Chris Kahrl, TG sportswriter

From the Washington Blade
OUT IN SPORTS
Throwing a curveball Chris Kahrl, the transgendered co-author of the annual Baseball Prospectus, is finding life outside the closet rewarding.
Friday, April 09, 2004
FOR MORE THAN A decade, Chris Kahrl has turned a love of baseball into a successful career in sports publishing, working with a long-standing team of
authors to write, edit, and publish the annual Baseball Prospectus. The definitive guide, feverishly updated each winter and published a full month before Major League baseball’s opening day, which was last week, analyzes statistics on each player in the profession. It reaches 60,000 readers annually. Noting that other attempts to chronicle anything can be as ‘dull as paste,’ Kahrl and colleagues pepper the ‘Prospectus’ with intelligent humor and thoughtful
commentary, successfully turning a reference guide into a legitimate coffee table book for even the most casual fan to enjoy.
Reflecting that humor and charm, Kahrl, a lifetime athlete and baseball fanatic, publicly discussed the book and baseball last Thursday for nearly three hours
at Politics and Prose bookstore in Northwest D.C. The Baseball Prospectus may be different because of its hip, fresh approach to one of America’s favorite
pastimes. But it’s also unique for another reason: Its co-author Chris Kahrl has been living openly as a transgendered woman for the past six months.
COMING OUT STORIES have a certain arc to them and can almost write themselves today. But Kahrl, 36, offers a rare perspective about the torturous layers involved in coming out as a transgendered person that few others, including gay men and lesbians, have experienced. “For me, the process of coming out is effectively unzipping your head for everyone’s benefit,” she says.
“I was scared to death when I took my boss out for drinks. But when I told him, he said, ‘Well, Chris, I’m your friend, you’re a great author, and we’re going to make this work.'”
That might seem unbelievably enlightened for a boss, but Kahrl of Virginia has known him and all of her colleagues for more than 10 years. “I’ve had good fortune with all of my friends, even my family,” she says. “I gave being a guy my best shot, and it didn’t work out and that’s OK.”
STILL, MOST OF her work with Major League Baseball is researched over the phone and Internet, not in the locker room. At Politics and Prose, it was standing room only when she appeared last week. Kahrl said it couldn’t have gone better.
“People blinked for a minute, but as I kept rolling along, talking about baseball, gender issues disappeared from everyone’s radar as it became clear everyone was going to get what they came for baseball,” she says. Her relatively painless transition says something about the strength of her character. Her colleagues, further still, attribute it to her comportment and professionalism.
“Sure, there is gossip out there,” says Gary Gillette, co-author of Baseball Encyclopedia, a publication similar to the Baseball Prospectus. “But these days, everyone is either enlightened enough to deal with it or wise enough to keep their mouths shut. Chris is very well-respected, well-liked, in this industry,” he says, “and that will certainly continue.”
Kahrl sees no inherent disconnect between the masculine world of baseball and her identity and, in fact, says that a love of the former eases the awkwardness of the latter. “Baseball is something I could relate to with my great-grandfather – with all people,” she says. “Sports give us all something in common to talk about that is essentially inoffensive.” Still, she expects the stares, the puzzled faces, and the common inquiries, and views them as an easy tradeoff for being able to live openly. Her story should inspire anyone in agony over crossing bridges or taking risks.

Gender- bender teen shot in B'klyn

Gender- bender teen shot in B’klyn
By CELESTE KATZ
and GREG GITTRICH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A 20-year-old Brooklyn man shot a teenage transvestite four times – capping their illicit pre-dawn encounter with gunfire after discovering the youth was a boy, cops said yesterday. Jamel Stevens was tracked down Wednesday by detectives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and charged with attempted murder, assault and menacing
in the attack, authorities said. Stevens shot the 14-year-old twice in the left arm and twice in the left thigh just after 3 a.m. on Feb. 21 in the Marcy Houses playground on Nostrand Ave., police said. The young victim’s wounds were not life-threatening. He was treated and released from Kings County Hospital, police said. The teenage transvestite was wearing lip gloss and tight pants, and had long hair and painted nails, the source said. Still, there is no mistaking him for a girl, said Rafeal Hernandez, 17, a neighbor of the victim.
“It’s just noticeable that he’s a guy,” Hernandez said. Crystal Gonzalez, 19, said she had warned the teen to stop stuffing his shirt and dressing like a girl. “But he didn’t listen to me,” she said. “There are a lot of crazy people in this world who don’t accept gay people.” At Marcy Houses, Stevens’ family was stunned by his arrest. “Jamel has never been in trouble a day in his life,” said his grandmother, Patricia Fleming, 62. “I never had to go to the police station for him.” Fleming said Stevens, a construction worker, was living in Florida but moved back to Brooklyn this year after his sick mother lapsed into a coma. Fleming said she visited Stevens’ mother in the hospital yesterday. “I told her, ‘We need you. I can’t do this alone,'” she said.
Originally published on April 16, 2004

NBC poll on crossdressing

NBC is running a poll as to whether a person being a crossdresser would affect your vote – & right now, the people who wouldn’t vote for a CD are winning!
C’mon, folks, let’s turn this around!
Vote NO!

Trans-Partners forum at GLBT Center/NY

Tuesday, June 8
7 – 9 pm
The Center’s Public Policy Committee, Center Kids, and the Gender Identity Project present a forum on the challgnes facing individuals who are, or have been, or seek to be in relationships or partnerships with transgender, gender-different and gender questioning people. Experts and community members will explore some of the social, legal, medical and personal issues facing partners of trans, gender-different and gender question people, including:
Who are we? What do we call ourselves?
We are often in “community limbo” – where do we fit? Is there space for us in the “gay” community? Should there be? If not, where can we find or create community?
How does our hidden, and sometimes invisible, communite gets its needs met?
Are our concerns sometimes overshadowed by the issues of our trans-identified partners?
How do we maintain our identity when our partners’ identies may be in transition?
How can we create community in the face of these daunting matters?
How can we get our medical needs met by providers who often seem ignorant of our needs and identities?
Some of us are openly attracted to trans-people – why is it so difficult to find space for us too?
For more information, call 212 620 7310, or visit www.gaycenter.org

This Week's Action – 4/5/04

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women’s clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth. Local Republican leaders confirmed separately that they had seen the photographs of Walls in a wig, dress and high heels.
The story is on the Reuters newswire, and so is being picked up by other papers – Newsday, the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, etc. Find one of these papers – or write to Reuters directly – explaining that a man’s crossdressing by no means affects his ability to do his job! If you are a CD, explain who you are (engineer, teacher, tech, etc).
This is your opportunity, closeted CDs! Stand up for one of your fellow CDs. Mr. Walls is, some stories mention, a member of a chapter of Tri-Ess.
Of course, his being a CD is not a good reason to vote for him, either – unless of course his crossdressing encourages him to vote for trans-friendly legislation.

Doug Wright wins Pulitzer

I think the headlines all should have read, Gay Playwright Wins Pulitzer for Play about Transvestite
Doug Wright, who wrote the play, “I Am My Own Wife,” won the Pulitzer a couple of days ago. (There goes my chance of interviewing him.) If you haven’t gone to see the play yet, and you’re TG, you should be ashamed of yourself! It’s a wonderful, sympathetic-but-realistic portrait of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who lived through the Nazis and the Communists.
Read more about the play and order tickets
It’s worth checking out Charlotte’s book, I Am My Own Woman, as well as the documentary of the same name.

Join the IFGE

We just came back from the 2004 IFGE Conference, and we absolutely loved it! Lots of smart folks on hand to ask questions of (Richard Docter, Vern Bullough), activists to get inspired by (Hawk Stone, Holly Boswell, Angela Brightfeather), amazing artists (Kate Bornstein, Mariette Pathy Allen), people with medical information (Dr. Ousterhout, Dr. Shrang, Dr. Ostad), advocates (Wally Bacon, Debra Weil), counsellors (Virginia Erhardt, Arlene Istar Lev, Sandra Cole, Judith DiPerna), and presenters on everything from make-up to succeeding as a CD (Lacey Leigh, Susie Paris). The workshops were incredible. The entertainment was amazing. The community was inspiring.
So JOIN!
Subscribe to Transgender Tapestry. Become an IFGE member and go to their next conference, to take place in ’05 in Austin, TX!
www.ifge.org
Betty with Kate Bornstein:
Betty and Kate Bornstein
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Prince? (Helen with VP)
HB & VP
Helen with Vern Bullough (author of Crossdressing, Sex, and Gender):
Helen and Vern Bullough
Mariette Pathy Allen and her hard-working camera, with Virginia Prince in the background:
Mariette & VP