To purge or not to purge, and what happens next

By Jan Brown

The past year, 2019, was interesting for many aspects. One thing which I didn’t understand until I experienced it firsthand was purging of one’s transgender life and all that goes with it. A non-active member of my local support group “J” contacted me saying she was moving and no longer wanted to be involved in the transgender aspects of her life. She said she had some clothes and other things she wanted to donate to my local support group, Mid-Hudson Valley Transgender Association (MHVTA). I let our chairperson know that I’d be bringing the donations for distribution at our group after I received the goods.

Just some of the shoes.

I met with “J” and I thought there’d be a few items of clothing and was flabbergasted when “J” gave me a vast amount of clothing (foundation items, dresses, skirts, tops, some hosiery), lots of heels in a variety of colors and styles, several wigs, jewelry, makeup and outerwear.

I was overwhelmed with all the stuff. It took 2 tries to fill up the back of my SUV. When I checked over everything, there were some things which became apparent. The clothing was sized in the range of Medium – Large and the heels were mostly 3” or higher and sized 11 – 13.

When I took a sample of clothing, outerwear and shoes to the support group, it became very clear that not everyone could wear much of it. Someone picked up a new jacket and another fitted nicely into a new belt. Everyone was interested in the shoes but only a couple of members were able to comfortably fit into them. The problem was the heels were quite high and it limited who took home any heels.

Jan at the Fair auction with some of the donated shoes.

I was surprised not many items were taken so tried to figure how I could donate the rest of the items. One thing I have been involved with is Fantasia Fair and offered the donations to be “auctioned” off in a silent auction/raffle. I had been asked to take charge of the auction so this was perfect. . .except the Fair director said only new items in the original package could be added to the auction and only a few pair of shoes should be added to the Fair auction. Only the best of the best would do.

I started to look around for another place to donate the rest. One place I visit occasionally in NYC, the Cross Dresser International (CDI) group, accepts clothing donations from/for members. I donated a couple of things to the CDI group. It was interesting that one member latched onto the fur fringed winter coat as soon as she saw it. It admit, it looked really good on her.

The remaining dilemma? Where to donate the rest. I searched out groups or places like homeless shelters which could really use the apparel items. I had recently attended a talk about how NY state law changes supports the transgender community put on by a group from Brooklyn. I networked into the group in NYC which supports the transgender Latina community, “Translatina” and was able to donate to the group twice (before and after the Fair) and check out the pictures how much was donated. Check out their website.

Translatina staff with donated items.

It was interesting. Translatina has an office on a busy street in Manhattan. The 1st drop-off I was able to park close to their office and they brought down a wheelie cart and a wagon and the 2nd drop-off, we filled the cart and wagon. It was a relief to find a home (temporarily) for the donations. Translatina was very appreciative of the donations as well.

I wondered if this would be an appropriate topic for TGForum.com to show others what they can do to share with our community in positive ways. I even added a few items of my own to the donations. Try it sometime and you’ll feel that you have done something positive.

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Tags: crossdressing, featured, purging

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