CUT THE RIBBON, VIRGINIA PRINCE

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Editorial Staff

How would you define a pioneer of human rights and transgenderism? How would you call one of the very first persons that came out of the shade, in late 50ies, and started a battle for her position in modern society? A Cut The Ribbon, don’t you? Here is Virginia Prince, American, born in Los Angeles 1913, also called Virginia Charles Prince. Arnold Bowman, her orginal name,  was a transgender that began cross dressing at the age of twelve and knew how it was to be treated as a clown with no rights and just offenses. Prince’s career in transgender education began in 1961 when she was prosecuted for distributing obscene materials through the US Mail because she had exchanged sexually explicit letters with another cross dresser. She was given probation and was forbidden to dress as a woman. The Society for The Second Self movement and magazine called Transvesta,  were born right after those unpleasant, and extreme, episodes. Where was freedom? The resolute Virginia was a fighter: credited for the invention of  transgender as a term to refer to a person who lives full-time in a gender that is different from the one identified at birth, this sharp women stand for the right to be herself until she was 96 years old. To her, cross dressing was not an option or a fetish as many psychiatrist asserted. It was a display of identity and character. Say thanks to Virginia, and cut the ribbon.