The Traditional Values Coalition (ie, the Haters) are complaining about all the gay-themed movies coming out this winter.
They say the movies are an “assault” and that they “affirm” homosexuality.
Assault is obviously just their usual hyperbole, but “affirm”? Do they mean “visible”? Because affirming homosexuality is really very different than saying “homosexuals exist, & here’s a story about one.” If you don’t make the homosexual-in-question suffer & die or a criminal or victim in the movie, is that somehow “affirming homosexuality”?
Is simply portraying an actual lived life “affirming”?
Please Donate
If you like the message boards, or this blog, please donate what you can so we can keep doing what we do.
Thanks,
Helen & Betty
Five Questions With… Felicity
As far as I know, Felicity is the oldest living crossdresser. She was photographed by Mariette Pathy Allen for Transformations, and is about to turn 100 years old, on December 15th.
< Felicity sitting in front of a photo of a very young Felicity, as photographed by Mariette Pathy Allen.Let’s all wish Felicity a very happy birthday!
1) You’re turning 100 on December 15th, which means that you’ve been crossdressing for about 90 years or so. What would you say to the 10-year-old boy who will try on one of his mother’s slips today?
No, I haven’t been CDing for 90 years or anytime near that. The first time was involuntarily, by my mother, in 1911. Then none until about 5 years later when I first saw the photos taken of me by my father. I then had the desire, but after trying on my mother’s things a few times I grew out of them and did no more until 1960, when I joined a CD group and went at it furiously. There was absolutely no sexual impulse, just the love of the clothes and the pleasure of being a different person, in public. Never did any CDing in private. Underclothing held little interest for me.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Felicity”
Desire in Transition
The hosts at GenderTalk interviewed the editor of a new, as-yet-unpublished anthology called Desire in Transition – which is written entirely by partners of trans people (although of course some of those partners are also trans themselves). The editor, Natalie Patrice Tucker, has been putting this together for a while, and it was great to hear her read some of the pieces on the air.
It’s show #540, and you can download either an MP3 or RP version of it.
The Best Moisturizer
I’ve got crap skin – I’m one of those people that can be oily and itchy and dry and oozy all at the same time. A couple of years ago – after exposing myself to elderflower water, to which I am allergic, apparently – I discovered a little product called Gator Balm. The stuff rocks. I am not really big into endorsing products, but really, this stuff is amazing. My skin is so sensitive even Neutrogena’s moisturizers sting when I put them on, but this stuff is cooling and takes the itch out and makes the skin soft. Really great especially for anyone with eczema.
It’s also really good for “cold nose” – you know, when your nose gets raw from tissue use when you’re sick, and you can’t put anything on it without it stinging – you can put Gator Balm right on it. Really. Betty and I both use it once a week as an intensive moisturizer, too.
It’s not always easy to find, but a good health food store with a really well-stocked hygiene product area might have it. (For those of you in NYC, the little shop down the block from the Center has it.)
Five Questions With… in 2006
I’m going to be slowing down how often I post a ‘Five Questions With…’ interview in 2006, mostly because it’s a pretty time-intensive process, and I’m writing a lot now, and will be ramping up how much time I spend working on the new book shortly. Okay, and because I’d rather space it out then have big blocks of time when I don’t run any.
So I won’t press to run one every Wednesday as I have been, but I will post the ones I do on Wednesdays.
Still, there will be 22 posted for 2005, which is an average of about four a month.
If you have any suggestions for people I should interview, you can post your idea in this thread, which is also a good place to discuss the interviews.
I am also hoping to have some news about the new book this coming Wednesday, fingers crossed.
Ready for Prince Caspian
Just wanted my fellow Narnia junkies to know it really is safe to go see the new film version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. They didn’t ruin it, and in some cases were very faithful to details.
& I also wanted everyone to know that as usual the ballyhoo about the book/movie’s supposedly rampant Christianity is way overdone and much the effort of people who don’t have anything else intelligent to say about stories, or CS Lewis, or talking animals.
It’s not that it’s not there, it’s just the least of it. I’ve always found more Arthurian legend in Narnia than straight-up Christian allegory; advice about cleaning one’s sword and not locking oneself into wardrobes is far more useful, anyway.
Of course I’m particularly fond of stories where the youngest is the smartest.
Our Boy Back Home
I don’t remember how many of you remember the TG person who was serving in Iraq, but she’s back home now!
Whew. Welcome home!!
Narnia
“Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree-trunks, she could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to be still daylight there. “I can always get back if anything goes wrong,” thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light.
In about ten minutes she reached it and found that it was a lamp-post.”
– C. S. Lewis, from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Aurora, Wet
No, not more cat torture: she likes to drink out of the dripping tap. Despite the mess. She still looks sad, though. Every day she cries to be let out, and pretty much breaks my heart.