angelo Cummings (1964–) Part I: occupational therapist, Latino television personality.

Maritza DelCarmen Perdomo was born in Havana, of partial Taino heritage. From the age of three she was obviously a masculine girl, and constantly had problems with wearing dresses.

The family emigrated to Florida when she was five. She became a crack addict during a stint in the US Army. Afterwards Maritza went wild in the Miami gay scene, and at 24 made a last-ditch attempt to go straight by marrying a 55-year-old Englishman. However the marriage quickly fell apart as did several lesbian affairs. In one case the intention was to start a family, but Maritza was unable to get pregnant.

At age 38 in 2002 Maritza had become a bodybuilder and occupational therapist, where she took up with Violet who worked in the same gym. She was asked if she was transitioning, based on her appearance, but she did not understand the term until she looked it up on the internet.
"The sky just like opened up. There are others like me. It was like a revelation."
Mark Cummings, as he became, went from an initial consultation with a therapist, to hormone therapy, to a full mastectomy and hysterectomy with Dr Harold Reed in Miami, to a legal name and gender change in just five months.
"It was the easiest thing. I don't let grass grow under my feet. I was fulfilling my destiny. This is what I was supposed to be."
He and Violet were then legally married. To Mark's surprise it was his father alone in family who accepted him.
Violet and Mark, 2004

In January 2006 Mark and Violet appeared on the syndicated Maury Povich Show to great success.
"Well, Maury, I want viewers to know that being transgender is not a sin, a crime, or a deviant behavior. What it is, is a birth defect. We are human beings with feelings, and all we ask is the respect... "
Following this, he was contacted by the Anderson family in Florida who were attempting to enrol their trans daughter, Nicole, in school. They were said to be the first US family to support a trans child in this way. Mark immediately agreed to help. He wrote in response to a negative posting:
"My mother did everything within her power to make me a girl, although, I knew other wise. When I met The Andersons, I had only wish they could have been my parents. When I met Nicole, I bonded instantly, and felt, what a lucky girl she is. Gender Dysphoria is real. To tell you the truth, there will be an epidemic of it. You see at 8 weeks time when the brain and central nervous system is being developed, exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals ( pesticide, herbicides, fungicides, and estrogenic compounds such as soy products) alter the typical pathways that hard wires the brain to be a boy or girl brain. The weight of scientific evidence demonstrates that Transsexualism is biologically based."
He also wrote to the school board offering to educate and train teachers himself – an offer that was declined. He persuaded the Andersons to talk to a reporter. They were grateful, but sometimes found him a bit overwhelming.

Mark became a celebrity on US Spanish-language television for his open and outspoken appearances explaining his gender change and wowing the Latino television hosts. Again he explained transgenderism as a birth defect resulting from environmental toxins. Later that year Mark Cummings published his 79 page autobiography wherein he described the anguish he felt living in a female body:
“Being in the wrong body is a crime. Death is appealing to those of us, who are encased in the wrong shell, who are trapped in a flesh of darkness, that ...sickens us to the point of madness” (pp 33).
Mark and Violet opened a wellness center business. He also wrote and performed music and toured with his life story.

Continued in Part II.

_______________________________________________________________________________

It was said at the time that the Anderson family was the first US family to be supportive of a trans kid in this fashion.   However the Wisconsin woman we know by the pseudonym of Sally Barry was supported by her parents in the 1930s/1940s with varying response from the school authorities

20 July 2015

Masha Bast, Маша Баст (198?–) lawyer, activist

Yevgeny Arkhipov, Евгений Архипов, went to dances as a girl, and was able to obtain female hormones. However as there was no medical supervision, illness was induced, and Arkhipov had to stop taking them.

Arkhipov graduated as a lawyer from Voronezh State University in 2004, and married Yulia Guseinova:
"I explained that I like men, but I am a bisexual woman. In Russia, same-sex marriage is illegal, but in practice we have a same-sex marriage. Really, I am more of the wife and she is more of the husband in terms of gender roles."
From 2004-6 Arkhipov was Head of the Legal Department of the Public Chamber of the Voronezh region, and from 2006 Chair of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights. Arkhipov was also the director of the watchdog Anti-Corruption Committee to which people could report abuses of office.

In 2008, while preparing to publish a report on corruption, Arkhipov and other members of the group were forced to flee to the Ukraine for two months where they released their findings.

In 2009, Arkhipov was the lawyer for Sergei Magnitsky, accountant, auditor and whistle-blower who was murdered in custody.

After being an organizer for a rally opposing toll roads that the local population had voted down overwhelmingly, Arkhipov faced a loss of status as a lawyer on the pretence that lawyers have no right to engage in social activism. At only one day's notice he was required to attend the qualifications commission of the Moscow City Bar. However charges were later dropped.

After an assassination attempt in June, Arkhipov temporarily left the country.

In 2010 Arkhipov spoke out against the blocking of websites run by the National Bolshevik Party. Shortly afterwards Arkhipov fell ill, and after a few days was taken to Moscow Hospital. Doctors confirmed that the symptoms indicated a toxin such as thallium, which is often used for murder. However at 22:30 the same day he was ordered to leave the hospital.

Arkhipov did live and worked on some of the most high profile and politically sensitive cases in Russia: young men accused of taking part in a violent nationalist rally on Manezh Square in 2010; helping defend protesters charged with violence at the 2012 opposition rally on Bolotnaya Ploshchad; and the so-called Primorye partisans, which targeted corrupt police in the Far East.

Arkhipov was the lawyer for Aleksandr Dolmatov of The Other Russia Party (successor to the National Bolshevik Party). Dolmatov fled to the Netherlands where he was refused political asylum, and was driven to suicide when put in a deportation centre, a placement which Arkhipov strongly criticized.

In particular Arkhipov defended trans activist Roman Sorokin, Роман Сорокин, in 2013. The Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti (FSB) threatened closure of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights. While in custody, Roman was interrogated for everything he knew about Arkhipov, whose home was searched in August 2013 by the FSB and two other civil activists detained. Sorokin was out of Russia at that point and in response began applying for political refugee status in France.

By this time Arkhipov's cases had come to a temporary end, and time was found to attend to personal matters. It was also a time when legal and social conditions for all LGBT persons in Russia were worsening: in particular the Anti-Gay Propaganda Law was passed in 2013. Despite this, a press release prepared by Yulia Guseinova publicly announced that her spouse, previously known as Yevgeny Arkhipov, would now be living as a woman, Masha Bast.
"At least 10 percent of people I know don't want anything to do with me anymore.
Everyone else keeps in touch and calls me Masha now. Some people who you would have thought would've supported me based on their views haven't, and some nationalists, who based on theirs you wouldn't have expected to, have".
"What is bravery? Because I came out? I wasn't trying to prove that I was brave. It was my choice. I'm a free person. Bravery and freedom are one and the same in my case. You have to be brave to be free. The freer a person is, the braver they have to be."
In September, Masha attempted to join the recently formed Western Choice Party, but was rejected. In October she held a picket on Red Square to memorialize the Yekaterinburg trans government employee, Dasha Shtern, who committed suicide after being fired because her continuing employment might break the new anti-gay propaganda laws.

Masha Bast continues as an activist for civil rights, feminism, LGBT rights and for a left-wing Russian party. She is still the chair of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights, and they are also monitoring the treatment of Victor Bout, a Russian political prisoner in the US prison system.

* not the curler Yevgeny Arkhipov.
LiveJournal
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The two books published in 2014 refer to Bast only as Yevgeny Arkhipov.   However, given the pace of book publication, they were probably written before Masha came out in 2013.   

In a time when the word 'hero' is being applied to persons who have done nothing out of the ordinary, Masha is the real thing. 

17 July 2015

History of TAO: Part 3: aftermath

TAO and Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas (1943 - 2007) musician, activist
History of TAO: bibliography
History of TAO: Part 3: aftermath
Kimberley Elliot (1953 - 1980) TAO, Neo-American Church

In July 2019 a Gender Critical Reddit thread  linked to the original 2007 posting.  Apparently some anti-trans women think that a letter, be it satirical or whatever, from 42 years ago, written by someone who died 12 years earlier, and who never worked well with other trans activists, is a relevant document in discussing trans activism today!!!!                         My Reply.

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Part III: aftermath


1981
Douglas returns to South Miami Beach and lives in the budget Drake Hotel. She dislikes the post-Mariel changes: "the Beach was dying. Cuban refugees by the thousands had moved in and had turned ratty South Miami Beach into a Cuban slum ...Italian and Jewish stores and restaurants had been taken over by Cubans, one by one. Lovely Lincoln Road had been transformed into a pathetic cheap-goods shopping mall run by Cubans. The Beach had deteriorated so badly I was horrified. …. a group of very idiotic, offensive young gays lived there, all prostitutes, and a bunch of Cuban drag queens lived there".

Douglas visits Goudie and has dinner with her and her mother. By now Goudie has had surgery, been to college, and visited Paris and Rome.

1982

Goudie has become a born-again Christian and breaks with Douglas. She tapes the phone calls. Douglas claims to report Goudie and her mother to FBI as Castro agents.

Douglas returns to living as a man.

1983
Douglas' autobiography: Triple Jeopardy. "After getting a copy of the book, Chris Craig of MCA's Lord Tracy did songs advocating violence against transsexuals, and in 89, kin to him, Jean Craig, did a TV commercial having the Daihatsu Charade set fire to a sign for a town named Euphoria, with power to burn." (GuitarSite, 10/15/04)

1986
Douglas accuses the film Top Gun of stealing her life story (although there are no transsexuals in the plot)

Tallahassee Democrat reporter Mark Hinson later reported that Douglas "settled in dinky Grand Ridge near Sneads [north Florida] and lived in impoverished conditions. This made her very bitter and she often lashed out at gays and blacks when she called me with another rant".

The television news magazine Inside Edition does an investigative story on The Worst Doctor in America. Dr John Brown actually co-operates with the film crew. In transsexual circles Brown comes to be known as 'Butcher Brown', but patients still come. After the broadcast of the Inside Edition program, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office launches an investigation that leads to Brown spending 19 months in jail for practicing medicine without a license.

1990
Layla of Birmingham TAO had reverted to living as man and moved to Liverpool. He marries a woman, and drops out of his college course. (Whittle in Ekins & King: 192)

Catherine Millot. Horsexe: Essay on Transsexuality repeats Raymond's selective quotation of Douglas' letter to Sister magazine.

1991
Douglas wins $232,567 in the Fantasy Five lottery game. After taxes, the lottery gives him a check for $186,000. Returns to being Angela. She moves to Key West, buys a guitar and a red Corvette.

Douglas' then landlord comments: "I escorted her on cruises where she loved to gamble. She was more comfortable under the cover of darkness so most of our activities were at night. I remember she still had to shave, would not be caught dead in a dress, and made cat-calls to pretty Latina women on the streets of Miami from the corvette that we cruised in (bought with her lottery winnings)".

1992
Douglas' second book: Hollywood's Obsession. Claims that most representations of transsexuals in the media are plagiarizations of her life.

The lottery money quickly runs out, especially when Douglas suffers a stroke. He returns to living as a man.

Members of the UK TAO group, especially Stephen Whittle, become involved in Press for Change, which would be very involved in achieving the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. (Stryker & Whittle: 6)

Ken Forssi, bass player in the band Love, who had recorded with Doug Delain in 1967, is also living in northern Florida, unemployed and obsessed with political conspiracies.

1996
Arthur Lee, leader of band Love, sentenced to 12 years for negligent discharge of a firearm.

1997
Douglas writes a twisted little novelty song called "Andrew Cunanan" and it ends up on Dr. Demento's nationally syndicated radio show.

1998
"I showed up at a music festival in Blountstown, FL with two guitarists I'd met who thought I was a man, told them I am 'Lee Douglas,' did a dozen songs-first real performance since 1968! Went over great, and I then fooled around at some redneck bars around Panama City with them and others, got standing ovations" Performed as Last Drop Douglas.

Ken Forssi, dies of a brain tumor at age 54.

1999
Dr John Brown, out of prison, lives and works in Tijuana. He removes the healthy leg of an apotemnophiliac who desired to have it removed. The man dies two days later of gangrene in a motel in California. Brown is arrested and tried by the San Diego authorities, even though the operation had been done in Tijuana. He is tried and convicted of malice murder. He is sentenced to 15 years to life.

2001
Arthur Lee, leader of band Love released from prison. Douglas maintains he was released because Douglas lobbied the new President George Bush, POTUS 43.

2003
Last Drop Douglas. Solo CD Cosmo Alley.

2006
Arthur Lee dies in Memphis of myelois leukemia.

2007
Douglas dies of complications from heart trouble. Obituary by Mark Hinsen in the Tallahassee Democrat.

2010
Dr John Brown, still in prison, aged 87, dies of health problems including pneumonia.

2015
Death of Douglas' ex-wife, Norma Czinki.

15 July 2015

History of TAO: Part 2: 1972-80. TAO in Miami Beach

TAO and Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas (1943 - 2007) musician, activist
History of TAO: bibliography
History of TAO: Part 2: 1972-80. TAO in Miami Beach
History of TAO: Part 3: aftermath
Kimberley Elliot (1953 - 1980) TAO, Neo-American Church

In July 2019 a Gender Critical Reddit thread  linked to the original 2007 posting.  Apparently some anti-trans women think that a letter, be it satirical or whatever, from 42 years ago, written by someone who died 12 years earlier, and who never worked well with other trans activists, is a relevant document in discussing trans activism today!!!!                         My Reply.

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Part II. 1972-82. TAO in Miami Beach


1972
Douglas and TAO move to Miami Beach. Publishes Moonshadow and later Mirage Magazine over next three years. Douglas: "Year of the Transsexual in Miami Beach: hundreds were there, from all over the nation, and many Puerto Ricans and Cubans. … the cha-chas became as thick as tourists; the Latin transsexuals were referred to as 'cha-chas'."

Transvestites are still no longer welcome as members.

Douglas and Colette Goudie meet during the protests against the Presidential conventions in Miami Beach.

Kilo, 22 and pre-op, is a TAO member and also a popular performer who had appeared at the Stonewall club in a production of Wild Side Story.

Miami Beach's anti-cross-dressing ordinance is declared unconstitutional and police threaten to rewrite it. Kilo calls for street protests. The police continue to enforce the old ordinance nevertheless.

Canary Conn has stage-one surgery with Dr Barbosa in Tijuana (named as Dr Lopez in her autobiography).

1973
Collette Goudie joins TAO, as do Kimberly Barreiro and Tara Carn, Puerto Rican-born, New York-raised. Douglas: Goudie and Carn were ‘both very beautiful and wild and hated each other with a hot passion. Getting them to work together was nearly impossible’.

Kimberly fully transitions with surgery in less than a year. She marries Steve Elliot and they became involved in Art Kleps' psychedelic Neo-American Church at Millbrook, New York.

Goudie & Carn are arrested on Twenty-first Street beach for disorderly conduct. Surprisingly they are well treated by the police.

TAO sets up a 'security force' to stop police and public abuse of 'transsexuals and gays'.

After a raid and arrests at the Stonewall Club on Twenty-first Street, Douglas files suit for discrimination.

Article in Mirage objects to the emphasis in mainstream media on the medical aspects of transsexuality. There are more severe problems including exploitation by surgeons, psychiatrists and gender identity clinics, as well as extortion and persecution by the police.

After the American Psychiatric Association announced that homosexuality would no longer be considered a mental illness, TAO called for transsexualism to be likewise removed (although technically it was not even added until the 1980 version of the DSM).

1974
Douglas steps down as president. Barbara Rosello becomes president of TAO: "Tao is an organization for transexuals only … We have many goals which can only be accomplished by our own efforts."

Rosella resigns due to family pressures and nerves. Goudie becomes 3rd president in September.

Carn was to have her photograph in Mirage. Her boyfriend was terrified. Carn: 'I'm proud of what I am, and I want to help anyway I can.' She is also quoted saying that that she is lesbian, and likes girls and other transsexuals.

Carn passes well. However the Miami Beach police follow her around and tell men that she is a 'fag in a dress'. "To retaliate, the beautiful Tara sometimes went to a crowded beach, started dancing topless to music from a radio and after a crowd of applauding people surrounded her, would take off her bikini panties, display her male genitals and cause a near riot. Police would arrive and she’d shake her genitals at them, screaming ‘you say I’m a man’ ...She was taken to jail, fined, and sometimes went back and repeated the performance."

Goudie and 2 other TAO members appear on Marsh and Adams Show on WKID in Fort Lauderdale, and discuss housing discrimination, police harassment, difficulties receiving proper medical attention and difficulties with getting identification.

During June, the Miami News published a series on transsexual issues. Four trans women are featured including two TAO members: Tara Carn and Colombian-American Crystal Gresham.

Crystal Gresham is TAO Miami Beach director. She ‘lives fully as a female except when teaching ballroom dance to elderly women in Miami Beach’.

Douglas first meets surgeon Dr John Brown. ‘He wanted to help aid me and came up with several thousand dollars cash to help publish Mirage Magazine. In exchange, I promoted him considerably’.

Canary Conn publishes her autobiography, followed by appearances on television.

TAO had increasingly bad-mouthed the Erickson Educational Foundation, which indeed never mentioned TAO or other militant organizations in its newsletters. Despite this Zelda Suplee on behalf EEF offers $20,000 to 'place the TAO within the EEF's framework'. Douglas declines, in that 'every cent would have strings attached'.

A TAO press release suggests that the CIA is behind the transsexual program at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, and that Donald Laub at Stanford's Gender identity Clinic was connected with a plot to transplant the brains of transsexuals.

1975
In February issue of Mirage Jennifer Otera 'third place winner in the Miss [Gay?] Universe contest held in Caracas’ reports on intense police harassment in Venezuela.

In the same issue, Goudie is asked about transvestites: "I have nothing against them. Some transsexuals say they are transvestites because it’s easier for the world to comprehend. But it’s not the same. A transvestite is a man who dresses up like a woman for a little while and then becomes a man again. A transsexual, like you and me and so many others, live as we are all of the time. It is so different ...I don’t think it’s good for both TVs and TSs to belong to the same groups, as the values are so different, the laws and problems are so different. In some ways the problems overlap, but not completely."

However units or associate memberships were set up for non-transsexual members. Lesbian and transvestite units were created. The police did not observe any distinction between transvestites and transsexuals, and Moonshadow and Mirage continued to report harassment of both groups.

Intersex persons were offered full membership.

"TAO also strongly relates to the problems and efforts of transvestites, gay men and women and feminists. However, we consider transexualist values of paramount importance and are not subject to the values of other sociosexual liberationist movements, such as the feminist and gay liberation movements. We prefer to meet members in person."

Goudie on August cover of Moonshadow. Contains article by Douglas & Goudie on trans Santaria deities, especially Santa Barbara/Shango.

Kilo dies in a house fire.

Gay Action Alliance – Miami sue the police in Miami Beach for brutality, but refuse to include transsexuals in the lawsuit, even though they were more often targeted. This leads to TAO breaking off relations.

A network of UK trans activists loosely affiliate themselves with TAO. The group in Birmingham was run by Brooklyn (ftm) and Leyla (mtf) who were a couple. They urged an "anarcho-transformative, transsexual-separatist agenda" such as protesting a National Front march. Stephen Whittle, for a short while ran a London TAO group. (Whittle in Ekins & King: 192).

Birmingham TAO put out a leaflet: "The T.A.O. is a national organization which is open to all transsexuals (whether they are presently undergoing sex change treatment or not) irrespective of their race, religion, politics or sexual orientation. The T.A.O. has no official membership at present and is not structured. All decisions as to the running of the organization are taken collectively."

Moonshadow reports that TAO has had chapters in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando and Jacksonville as well as Miami Beach. Abroad it has chapters in Canada, England and Northern Ireland. Almost a thousand members in all.

++In this year, trans man Joe Carstairs sells his home, Whale Cay in the Bahamas, and buys a house in Miami.   There is no reason to assume that he ever contacted TAO.

1976
Canary Conn reportedly killed (reported by Douglas, however Kay Brown says that she met Canary at a later date).

TAO disbanded? Douglas travels in California and Hawai'i. Carn also leaves Miami, and has gender surgery. They meet again in Hawai'i, but Carn is unfriendly. Later she is arrested on a prostitution charge.

1977
Douglas has vaginoplasty with Butcher John Brown and paid around $600. She describes him as one who "fed, housed, paid and helped hundreds, and gave free or nearly free surgery to at least two hundred of us". Brown has his California license revoked later that year. Later Douglas claimed that she "helped get him arrested twice".

Goudie joins Douglas in Berkeley, they fall out, and Douglas sends Goudie back to Miami on a plane.

Angela Douglas in San Francisco becomes upset at the vitriolic, absurd, and transphobic comments broadcast on listener sponsored station KPFA and letters published in the feminist journal Sister. Especially the attack on trans woman Sandy Stone donating her skills at the feminist Olivia Records.

Douglas meets Kay Brown who is with her when she writes a letter. Brown attempts without success to dissuade her from sending it. It is published in Sister Aug-Sep, p7. As quoted by Raymond p xvii it goes: "Free from the chains of menstruation and child-bearing, transsexual women are obviously far superior to Gennys in many ways .... Genetic women are becoming quite obsolete, which is obvious, and the future belongs to transsexual women. We know this and, and perhaps some of you suspect it. All you have left is your 'ability' to bear children, and in a world which will groan to feed 6 billion by the year 2000, that's a negative asset."

The letter is generally regarded as satire, but in her 1997 email to Kay Brown, Douglas insisted: "The l997 letter as for women becoming obsolete is valid, not whimsical or tongue in cheek, women are becoming obsolete as evidenced by Islamic treatment of women, etc. The future of humanity is male homosexual. Women are becoming irrelevant. I despise all lesbians anyway, and applaud when they get killed. I don't give a shit about feminists."

photo by Kay Brown
Next day Brown and Douglas march in the SF Pride Parade, where leaders had demanded that 'drags should stay home'. They are welcomed to ride with the Mattachine Society. Douglas writes up the event for the Berkeley Barb.

1978
Douglas appears in a porn mag with pre- and post-op photographs of her genitals.

TAO formally dissolved.

Douglas reported to be participating in US Nazi politics.

1979
Janice Raymond. The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-male: xvii quotes part of the letter to Sister out of context attributing it to 'one transsexual' and giving Douglas' name only in the end notes. Douglas later claimed that the 13 direct interviews cited in the book were actually quotes from a letter that Douglas had written to her.

1980
Dave Potter, formerly of Euphoria, (and 86 others) dies in fire at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

Kim Elliot is found dead at Miami Beach’s Midtown Plaza due to a drug overdose.  She is buried in North Miami Beach, and TAO people attend her funeral.

The Mariel Boatlift exodus from Cuba adds many trans women to the Miami population.

13 July 2015

History of TAO: bibliography

TAO and Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas (1943 - 2007) musician, activist
History of TAO: bibliography
History of TAO: Part 3: aftermath
Kimberley Elliot (1953 - 1980) TAO, Neo-American Church

In July 2019 a Gender Critical Reddit thread  linked to the original 2007 posting.  Apparently some anti-trans women think that a letter, be it satirical or whatever, from 42 years ago, written by someone who died 12 years earlier, and who never worked well with other trans activists, is a relevant document in discussing trans activism today!!!!                         My Reply.

---------------------



Bibliography

The two major sources that I have used for this are Joanne Meyerowitz and Susana Pena, both of whom read the two inaccessible books by Angela Douglas and the various issues of Moonshadow and Mirage, the TAO publications. Quotes via these two are not individually cited because of their unavailability. See Meyerowitz' and Pena's end notes for page references.

Mark Hinson's obituary was very useful for the later years.

The fourth major source are the emails and postings, some would say rants, by Angela Lee Douglas. These are URL linked, although only a few are still online. I did keep copies from eight years ago.

There were also a lot of articles written by Douglas for community papers.  With only a few exceptions, I was not able to find these.
  • Sleevenotes on Euphoria. A Gift From Euphoria (LP) with William D. Lincoln (bass, vocals), Hamilton Wesley Watt (vocals), Doug Delain (guitar), Dave Potter (drums). 1967
  • Angela Douglas. "Panthers Still Biased Against Gays, Women". The Advocate, November 11-24, 1970.
  • Donn Teal. The Gay Militants. Stein & Day, 1971: 210, 212.
  • Angela Douglas (ed). Transsexual Action Organization Publications 1972-5.
  • R. Fabricio. "Suit Charges Beach Harassment of Homosexuality". Miami Herald, 27 May 1973.
  • Canary Conn. Canary: The Story of a Transsexual. Nash, 1974: 202
  • Angela Douglas. "Gays March in S.F". Berkeley Barb, August 1977.
  • Angela Douglas. Letter. Sister Aug-Sep 1977: 7.
  • Janice G. Raymond. The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-male. Boston: Beacon Press. 1979: xvii.
  • Angela Douglas. Triple Jeopardy: The Autobiography of Angela Lynn Douglas. Sneeds, Floria: Angela Lynn Douglas, 1983.
  • Catherine Millot translated into English by Kenneth Hylton. Horsexe: Essay on Transsexuality. Paris: Point Hors Logne, 1983. NY:Autonomedia, 1990: .
  • Angela Douglas. Hollywood's Obsession. Angela Lynn Douglas, 1992.
  • Vernon Joynson. Fuzz, Acid And Flowers. "Euphoria". Borderline Productions, 1993.
  • Art Kleps. A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism. Neo-American Church of Texas, 1994. Kimberley Elliot and her husband appear under as Kim & Steve Newall.       Turns out to be a different Kimberly. 
  • Pat Califia. Sex changes : the politics of transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press 1997. Second edition by Patrick Califia 2003: 98-9.
  • Kay Brown. "Angela Keyes Douglas". Transsexual, Transgender, and Intersex History. 1998.    Archive
  • Douglas Carl Czinki email to Kay Brown- no date - included on Brown's site.
  • A.L. Douglas posting on Sympathy on Milli Vanilli, Jul 7, 2000.
  • Rodger Stretmatter. Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. Colombia University Press, 2001: 250.
  • James T. Sears. Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South. Rutgers University Press, 2001: 129.
  • Joanne Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States.  Harvard University Press. 2002: 236, 237-241, 257, 271, 333.
  • Angela Lynn Douglas posting on dev.greenspun.com November 10, 2002.
  • Last Drop Douglas. Cosmo Alley (CD) 2003.
  • Angela Douglas 2 postings on "Transsexuals allowed in Olympics" Amorous Propensities May 21, 2004 and October 21, 2004.
  • A.L. posting on band family tree.com 5/28/2005.
  • Angela Douglas (Tanglehead) posting on Messageboard for Love Fans 16/11/2005.
  • Angela Douglas posting on Arthur Lee Tribute June 27, 2006.
  • Angela Douglas (Tanglehead) posting on Yellow Swordfish>>Arthur Lee and Love 2006-08-26.
  • Angela Douglas posting on the Cindi Lauper web page. 14 March 2007.
  • Angela Douglas (Tanglehead) posting on ufowatch no date.
  • Mark Hinson. "Angela's ashes: Farewell to a wild pen pal". Tallahassee Democrat, August 24, 2007. Reproduced.
  • Stephen Whittle in Richard Ekins & Dave King. The Transgender Phenomenon. London: Thousand Oaks; California: Sage. 2006: 192-3.
  • Susan Stryker & Stephen Whittle. The Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge, 2006: 6.
  • Susan Stryker. Transgender History. Seal Press, 2008: 88-9
  • Suzan Cooke."Early Frauds, Predators and Self-Agrandizers". Women Born Transsexual, 05/27/2009. http://womenborntranssexual.com/2009/05/27/early-frauds-predators-and-self-agrandizers.
  • Susana Pena. "Gender and Sexuality in Latina/o Miami: Documenting Latina Transsexual Activists". Kevin P. Murphy & Jennifer M. Spear (eds). Historicising Gender and Sexuality. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011: 755-772.
  • Tom De Simone, Teresa Wang, Melissa Lopez, Diem Tran, Andy Sacher, Kersu Dalal, Justin Emerick. Lavender Los Angeles. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Pub, 2011: 118.
  • Philip Zonkel. "Gay History: Los Angeles’ pioneering transgender activists to be discussed Sunday at ONE Gay & Lesbian Archives". Out in the 562, April 11, 2014. http://blogs.presstelegram.com/outinthe562/2014/04/11/gay-history-los-angeles-pioneering-transgender-activists-to-be-discussed-sunday-at-one-gay-lesbian-archives.
  • Brendan Zachariah O'Donnell. Definition and Redefinition: Alliance and Antagonism in Homosexual and Trans Communities in the U.S. BA thesis, Wesleyan University, 2014: 61-2, 69. PDF
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11 July 2015

History of TAO: Part 1: to 1971. USAF, music, GLF


A History of the Transsexual Action Organization (TAO) and some associates

TAO and Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas (1943 - 2007) musician, activist
History of TAO: part 1: to 1971. USAF, music, GLF
History of TAO: bibliography
History of TAO: Part 3: aftermath
Kimberley Elliot (1953 - 1980) TAO, Neo-American Church

In July 2019 a Gender Critical Reddit thread  linked to the original 2007 posting.  Apparently some anti-trans women think that a letter, be it satirical or whatever, from 42 years ago, written by someone who died 12 years earlier, and who never worked well with other trans activists, is a relevant document in discussing trans activism today!!!!                         My Reply.


-------------------------------------------------

Douglas Carl Czinki became Angela Douglas. Therefore when I write 'Douglas' alone there is ambiguity whether that is his forename or her surname. Up to 1969 it is the former. Douglas is not the only trans woman to use her boy name as her new surname, but I will not name the others.

While Angela Douglas is the dominant and central character in this history, there are several others who contribute significantly to trans history.

In quoting Douglas I have corrected spelling and punctuation, and sometimes added [words] to make it more readable.

Part I: to 1971. USAF, music, GLF

1943
Douglas Carl Czinki born in Detroit, of Hungarian descent. Raised on USAF bases. Father was in AFOSI, Air Force Intelligence; mother employed by AEC, CIA and DEA.

1947
Colette Tisha Goudie, born in France of French-Cuban descent.

1949
Danny O'Connor born in San Antonio, Texas.

1953
Kimberly Barreiro born in Cuba.

1957
The Czinki family moves to South Florida neighborhood of Hialeah, which had a large Latino population. Douglas meets Norma Rodriguez.

1959-61
Douglas at high school in Japan.

1962
Against his family's opposition, Douglas marries Norma

1962-4
Douglas plays in Charades, a roadhouse band in Oklahoma City; he also says that he was in USAF in this period.

1965
As Doug Delain, Czinki plays guitar with band Euphoria with William D. Lincoln (bass, vocals), Hamilton Wesley Watt (vocals), Dave Potter (drums).

1966
Virginia Prince rents a house in Laurel Canyon around the same time as Frank Zappa and many other musicians. There is no recorded interaction of Prince with the musicians.

1967
Delain tries to form a band, Motorcycle Abilene, with Warren Zevon, and records songs with Love's Ken Forssi and Alban Pfisterer. Releases LPs: Trapped, C'est Dommage.

LP cover
LP A Gift From Euphoria - but without Doug Delain on guitar, although he is mentioned on the
sleeve.

Delain has a cameo in Roger Corman's LSD film The Trip in Laurel Canyon. "There are two scenes in The Trip filmed there. [Peter]Fonda, [Bruce] Dern drive up, bikers in front including Roland God Barnett of The Barons, I painted "LOVE" on the street, did some of the art on the film. [Dennis] Hopper is passing joints around. I am in that scene, so is young future billionaire Paul Allen, a wanna be bass player then, hung out now and then there, helped me set up Hendrix's gear for a promo film Hendrix made there in 68."

Czinki's wife, Norma Rodriguez, pregnant, leaves him for a woman.

Danny O'Connor marries and they have a child.

1968
Delain plays last music gig as a boat party for Steppenwolf in Hawai'i.

Jimmy Hendrix television special is filmed at Delain's home in Laurel Canyon.

Danny O'Connor wins nationwide contest "Super Teen: The Sounds of '68".

1969
Czinki becomes Angela Douglas, and is active in LA GLF. There is no indication that she even considered Virginia Prince's FPE. "I was not gay and knew nothing of them prior to l969. I became a writer for The LA Image and communists and gays sought me out to promote their actions. I did, and got involved with the Gay Liberation Front, took part in a few protests, then formed the Transsexual Action organization with Canary Conn." (email to Kay Brown)
Lavender Los Angeles p118

Colette Tisha Goudie starts living as female.

Singer Danny O'Connor releases two 45 rpm singles: "If I Am Not Free" and "Can You Imagine." (Click to listen).

1970
Douglas and trans singer attacked when supposed to perform at LA gay lib dance.

Frustrated by 'antitransvestic' attitudes of some gay men, and that GLF ignored the push for a clinic in Los Angeles, Douglas founds Transvestite/Transsexual Action Organization (TAO).

Douglas and one other demonstrate at a showing of the newly released Myra Breckinridge, denouncing it as exploitative and objecting that a non-transsexual, Raquel Welsh, played Myra.

TAO protests when Los Angeles welfare officials discontinue aid to 'men' who dress as women.

TAO persuades the Californian Peace and Freedom Party to include in its platform "The right to determine the uses of one's body, as in sex changes operations and others" and gets the Socialist Party to call for an end to arrests for 'cross-dressing'.

Douglas writes to Harry Benjamin: "As I progress as a transsexual, I find myself more attuned to Women's Liberation, in particular, the demands and ideas of gay women".

In a published letter to Playboy, Douglas explains that TAO supported "both gay liberation and women's liberation: we believe that all victims of prejudice and discrimination must work together to change this society".

Czinki senior murdered in Maryland.

Douglas on a visit to New York as part of investigating father's death, meets with Zelda Suplee of the Erickson Educational Foundation, and passes on a leaflet for a demonstration in Sheridan Square for 'transvestite and transexual liberation'. However only Suplee and one organizer turned up.

1971
TAO is renamed to Transsexual Action Organization. Transvestites no longer welcome.

Danny O'Connor, who has left wife and child and become Canary Conn, answers an ad in the Los Angeles Free Press for TAO and attends: "The TAO advertised itself as 'a transsexual action organization' but turned out to be a gathering place for a bunch of drag queens who were mostly interested in running pink flags up poles and picketing college campuses as well as having sex with anyone who walked by, male or female. It was a fiasco." (Conn: 202)

____________________________________________________________

There is an excellent book on the Los Angeles music scene in the 1960s: Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon, Headpress, 2013 by David McGowan. It points out that most of the noted musicians associated with Laurel Canyon had fathers in either the military or in intelligence: Frank Zappa, Papa John Philips, Stephen Stills, Gram Parsons. Jim Morrison's father, George Morrison, commanded the US warships in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 in the incident, false flag or not, that led to the escalation of the US-Vietnamese war.

Carl Douglas Czinki/Doug Delain fits right into this pattern, but is missing from McGowan's book.

There is an idea that Jim Morrison of the Doors survived his death and became Angela Douglas. Yeah right. Douglas commented on this in 2004: "Never even met The Doors, but they got signed with Electra by Arthur Lee. I am not James Douglas Morrison who apparently died in Paris in l97l (not l969.) The Doors, family think he faked his death. Incredibly, we were both born in 43, he in Florida, me in Michigan, I grew up mostly in Florida in the Air Force, he in the Navy, he left Tallahassee in 63-64 for LA he had attended FSU, I left Miami in 65 for LA and got Lee's new band hired at Bido Lito's (see on web), a club helped get open, sang with him a bit, cut two of my songs later with Love members. I was born Douglas Carl Czinki, he was born James Douglas Morrison, so there are some incredible similarities with our lives I can't explain, supernatural. I can sound very much like him when I sing, however, despite the sex change." (Amorous Propensities May 21, 2004 and October 21, 2004.)

Douglas says, GuitarSite 10/15/04: "I found out that Jim Fouratt (now an A and R man with Mercury NYC in a 1993 gay history book, Stonewall, falsely claims he removed firebombs I planted at NYU in 70 and is a big fucking hero. I was briefly in NYC in 70 and he assaulted me and a TV news team interviewing me, stalked me later in Miami and may have been involved in many tries to kill me". I checked Martin Duberman's Stonewall, 1993. There is no entry for Douglas, Czinki or Delain in the index. Fouratt is in the book, but I could not find anything resembling this claim.

Douglas married a woman, was later sexually attracted to other members of TAO, and in 1991 is reported as cat-calling pretty women on the street. In short was gynephilic, and could be said to be a heterosexual male who temporarily became a woman. Thus it is reasonable to ask why he did not simply join Virginia Prince's FPE, which was active in Los Angeles in 1969, before starting a new group? There would have course have been ego-conflicts.

Gift from Euphoria is on sale at Amazon. I cannot find the other albums for sale.

Douglas claims Canary Conn as a TAO co-founder because of her fame as a singer, while, according to her book, she attended only once and was horrified.   Compare her attitude to that of Lili Elvenes (Elbe) who was equally horrified when she met the other trans women at Hirschfeld's Institute.