Being Trans in the 50`s

[Terri Andrews]

I was wondering if any one raised in the 40` /50`s felt free to share there gender feelings with there parents or Families ,like todays 3 or 4 years are sharing .
If so what happened?

[Laura912]

The closet was so deep then, it was in another dimension.

[BillieJoEllen]

Seriously? Share gender feelings with friends or family? It just wasn't talked about then. Remember the derision Christine Jorgensen got when she came back to the USA? It would've been the same for us.

[Lollipop]

But there was lots of nice stuff in the closet back then
Jessie

[CynthiaD]

I was raised in the '50s. Share my gender feelings with my parents? No, I certainly did not! That's one reason I'm still alive.

My mother caught me with a copy I "Sexology" magazine that just happened to have an article on transvestites, as we were called back then. She made me tear it up in front of her and burn it in the fireplace. It was just too evil to throw in the trash.

[phylis anne]

yes very strict then strange how it has taken 50 of my 60 yrs to start paying attention to phylis due to society and family I have kept it all bottled up and especially due to family --grandkids I identify as tomboy /girl so gramps still looks like a little bit like him although recently a girl i was talking to said with a few changes I would make a good looking "butch"
hugs phylis anne

[Dana44]

I managed to keep it hidden for more that 40 years. An ex-wife of mine, although I do not remember doing anything with her except talking about it. Anyways, through the divorce, she called everybody and told them I did crossdress. I got asked by several people if that was true. At that time I was not considering it. So I denied it. One friend said, time will tell. LOL oh my... Girly me. Yep I'm in a relationship and doing it. I am far away from my old friends. Yet I'm male when I'm in Houston. My hair is so long, I must say that I do look feminine in male clothes now. Probably taking better care of my face. LOL

[anna kate]

Got caught with a bow in my hair at 8 years old (1948). The grief I got was bad, but nothing like at 16 (1956) when a neighbor ratted me out for wearing my sisters wedding dress (after she was married). Just turned 75 and am still at it, with my own closet of clothes. Some things are too much fun to quit !!!

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Terri, I'm just 2yrs older than you and that kind of thing way back then probably would've gotten you burned at the stake.

[Janine cd]

I grew up in the 50's as well. I remember wearing my mom's panties, nylons and girdle under my jeans and almost being caught by my grandfather. If he had known what I was wearing, he would have beaten me to a pulp. Little did he know that I had been trying on all of my mom's undoes and nightgowns far at least a year before

[Beverley Sims]

Why would you do it then?

You could be burned at the stake.

There were strong communities of dressers around in the 60s though.

I think the pill and freedom of expression started to show out then.

The times they were a'changin'.

[Alice K]

I was wondering if any one raised in the 40` /50`s felt free to share there gender feelings with there parents or Families ,like todays 3 or 4 years are sharing .
If so what happened?

Terri,
In the 50s if I had shared this state of being I would have not lived to see another day. But I have to wonder how my mother had not caught on that I had been borrowing her stuff? And even recently a wonderful aunt said something about "men like me". So looking back the women in the family new something was a miss (pun intended).

Alice

[Patty B.]

Also remember the 50's and no it wasn't talked about or brought up knowing the consequences were to severe, beatings, nearly killed, the consequences were just beyond imagination. Just the way it was in our history. At least there are options we didn't have, not always good ones but at least they are there.

[Rhonda Darling]

Back in the 50s - 60s, many considered it a mental illness. In some states that could have earned you a stay at a mental facility and several rounds of electro-shock therapy. But few would have been foolish enough back then to tell anyone. The gender duality stereotype was very strong and we all knew there just had to be something wrong about what we were doing, otherwise why would we have been sneaking around to do it.

Rhonda