My New York: Historic NYC
By REED TUCKER
Last Updated: 9:20 AM, July 4, 2010
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/my_new_york_historic_nyc_MFXEMhgi0VHRTJC72uPJuI7 Governors Island
"New York has always had colorful characters. Queen Anne appointed her cousin Lord Cornbury as governor of New York [in 1701]. Governors Island is named for him, and he was a transvestite. It was said that if you went down to the ferry landing in the morning, you could see him returning home dressed in women's clothing from the night before. There's also a painting in the New-York Historical Society (left) that's purported to be Cornbury in women's clothes. Nobody has any idea if this is true. What's interesting is, in the early 1700s, the colonies were so puritanical, only the city of New York would claim anyone was a transvestite. Even then, we were way different from our neighbors."
