Baby Boomers, when did you first realize you weren't the only one who ...

This question is for those here who can remember life before the boon of the internet and the bane of Jerry Springer. When or how did you first realize you weren't the only one who was CD or TS?

Of course, men in dresses had been a comedy staple since forever, with such things as Flip Wilson's Geraldine or "Some Like It Hot." But to see the concept taken seriously? Wasn't that kind of a revelation?

I had heard of Christine Jorgenson, but knew virtually nothing about her, so her story was abstract to me. One turning point for me, though, was watching "West Side Story" on television. In the song "Officer Krupke," one character has the line, "My sister wears a mustache; my brother wears a dress." I cannot recall anything about CDs/TSs that had caught my attention before that moment, the way that single line did.

I really thought I was the ONLY male on earth for a very long time. No joke!

Some high profile pro atheletes came out/forced out in the 70's as well. Not sure if I ever gave much thought to anyone else really. I was only concerned with myself and staying focused with who I am. I sure do regret not coming out as a teen though and taken the flack to follow. Knowing now what I know, I could have easily handled the hatred/bigotry that existed and still exists today.

I remember in 8th grade english class reading a Life magazine article on transvestites of NYC and I was shocked that I was not alone and wasn't the freak I thought I was! @

I can't remmber what year it was but we (mom, dad, and me) went to the drive in move I really don't remmber to much from it but they saw Christine Jorgenson I woke up a few time and was quickly told to go back to sleep and a blanket was tossed over my head lol.

this site helped me a lot and I joined in 2006 I knew I wasn't the only one But I didn't think the group was this big :-) And the stories tell me that a lot of us went thru alot of the same growing pains. Connie

The first I heard of another was when I was about 10 and my friend's would always comment as we passed this one house about the "He-She Monster" that lived there. Apparently he dressed and you know what happens when kids find out...
The next was Christine Jorgensen and after that when I was about 18, driving and could go to NYC. There I found all the movies, books and magazines such as "Lady Like" and the "Female Impersonator Newsletter". These told me for sure I was no longer alone and gave me a mode to contact others and finally talk about it with someone who shared my feelings and my concerns.

The interest never goes away it seems. We created our own opportunities in the old days. I even subscribed to a FI (female impersonator) newsletter back in the early 1980's and they advertised breast forms, femme face masks, femme body forms and padded panties, etc. Nothing is as new as it is old they say. CDing like many things remains eternal and a hope for those of us who want to be like girls.:battingeyelashes::)

I always thought that what I done was a little odd so I had to be a bit careful on who I let see it more than told but for some reason never felt uneasy about it as it just felt normal to me so I did not really think about other people doing it apart fro the odd article you would get in a magazine or paper about Transsexuals which I would have a strange fascination in reading , then one night when dressed I happened to see a program on the television about Transvestites and then suddenly thought " Hell I must be one of those" and there are more like me , then came the internet and you then get to realise that there is a hell of a lot like me so i am not quite so odd as I thought I was ( OK still odd but not in cross dressing terms ) :heehee:.

I also pretty much thought I was the only one. Until 64, at age 18 and in the Navy, went into an adult book store in San Francisco and found a whole section on the subject. Being in the Navy, didn't dare buy a book and bring it back to base. So limited myself to buying a mostly fiction book or two (maybe 20-40 pages each with pictures or drawings) and taking it directly home on liberty. After reading it would destroy it, so my folks wouldn't find it.

During the VHS video store rental days in the 80's, found the store near us to have an adult section. And in the that section, they had a number of ******* videos. So it dawned on me there must be some others.

Wasn't on the internet until sometime in 95-96. What a difference.

When I got on the internet.....aol days in the mid 90's

I was in about the sixth or seventh grade when Christine had her surgery and came out, they did a big cover story about it in Life magazine, I believe it was. After the family was done with that mag, I took it and kept it for a long time. She was my first hint there was anyone else out there, or that you could really be a girl. I was in my early twenty's when the tennis player, Renee Richards came out, by then there was a lot more written, and talked about on the radio, than when Christine came out.
Tina B.

Back in the early 1980's also I used to make my own videos of myself dancing to Pop songs using a Sony Betamax video camera. I found one of the tapes I had transferred from Beta to VHS recently and it is remarkably intact. Seems I had many of the "moves" even 30 years ago.:battingeyelashes::)

When I mimed "I enjoy being a girl" on a "talent night".:)

i was about 18 there was a news paper story about a transsexual that opened a culb on bank st in Phila and that her club was doing very well i then knew there was at least 1 more person like me that was a guy and wore womens clothing

I recall black and white television shows where married straight couples slept in separate beds.

I would be surprised if ANY of us baby boomers grew up with TS TG CD or any other letter combos being known much let alone visible.

I grew up in a time when a black woman in TV in almost any capacity was pushing the boundaries (Star Trek).

The internet has created a flood of information transmission capacity that has affected every last little corner of humanity. The only people that don't know things, are the people currently under rocks. That, and a selection of society that has intentionally denied themselves access to large swathes of human experience.

My first encounter with anything beyond humdrum small town Canadiana would be 1986-1990 when I lived in Toronto. But I moved back home and have been more or less small town Canadian since. I know of one person that is claimed to be homosexual in my community. But he is a long time old friend of the family and myself, and I have never felt like bluntly asking him 'are you gay?'. I couldn't care less if I ever knew the truth from his own voice. He's just an old friend of mine I see periodically on the street and say hello to.

I have never actually direct eye contact wise ever encountered just about any portion of street life. Makes me in a lot of cases horrendously inexperienced in a lot of stuff.
In my own mind, I would be capable of thinking I was the only example of a potential crossdresser in town. I've never seen one at least.

I knew there were CDrs and TS pretty much from the time I was a teenager. All one had to do is read a weekly news magazine to learn of the existense of such deviates! Of course, that was exactly how I came to view myself!

An afternooon variety show, Mike Douglas or Geraldo or something. Which one is the wife? Is it a she or he? And so forth. Christine Jorganson, Renee Richards. And finally a few magazines, short fictrion books, and videos at the adult book store. And then the internet--Fictionmania!

I never thought of being alone on this. Just thought it was so underground I could never be apart of it. Untill the internet. Jennifer just above me. Was my first encounter with a fellow cd'er. Daviolin

It took me a long while, perhaps too long. I knew none of my friends were TG so I kept myself hidden. The internet changed things, I found out there were many more like me.

I can remember very clearly, when I was 11 years old and put on the first article of women's clothing and got sexually aroused, that I knew I had to be the only boy in the world to do this wicked evil thing. I remember wondering if I was mentally ill or something...really! That did not stop me from my repeating trying on those items found in a vacant apartment above the garage of the house we lived in. I rarely dressed at that time, orphaned at age 16, married at age 17. (1969...had to forge my birth certificate) and did not give it much more thought until I met my second wife around 1976. She was the very first person that I ever told. She had all the usual questions that I could not answer. So I ordered books I found advertised in adult book stores. One was by Virginia Price, who published Transvestia magazine and started Society for the Second Self for male heterosexual cross-dressers. That was my first conscious effort to find out what and who I was as a crossdresser so I could answer her questions. ( I don't think the term CD was even coined at that time. Everyone used the term transvestite. We then read FORUM magazine, and saw many stories from other men and couples incorporating crossdressing. For those that read that magazine, the stories are real. I know, since they published my story! lol
What I would not have given to have had the Internet back then. It was a very lonely thing for most of us from that era.

My answer to this question, when did I first become aware I wasn't the only one, is "I don't know". When I was about 20, I was working in a bookshop and two girls came in dressed. They were both pretty easily read, though they looked good. I remember being really puzzled. I suppose a light should have gone on in my head: "Hey, I'm not the only one!"

I suppose what surprised me was that they actually had the courage to get out in public. I was so deep in the closet I didn't even want to admit it to myself. So when I saw those two girls, it was like I was asking, "Can you actually do that?" As far as I knew, if you were like me, you buried your shame as deeply as you could. I didn't know there was another option.

At any rate, they were the first two of my sisters I ever saw in the flesh. At some time before that I know I must have become aware that I wasn't the only one, but I don't know when or how.

[SIZE="3"]I was maybe 8 or 9 years old when I saw a book that said something about men wearing bras and if it would enlarge there breasts. That's when I found out it wasn't just me!!![/SIZE]

Back in my teenage years, my sister was attending nursing school and had to write a report on something. For that report she purchased a book titled "Everything you wanted to know about sex" or something like that. I remember sneaking that book out and reading it. There was a section about crossdressing and transsexuals. After reading that I no longer felt alone and that there were others like me. It was not until the internet that I really understood what was going on. It amazing how similar our stories are and how young most of us were when we discovered female clothing.

I believed there were others like me since I was young but had no idea that I was really not the only person who had these desires until I found the internet in 1999. This was the first time I met others who shared this passion on aol chat.