Scarce Archive of "The Transvestian", 1980s Trans and Cross-Dressing Community Newspaper
- 1986
1986. [LGBTQ][Cross-Dressing] Five issues of The Transvestian, trans and cross-dressing interest newspaper. Tennent, NJ: Tania Volen, Inc., ca. 1986-1987. Five tabloid-format issues on newsprint. Five-issue archive of The Transvestian, an American trans and cross-dressing periodical edited by Tania Volen. The Transvestian offered a hybrid of editorial content: from erotic fiction and lifestyle columns to personal ads and political commentary, all tailored toward the crossdressing, transgender, and wider gender-nonconforming community. Unlike many of its more salacious competitors, Volen’s periodical frequently foregrounded substantive reportage and communal support over titillation. Collectively these issues foreground two of the most important gender-variant gathering spaces of the 1980s, Fantasia Fair in Provincetown and crossdressers’ weekends in the Pocono Mountains, alongside sensational coverage of “male motherhood,” domestic life, and working-class trans femininity.
[1] Vol. 5, No. 4 – “Man Exposed as Mom-of-the-Year”: Cover story on a cross-dressing “mom of the year” framed through tabloid language of “exposure,” juxtaposing a glamorous boudoir photograph with domestic respectability. The feature plays on the shock value of a parent who is both “dad” and “mom,” while the surrounding content of advice columns, letters, and personals centers the everyday emotional lives of gender-nonconforming readers.
[2] Vol. 5, No. 5 – “You Could Become the First Male Mother”: Issue built around a headline speculating on “male motherhood,” using emerging reproductive technologies and hormonal interventions as a hook to discuss trans and cross-gender pregnancy in a sensational tone. Articles and sidebars blur the line between exploitative medical curiosity and genuine community interest in parenthood.
[3] Vol. 5, No. 6 – “Showtime in the Poconos”: Documents a crossdressers’ resort weekend in the Pocono Mountains, part of a broader circuit of hotel-based conferences and “getaway” events that offered trans women and crossdressers rare chances to present full-time in public. Features include a “Showtime in the Poconos” photo suite, coverage of a “Man Sues for Right to Dress” legal battle, and community reports echoing contemporaneous events like Joyce Dewhurst’s Crossdressers Weekend in the Pocono Mountains, organized in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.
[4] Vol. 4, No. 9 – “Fantasia Fair at P-town”: Special issue on Fantasia Fair in Provincetown (“P-town”), the longest-running transgender conference in the United States, founded in 1975 as a space for cross-dressers and transsexuals to explore gender in an affirming environment. Photo-spreads from the Fair show attendees in daytime street wear and evening gowns, highlighting both public visibility and nightlife. The coverage situates Fantasia Fair as a key bridge between local support groups and a national network of trans conferences.
[5] Vol. 5, No. 8 – “Chris: My Face is Red ’Cause My Bottom’s Bare”: Centerfold-style cover featuring “Chris,” posed in heels and a short skirt beside living-room furniture, accompanied by a feature story that mixes pin-up photography with first-person narrative about embarrassment, exhibitionism, and learning to inhabit a feminized body. Interior articles continue the paper’s blend of erotically charged fiction, practical advice, and small ads for transformation services, underscoring how self-fashioning, shame, and pride intersected in cross-dressing life.
Light horizontal folds from mailing or storage, with minor spine nicks, small corner creases, and light age toning to newsprint, but no significant losses to text or images; overall very good condition. Together these five issues offer a concentrated view of how a single community newspaper braided reportage on landmark gatherings like Fantasia Fair and Pocono weekends with sensationalistic headlines around family, religion, and sexuality, giving historians a rare vernacular record of trans and cross-dressing culture in the mid-Reagan era.
[1] Vol. 5, No. 4 – “Man Exposed as Mom-of-the-Year”: Cover story on a cross-dressing “mom of the year” framed through tabloid language of “exposure,” juxtaposing a glamorous boudoir photograph with domestic respectability. The feature plays on the shock value of a parent who is both “dad” and “mom,” while the surrounding content of advice columns, letters, and personals centers the everyday emotional lives of gender-nonconforming readers.
[2] Vol. 5, No. 5 – “You Could Become the First Male Mother”: Issue built around a headline speculating on “male motherhood,” using emerging reproductive technologies and hormonal interventions as a hook to discuss trans and cross-gender pregnancy in a sensational tone. Articles and sidebars blur the line between exploitative medical curiosity and genuine community interest in parenthood.
[3] Vol. 5, No. 6 – “Showtime in the Poconos”: Documents a crossdressers’ resort weekend in the Pocono Mountains, part of a broader circuit of hotel-based conferences and “getaway” events that offered trans women and crossdressers rare chances to present full-time in public. Features include a “Showtime in the Poconos” photo suite, coverage of a “Man Sues for Right to Dress” legal battle, and community reports echoing contemporaneous events like Joyce Dewhurst’s Crossdressers Weekend in the Pocono Mountains, organized in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s.
[4] Vol. 4, No. 9 – “Fantasia Fair at P-town”: Special issue on Fantasia Fair in Provincetown (“P-town”), the longest-running transgender conference in the United States, founded in 1975 as a space for cross-dressers and transsexuals to explore gender in an affirming environment. Photo-spreads from the Fair show attendees in daytime street wear and evening gowns, highlighting both public visibility and nightlife. The coverage situates Fantasia Fair as a key bridge between local support groups and a national network of trans conferences.
[5] Vol. 5, No. 8 – “Chris: My Face is Red ’Cause My Bottom’s Bare”: Centerfold-style cover featuring “Chris,” posed in heels and a short skirt beside living-room furniture, accompanied by a feature story that mixes pin-up photography with first-person narrative about embarrassment, exhibitionism, and learning to inhabit a feminized body. Interior articles continue the paper’s blend of erotically charged fiction, practical advice, and small ads for transformation services, underscoring how self-fashioning, shame, and pride intersected in cross-dressing life.
Light horizontal folds from mailing or storage, with minor spine nicks, small corner creases, and light age toning to newsprint, but no significant losses to text or images; overall very good condition. Together these five issues offer a concentrated view of how a single community newspaper braided reportage on landmark gatherings like Fantasia Fair and Pocono weekends with sensationalistic headlines around family, religion, and sexuality, giving historians a rare vernacular record of trans and cross-dressing culture in the mid-Reagan era.