Way Out Publishing

Five volumes from Vicky Lee's Way Out Publishing project. There was the regular Tranny Guide but also the Transgender A-Z. It all started in 1992 with the "Transvestites Guide To London". You can find an account of the publications' history on the Way Out Publishing web-site here - http://www.wayout-publishing.com/history.html The books cost Vicky a lot of time and commitment and this while she was running the Way Out Club in London, for many trans a first stop on the road to coming out as trans. Eventually changes in the publishing industry and Vicky's own commitments brought an end to the book-publishing but newsletters and internet publication took its place. The fact is that for many trans from the 1990's onward Vicky's publications opened up a world of possibility and made everything from dressing to transition to travel and social life much more accessible and things that could be managed with dignity and confidence. If it seems that the trans culture they and publications like them supported was simply a transvestite culture and a cross-dresser's resource manual you would only have to consult one of the Guides to discover that the books opened up a whole world - literally world-wide - of transgender experience as well as taking dressing "out of the closet". We owe her thanks for all of that. For information I featured in the 10th Guide with an account of my "Round The World In Drag" journey and received a Way Out Award that year for the article, also in the 11th Guide for my personal report "Dragging Down Italy", the 12th Guide with an account of my performance artist activities and the "Transgender A-Z" with my report on my residency in Helsinki, Finland. I am proud of having something to contribute to those books. Time moves on and the world of trans (and maybe gender) has opened up even as it has moved on. What Vicky Lee achieved in the 1990-2010 period can't be done with books now or even "Guides". TReasured is what I see as the next stage.