"Jag vill stänga in min broder, och låta kvinnan i min kropp få leva" Kön och sexualitet i den tidiga svenska transrörelsen, 1964-1969

Sammanfattning: This essay deals with the early trans movement in Sweden, which started in the sixties. Through the personal archive of Eva-Lisa Bengtson, activist and co-founder, it presents the groups Transvestia and FPE-NE (Full personality Expression, Northern Europe) as the first organisations to be started by and for any gender non-conforming people in Sweden. Their primary target group were heterosexual, male transvestites which means most of their members at times dressed as, acted as and in other ways personified women. The primary focus is to analyse how these transvestites viewed themselves and their gender non-conforming identities and practices. Using the heterosexual matrix from queer studies but also acknowledging the primacy of lived and embodied experiences in the tradition of trans studies, this essay aims to capture what it could mean to be a transvestite during the sixties in Sweden. While there are some simple definitions, a closer examination shows that there were a multitude of ways to look at and practise transvestism. Looking at how the transvestites distanced themselves from transsexuals, homosexuals and men dressing in women clothing for sexual pleasure will show a large variety in interpretations, inclusions, and exclusions. The analysis of these areas of uncertainty will also discuss why these processes were important to the transvestites in relation to the surrounding society. This will be examined through contextualising in three arenas: the public debate on sex, gender and sexual freedom, the medical society, and the impact of contacts with the community of American transvestites surrounding the magazine Transvestia and its founder, Virginia Prince.