Summary Information
Oral History Interviews of the Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project
2011
- Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project
UWM Manuscript Collection 302
- .2 cubic ft. (1 box)
- 26 digital files (10.3 GB)
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)
Interviews with eight individuals concerning Milwaukee's
transgender community and its history. Among them are social activists,
organizational leaders, healthcare workers, service providers, and performers.
Individuals self-identify across a broad spectrum of gender identities, and some
resist gender identification entirely. Topics covered include transgender people and
the feminist movement, the intersection of transgender identity and sexual
orientation, transgender healthcare, coming out, and community
organizations.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-mil-uwmmss0302 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project was administered by the Archives
Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries in order to fill a gap
in the documentary record concerning the history of Milwaukee's transgender
community. Dr. Brice Smith, author of "Yours in Liberation":
Lou Sullivan and the Construction of FTM Identity, conducted interviews
from January through May 2011. The project was made possible by the generous support
of Joseph R. Pabst and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Johnson and Pabst LGBT
Humanity Fund.
Milwaukee Transgender History
| 1970 |
Performers Mama Rae and Tiger Rose help start the Miss Gay Milwaukee
Contest, forerunner of the Mr. & Miss Gay Wisconsin Pageant.
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| 1973 |
Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989), the first widely known person to have
sex reassignment surgery, visits Milwaukee and speaks at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee on March 23.
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| 1980 |
Louis Sullivan (1951-1991), a native Milwaukeean and pioneering
transgender activist, publishes the first guidebook for female-to-male
persons, Information for the Female to Male
Cross-Dresser and Transsexual.
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| 1983 |
The Milwaukee Transgender Program of the Pathways Counseling Center
begins offering programs to people dealing with gender identity
issues.
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| 1994 |
Gemini Gender Group of Wisconsin forms as a statewide organization to
provide a social outlet and peer support for the trans community, including
significant others, family, and friends.
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| 1994 |
FORGE is founded to provide peer support primarily to those on the
female-to-male spectrum and significant others, friends, family, and
allies.
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| 1998 |
Milwaukee LGBT Community Center opens.
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| 2000 |
House of Infiniti, an organization for African American gay, bisexual and
transgender men forms.
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| 2007 |
FORGE hosts FORGE Forward, the first national FTM/SOFFA conference to be
held in the Midwest.
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| 2007 |
Milwaukee Common Council passes legislation prohibiting discrimination on
the basis of gender identity or expression.
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| 2010 |
The murder of Dana A. "Chanel" Larkin, a young transgender woman of
color, focuses attention on violence against transgender people and
distorted coverage by the mainstream media.
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Scope and Content Note
Narrators discuss their gender identities, transitioning, family lives and careers,
involvement in Milwaukee's LGBT community, struggles, and hopes for the future.
Individuals interviewed include Jay Botsford, Josie Carter and Jaime (also spelled
"Jamie") Gays, Loree Cook-Daniels, Gretchen Fincke, Meredith Leischer, Jolie
McKenna, and michael munson (who does not capitalize his name).
Preferred Citation
Citation Guide for Primary Sources
Related Material in the UWM Libraries
The Eldon Murray Papers (UWM Manuscript Collection
256) include writings by Lou Sullivan, born Shelia Sullivan, a
pioneering FTM activist with whom Murray became acquainted through the Gay Peoples
Union. The Gay Peoples Union Records (UWM Manuscript
Collection 240) include an interview conducted by Eldon Murray with
Elizabeth Farley, who lived as a women for 22 years without medical interventions.
The Jerry Johnson Collection of Wisconsin Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Ephemera (UWM Manuscript Collection
253) includes programs of the Mr. and Miss Gay Wisconsin Pageants from
the 1980s and 1990s.
Special Collections holds issues of Gemini Gender Group
Journal, newsletter of the Gemini Gender Group.
The Oral History Interviews of the Milwaukee LGBT
History Project has little information about Milwaukee transgender
history specifically.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Researchers must use access copies of electronic records. There are no other
access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members
of the public in accordance with state law.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel,
privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection
(Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).
Brice Smith transferred the Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project audio
recordings to the Archives in summer 2011 (accession 2011-018).
Benjamin Barbera, Matt Eidem, Shukrani Gray, and Nicholas Roche (supervised by
Christel Maass) transcribed the audio recordings in the UWM Libraries' Archives
Department in late summer 2011. Christel Maass proofed the transcriptions and
completed the finding aid in November 2011. Shiraz Bhathena accessioned a second
interview with Carter and Gays done on 1/22 in March 2019. This interview has
not been transcribed or made available online but is available for listening at
the archive.
Contents List
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Interviews
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Botsford, Jay, 2011 May 26
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : Jay Botsford (b. 1982) identifies as genderqueer and trans. Botsford
describes zir experiences coming out and transitioning, and zir role as
coordinator of Project Q, the youth development program of the Milwaukee
LGBT Community Center. Zie discusses the murder of Dana A. "Chanel"
Larkin, a young transgender woman of color, and the issues facing trans
and gender nonconforming youth in Milwaukee. Botsford underscores the
benefits of greater intergenerational interaction among trans people,
and criticizes the unexamined social privilege of white and middle-class
individuals in the trans population.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (76.3 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 46 min.)
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Carter, Josie and Jaime Gays, 2011 January
22
: Josie Carter and Jaime Gays are drag performers and long-time friends.
They discuss family issues, including coming out to their parents.
Carter also discusses raising her son and her time in the Navy and
working as a metal stamper. The two talk about “dressing” and performing
in drag shows and the generational differences within the gay community.
They also discuss their decisions not to undergo sex reassignment
surgery. A third, unnamed person also participates in the conversation.
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 10 min.)
: Users must use network .mp3 access copy available in the
Archives.
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Carter, Josie and Jaime Gays, 2011 May
6
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : Josie Carter and Jaime Gays are drag performers and long-time friends.
They discuss the "gay scene" in Milwaukee in the 1950s and 1960s,
mentioning specific bars such as Castaways, the White Horse, the Mint,
and others; drag pageants throughout the decades (Gays was crowned the
first Miss Gay Milwaukee 1970-1971 and Miss Gay Wisconsin in 1976);
police harassment; personal relationships; employment at various venues,
including straight clubs; and family life.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (71.3 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 10 min.)
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Cook-Daniels, Loree, 2011 January
30
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : Loree Cook-Daniels has been an active member in the Milwaukee LGBT
community, affiliated with FORGE, Diverse and Resilient, the Milwaukee
LGBT Community Center, SAGE Milwaukee, and the Lesbian Alliance of Metro
Milwaukee. Cook-Daniels discusses her marriage to her partner, Marcelle,
in the mid-1980s; Marcelle's transition to a man while Loree remained a
lesbian; and the lesbian community's rejection of them as a couple. She
also recounts her frustration with the transgender community as it
existed in the mid-1990s, and her role in advocating for the importance
of Significant Others, Friends, Families, and Allies (SOFFAs) to
transgender people. Cook-Daniels describes her involvement with FORGE, a
Milwaukee-based organization formed to provide to provide peer support
primarily to those on the female-to-male (FTM) gender spectrum and
SOFFAs. She identifies two important moments in the recent history of
Milwaukee's transgender community: the 2007 FORGE Forward conference,
which was the first national FTM/SOFFA conference to be held in the
Midwest, and the 2010 murder of Dana A. "Chanel" Larkin, which focused
local attention on violence against transgender people.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (100 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 13 min.)
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Fincke, Gretchen, 2011 May 17
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : Gretchen Fincke is a certified sex therapist who worked as a
psychotherapist for 37 years before retiring in 2008. Fincke opened an
agency in 1980 which is now Pathways Counseling Center. Fincke discusses
the problems with medical model programs that many individuals went
through to be diagnosed as a "true transsexual." She discusses the
process of being admitted to the program at the agency and its
operation. She also describes tension between the gay and lesbian
community and the transgender community in the early 1980s through the
mid-1990s, and discusses the impact of the Internet in lessening the
isolation of transgender people.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (63 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 35 min.)
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Leischer, Meredith, 2011 May 27
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : A Milwaukee native, Meredith Leischer identifies as a transgender person
and psychic hermaphrodite. Leischer discusses her marriage and family
life, career in the oil industry in the 1970s and 1980s, and return to
Milwaukee in 1992. She describes her graduation with a master's degree
in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in
1998 and subsequent efforts to secure her license to practice therapy.
Leischer also discusses her involvement with Pathways Counseling Center
and speaks at length about the history of the Gemini Gender Group.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (127 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 31 min.)
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McKenna, Jolie, 2011 May 18
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : Jolie McKenna (b. 1961), who identifies as inter-sex and transsexual, is
the executive director at the LGBT Center of Southeast Wisconsin in
Racine and a part-time teacher for Women and Children’s Horizons, a
domestic violence shelter, in Kenosha. McKenna discusses her education,
work experience, transitioning from presenting as male to presenting as
female, activism, and family. She describes fragmentation in the LGBT
community along lines of identity, the isolation of LGBT people in the
Racine-Kenosha area, and her hopes for the future.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (113 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (1 hr., 32 min.)
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Munson, Michael, 2011 April 25
Listen to the interview and read the transcript : michael munson (b. 1968) founded FORGE in 1994 to provide peer support
primarily to those on the female-to-male spectrum and significant
others, friends, family, and allies (SOFFAs). munson discusses his
schooling and career, transitioning, experience with Pathways Counseling
Center, and involvement in the Milwaukee LGBT community generally. He
also discusses the creation of FORGE in 1994, the fragmentation of the
LGBT community along lines of identity, and characterizes the passage of
the 2007 non-discrimination law as among most important events to occur
in Milwaukee for the transgender community.
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Transcript
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Electronic Folder
\Transcripts\
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Electronic
1 digital file (58.9 KB)
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Box
1
Folder
7
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Paper
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Electronic Folder
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Interview
1 digital audio file (54 min.)
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Electronic Folder
\Publicity\
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Publicity Materials
10 digital files (2.63 MB)
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