The first time you heard or read about....

[Teresa]

Becky,
We had a very blunt demonstration in an early biology class, we had just received new text books and the head of biology and an assistant opened the page on male and female anatomy . The assistant said , " Here we go boys , a sex change in five easy cuts !!" and then went into some detail of what went where !
We all looked at other in stunned silence , after the lesson was over I hung back to ask why anyone would want to do that , my CDing had already started by 5 or 6 years and found I had an inner conflict with what he had just described. To answer me he just shrugged his shoulders and replied , " Why not ?" . I often think about his reasons for subjecting a class of young boys to that revelation .

As far as my first insight into another CDer I read a feature about Danny La Rue , that was when I first discovered other men did wear women's clothes and I wasn't alone with that need. He was more than a drag act as he dressed from a young age .

[Diane Smith]

My grandparents had a subscription to Look magazine, and sometime around 1966 (I would have been nine at the time), they published an article reviewing Harry Benjamin's groundbreaking book, "The Transsexual Phenomenon." I read the review, over and over, with great interest, when no one was around to look over my shoulder. I had also heard about Christine Jorgenson sometime before that in a conversation with my mom when her name came up on the TV news or something, although I am fuzzy about the details.

Shortly after that, an actual copy of Benjamin's book appeared at my grandparents' house. I do not know to this day whether my grandpa was just interested in it as a work of social science worth checking out - that would not have been entirely out of character for him - or if it spoke to his own feelings. There is some other slight evidence that he may have been confused about his gender and sexual identity, but there is no one alive now to give me any further insight or details. I'd like to say that I read the book from cover to cover, but in fact, I was afraid to be seen showing too much interest in it, so I just scanned it and looked at the picture section when I could arrange a few minutes alone with it. Still, it meant that I was at least somewhat aware of gender issues in the wider society starting around age 9 - 10, and felt a strong personal connection.

- Diane

[Charlotte7]

There were a couple of things from my early days. The first was a 1979 BBC documentary called 'A Change of Sex'. To me, this was a bleak and troubling description of, possibly me. I think it more or less stopped overnight any (embryonic) thoughts I may have had about 'changing sex' as it was called then. It didn't stop me dressing. Then, a little later there was a news headline in one of our tabloid newspapers along the lines of 'Man with mystery tropical disease forced to change sex'. The whole story though was untrue and only put out the way it was as the person transitioning was a 'middle class businessman' and it was deemed prudent to explain his becoming Stephanie, not through his innate transgenderism, but the result of a mystery illnes. As back in the early 80s, what other reason was there?

[faltenrock]

The first TS woman I heard about and actually saw her TV was 'Romy Haag', a woman originally from Belgium. I think she used to have a club in Berlin, she also acted in a movie, she must be about 65 years old now.

[Lacey New]

I recall from my early teens hearing about Renee Richards and Christine Jorgenson but I did not really read or know anything much in depth about them . I was even afraid to research them as I thought trying to read about them in a library would be considered perverted. But later, as I began to get access to Playboy, I would occasionally see small advertisements for a place in New York City called Michael Salem’s TV Boutique. The advertisements were simply a sketch of an androgynous looking young person daydreaming about a woman in a dress. At that point, I knew that the idea of cross dressing was very appealing.

[donnalee]

Christine Jorgenson was early '50s ('53 to the best of my recollection) and was highly publicized. There were others prior to her but not as well known.

[sara66]

I think it was All in the Family. I was 12ish. They had a female impersonator on a couple of episodes. And there always was Donoghue always had on transvestites.
Sara

[Elizabeth G]

I don't recall the first time I heard these terms but I do remember a very early time. I was probably about 12 or 13 at the time and this was way before the internet (mid to late seventies) so I have no idea where I had heard the term "transvestite" but I must have heard it somewhere because I clearly remember going to my local library and looking it up in the card catalog. I found a book I believe was titled "Transvestites and Transsexuals". I remember nervously finding it on the shelves and quickly grabbing it when no one was around and then covering it with another book and sneaking off to a quiet corner of the library to read it. This was when I first learned that I want the only person on the planet that cross dressed.

[Ressie]

My grandparents had a subscription to Look magazine, and sometime around 1966 (I would have been nine at the time), they published an article reviewing Harry Benjamin's groundbreaking book, "The Transsexual Phenomenon." I read the review, over and over, with great interest, when no one was around to look over my shoulder.

- Diane

Thank you Diane for resetting my memory. I said Life magazine in my post (#14) but I was thinking it might have been Look magazine. I would have been 12 or 13 in 1966. I wish I had a copy of that today!

[Connie D50]

I think like Jamie mash was my first connection. Then confirmed with Renée Richards tennis player. I was dressing long before Mash.

[Jennifer in CO]

As for many of you, I had already been dressing for some time when I found out what "we" were called. In my case, it was Flip Wilson in the early 70's but mainly Christopher Morley in the movie Freebie and the Bean from 74. I was presenting female as well as he in the movie at the time but while he was a villain(ess) I only saw how freely he moved about in public and was accepted since you couldn't tell he wasn't a girl. It quite literally "opened" my front door to the world.

[NicoleScott]

I had little interest in Jorgenson and Richards reports. I wasn't like them - I just wanted to dress up.
Case histories about fetish-driven crossdressers in psychology books, Penthouse Forum, Michael Salem's, Centurians catalog (I bought one), and other books, magazines, and catalogs, but I don't remember the first to get my attention. I was influenced at a very young age by womens' magazines and catalogs. I don't remember the age I discovered "What? There are others like me?"

[alesha]

I remember vividly the first time I found out about SRS. I was in 7th grade and one of my good friends was talking about a man who got surgery to become a woman. He saw it on some talk show. My jaw dropped, I was so happy to find out that it was actually a possibility and not something I just fantasized about.

I don’t remember when I found out about cross dressing as a separate thing. I’ve been wearing women’s clothes since I could remember and didn’t know that you could be a cross dresser without wanting to transition.

[Fiona123]

I knew about SRS sense maybe the late 60s or early seventies. There were articles in Time Magazine I think about Renee Richards. I did not understand crossdressing to be a thing until much much later. It was yet even later perhaps in the last 5 Years that I understood myself to be transgender.

[Dana44]

I saw it in manganese and we founds them in and out shack and wow they looked good. Never knew you could do that until I read about it. I was like 12 at the time.

[Rosemary+]

Great thread Becky,
I’ve been dressing since pre school sneaking in to my mother closest and wearing her clothes, never told anyone and I thought I was the only one in the whole world who did it.
Well when I was about 10 or 11 my mum took my brothers and I to a street fair. Walking in front of us was a larger woman and I took no notice of her. As we walk past a group of young men they shouted out there’s a “tranny”. ( this’s was late 60’s) I didn’t know what a “tranny” was so I asked mum and she replied “it is men who like to wear dresses”, and when she uttered those words I felt a WOW feeling I’m not alone and that feeling was sheer joy. From then on I read everything I could about cross dressing. I stumbled across a text book in my high school library that had a chapter to read, I was always flicking through my mums woman’s magazines looking for articles, it was my age of discovery

[Stephanie43]

My first was Boy George (early 80’s Karma Chameleon video on MTV). I didn’t realize he was a male at first. I had already been CD’ing a Little at this point (age 8 or 9 I suppose). Needless to say I was intrigued by his look.

[Kayliedaskope]

Wow, you ladies have all brought up some memories here! Flip Wilson, Renee Richards, Boy George, Klinger from M*A*S*H, Michael Salem, Rocky Horror, and yes, Freddie Mercury in drag!

I remember the Michael Salem ads very well. I kept looking at the pictures and thinking, "No WAY that can be a guy ... no effing way..... OMG, it IS a guy!" I was amazed at how utterly beautiful these people were - they were lovely, curvy, passable, with gorgeous looks and curvy womanly figures, then SURPRISE! Needless to say (20's, raging hormones and all that), I spent many a night looking at those catalogs and magazines. I had my stash of Penthouse and Playboy, along with various other publications, but was just fascinated by Transformation Magazine and those stunning models. Back then (and still today, I suppose) they were called transvestites, transsexuals, "trannies", or even the dreaded S-word.

[laura.lapinski]

I think the first person I heard of who transitioned was Dr. Renee Richards, if my memory is correct. I was fascinated at the concept, and it was a recognition that there were others out there with the same thoughts as me.

[Sarah Doepner]

I was too young when Christine Jorgensen returned to the U.S. in the early 1950's to remember the stories from that time. However, she was the first trans person I became aware of several years later, probably in the early 1960's. As I got into Middle School there were occasional stories from time to time about older brothers who had gone to beat up transvestites. That stuck with me and even after I found an art book with photographs of transvestites in the city library when I was High School age I did my best to keep that info to myself, but at that moment I was thrilled to see the validation that I wasn't alone.

[Abbyru1]

I remember a news article in the local paper that the writer's story about a "bar" in Germany somewhere. A cop being interviewed inside sneered - the authors word- that there was only one female in the place-the bartender-and the rest were men. The article mentioned that the place was packed with a mixed crowd. That would have been the late 60's. And don't forget the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs with their pages of women's clothing!

[Territx]

My "very first" exposure was to the story in an (semi-)adult magazine (they have changed a lot since the one I first saw). I am not sure that there was any gay sex involved (I do not remember that aspect) but the description of shaving, getting makeup, dress, wig and stockings just hit a nerve -- I was probably 11-12 at the time. After a short period of exploring the closets of my mother and other relatives we might visit, my interest just seemed to retract (but not go away). Then, with the Penthouse letters when I was in college, my interest came back though I could not act upon it due to roommates etc. After being married for a number of years, I saw an ad in a local one-off paper for someone that would do makeovers. I built up my courage and tried it out -- I was hooked. I sometimes shake my head at the pictures from those early makeovers, the evolution of Terri's look has certainly been a positive.

[Alice B]

My interest came out of the blue and I was in my 60's. I went to the internet and read everything I could find, multiple times. Once I was sure this was something that I wanted to do and also realized it was really a part of me I started dressing and loved it. I then told my wife and refered her to several articles I had found. For me it worked.

[Ceera]

Well, the very first time I read anything about it, I didn't understand it. I was probably 12 or 13, back in the 1969 or 1970, and of all things it was in a comic book. Back then, kid's comics had ads in them, for all sorts of things. One ad that frequently appeared was for "Michael Salem's TV Boutique". It usually featured a high heeled shoe, and no real explanations. I wondered at the time what 'Television' had to do with women's shoes. I checked today, and they are still in business!

At some point soon after that, while I was in the late grade school years or early high school years, I heard the term transvestite for the first time. Probably from an adult explaining why an obviously male comedian on TV was dressed like a woman. But it was always in reference to a comedian crossdressing on TV or in the movies, or to someone doing it as a sexual kink.

In 1976 or so I heard about tennis star Renée Richards, who had undergone a sex change operation. I vaguely recall seeing an article in Playboy or some other men's Magazine about what she had gone through. But that was the first time I am certain I understood that men becoming women was something more than an actor dressing like a woman for comedic effect, or a 'kinky transvestite'.

[Beverley Sims]

I remember reading Dear Abby, articles in the Melbourne Truth, they also ran many crossdressing articles, it was the fashion and sold papers at the time.

Dear Abby was all around the world and I think she answered to many of us over the years.

Then the internet came and the newspapers began to die off.