Brandee looked up from her book at the clock duct-taped to the wall above the cracked, lipstick-smeared mirror.
“It can’t be time to do it again.”
She glanced around the empty dressing room, strewn with pizza boxes and coffee cups. Stockings hung over a pipe that ran along the wall. A rolling wardrobe rack held an odd assortment of bits of lingerie, leather, a white vinyl nurse’s uniform, a silk kimono, and a fuzzy chenille bathrobe. The space heater humming away under the counter just barely eased the chill in the air and kept condensation from forming on the whitewashed cinderblock walls. Brandee kicked off her fleece boots and slipped into the purple satin heels that sat on the floor by her chair. She pulled one knee into her chest, stretching out her leg and hip, and then the other. Then standing, she leaned into the mirror, swiped on another coat of lipgloss, and headed for the stage. Continue reading →
I guess music by trans musicians is my theme today.
Here’s another video featuring a trans artist – “A Guy Named Joe,” with Joe Stevens and Ingrid Elizabeth of the hot young duo Coyote Grace.
The video is the directorial debut of the multi-talented Joshua Klipp, another trans musician well worth checking out.
I’m having a little end of summer blast this weekend, seeing Coyote Grace at a backyard concert in Oakland. Lucky me!
And, if you’d like to give these guys a boost, head over to the Logo Online Clicklist and vote for “A Guy Named Joe”. The top vote-getters get airtime on Logo television. You’ll find them about nine spots down in the right-hand column.
There is no gender test. There is not one known to man, woman, or anyone on the spectrum in between.
The media circus and travesty surrounding the recent “gender testing” of South African runner Caster Semenya has led to South Africa’s Minister for Women and Children filing a complaint with the United Nations over how her case was handled.
For the past couple of weeks, the media have been abuzz with reports of Chastity/Chaz Bono’s transition from female to male.
Everyone from the major news agencies to the LGBT press to entertainment shows and blogs have gotten in on the action:
Chaz’s mom, Cher, the entertainer and actress known infamously by her singular name, says she respects the courage of the planned surgical transition. In a statement to US Magazine she said:
“Chaz is embarking on a difficult journey, but one that I will support. I respect the courage it takes to go through this transition in the glare of public scrutiny, and although I may not understand, I will strive to be understanding. The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child.”
In my opinion, this is one of those statement that damns with faint support: “… although I may not understand, I will strive… I’ll love you no matter what you do… because I hold judgment but will rise above it…”. Of course, I’m paraphrasing here, but that’s what her statement reeks of.
For crap’s sake, Cher. You’ve lived an absolutely outrageous life filled with men, plastic surgery, tattoos, bare-assed videos, skimpy costumes, and wigs. Chaz’s gender identity and sexual orientation isn’t a wig or a Bob Mackie dress that comes off and on at will. This is the kid you thrust into the public eye, who is now struggling to make the best of it. Chaz’s internal work will be public – not only by choice – and primarily because of you.
After all you’re the one who once told ABC about your plastic surgeries and body modifications:
“If I want to put my tits on my back, it’s nobody’s business but my own.”
And yet, your child’s personal business belongs to the world because you set those wheels in motion years ago.
And most remarkably, while Cher has been celebrated for her style and outrageousness, and for her music and acting career, none of it may equal the societal contributions of her daughter, now her son.
Chaz Bono has been marked in the media as a “celebrity child,” and indeed, his early life was a creation of his parents and their publicity machine. He came out to his parents at 18, and in 1990 was publically outed without permission by Star, and then by choice on the cover of The Advocate. He went on to author two books, Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families (1998) tells the story of his own coming out, and also the stories of other gay and lesbian people, and The End of Innocence: A Memoir which discusses his outing, music career, and late partner Joan’s death from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
He created a band and had a brief musical career with the band “Ceremony”.
Born into the spotlight, Chaz has made the best of it, using that platform to work for the rights of LGBT people everywhere. He has written for The Advocate, been a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), campaigned for Democratic candidates, worked against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and has worked for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
In 1996, speaking at an HRC event:
I can’t begin to imagine Chaz’s life. His dad, Sonny Bono, was a entertainer-turned-Republican congressman, who died in a ski accident.
His mother may be the femme-fatale most often imitated by drag queens around the world.
Can you imagine coming out in a community where everywhere you turned you heard your mother’s voice, or saw men dressed like her, doing campy imitations of her gestures? It’s a nightmare of mythic proportions.
And, yet Chaz Bono has survived all of this and more. He’s been determined to carve out his own path – authentically – raising the visibility of the LGBT community along the way. And for that we owe him a debt of gratitude.
Update:The school district has reversed its policy that barred a female student from wearing a tuxedo to her school’s prom. The district superintendent has said formal attire will be required at the prom, but the requirements won’t be “gender-based.” However, he said the School Board would have to vote Tuesday to accept the agreement. The ACLU legal director told The Indianapolis Star that the teen is pleased with the decision and will attend the April prom in a tuxedo.
A 17-year-old lesbian in Indiana filed a lawsuit because her principal said she couldn’t wear a tuxedo to the prom.
This only goes to prove that Indiana is provincial in two entirely different ways:
1. Binary gender thinking
and perhaps even worse,
2. Very bad fashion sense. The late Yves St. Laurent spent a career making variations on what he called “Le Smoking” (as in “smoking jacket” ). Some of these tuxedos were frilly, some were sleek. Some were girly, and some were downright butch (yum). All of them were beautifully made, expensive as hell, accepted in polite society, and are now iconic.
Apparently Vogue never made it to newsstands in the Hoosier state, or there wouldn’t be silly discussions about whether girls can wear tuxedos.
While the ACLU was seeking an injunction that would allow the girl to wear a tuxedo, school officials were debating whether she could wear a women’s “pantsuit” instead. I assume, by this, they were picturing the kind of neutral, sexless thing usually worn by WNBA coaches during games and by lesbian attorneys for press conferences.
Would someone out there who has some taste and style dust off a “Le Smoking” and loan it to this kid in Indiana? The state obviously needs some fashion education and it seems she’s just the one to provide it.
And, while I’m at it, how smoking hot is this this 1975 Helmut Newton photograph of an Yves St. Laurent Le Smoking?
S. Bear Bergman is a queer activist and author. Ze is perhaps best known for the book Butch is a Noun.
You can see Bear reading from the book in the video below.
Bear recently spoke on the UC Santa Cruz campus, which inspired a friend to send me a link to this video, which the suggestion I make Bear a GPG Centerfold.
Done.
It seems like trans and gender issues are playing a bigger and bigger part in the LGBT community. I don’t think this is because more people are feeling conflicted about their gender, I think it’s because there’s more information available about the options, more acceptance of gender variance, and more support, in general. I thinbk this can only add up to more happy, comfortable people, and a happier society for everybody.
Bear keeps quite a tour schedule, talking to people all over the country about gender variance. This is from hir website:
Last month, someone told me I was her hero. I had gone to her small college and performed, and afterwards her classmates had begun to speak positively about queer and trans folks. For the first time, she felt she could come out – and did. Organizations and institutions that are queer- and trans-inclusive have the resources to invite me to participate in their conversations. The places where the administration is intolerant, where the culture is conservative, or where our issues are not given priority end up starving for it. I am dedicated to meeting that need. I am committed to taking education, awareness, openness, and the great joy of my outlaw tribe wherever anyone will have me. I go where I’m asked, whenever I’m able, and perform or teach or lecture for free. I love it.
Of course, the kicker is Bear can’t always be there. Even when ze works for free, travel costs can be prohibitive.
Bear is working with The Fund For Women Artists, to develop a pool of money that will fund more speaking engagements. Over the course of one year, Bear’s work can have a positive effect on hundreds of young people.
To help contribute to Bear’s fund – ze’s hoping to find 100 people who will contribute $5 month – use this link, and be sure to indicate that you want your donation to help support the work of S. Bear Bergman.
You can read Bear’s entire statement about being a $5 hero on hir website, and you can read more about the Fund For Women Artists here.
Below, Bear reads from hir book, Butch Is a Noun, at the University of Connecticut:
The full moon is coming and it’s almost that time again. I’m getting a little twitchy.
I have to admit it: I’m addicted to haircuts.
Like many women, I have always have been overly interested in my own hair, and through the years I’ve had long hair, short hair, curly hair, straight hair, Bettie Page bangs, spike-y layers… almost anything you can think of. I’ve also been many shades of brown and red, both single-step and highlighted. I’ve briefly veered toward blonde. I don’t want to think about the total lifetime cost of my hair. I’m sure it would look like the gross national product of an emerging nation.
Anyone who has met me in the past 5 years would find this funny, I think. Because for a long time now, my hair has been its natural salt-and-pepper (like me, getting saltier by the day), and cut very close to my head.
While my head isn’t exactly shaved, on any given day, my hair is still shorter than any of the guys who went out for basketball at my high school.
And I love the feeling of it freshly cut. I love the velvety feeling of the back and sides.
I don’t have to tell you, hair has strong gender association in our society.
Ask any kid under six years old and they’ll tell you “girls have long hair and boys have short.” Or as my son once said, swooning over a girl in his elementary school class: “She has long hair – like a princess, Mom.”
I originally cut mine short out of practicality. It stays out of the way during my yoga practice, looks the same in any weather, requires no “product” to hold its style, and takes no time at all
But, I also like the fact it’s a little extreme and messes with perception of my gender identity.
In fact, the lesbian community may hold to hair stereotypes more strongly than six-year-olds. Butch women are supposed to have short hair, and femmes are supposed to nuture and primp their long locks, right?
I’ve dated a few butch women who were freaked out by my hair, assuming they were somehow less butch in my presence. Some felt challenged and cut their hair shorter than mine. At least one really liked it, but I could almost see the wheels turning as she wondered “OMG. Does this make me gay?”
(I’m only joking and I’m sure you’re just as butch as you were before you ran your hands over my hair, I promise.)
I’m one of those women who never looks like a guy, even devoid of hair, mascara, and my favorite lip gloss. And ironically, I feel the most feminine with my hair shorn.
In fact, when I look back at old photos of myself with long, tended ‘dos, I feel like I’m looking at myself in drag. And I’ve never liked obvious hair products on anyone. Nothing looks less sensual and less appealing than artfully mussed hair that is gelled, sticky, and so stiff it looks like you would risking scratching your cornea in an embrace.
Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that many, if not most, women look better without their hair.
I wouldn’t say I’ve developed this into a fetish, but I definitely sit up and take notice when there’s another woman around with buzzed hair. And I thrill to the tips of my toes (and other places) when an actress shaves her head on screen.
Recent years have provided a flood of actresses without their hair, and most look better than they did with it.
Really. Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta, anyone?
I even think Britney looked better when she was briefly bald.
While I appreciate the tough circumstances that made Melissa Etheridge lose her hair, I think she looked stronger and more vibrant without her hair than she looks with it. Her hair is usually sort of wishy-washy and without much style. Cut it all off, Melissa!
Here’s a little gallery of women I think look incredibly hot without their hair. If only they were all lesbians… sigh.
Yesterday I received an email from Ingrid Elizabeth of the ever-so-lovely acoustic duo Coyote Grace. She wanted to remind all of us that November is Trans Awareness Month, and that she and Joe Stevens (the other half of the duo) will be performing on the Transgender Day of Remembrance at University of Nebraska – Omaha. They’ll appear with Namoli Brennet.
I consider myself particularly spoiled because Coyote Grace recently moved to my neck of the woods. They’re smart, charming, socially relevant, and best of all, dance-able. As they’re becoming more well known, they still favor us with small local shows.
With a biography that begins “Girl meets Girl. Girl becomes Boy. Girl and Boy become a band. Meet Coyote Grace.” You know you can expect something different. Their sound is a swingy blend of Americana roots music with jazz-baby overtones. Ingrid Elizabeth plays the upright bass (that’s a lovely sentence to say out loud, btw) and Joe Stevens plays the guitar. They both sing and write songs. You can sample their music here.
I recently had the opportunity to spend an hour or so locked up in a radio recording booth with these two, and I came away impressed with their warmth, humor, brains, musical ability, and – yes – grace. They’re hard-working musicians who are quickly establishing a place for themselves, having opened for the Indigo Girls, and toured with Melissa Ferrick
But they also impressed me as incredibly brave young souls; two people who have no inclination to shy away from questions about their early lesbian relationship and Joe’s transition from female to male. Indeed, they address it in song, and are as eager to share and educate as they are to entertain.
Here’s a video of Coyote Grace opening for Melissa Ferrick late last month in Milwaukee, singing one of their signature songs, “A Guy Named Joe,” about Joe’s transition.
Could there be a better pair to share the honor of GPG Centerfold during Trans Awareness Month?
(And with a special shoutout to the SF Bay Area: Coyote Grace will appear this Sunday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at the ever-so-queer-friendly and decidedly down-scale Black Cat in Penngrove. I hope to see you there!)
The first London Transgender Film Festival takes place this weekend, Nov. 7, 8, and 9.
The festival’s focus is to exhibit content of transgender, intersex, androgyny, gender variant, trans feminists, gender queer, and gender fluid persons of all natures, all races and cultures, ages and abilities.
There is no gender test. There is not one known to man, woman, or anyone on the spectrum in between.
Thank you to Emily Horne and Joey Comeau at 
For the past couple of weeks, the media have been abuzz with reports of Chastity/Chaz Bono’s transition from female to male.
Update: The school district has reversed its policy that barred a female student from wearing a tuxedo to her school’s prom. The district superintendent has said formal attire will be required at the prom, but the requirements won’t be “gender-based.” However, he said the School Board would have to vote Tuesday to accept the agreement. The ACLU legal director told The Indianapolis Star that the teen is pleased with the decision and will attend the April prom in a tuxedo.
