Transgender Tapestry
Transgender Tapestry was a magazine, intended for the TG Community, published by the International Foundation for Gender Education.
At its height around the year 2000, it had a paid circulation in the thousands plus considerable retail sales, including mainstream outlets such as Border's and Barnes and Noble.
Tapestry is regarded as the most widely-circulated publication of TG orientation of all times.
History
Tapestry began in 1992 as TV-TS Tapestry, a duplicated typewritten newsletter. As circulation increased it was soon professionally composed and printed on slick magazine stock.
In 1994 the name was changed to Transgender Tapestry to reflect the evolution of the vernacular.
In the mid 1990s, Tapestry was picked up by the major distributors and began to appear in the magazine racks in the usual mainstream outlets. In the mid 2000s, booksellers Barnes and Noble and Borders began placing Tapestry behind the counter, available on request, along with other "mature content" periodicals the two firms carried.
The magazine has been published infrequently and with diminishing content since the departure of editor Dallas Denny in 2009.
Controversies
Two specific controversies occurred during the life of the publication.
One was over the use of attractive "Cover Girls" on the front cover. Specifically a dispute arose when the editorial staff intended to use a transman on the cover. Concerns were raised about low retail sales of that issue since a major percentage of those purchasing the magazine at retail outlets were admirers of transgender women.
Another controversy was the inclusion of personal ads, with push-back occurring from vendors and distributors. A compromise was reached where the personal ad section was to be published separately and bundled with paid subscriptions, but not included with retail copies.
