Tag Archives: trans

This Makes Me Want to Pack

Posted on March 16, 2009 | 2 Comments

Erin Leone has to be the darn cutest sex blogger out there. A 14-year-old boy in a 20-something gender-queer body, Erin makes video reviews that are completely lacking in production values, but honest and damn entertaining. Watching them is like sitting in your college dorm room watching your roommate demonstrate sex toys. This is Erin’s review of Early to Bed‘s soft pack called the “Packy,” using an iPod Nano (first generation) as a size comparison. Erin says the Packy put a smile on hir face all day. This video actually made me want to try packing. (I’m basically femme, but I do love a secret.) Go Erin!

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Kink.com’s Tomcat is Hot and Handy

Posted on February 6, 2009 | 4 Comments

By the time I had heard of San Francisco’s Kink.com empire, they were already famous because their Fucking Machines had been featured on HBO’s show “Real Sex”. Word was definitely getting around, and I had to check them out.

Then at the end of 2006, Kink.com bought the old armory in SF, turning it into a a 200,000 square foot pleasure palace with offices and filming sets.

Some of the best stuff about Kink.com is the details: the “after glow” shots of the models and “Behind Kink” interviews.

I recently stumbled into this “Behind Kink,” featuring fuckingmachines.com’s director Tomcat giving a tour of all the new kinky machines to Kink.com’s CEO Peter Ackworth. I’m going to guess that Tomcat is the reason so much of the Kink.com material manages to be thoroughly pornographic without feeling especially misogynistic. Tomcat is genderqueer, smart, hot, and apparently very creative and handy with his hands. The whole scene is kinky, wild, and funny. A short documentary about fucking machines, if you will.

Warning: This is definitely x-rated material and not for the sexually squeamish. It’s also not for watching at work. That said, you can check out Tomcat’s tour here.

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S. Bear Bergman: Be a Hero!

Posted on February 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

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:

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Posted in Butch/Femme, Culture, LGBT, Sexuality, Uncategorized

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Let’s Celebrate Breasts!

Posted on January 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

breastsposterMaybe it’s all the hoopla around Facebook’s puckered attitude about breastfeeding moms, maybe it’s my interest in taking lactation training so I can help new moms nurse successfully… who knows, but I was moved to watch Breasts: A Documentary.

I can’t recommend this hour-long film enough. It should be required watching for all women and girls. I think maybe for men too, although not for the reasons they’d think.

The film is the work of Meema Spadola, an award-winning film maker and an all-female camera crew.

Although it was released in 1996, the film remains wildly relevant.

Spadola talked to 22 women – many of whom appear topless in the film – about their relationship with their breasts. There are so many layers to the film: Mother/daughter relationships and inter-generational body attitudes, the role breasts play in sexual relationships, breast feeding, breast augmentation experiences, and of course, breast cancer. The subject’s film include a voluptuous transsexual, a stripper with implants, an 11-year-old on the cusp of puberty, a 420-pound comedienne, and an 84-year-old grandmother.

Check it out if you get a chance. It’s available from Netflix and you can buy it on Amazon. It would make a fantastic Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day gift for the special woman in your life.

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Posted in Body, Culture, Parenting

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Transgender Mayor Elected

Posted on November 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

Silverton, Ore. has elected Stu Rasmussen, the country’s first openly transgender mayor.

According to this story in the Associated Press, Rasmussen describe himself as “a dude”:

“I am a heterosexual male who appears to be a female,” the 60 year old was quoted as saying.

Silverton is about 45 miles south of Portland.

Because Rasmussen’s appearance was no secret, the campaign was dominated by policy issues.

Now there’s a concept.

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Coyote Grace: It’s Trans Awareness Month

Posted on November 7, 2008 | Leave a comment

coyotegraceYesterday 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!)

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Posted in Culture, LGBT

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Transgender Film Festival in London

Posted on November 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

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.

This is LGBT History Month in the UK.

You can read more about the festival here.

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Posted in Culture, LGBT

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GPG News Link: Wiki Trans in the e-Age

Posted on September 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

Wikipedia is supposed to be the great leveler, right? In theory, public input should create entries that reach accuracy through a sort of a sort of cyber-homeostasis.

Wikipedia entries are written by a committee… just a really big committee.

As a sidebar to my earlier post about being trans in the workplace, consider journalist and blogger Ina Fried‘s story about Wikipedia deciding her gender.

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GPG News Link: Trans in the Workplace

Posted on September 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

A recent survey reported that 7 out of 10 (79%) heterosexual adults strongly or somewhat agree that how an employee does his or her job should be the standard for judging an employee, not their sexual orientation. You can read the survey results here.

This is good news, because many people worry, that in completing their transition, they’ll lose their job and their benefits.

One of my friends, who transitioned back in the 1980s, says that a solid employer can provide security and a safe environment during a time of change. She suggests that people considering transition choose their employers carefully, and says – in her own experience – large, conservative companies are often great places to be because they’re so tightly structured and have clear policies in place.

Here’s a recent feature story in the NY Times on the subject. Ironically, it was in the Fashion & Style section.

Does this mean trans is the new black?

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