Born in Buffalo, Peggie Ames (1921 – 2000) transitioned in the early 1970s and was the first publicly out transgender person in Western New York State. She joined Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier (MSNF), a local offshoot of the pre-Stonewall gay rights group of the same name, and was the organization’s secretary in 1973-1974. Ames participated in MSNF’s peer counselor training program and organized panels on transgenderism for Buffalo’s annual Gay Pride Week.
Ames also ran an informal counseling service out of her Buffalo-area house, including transition-related guidance, and provided shelter for trans women in need of temporary living accommodations. Though she faced great harassment, she was one of the few transgender individuals in Western New York willing to be out in public, and her physical presence helped to dispel common prejudices towards trans women.
Ames is one of the unacknowledged mothers of today’s Transgender Rights Movement.