“It was essentially a club of lesbian perverts. The whole idea was to have meetings, share information, flirt with each other, and throw parties. Mostly it was leather dykes, a few bisexuals, a few fetishists. We had some really butch girls. Half of them were pre-op: they were planning to change genders. But what happened was they came to the meetings—we had all these high-femme, sweet pieces of trade—and they started dating. Almost all the pre-ops abandoned changing genders. They had thought they would have to become men to get the kind of females they wanted. And we had bunches of really high quality, femme girls who were thrilled to see them come through the door and who did not require that they get reconstructive surgery.”

Dorothy Allison, quoted in Philip Gambone, Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans (16)