Tag: interviews

NYT on Workplace Transitions

Posted by helenboyd – September 5, 2008

For those of you who didn’t see it (and who didn’t send it to me), there was an article in the Style section of The NY Times about on-the-job transitions called “Smoother Transitions.” One insight that I had never thought about:

There are also easier routes for employees. At first glance, Ms. Fox said, it might seem easier to apply for a new job in a new gender rather than changing identities in place. But the latter turns out to be simpler.

“If you make the change with people who already know you, then the fact that you are transgender is just one part of you,” she said. In contrast, Ms. Fox said, starting from scratch with a new employer, particularly for a transgender person who does not completely look male or female, means an employer can be “distracted to the point that your gender identity is all they see.”

There’s also a few good quotes in here my Jillian Todd Weiss, who blogs about transgender issues in the workplace. My only wish is that they’d have interviewed Hawk Stone, since he’s been helping people transition on the job for a very long time.

Partners, Talking

Posted by helenboyd – July 19, 2008

On BBC, an interview with the (female) partner of an MTF and the (male) partner of an FTM is worth listening to. Though I will say the FTM in question turned into a jackass, not a man.

Most interesting to me are their thoughts about their sexual relationships.

Felicity’s Last Flight

Posted by helenboyd – June 28, 2008

Felicity Chandelle, pilot and crossdresser, died Monday at the age of 102. She was, as far as I know, the world’s oldest living crossdresser. I interviewed her a few years ago, when she turned 100, and not long after that she donated all of her papers – many of them magazines about crossdressing – to the LGBT Center Library here in New York. Some of them would not be able to be used until after her death, whereupon her male, legal name could be revealed, as if her part of her collection, too, were crossdressed.

Thanks for the gift Felicity. Fly right.

here! Video

Posted by helenboyd – June 27, 2008

A while back I did an interview with Josh & Sara of here!, and I just discovered the videos are now up. I really enjoyed doing this interview, & really enjoyed both of them, which shows.

Part One

Part Two

Interview: Helen & Betty

Posted by helenboyd – June 16, 2008

Nancy Nangeroni & Gordene MacKenzie, who used to bring you GenderTalk, are now bringing you GenderVision. We were up in their neck of the woods last fall and did an interview with them for GenderVision, which they’ve now got up at their website, www.gendervision.org.

A lot of our conversation is about partner advocacy within the trans community, the role of partners, and transitioning from within a committed relationship. It’s a lengthy interview, about an hour, and amazingly enough Betty talks quite a bit about her own partner advocacy, and why she speaks so little about her own experience.

His Two Uncles

Posted by helenboyd – May 30, 2008

More on Governor Paterson’s decision:

When David A. Paterson was growing up and his parents would go out of town, he and his little brother would stay in Harlem with family friends they called Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald.

Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald were a gay couple, though in the 1960s few people described them that way. They helped young David with his spelling, and read to him and played cards with him.

“Apparently, my parents never thought we were in any danger,” the governor recalled on Thursday in an interview. “I was raised in a culture that understood the different ways that people conduct their lives. And I feel very proud of it.”

It’s a nice article on the how the governor became an LGBT ally.

Cleaning John Malcovich

Posted by helenboyd – May 23, 2008

Here’s one of the odder things I’ve ever found on the Internets: John Malcovich being interviewed while being bathed, in a bathtub, by another man.

(thanks to Tranny in Trouble for the link.)

Sex in America

Posted by helenboyd – May 20, 2008

Has anyone been watching Sex: The Revolution on VH-1? I catch it late at night sometimes, and I’m finding it a pretty decent series. Tonight, on Episode 3: Do Your Thing, the pride movement, San Francisco, Anita Bryant & Harvey Milk, and commenting, Susan Stryker. Next up, Episode 4: Tainted Love.

It’s good documentary, imho – concise, good interviews, capturing some major cultural moments through the music & images.

Interview Question

Posted by helenboyd – May 16, 2008

I am sick of being asked the interview question, “So why are you looking for part-time work? Why not full-time?” and answering, “I’m a writer. I work part-time so I have time to write” and having the interviewer look at me like a dog that’s been shown a card trick.

Sullivan Said

Posted by helenboyd – February 5, 2008

I just came back from an impressive lecture by Andrew Sullivan about the current election. When it was planned, they didn’t realize he’d be speaking on Super Tuesday, but it’s good that he did.

It was a pretty stunning analysis of the way the Boomer generation’s politics have divided the country and our politics for too long, and pointed up the ways that the (predicted) winning candidates, McCain and Obama, transcended some of those divisions, divisions left over from the 60s: the blue/red, left/right, hippie/straight divide.

His articulation of the way Hillary Clinton is the last current hope of any Republican party unification was not just funny but on the mark. She pisses off Republicans in a way no one else can, and as Sullivan put it, “It may not be her fault – but it is a fact.” & I agree. I’ve been frustrated by the Democratic Party’s backing of her for a very long time – not because I dislike her, but because she symbolizes – fairly or unfairly – the kinds of ideas that divide the country. (Even if, as Sullivan pointed out, both she & her husband are moderates.)

What he had to say about McCain was equally interesting: that because he was in, and suffered during, the Viet Nam War, he would never go after the likes of Kerry in the ways his Republican party cohorts did. And that what may have gotten him through his own torture was the thought that the country he was fighting for would never do such things. But we have. And so, Sullivan pointed out – and as he said, “maybe naively” – McCain feels the dishonor Dubya and his cohorts have brought to America in a way that most Americans feel it, as well.

The image of Mitt Romney as Glenn Close in the bathtub scene in Fatal Attraction will forever stick in my memory as well.

But of course Sullivan is well-known by now to be an Obama supporter. As he pointed out, Obama is not a Boomer. Thankfully. And like most people under 40 in the US, Obama knows that it isn’t a choice to be pro-gay or pro-family, that the idea of women being equal isn’t radical or terrifying, and that there isn’t necessarily a divide between letting a government help people it can help while letting the rest thrive with relative freedom from government. Conservative after conservative Sullivan interviewed (for his Atlantic Monthly article on Obama) said they like him, because even when Obama disagreed with them, he listened to them with respect.

It strikes me now – a half hour after Sullivan finished speaking – that what both candidates stand for, more than anything, is not being their own Party’s favorite son (or daughter), and simultaneously being capable of bringing some dignity back to politics in the US.

I hope he’s right.

Now go out & vote.

Top Ten of 2007

Posted by helenboyd – January 7, 2008

Yours Truly was interviewed for an article on “Ten Hot Sexuality (and Gender) Issues of 2007 by Naked on the Internet author Audacia Ray. My bit is mostly the “(and Gender)” part of it, about ENDA & the Hate Crimes Act.

I think it’s the first time I’ve been interviewed for anything that was also about pole dancing.

Save the Whales

Posted by helenboyd – December 21, 2007

Today on CNN, they’re talking a lot about the Japanese having responded to protests about their planned whale hunt; that is, for the first time ever, the Japanese government has agreed not to hunt humpback whales. But they’re still planning on hunting more than a 1000 other wales, including Fin Whales, which they’re doing with the bullshit explanation that the hunt is for “scientific purposes.”

On CNN they interview some Joe who says, “Well eating veal could be considered cruel too, so where do you draw the line?”

The line is that whales can’t be raised domestically as a food source. They are only wild, and they are endangered. Veal are not. Would it really be that hard for CNN to find someone who is born a carnivore & a concerned animal lover to make that point?

here!

Posted by helenboyd – December 14, 2007

I’m doing an interview with Josh & Sara of here! today at 3PM.

(& In the meanwhile, you can check out a past one with Veronica Vera. It’s #107.)

Gibson Girl

Posted by helenboyd – November 9, 2007

When I spoke at Columbia a while back, students were utterly convinced that we are making progress. They were specifically talking about gender issues and fashion, and I had to disagree with them, at least about clothes, since there were more ways to play with sartorial gender in the ’70s and especially the ’80s than there are now.

But it cracked me up to see William Gibson, of all people, talking about exactly how much progress we haven’t made:

In the past ten years, we’ve seen incredible advances in nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Does any of it amaze you?

My assumption has always been that at some point we would lock on to a literally exponential increase in human knowledge. That was my best guess, somewhere back in the Seventies. There hasn’t been anything that made me sit back and say, “Golly, I would never have imagined that.” The aspects of recent history that have caused me to do that have been, in every case, manifestations of retrograde human stupidity.

How do you mean?

It’s been an extraordinarily painful decade or so. I just never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that it could get as fucked up as this guy [George Bush]. It still amazes me how dumb so much of our species can manage to be. But that’s kind of like being amazed at life.

There you have it, folks: manifestations of retrograde human stupidity, indeed.

The First Man-Made Man

Posted by helenboyd – October 29, 2007

So I read The First Man-Made Man by Pagan Kennedy not long ago, and I’m going to ‘fess up: this book really bothered me. The research seemed solid. The topic was interesting & book-worthy. But it was also somewhat repetitive, and I felt the plot arch was mis-played; you find out too much of the story upfront, & so there isn’t so much story to keep up the second half of the book.

But that’s not what bothered me so much: the tone of the book was remarkably condescending. The interview with the monk at the end just felt like a dick joke. & A lot of the time, the narration made me so uncomfortable I really just wanted to read the actual manuscript the first trans man wrote, instead. (Although from what I hear, no one seems to know if a copy exists at all anymore, or not.)

Don’t get me wrong: this is a valuable & interesting book & really gets at how remarkably new the tech was; I especially enjoyed the section on the early practitioners of plastic surgery. But it just felt to me that the author never really believed he was a guy at all, which strikes me as a remarkably unsympathetic way to write about not just transness, but about a trans man who was so inexorably alone as a trans person. Michael Dillon strikes me as a remarkable soul who had a tremendous amount of integrity and bravery, and frankly, this book gives you just enough about him to know that the book didn’t do him justice.

Up Closer & More Personal

Posted by helenboyd – October 26, 2007

As she promised on the air during our last interview, Bonnie Graham of WGBB’s Up Close & Personal is having us back on her show to talk some more about relationships, change, & gender. Do tune in as we’ve got the whole hour, from 6-7 PM.

Carnival of Bent Attractions

Posted by helenboyd – October 2, 2007

This month, I get the pleasure of hosting the ongoing Carnival of Bent Attractions, and there’s a nice sampling of interesting LGBT Bentness to be had:

First, an interview with no other than sex-positive educator Susie Bright from the financially-minded set at Queercents, where we find out Ms. Bright worked in a cathouse but wasn’t getting paid for sex amonst other things;

Then, a review of a Thursday night Transvestite party in Buenos Aires, written by Oliver Hartman and posted on the Argentina’s Travel Blog site. Mr. Hartman didn’t know what to expect, and didn’t seem to know what was what (or who was whom):

I’m not entirely sure when the show ended, but there was some sort of conga line and crazy swan costume involved.

I wonder if it wasn’t a chicken.

Further still, a commentary on Craig’s wide stance on The Agonist, which tries to understand the likes of Craig and how they can claim not to be gay:

Perhaps it’s because many or most of them, like Craig, genuinely think they aren’t gay, despite enjoying gay sex?

& Finally, to wrap things up, SF Brawny Bear answers the question, “What does Bear Pride Mean to You?” on the blog Bear Bones. (But who does Bear bone, exactly?)

Nice roundup. Next month, our various Bent Attractions move on to a new ride at the Carnival.

Helen on the Radio Tonight

Posted by helenboyd – September 20, 2007

& I’ve gotten home to Brooklyn in time to rest, eat, bathe, & then head out to be interviewed by Diana Cage on her radio show on Sirius OutQ, at 11PM.

(I promise I will not review the history of modern feminism, which is what I did in class today. Oy, patriarchy!)

Boylan Goes to High School

Posted by helenboyd – September 13, 2007

It turns out that Jennifer Finney Boylan’s She’s Not There is on the recommended reading list for 10th graders at Dana Hall School of Wellesley, MA. (News courtesy Vickie Davis’ blog.)

Way to go, Jenny Boylan. Her next book, I’m Looking Through You, is out next year. Keep an eye peeled her this fall/winter for a Five Questions With… interview with Boylan about the new book.

San Quentin Trans

Posted by helenboyd – September 9, 2007

There are interviews with two transgender prisoners in the MSNBC documentary about San Quentin. They’re both positive about being there, and one woman in particular is pretty pleased that she can live with her husband in prison.