Digital Transgender Archive

Early Efforts to Spread Knowledge about Trans Identities and Issues

In 1964, Reed Erickson founded the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF) to provide funding and support for research on transsexualism. While many of us in 2016 may take widespread knowledge about the existence of transgender identities for granted, knowledge about transsexualism was lacking in academic, professional, and public circles when Erickson founded the EEF. The EEF played an important role in filling this knowledge gap by funding institutions such as the Harry Benjamin Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic to conduct research on transsexualism.

However, the work of the EEF did not stop at research. Between 1968 and 1983, the EEF also published a series of newsletters that featured a variety of other information that would be of use or interest to trans individuals and others interested in transsexualism: the names of medical professionals with expertise in transexualism, the titles of the latest books published on trans issues, and the latest court rulings on the legal status of trans identities. One of the most striking revelations from these newsletters is the great number and diversity of programs that were organized in the 1960s and 1970s for the purpose of gender education. These educational programming stretched from multiple trainings on sexual differences for police officers in Miami to an annual workshop on gender and sexuality at Slippery Rock College in rural Pennsylvania.