Digital Transgender Archive

All Lively on the Eastern Front

    The DTA has recently added a collection of materials now available in the East Coast FTM Group Organizational Records collection. These records document the internal workings of the East Coast FTM Group, a support group designed for FtMs - including transsexuals, crossdressers, and transgender people - and their partners. From this collection of organizational materials we get not only a sense of the topics discussed in the monthly meetings, but also a look into the politics of such a group. The East Coast FTM Group, created and headed by Ben Power throughout the nineties, was one of few groups at the time that was by and for FtMs regardless of medical transition or desire to medically transition in the future.

 

    A particularly interesting set of materials Bet Power, Jacob, and Mikel-Jon Carter having a discussionin this collection is a series of photographs taken from a photoshoot for Leslie Feinberg’s book Transgender Warriors: A History of Resistance form Joan of Arc to RuPaul. This candid shot from the Transgender Warriors photoshoot displays Ben Power, Jacob, and Mikel-Jon Carter discussing what seems to be a humorous topic. Among the various materials, these photographs stand out as an example of the comradery of the East Coast FTM Group.

Pictured: Transgender Warriors #34: Bet Power, Jacob, and Mikel-Jon Carter, Sexual Minorities Archive