Times Do Change: The 1990s

It had been like pulling the proverbial teeth to keep Linda M on the task of recounting the evolution of crossdressing through the decades. It was turning out to be more a history of Linda’s crossdressing through the decades. Crossdressing and sex life I should say. However, in fairness, her life seemed to pretty closely reflect the prevailing attitudes of the different decades. What do you think?

So, it was a bit of a surprise to hear her reply with a question when I asked about the 1990s.

“How did you see crossdressing progressing through the 1990s,” I asked.

“What do you think was the golden age of crossdressing?” she asked back.

“The golden age?” I replied, “You mean like the golden age of jazz? The golden age of Hollywood? I did not think crossdressing has had a golden age. Isn’t the best yet to come? Look at all the examples of acceptance of the TG community, of out TG people getting elected to offices across the country, of TG characters appearing in movies and television, not comic characters but real characters. Surely that is a good sign for the rest of us.”

“Linda, Linda, Linda,” she retorted, “have I taught you nothing in the last few months? Do you not see the world of difference between the recreational crossdresser like you and me and the full blown transexuals like the Amy Schneiders and Jazz Jennings of the world?” Of course, she was referring to the phenom who had recently completed a fantastic run of wins on the popular quiz show, Jeopardy! And to the teenage phenom who has starred in her own television reality show.

I did not accept that there was that much difference, nor did I accept that our desires to crossdress were purely recreational but at the moment neither of those points were ‘my hill to die on’.

I turned the question back to her. “What do you think has been the golden age of crossdressing?” I asked.

“The 1990s.” Linda replied, “No doubt about it, the 1990s”

Now I must admit to having some great personal memories from those years. It may have been my personal golden age of crossdressing or at least one of my top three decades but Linda was purporting to speak for the whole world of crossdressing.

“How so?” I asked.

“Think back,” she replied, “there was coming just a bit of public acceptance. There were lots of good publications, trans-friendly clubs in most cities and major CD conventions every month or so. Then, right in the middle of all that, the Internet came along.”

“I don’t recall there being a lot of public acceptance,” I protested.

“Maybe so,” Linda replied, “but what there was, was great. We have talked about this, how it was an adrenaline rush to be out shopping or heading out of the car and into a club. We never knew if someone was going to start heckling us. Sometime in the 1990s the heckling stopped happening, at least for me it did.”

“Well, almost never, I conceded, “I never did get heckled but once or twice I was followed by groups of teenagers who had read me and wanted confirmation of their discovery. I remember a friend named Diane telling me how out of the blue a woman accosted her in a DC area mall and started berating her for being out en femme. And Diane was cute, too.”

“I used to get a mailbox full of publications and letters from CD pen pals every month.” Now it was me throwing in the personal memories.

“Like what publications?” Linda asked.

“TV/TS Tapestry.”

“Yep,” Linda replied.

“Transvestian, TV Epic,” I continued.

“Yep, Yep,” Linda replied.

“Well do you remember Gateway Gender Alliance?” I was sure I would get that one past her.

“Yes, again but I’m pretty sure they were gone by the 1990s.” Linda replied authoritatively.

“How about associations? Tri Ess? Renaissance? Beaumont Society ? Seahorse ?

“I joined them all,” replied Linda. I was searching my memory trying to get something past her.

Then she started quizzing me. “I bet I got to more events than you did. How about the Texas ‘T’ Party? The ‘Be All’ Weekend? Night of a Thousand Gowns? Provincetown? Paradise in the Poconos?  Diva Las Vegas? Henry David’s Halloween Ball?”

“You got to all of those? I hit maybe half of them. But I was once Princess of the Poconos,” I said lamely.

“That’s no small achievement,” Linda exclaimed, “but the point is there were lots of event and lots of CD’s attending those events because for many that was our only chance to be out and express our feminine side. And, while there, we learned so much from so many.”

“You are right about that,” I responded, “It was the 1995 Texas T Party while having lunch one day I learned about the Internet and one of the gals gave us cards telling us how we could get in touch with her through something called ‘Compuserve’. I was home barely a week when I had myself a little computer with an external dial-up modem and I was joining CD groups and bulletin boards through services like Lycos and Alta Vista. It’s amazing how quickly those services came and went.  I would probably have not stayed with it if Windows hadn’t come along.”

“We all had steep learning curves,” interjected Linda. “But for me,” she continued, “and I think for you, too, because I read your stuff in TGForum, the best part of the 1990s were the nightclubs we could go to. If someone was free to travel like we both were, there were t-friendly clubs to be found almost everywhere.”

Spontaneously we took turns naming a nightclub. “The Queen Mary” Of course I named that one first. It was the ‘Mecca’ for so many CD’s from around the world. “Jacques” “Edelweiss”, “Cartwheel” “Disco Cleo” (I threw in a Montreal club that I was sure Linda would not know).

“Well, if you are going to go Canadian how about the Dufferin,” she retorted.

“Vancouver. How about Parliament House?”

“Orlando.” And just like that our game was upped. One would name a club the other would have to name the city.

“Backstreet” Linda proclaimed.

“Atlanta,” I replied, “God, I loved going there. The shows were so good! The Flamingo Resort?”

“St Petersburg”

“Russia or Florida,” I quipped.

“Ha, Baton Show Lounge?”

“Chicago, but I never went there. How about Madame Arthur?”

“Paris or Copenhagen?” Linda replied. Wow that girl had been around.

“Did you know the Baton is still in business?” Linda asked.

“I did not know that,” I replied. Then I realized that pretty well all of those clubs that we had mentioned, that were so important a part of our lives and our growth in the 1990s were now gone.

It was my turn, “the Imperial Hotel?”

“Sydney, Australia,” rejoined Linda, “but I only know that because of that Australian movie.  (Pricilla, Queen of the Desert) Why do you think so many of these clubs have closed?”

“Some of them were the victims of neighborhood gentrification. Condo dwellers move in next door and then demand that the city do something about the noise from the clubs,” I asserted.

“Or the land they sit on becomes so valuable that the owners cannot afford not to close down and sell,” continued Linda.

“Too true. Those two Florida resorts both closed and sold within a year of each other. The owners say they are looking for places to re-open but I’ll bet they never will. Even before they closed when I would visit I could tell their business was way off what it was in the good old days,” I offered and continued, “tell me: if you were running a struggling business and someone came along and offered you several million dollars for your land and you accepted the offer would you be in a hurry to risk those millions and get back in the struggle?”

“Not on your life,” Linda answered, “so you see what I mean about the 1990s being our golden age? We had information. We had clubs and night clubs. We had conventions and weekend parties. And along comes the Internet and expands everything. I thought it was only going to keep getting better. In some ways the Internet did make a lot of things better. It was certainly easier to meet people than back in the days of personal ads and mailboxes. It was easier to find those clubs and the conventions.”

“So why hasn’t it just kept getting better and better?” I asked Linda.

She thought for a moment. “I’m not sure but I think that same Internet that gave us so much is now taking it away.”

“What do you mean?”

Her answer made me think. “Clubs and nightclubs, conventions and weekend parties, our P.O. boxes: those are the things that brought us together. Sure, for a while through the 1990s the Internet brought a rush of business to those clubs and night clubs, conventions and all the rest as we all wanted to get out and meet our ‘sisters’. But soon we discovered that with the Internet we did not need the clubs to meet others. We could pick and choose who we met and when we met them. We did not have to roll the dice and take our chances at the Queen Mary or Backstreet or anywhere else. We set up our meetings through chat rooms and eventually through Craigslist.”

“You’re right there about Craigslist,” I interjected, “I remember for a while I could be going to a town, put an ad on Craigslist and soon find myself too busy with dates to leave the hotel and go to the local club.”

“Slut!” Linda laughed and so did I. “But even though Craigslist has stopped running those personal ads the business hasn’t rushed back to the clubs, at least not like it was back in the ’90s.”

I had a thought. “Do you think shifting demographics has anything to do with the decline of our lifestyle since the 1990s.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“It may mean nothing at all but back in the ’90s, your so called ‘golden age’, the clubs were filled with baby boomers, that large population bulge born between 1946 and 1964, like us. We were in our 30s to 50s then and ready to party. Now we are aging out of the party scene and the next generations, although they probably like to party as much as we did, just do not have the numbers to support the businesses. That plus the other things you said.”

“You may have something there,” said Linda then she added she would have to think about it and at the same time I could hear her cell phone calling and she said he had to go.

I promise to try to get her back and talk about this century.  But it will have to wait a few weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to add your favorite memories of the 1990s. I’m sure you have some.

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Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion

Category: crossdressing