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Sep. 21st, 2016 01:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariI just got some sad news that has hit me pretty hard: Linda Phillips has passed away.
She and Tere Frederickson were quite literally, the first two transgender people I ever met. After meeting with them, I joined my first (and really only) support group, San Antonio's Boulton & Park Society. It was a satellite member of Tri-Ess, which was a cross-dressing only support group, but had decided to open up membership to "transsexuals" (which was the popular term at the time).
They made me feel welcome, they made me feel comfortable, and, most of all, made me feel comfortable in my new life as a woman. Both of them encouraged me to draw a comic for the newsletter. This comic morphed into the Closetspace comic you see today.
I left the group under some duress (not from the group, mind you) in 1994 and slowly I ended that chapter of my life, and began a new journey. My transition had stalled until 1997, but once I did transition, I made it my duty to (1) be the best transgender person I could be to the public and (2) be as welcoming and to mentor other transfolk as best I could - like Linda and Tere, and basically everyone in B&P, had for me.
A few years ago, I came across an article she wrote. Boulton and Park had broken up a few years after I left, and apparently the group had forgotten about her. I remember specifically a line in there: "I don't even get a postcard at Christmas."
So I sent her one - one of the limited edition CS/AWFW/Wishworld postcards where I told her where I was and how far I'd come from the old B&P days. We reconnected for a bit - I sent her a copy of the Girl in the Mirror book, we talked about what had changed in the intervening twenty years. It was a short lived reconnection, but we had reconnected.
Attached is an article about my first pre-screening for joining B&P. It's written by Tere, but Linda was there as well, at the Taco Cabana on San Pedro Road. If you look where it says "WACS" you'll see, faintly, the very first Closetspace comic on the flipside of the paper.
I grew up trans at a time when there weren't many of us out in public. And those who were were squirreled away in private support groups, deeply closeted or in very angry denial. I had few trans mentors - and have now found myself being one of those mentors myself. I hope I end up being as good as she was. Those are some tall heels to fill.
She and Tere Frederickson were quite literally, the first two transgender people I ever met. After meeting with them, I joined my first (and really only) support group, San Antonio's Boulton & Park Society. It was a satellite member of Tri-Ess, which was a cross-dressing only support group, but had decided to open up membership to "transsexuals" (which was the popular term at the time).
They made me feel welcome, they made me feel comfortable, and, most of all, made me feel comfortable in my new life as a woman. Both of them encouraged me to draw a comic for the newsletter. This comic morphed into the Closetspace comic you see today.
I left the group under some duress (not from the group, mind you) in 1994 and slowly I ended that chapter of my life, and began a new journey. My transition had stalled until 1997, but once I did transition, I made it my duty to (1) be the best transgender person I could be to the public and (2) be as welcoming and to mentor other transfolk as best I could - like Linda and Tere, and basically everyone in B&P, had for me.
A few years ago, I came across an article she wrote. Boulton and Park had broken up a few years after I left, and apparently the group had forgotten about her. I remember specifically a line in there: "I don't even get a postcard at Christmas."
So I sent her one - one of the limited edition CS/AWFW/Wishworld postcards where I told her where I was and how far I'd come from the old B&P days. We reconnected for a bit - I sent her a copy of the Girl in the Mirror book, we talked about what had changed in the intervening twenty years. It was a short lived reconnection, but we had reconnected.
Attached is an article about my first pre-screening for joining B&P. It's written by Tere, but Linda was there as well, at the Taco Cabana on San Pedro Road. If you look where it says "WACS" you'll see, faintly, the very first Closetspace comic on the flipside of the paper.
I grew up trans at a time when there weren't many of us out in public. And those who were were squirreled away in private support groups, deeply closeted or in very angry denial. I had few trans mentors - and have now found myself being one of those mentors myself. I hope I end up being as good as she was. Those are some tall heels to fill.
