Who You Calling A ->-bleeped-<-?
Kate Bornstein
http://out.com/exclusives.asp?id=27989 (http://out.com/exclusives.asp?id=27989)
Doris Fish was San Francisco's preeminent drag queen in the 1980s. She died in 1991 from AIDS-related diseases. She was generous, flamboyant, kind, and ultratalented. Her charisma rating was off the top of the chart. She'd moved to San Francisco from Sydney, Australia -- then (and some say now) the undisputed home of the world's most fabulous drag queens. Doris took me under her delightfully feathered wings.
I was afraid of her raw sexuality, but bowled over by her courage. Doris was amused by my quest to become a real woman.
I learned from Doris that in Australia, from the 1960s through the 1970s, most all of the male-to-female spectrum of gender outlaws began their transition in the fabulous world of sexy, over-the top drag performance. Like me in the late '80s in San Francisco, the majority of MTF transsexuals just wanted to live their lives as closely as possible to whatever their notion was of "a real woman." They considered drag queens beneath them. The drag queens were amused by the MTFs pursuing the dream of real woman.