Member: IFGE, TGEA (DC), 1990-1992, AEGIS
Delegate: Congress of Transgender Organizations, Magnolia Transgender Alliance
Conventions: Southern Comfort--93, 94, 95 (Panelist), Be All--95
Hostess: "CD TriV Quiz", Prodigy, 1993
Author: "The Queen's Throne," Tennessee Vals Newsletter, "Androgeny in Recent Academic History," Tapestry #67 (Spring 1994), pp.52-53, Bitchy letters in various other newsletters and publications
I first ventured out in public at the age of 17. I had recently graduated from high school and was waiting to start college in the fall, when both of my parents went out of town on different, but simultaneous, business trips. Left to myself for three days, I got dressed and went to a local shopping mall. I left my coke-bottle glasses in the car, so unable to see anything, I undoubtedly passed!
While in college in the Boston area, I got on the mailing list for the Outreach Institute, but I never went anywhere since I did not really know what was available there. I sensed that things were out there, but I just did not know how to find things. I did know about Fantasia Fair in nearby Provincetown, but being a college student did not give me much flexibility in attending such events.
When I was home that first summer after my freshman year, I did get to see Dr. Renee Richards at Vanderbilt (and even got within 10 feet of her), and then a couple of months later, visited my first drag bar, The Other Side, here in Nashville. Although I never went in dressed (I was staying with my parents whenever I came home), I did make it a point to go see the shows there whenever I was free. That exposure, being a voracious reader of whatever material I could find on transgendered behavior, plus staying up late to watch shows like the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder, who featured guests like Christine Jorgenson, Canary Conn, and Holly Woodlawn, showed me that I was not alone.
After graduation, I moved to the Bay Area of Northern California to attend graduate school. There, I had very little time and even less money. However, I did hear of one bar in San Francisco called Chez Mollet. So one Saturday, I got dressed up and went there for a couple of drinks. Again, I left my glasses in the car, so I could not tell if I was the only person dressed there, but it seemed so quiet that I must have been. A few months later, I moved to Washington, D.C.
Despite those two outings, I was still very much closeted. I did find a club called The Rogue, across the street from the FBI Headquarters (The J. Edgar Hoover Building--named for the most closeted drag queen in history!), shortly after I moved to D.C., but it closed just two weeks later, so I never even got a chance to go in there dressed. After several years, I finally discovered another drag club in D.C. called Ziegfeld's, which was only five blocks from my home. After spending time practicing makeup and mannerisms, and expanding my wardrobe, I finally came crashing out for good in October 1989. I joined the Delta Chi Education Association (now Trans Gender Education Association) in the spring of 1990, and have never looked back. Over the years, I have visited drag clubs and other support groups around the country. I even made it back for an ETVC meeting at Chez Mollet in December 1989, which was obviously a lot more fun than my first visit to the bar several years earlier.
I started the Tennessee Vals in the fall of 1992 after returning to Nashville. My exposure to the gender scene in Boston, DC, and San Francisco, taught me how much could be achieved in pulling people out of the closet and sharing information on resources with them. It is my sincere hope that other Middle Tennesseans will join us. If you live elsewhere, get out and join your local group. Then come on and visit us in the "Dimple of the Universe." We have a great time here because there is plenty to do!
And we don't even go line dancing.