"The crowds, who come to "get a kick" out of all this, fill the boxes, pack the aisles, jam the stairways -- perhaps violating fundamental Fire Department rulings, just as the "pansies," in their one-night-a-year freedom under polic protection, violated the stupid Penal Code of the State of New York,""Finally the dancing floor is cleared by the police for the chief event of the evening. It is the big "kick" for which most of the spectators have come -- the "parade of the fairies," with a prize of two thousand dollars to be awarded to the "fairy" who displays the loveliest and most artistic costume.""A long elevated platform is erected in the center of the hall. Everyone who has not already secured a point of vantage surges to the narrow aisle between the solid banks of human flesh -- and aisle kept open by the muscular minions of the law themselves.""The "fairies" now come forward in Indian file. They mount the platform and slowly walk across to the other side -- as "bathing beauties" and "style manikins" walk in the news reels.""The "pansies" halt every few steps in their slow source, to strike a pose, twirl a fan, kick a train, or perform some other incredibly feminine action.""From a platform at the end of the great hall the saxaphones moan in a manner that suggests in some curious way the writhing of brown bodies in a deep jungle.""Excerpted from: La Forrest Potter, M.D. Strong Loves: A Study in Sexual Abnormalities. New York: The Robert Dodsley Co., 1933.""Sex Is."
