Erickson Educational Foundation
In 1992 Sister Mary Elizabeth passed on to me the privilege and responsibility of reproducing and distributing the publications of the Erickson Educational Foundation, a clearinghouse for information on transsexual issues.
The Erickson Educational Foundation was founded in 1964 by Reed Erickson, a wealthy philanthropist. The executive director was Zelda Supplee. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, the Foundation provided information about transsexualism to medical and mental health professionals, journalists, the general public, and of course transsexuals and their loved ones.
The Foundation closed its doors in 1977. Rights to its publications were passed on to the Janus Information Facility, which was located in Texas and directed by psychologist Paul Walker.
In 1980 or 1981, Walker in turn passed on the responsibility and rights to the Erickson materials, this time to Joanna Clark (later Sister Mary Elizabeth, and now Joanna Clark once more) and Jude Patton. T heir organization, cueing from their names, was J2CP (Joanna and Jude, Clark, and Patton). J2CP was located in California.
Patton eventually moved to the Pacific Northwest. Clark, as a result of a trip to Arkansas, became aware of isolation, desperation, and lack of information of rural men and women living with HIV/AIDS. She founded the AIDS Educational Global Information System—which, coincidentally, had the same acronym as my own American Educational Gender Information Service. Her AEGIS remained active until earlier this year.
Having become aware of my work, and being increasingly busy with HIV-related activism, Clark, by that time Sister Mary Elizabeth, passed the Erickson torch to me. The year was 1991, or perhaps 1992. (My) AEGIS published and distributed the Erickson material until it became an online organization in 1998. Now the Erickson materials are once again available for reading and download here.
More Info
See My Reed Erickson and Paul Walker Bios
Aaron Devor’s Reed Erickson Page