Monika: Her father barely shows up in her story, financially or otherwise, once he'd started his second family,
and yet he came to the wedding. What do you make of that?
Anni: Not really sure. I don't know if it meant he and Liz had reconciled by that point, or if he showed up
unannounced just to see what was going on. I've always been curious about that myself, and I wish I knew more.
Sorry!
Monika: If this exact bank robbery happened today, with a trans woman connected to it, I genuinely think the
tabloids would tear her apart. Did the coverage back then surprise you at all, kinder, or crueler, than you
expected for 1972?
Anni: They were pretty cruel to Liz even back then. If it happened today, I doubt it would get anywhere near the
attention it did back then. Remember, trans people were barely even known to most Americans at the time. Today,
they are part of the national conversation. If the robbery happened today, it would depend on who was reporting the
story. An outlet like CNN would report it entirely differently than Fox News.
Monika: John's story about why he robbed the bank kept shifting, and eventually he landed on "I did it entirely
for her surgery," though she flatly contradicted him, to his face, on camera. Why do you think he needed that
version so badly, even after she called him out?
Anni: Because it made him seem like a romantic "hero." If he could perpetuate the story that he was willing to risk
jail to help his lover get her gender-affirming surgery, it made him look far better than being just a weird,
unwanted chaser trying to impress the uninterested object of his desires.
Monika: Liz reportedly liked what Chris Sarandon did with her role in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), even though he's a
cis man playing her. And there's this claim that a trans actress, Elizabeth Coffey, lost the part partly for
looking too convincingly like a woman. If that's true, what does that tell us about how Hollywood was thinking
back then?
Anni: Obviously, that it was inherently transphobic. It probably still is, although it tries to present itself as a
trans-welcoming industry these days. I personally don't trust any such trans allies who only support us publicly to
help their bottom line. If the winds of societal opinion push further to the right, Hollywood will follow suit,
without a doubt, as other industries have in recent years.
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"Hollywood was, obviously, inherently transphobic" Photo: LGBT Community Center |
Monika: Unlike John, it sounds like Liz was actually careful with the money that came from all the movie
publicity, mostly funneling it into her surgeries rather than burning it on more fame. Was she finally able to
live the life she wanted?
Anni: I don't believe so. She had so much trauma and pain still to deal with that a "normal" life was probably
never really available to her. It appears she spent her final years in Rochester living some version of that life,
though. But having AIDS at the time certainly prevented her from having such a life entirely.
Monika: The details of Liz's affirmation surgery are genuinely hard to read, especially knowing how much pain and
suffering she endured. The operation was performed by Dr. Benito Rish, a well-known plastic surgeon who publicly
performed facial surgery on wealthy women while also carrying out feminization procedures for transgender women
under the table. Do you think Liz fully understood the risks she was taking, or was there simply nowhere safer for
a transgender woman like her to turn if she wanted the chance to finally live as herself?
Anni: Without knowing exactly who else she may have considered for her surgery, I'm guessing that Liz went to the
best surgeon she could afford with the money she made from the film. Dr. Rish was highly respected at the time, and
despite the pain and suffering she underwent, I suspect she was happy with the final results.
Monika: In the article, you mention this era's claim that one in three transsexual women died by suicide after
surgery. That's staggering next to today's figure of around one percent regret. Doesn't that tell us the
"regret" story was never really about the surgery, it was about having zero support around it?
Anni: It was likely a combination of factors. The surgeries of that era seem relatively barbaric compared to those
trans women undergo today. I know many trans women who've had both top and bottom surgeries, and none of them have
had the traumatic complaints Liz endured. I suspect, too, that the results of those older surgeries weren't always
as successful as hoped. Not many surgeons of that era specialized in gender-affirming surgery, and their success
rates were likely much lower. And the overriding societal non-acceptance of the 1970s undoubtedly added to the
emotional burden for trans women. It would be so crushing to undergo such painful surgery and have society still
reject you as a woman. I can't even imagine how they felt.
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"Trans people were seen as an oddity." Photo: LGBT Community Center |
Monika: There's this great little detail about Liz half-joking that she'd have voted for Nixon because she always
votes for the best-looking candidate. Joke aside, did she actually care about politics, or was she just watching
from the sidelines?
Anni: Good question. You have to understand that in that era, being gay or trans didn't automatically mean you
were a Democrat or left-wing. Even Democrats of that era held many of the same prejudices against gay and trans
people as Republicans did. And for the most part, gay and trans rights weren't even a major part of political
controversy. I imagine Liz simply kept the same political beliefs she'd had her whole life.
Monika: Trace Lysette played Liz in the "Love" episode of Drunk History in 2019, an Emmy-winning American
educational comedy series that aired on Comedy Central. Have you seen it?
Anni: No, sorry, I have not. But now that you've mentioned it, I have to see it!
Monika: Wikipedia mentions, almost as a footnote, that she married again after surgery and later divorced. Did
your research turn up anything on who that was, or why it didn't work out?
Anni: I haven't found any actual legal evidence of a marriage, but that doesn't mean she didn't have another
symbolic one, as she had with John. Remember that it wasn't until 2011 that same-sex marriage was recognized in New
York. Even though Liz was a woman, on her birth certificate she wasn't, and that prevented her from having a legal
marriage during her lifetime.
Monika: Liz wrote that she wanted to eventually tell her whole story herself, beyond those three pages in CLUB. Do
you think she ever seriously tried, or was that more of a dream than a plan?
Anni: I think she was serious, but again, the American public of that era wouldn't have taken her story seriously.
Trans people were seen as an oddity, not mainstream enough for a big-time publisher or filmmaker to take on. At
best, she might have sold her story to an independent publisher specializing in outsider publishing. Again, she was
a couple of decades too soon. Sadly.
Monika: One last question, and it's the one I've been saving. Fifty years from now, when nobody left remembers
Dog Day Afternoon, what do you hope people still know about Liz Eden, not the woman in the footnote, but the
woman who lived?
Anni: I certainly hope so! To me, Liz Eden is far more interesting than a random criminal act by a deranged chaser.
Liz's life story deserves to become better known, whether it comes from my series or from other trans historians who
choose to tell it. She lived through the crucial early years of the trans rights movement, endured the prejudices
and biases of the American people of that era, and was part of so many cultural events of the 1960s and 1970s. Liz
is a transgender icon, but even trans people don't know her. That's a shame, and I hope that changes.
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"Liz is a transgender icon, but even trans people don't know her." Photo: LGBT Community Center |
Monika: Anni, thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to talk with you. And please, keep writing, there
are so many more stories I hope you'll share with us!
Anni: I certainly plan on continuing to write, Monika. Stay tuned!
Special thanks to The LGBT Community Center National History Archive for granting permission to use the photographs of Liz Eden in this article.
The LGBT Community Center National History Archive is a community-based archive that collects, preserves, and makes available to the public documentation of LGBTQ+ lives and organizations centered in and around New York. Through its collections, the Archive helps ensure that the stories and experiences of New York’s LGBTQ+ people are preserved and told with historical depth and understanding.
END OF PART 2
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