Rollin’s socioeconomic class, particularly the influence of his father, a well-to-do physician, protected Rollin from police involvement in his first feminine-to-masculine transition. By contrast, Anna Fallon, who also pursued a feminine-to-masculine transition, was removed from the Fallon family home for doing what Rollin did. "Anna Fallon Is Arraigned," Buffalo Enquirer (NY), 12 September 1903, 6.

In terms of class, Rollin’s membership in a White family of the white-collar professional class conferred upon him some privilege during his first feminine-to-masculine transition. Growing up, he imbibed that social stratum’s mores and expectations, and he chose a familiar milieu for his first transition, a New York City office, where he probably already felt comfortable. His gray flannel suit, the prototypical uniform of twentieth-century businessmen, represented his knowledge that the success of his transition depended on his adherence to white-collar expectations of professionalism. He used experience derived from his White and economically secure childhood to maintain economic security for himself.

Rollin’s class also affected the public response and social aftermath of his transitions. Especially during his first two feminine-to-masculine transitions, Rollin was insulated from legal consequences because of his parents’ status of the professional class. Rollin’s father George handled Rollin’s first feminine-to-masculine transition privately. George had the time and money to notify all his friends and Rollin’s friends of Rollin’s flight, and he had the privilege of knowing that they, like he, probably considered this a family matter that should be dealt with discreetly to preserve the Morgans’ reputation. Rollin’s father thus protected Rollin from interference of law enforcement and any subsequent arrest, trial, or incarceration.

Other trans people of the same period encountered the legal system, often with public and punitive consequences. For example, in October 1901, nineteen-year-old Pauline Verbeck and John McMahon registered at a hotel. They were both in men’s clothes. The hotel keeper suspected Verbeck as a feminine-to-masculine person and alerted authorities. Verbeck ended up publicly castigated by a justice and sentenced to twenty days in a Marion, Indiana, jail.^[1] In September 1903, Anna Fallon of Buffalo, New York, was removed from the Fallon family and placed in an orphanage after assuming a masculine identity and gaining employment at a soda fountain.^[2] Arrest, criminal charges, fines, and even institutionalization befell some of Rollin’s contemporaries who transitioned from feminine identities to masculine ones.

Despite the ignominious ending to Rollin’s third feminine-to-masculine transition in California, this experience illustrated his socioeconomic privilege. His father was a well-to-do physician, renowned in both New York City and southern Vermont. Whether or not Rollin studied medicine informally before he enrolled in medical school, he must have carefully observed his father George’s self-presentation for a model of confident, successful masculinity. He presumably acted like a doctor in training, so no one in California questioned this aspect of his identity.

Not all trans people had Rollin’s background and opportunities. Seventeen-year-old Ernestine Hamilton/Jimmie O’Hare illustrated that an economically marginalized feminine-to-masculine trans person was vulnerable to exploitation. In May 1902, Hamilton/O’Hare was arrested for vagrancy and robbery after police found Hamilton/O’Hare and an older man loitering suspiciously in Sharon, Massachusetts, near the recently looted post office. Hamilton/O’Hare was identified as the robbers’ lookout. Obviously homeless, Hamilton/O’Hare told police of being an orphan who had been trained as a beggar by caregivers.^[3] Whether or not this childhood career was true, Hamilton/O’Hare was evidently a young person, alone and without resources, who had been influenced by adults to commit a crime. Homelessness and poverty increased Hamilton/O’Hare’s vulnerability to exploitation, police involvement, and imprisonment, making transition much riskier for a person in Hamilton/O’Hare’s position.

Notes

[1] “Masqueraded as a Boy,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 31 October 1901, 12.

[2] “Anna Fallon Is Arraigned,” Buffalo (NY) Enquirer, 12 September 1903, 6.

[3] “Says She Was Stolen,” North Adams (MA) Transcript, 29 May 1902, 3.