Photo of Attendees of 1988 Houston Drag Event

Four images of attendees at a drag event. All are dressed in women's clothing and one has a mustache.

Attendees of Houston’s Garden Party, an annual drag event. [1]

Sometimes, the first step on the way to a gender transition was to play with gender as performance, art, a kink, or for fun. This low-commitment way to explore how one felt in the literal shoes of the opposite gender was not always a stepping stone to medically transitioning, but many people who pursed medical gender alterations started out with gender atypical dress as a hobby.

[1] “Guests at the Garden Party,” photograph, 1988, Digital Transgender Archive,  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/1n79h456k.