One of the pioneers of online resources for trans-attracted people was an Australian information technologist named David, whose website Gallery of Goddesses was the most prominent early model of how to be respectful of trans women as a trans-attracted person. It was also one of the first sites to expose fake transgender people, a type of online predator who stole images of others and pretended to be transgender.
History
From 1998 to 2001, David curated profiles of hundreds of transgender women, creating an important historical document in the process. His online handle was “The Worshipper,” and his GeoCities site was called Gallery of Goddesses. Where his site differed was the celebratory positivity and level of respect. He pledged no nudity and pledged not to out anyone:
It is not my intention to ‘out’ someone who is not already ‘outed’ (I wish I had better words for these – ‘out’ sounds so degrading). I know of a great many beautiful girls and stunning women, and have met a few as well, but I will respect their right to privacy. Unless they are on the Web as a T* girl, or at some point in their lives have exposed themselves to the media (be it TV, newspaper, magazine or whatever), they will not be featured here. And don’t even ask, ’cause it’s not going to happen !!!
He also took down any profiles by request. These were all groundbreaking ethics at the time.
The site quickly got large enough to surpass GeoCities’ free hosting limits, so he created several satellite pages at tsvalhalla, tsolympus and others. In 2001, GeoCities wiped those satellites out without notice, and the site never recovered.
Internet Impostors
His section exposing online predators was also important. Long before Google and image search, David would use good old fashioned sleuthing to find and expose these fakes. Because of his encyclopedic knowledge of trans women, he recognized photos and would alert victims.
This was a huge problem for any out trans women who were online in the 1990s. My likeness was constantly being stolen and used to make dating profiles, personal pages, and so on.
After his site went down in 2001, he asked me to host the fakes section here to warn others. It was available on this site from around 2003 to 2019 at the link in the references.
References
Gallery of Goddesses
- http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/9200/
Archive from this site
- http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/gog/fake.html