Billy is a doll introduced in 1997. Billy was created by artist John McKitterick and marketed in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

-based Totem International as "the first out and proud gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 doll" although that distinction actually belongs to Gay Bob

Gay Bob

Gay Bob is a doll created in 1977. It was billed as the world's first openly gay doll. Bob was created by former advertising executive Harvey Rosenberg and marketed through his company, Gizmo Development. Gay Bob was bestowed an Esquire magazine "Dubious Achievement Award" for 1978.Bob stands 13...

, introduced in 1977. McKitterick created the doll based on sketches he drew while living in London. After a successful limited-edition run of 1,200 dolls created to benefit an AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 charity, McKitterick decided to mass market his creation.

Billy is 13 inches (330.2 mm) tall. It was introduced in a number of versions based on stereotypical

Stereotype

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...

 gay characters, including Sailor Billy, Cowboy Billy, Master Billy and San Francisco Billy. Other dolls in the Billy line include Carlos, Billy's Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 boyfriend, and Tyson, their African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 friend. Billy is anatomically correct

Anatomically correct doll

An anatomically correct doll or anatomically precise doll is a doll with some of the primary and secondary sex characteristics of a human. In colloquial vernacular it usually refers to the genitals being depicted. This can be for realism or educational purposes, as well as to satisfy inanimate...

.

The Billy doll was the subject of a 1998 exhibit at the New Museum of Contemporary Art

New Museum of Contemporary Art

The New Museum, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to presenting contemporary art from around the world...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Several dozen fashion designers created custom outfits for the doll in support of a benefit auction for AIDS charity LIFEBeat. Also in 1998, Billy and Carlos served as the basis for the film Billy 2000, which featured segments based on the Master Billy, Cowboy Billy and San Francisco Billy figures.

Billy and Carlos donned drag

Drag (clothing)

Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...

 in 1999, with Billy dressed in a gingham checkered pantsuit as "Dolly" and Carlos as "Carmen" in a polka dot outfit reminiscent of those worn by Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...

. In 2001, a Billy doll wearing a brown uniform with a patch reading "BPS" (for Billy's Parcel Service) was introduced. United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...

 sent Totem cease and desist

Cease and desist

A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....

 letters advising that the uniform violated UPS's trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

. Totem agreed to stop selling the brown-uniformed Billy style.