“Wear Your Most Daring Clothes, Honey”: The Transvestite/Transsexual Legal Committee and the Emergence of Trans-feminine Feminist Movements

Abstract

In 1971, a communIty of Black transvestItes and transsexuals in Chicago created the Transvestite/Transsexual Legal Committee (TLC), one of the city’s first formal trans political organizations. TLC was founded following the 1970 police murder of James Clay Jr., a Black transvestite or street fairy.1 TLC was a radical group that called for the liberation of feminine trans people of color. During an era that saw the emergence of radical movements advocating for cisgender gay men and lesbians, people of color, and women, TLC found allies in other Chicago organizations, including the lesbian separatist organization the Flippies. Over the next decade, TLC grew into a multiracial, multigender group focused on the needs of Midwestern transvestites and transsexuals, an emerging coalition. In order to describe its membership to a contemporary audience while respecting the group’s complexity, I describe TLC’s community as “trans feminine” and “trans femmes.” “Trans femmes” refers to people