Oral History Interviews of the Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project, 2011

Contents List

Container Title
Interviews
Botsford, Jay, 2011 May 26

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (76.3 KB) 
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Paper
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Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 46 min.) 
Carter, Josie and Jaime Gays, 2011 January 22
Scope and Content Note: 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.
Electronic Folder  
Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 10 min.) 
Access Restrictions: Users must use network .mp3 access copy available in the Archives.
Carter, Josie and Jaime Gays, 2011 May 6

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (71.3 KB) 
Box   1
Folder   2
Paper
Electronic Folder  
Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 10 min.) 
Cook-Daniels, Loree, 2011 January 30

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (100 KB) 
Box   1
Folder   3
Paper
Electronic Folder  
Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 13 min.) 
Fincke, Gretchen, 2011 May 17

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (63 KB) 
Box   1
Folder   4
Paper
Electronic Folder  
Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 35 min.) 
Leischer, Meredith, 2011 May 27

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (127 KB) 
Box   1
Folder   5
Paper
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Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 31 min.) 
McKenna, Jolie, 2011 May 18

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (113 KB) 
Box   1
Folder   6
Paper
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Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (1 hr., 32 min.) 
Munson, Michael, 2011 April 25

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Scope and Content Note: 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.
Transcript
Electronic Folder  
  \Transcripts\
Electronic
Physical Description: 1 digital file (58.9 KB) 
Box   1
Folder   7
Paper
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Interview
Physical Description: 1 digital audio file (54 min.) 
Electronic Folder  
  \Publicity\
Publicity Materials
Physical Description: 10 digital files (2.63 MB)