Building a Better World for Transpeople: Reed Erickson and the Erickson Educational Foundation Aaron Devor Nicholas Matte ABSTRACT. This article argues that through its role as a national clearing house and funding agency, Reed Erickson and the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF) actively directed the course of trans research and contemporary social services and policies effecting trans people. We structure this article around the EEF’s three key areas of work in the field of transsexualism: sup- port and referral, advocacy and education, and research and professional development. We show how these three main efforts lead to widespread medical and social change for trans people during the years of EEF operation. doi:10.1300/J485v10n01_07 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress. com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.] KEYWORDS. Erickson Educational Foundation, Reed Erickson, Harry Benjamin, Zelda Suplee, history, transsexualism, activism, funding BUILDING A BETTER WORLD funded entirely by Erickson himself,2 focused FOR TRANS PEOPLE: on three main areas over the next twenty years: REED ERICKSON AND THE ERICKSON homosexuality, transsexualism, and new age EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION spirituality. For example, one of its earliest and PART ONE1 longest running recipients of financial support was ONE Inc. of Los Angeles, the early homo- In 1964, wealthy Louisiana businessman phile organizationfounded in 1952 and still op- Reed Erickson launched the Erickson Educa- erating today, which received over $2 million tional Foundation (EEF) as a philanthropic or- dollars from Erickson.3 In its later years, ganization “to provide assistance and support Erickson and the EEF concentrated on what in areas where human potential seems limited have come to be called New Age Movements, by adverse physical, mental or social condi- funding, for example, the $60,000 first hard- tions, or where the scope of research was too cover edition publication of A Course in Mira- new, controversial or imaginative to receive cles, a spiritual text that Psychology Today,in traditionally oriented support.”1 The EEF, 1980, ranked “among the most widely read of Aaron H. Devor, PhD, is Professor of Sociology, Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Victoria, Vic- toria, BC, Canada (E-mail: [email protected]). Nicholas Matte, MA, is doctoral student in the History Department and the Collaborative Graduate Program in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto (E-mail: [email protected]). This research was, in part, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by the University of Victoria. This article would not have been possible without the assistance of many trans people, pro- fessionals, associates, and friends and family of Erickson who shared their memories, and sometimes their private collections with us. Monica Erickson and the Erickson family have been particularly generous in this regard. International Journal of Transgenderism, Vol. 10(1) 2007 Available online at http://ijt.haworthpress.com © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1300/J485v10n01_07 47 48 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRANSGENDERISM the new spiritually oriented literature”4 and contributions to research and professional de- continues to be used around the world.5 velopment.Weshowhow,together,thesethree Erickson’s money also funded many other maineffortsleadtowidespreadmedicalandso- prominent researchers in this area, including cial policy and attitude changes affecting trans Robert Masters and Jean Houston’s research people during the years the EEF was actively into non-drug-induced altered states of con- operating. sciousness, Stanley Krippner’s dream research, andJohnLilly’s earlyresearchintodolphinand computer communications systems.6 The bulk REED ERICKSON of the EEF’s projects during its most active years of operation, however, focused on trans- Reed Erickson was born as Rita Alma sexualism, and this was the area in which Erickson in El Paso, Texas on October 13, Erickson’s interest and support would come to 1917. Growing up, Erickson lived in the Olney be most influential. neighborhood of Philadelphia, and graduated The work that Erickson and the EEF did to from the Philadelphia High School for Girls. bring attention to and disseminate information Erickson studied secretarial and commerce about transsexualism was instrumental in mak- courses at Temple University from 1937-1940. ing tremendous improvements to the provision In 1938, Erickson’s mother, Ruth died and two of health care and other services for trans peo- years later, when Erickson had finished taking ple;7 it built a solid groundwork which fostered courses at Temple University, Erickson’s fa- the growth of diverse advocacy and support ther, Robert B. Erickson, moved the family to groups and was foundational to the develop- Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he had trans- ment of worldwide networks of transsexual re- ferred his lead smelting business. In Baton searchers. Recent scholarship has recognized Rouge, Erickson attended Louisiana State Uni- the important contributions of Erickson and the versity and became the first woman graduate EEF, but none have had the opportunity to fully from LSU’s school of mechanical engineering. explorethesubstanceofitswork.8 Thus,thisar- Erickson then spent two years in Mexico, where ticlelooks at the many ways thatReed Erickson the family also owned property, before moving and the EEF influenced contemporary social back to Philadelphiato work as an engineer and and medical policies, the lives of trans people, live with a woman partner in a lesbian relation- and the future development of trans research. ship. Together they were active in the Wallace Part one considers Erickson’s own vision and campaign of 1948, and took part in various role in the organization, as well as that of other left-wing social and political activities. As key actors, including Zelda Suplee and Harry Erickson was unable to find work in Philadel- Benjamin, among others. We argue that Erickson phia as a female engineer, in 1953 they moved and the EEF provided essential financial and to Baton Rouge where Erickson worked in the structural support to a fledgling movement, as family business and started an independent in the case of the many grants it provided to re- company making stadium bleachers. Through- searchers, and that through its role as a national out the 1950s Erickson “looked masculine,” clearing house and funding agency, Erickson with short hair, tailored clothes, and no make- and the EEF actively directed the course of up, apparently cross-dressing more when trav- trans research and contemporary social ser- eling outside Baton Rouge.9 In the mid- to vices and policies effecting trans people. Thus, late-1950sEricksonclaimedtohavetraveledto after briefly looking at Erickson’s own life and Casablanca and Tijuana for surgical proce- socio-historical context, we structure this arti- dures, and began taking testosterone.10 By the cle around the EEF’s three key areas of work in endofthedecade,thelesbianromanticrelation- the field of transsexualism: support and refer- ship had become an ongoing family-like in- ral, advocacy and education, and research and volvement which continued for many years. professional development. The article is di- Erickson was a very private person considered vided into two parts. Part one looks at both the by business associates and employees to be EEF’s support and referral and its education somewhatdistant.One person who had worked and advocacy work, and part two looks at its withEricksonatthetimerememberedthegrad- Aaron Devor and Nicholas Matte 49 ual transition from Rita to Reed as relatively the media initially represented Jorgensen as an well-accepted, likely because Erickson was a anomaly, a “medical miracle of modern sci- manager/owner.11 After the elder Erickson’s ence,” but when it was “discovered” that her death in 1962, Erickson and a sister inherited feminizingproceduresdidn’tactuallyincludea the family business, ran it successfully until the vaginoplasty or the ability to reproduce, she end of the decade, and then sold it to Arrow wasdeemedafraud,andtheproceduresshehad Electronics for several million dollars. In undergone were seriously questioned.13 1963, Erickson became a patient of Dr. Harry But the news of Christine Jorgensen’s sex- Benjamin, the most well-known medical advo- change was perhaps most important to so many cate of sex reassignment in the U.S., and the people precisely because Jorgensen repre- widely heralded “father of transsexualism.”12 sented a sign that there were others out there Erickson lived a colourful personal life and like them. Indeed, right after her initial media was very financially successful, eventually amass- appearance, her endocrinologist in Denmark, ing a fortune estimated at over $40 million. He Christian Hamburger, received 765 letters from earnedthisfortunelargelyfromtheoilrevenues people who wanted to know if they, too, could of properties he had acquired throughout the ar- have such medical procedures performed on eas surrounding Baton Rouge and was very them.14 For many people, Jorgensen repre- proud of his fiscal acumen. Over the next thirty sented a new possibility for gender expressions yearshelivedalternatelyinMexicoandtheLos and the possibility that modern medical tech- Angeles area, marrying