Tamara A. Rees is 92. She leads a reasonably quiet, uneventful, grandmotherly life with her adopted children's children in Los Angeles, California.
In 1954, two years after serving as a Bronze Star decorated U. S. Army paratrooper, then Robert Rees, age 33, transitioned in Holland from male to female.
The transition was made after years-long introspection, determination, inner self trust — and against much cautious, ignorant, expensive, psychiatric opinions — to international media fanfare. The notoriety would be short-lived.
Most know about Christine Jorgensen. Army Sergeant George, who transitioned M-to-F in 1953. These days only a handful of LGBT history buffs, know who Tamara Rees is (or, was, for a brief two years as celeb "tranny nightclub entertainer").
I made Tamara's acquaintance by a chance, thumbing through reading of an article in an old copy of a Sexology Magazine anthology. The article is dated 1959. It's title: "Male Becomes Female: The life story of one of the most widely publicized cases of sex change in recent history."
The Sexology piece is among the first published accounts to deal openly with what it means to be a trans person.
A true confession of sorts, this first-person confession carries the byline Tamara A. Rees, with photographs of a visibly awkward young Robert in paratrooper gear, contrasted with a fully convincing Tamara, in a sequined gown, ample cleavage uplifted in a here-I-am, I'll-show-one-and-all who I've at long last become.
Tamara speaks openly of her early fascination with a neighbor girl's clothes and pretty ribbons. Her innate desire to play with dolls. Of being bullied by school boys. Of secretly dressing in her sister's and mother's clothing. Of her great success at Halloween as a 14-year-old dressed as a woman. Of parental misunderstanding and censure. Of her rebellious year of running away from home.
Her initial adult visits to three psychiatrists in search of answers proved frustrating. Their responses varied from disbelief, belittlement, Freudian psychobabble, and get-over-it-Robert advice. While in service in Europe, he found a German psychiatrist who recommended operative advances then currently being made in Holland to persons like himself and Christine Jorgensen.
Summing up, Tamara observes, "The road is a long hard one, full of heartaches, disappointments and great expense. Surgical transition is a prolonged and complicated one. The surgery does not create a woman where the patient was once a biological male, nor can the patient hope to have children. It merely brings the physical appearance of the patient into harmony with the mental pattern."
The publicity that Tamara received when returning to America for a time unfortunately proved to be problematic. She embarked upon a show business career that was almost her psychological undoing. "Upon my return to this country, I had hoped to escape publicity and start a new life, my past unknown to anyone. Unfortunately, this was not the way matters turned out.
"With the temptation of large sums of money and contracts offered to me, I must admit that I strayed from the course and was almost lost by my decision to enter show business. After two years of nightclub appearances I became ill as a result of the fast pace and irregular hours.
"During this illness I had the opportunity to reexamine the situation and came to realize that I would never find peace and happiness as long as I remained in the public spotlight."
So said, one can only wonder: Caitlyn Jenner, is there a lesson to be learned here?
