PHOTOS: This Trans Woman Dared to Be Herself in 1960s America

Meet Alison Laing. Between 1956 and 1965, the young transgender woman was the subject of 36 photographs, taken by an unknown individual (most likely her wife, Dottie Laing). These images comprise the first album in the groundbreaking Digital Transgender Archives at the College of the Holy Cross, a 173-year-old Jesuit Catholic college in Worcester, Mass. In this first image of Laing, she appears sharply attired outdoors on the boardwalk in front of a mini-golf course and a motel. —Cleis Abeni