“One Christmas, my sister was there with me, and when we were opening gifts, I got a new baseball mitt. My sister got a party dress, and all the girls went upstairs and tried it on and were ooing and ahhing at how beautiful it was, and the whole thing… and I wanted so much to be among them.

I didn’t want a baseball mitt. That’s my very first recollection.

I schemed constantly to be alone, and I got into my sisters’ clothing drawers and closet, and when they were away I dressed up because that’s what you do.

I only got caught once. I managed to…My father was conservative Christian, and I managed to draw him into denial about it. When he caught me in my sister’s clothes I said to him, ‘Oh, I just wanted to see what it felt like.’ He was pretty willing to be drawn into denial, because he didn’t want to know.”