"Female Impersonator" Vol. 2 No. 8, Featuring the Release Announcement of a New Trans Self-Help Organization, 1973-1974

Female Impersonator

Pamphlet

Female Impersonator Newsletter featuring the launch of the United Transvestite and Transexual Society in the front-page “Suzy Sez” column, where Suzy Collins describes a reader’s request for help finding “other places like our own.” Collins traces the new organization to phone calls routed through a Spencer, North Carolina help line, letters from readers, personal contacts, and advice from Jamie Howell. The proposed service structure for “TVs & TSs” included consumer reporting, reviews of books and magazines, telephone help-line listings, and referrals to clothing outlets, beauty suppliers, photographers, doctors, and lawyers. This issue records a 1970s transvestite and transsexual network built through newsletters, mail-order commerce, local contacts, medical commentary, and legal notices before digital directories or online forums existed.
Female Impersonator Newsletter. Vol. 2, No. 8. [United States]:, circa 1974. Four-page folded newsletter, priced one dollar, with front-page “Suzy Sez...” column, “T.V. of the Month” naming Karen Rigg, Leo Wollman’s “Doctor, can you help me? I am a transvestite,” a continuation of “Suzy Says,” notices from Chicago, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California, a large Michael Salem’s TV Boutique advertisement, and a “Transvestite Fiction” mail-order catalog page. The issue states that UTTS was “started in motion back in October 1973” and promises a separate UTTS Newsletter for members, while the Chicago notice reports that people could still be arrested under the city’s Municipal Code for cross-dressing in public accommodations. The Columbia University Archives finding aid for the Ethel Spector Person Papers separately identifies Female Impersonator Newsletter, “v.2 no. 8, c. 1974,” supporting the approximate date for this issue.

The newsletter places the queer community building, sexual medicine, local law, and commercial goods accessibility in the same four-page circuit: Wollman discusses psychotherapy and hormone treatment in an article reprinted from The Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine; Suzy’s column calls for reviews and telephone help services; the Chicago text urges readers to contact City Council members about cross-dressing arrests; and advertisements offer counseling, fiction films, lingerie, foundations, wigs, shoes, and mail-order fulfillment for “the discreet cross-dresser.” Folded as issued with vertical and horizontal creases, toning, light soiling, edge wear, and handling creases; text remains complete and legible. Overall good condition.

Item #23529

Price: $350.00