Dan Savage Strikes Again

An amazing op-ed by Dan Savage in yesterday’s NY Times.

“What the New York and Washington opinions share — besides a willful disregard for equal protection clauses in both state Constitutions — is a heartless lack of concern for the rights of the hundreds of thousands of children being raised by same-sex couples.”

I’ve been embarassed to be a resident of NY State since the ruling. We can do better.

Victor/Victoria

Tonight I finished my last revision of Chapter 7, and coincidentally Victor/Victoria was on PBS, and I happened to catch it right from the beginning. People will be surprised to hear that I’ve never seen it before. (Though no-one should be, I keep saying that I just don’t like movies, and I think I saw Chariots of Fire that year instead, because I really do see only a few a year.)
I can see how utterly shocking this movie must have seemed in 1982 when it was released. But I can’t see Julie Andrews passing at all; I mean she’s Julie Andrews! The hills are alive and all that.
But the romantic subplot (or is that the main plot?) with James Garner is – well, dumb. But at least it’s not one long homophobic joke… except it is. There’s also just something creepy about the way it’s all so ‘demimonde packaged for the suburbs’ too, which is beginning to tire me. The scenes of them trying to navigate public spaces as a gay couple are hurting my brain.
“I guess the problem is that we’re not really two guys.” UGH. My crazy bet is that she’s going to choose to drop the act and become properly gendered so they can be together. Am I right? (It’s not over yet, still on while I’m typing.)
And why a Polish count? Are Polish folks just considered genderqueer or something? I’m starting to think so. I have very little idea as to how this movie was received, and I’m sure most of you have seen it, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, initial reactions, etc.

When the Media Gets It Wrong

I was researching some issues tonight concerning journalism and the proper use of pronouns and discovered that the NLGJA (National Lesbian & Gay Journalists’ Association) have a Rapid Response Task Force whose job it is to target any form of media that’s getting a story wrong about LGBT people.
From their site:

NLGJA’s members and staff work daily with our colleagues in the news industry to fulfill the organization’s mission of fair and accurate coverage. Sometimes, though, a more targeted response is required to promote greater understanding about how to fairly and accurately cover the LGBT community.
NLGJA’s answer to this is the Rapid Response Task Force. This panel of working journalists from mainstream and LGBT media answers complaints about reporting seen as unfair and/or inaccurate by readers, viewers, listeners and our peer journalists around the country. Since its inception, the Rapid Response Task Force has not only informed countless newsrooms about appropriate terminology and the appearance of bias, but has also used these contacts to spread awareness about issues facing the LGBT community.

And they encourage you to submit stories that you feel included unfair or inaccurate coverage. So you can do something besides gripe on the message boards!

Really, No Pressure

First I want to apologize to two people who know who they are.
Second I want to explain that this week has been sheer hell for me. Not long ago an author friend of mine reminded me that second books are looked at critically – you know, separating the one-hit wonders from the career types critically. That, plus the fact that I’m talking about things in this new book I barely ever wanted to talk to Betty about, and bringing up political problems between transness and feminism. Basically, I’ve got a lot on the line, and this Tuesday I hand it all in. So in the meantime I’m smoking too much and eating too much and sitting too much.
So please pardon me if I’m a little crankier than usual. I just can’t wait to weigh myself on Sunday and find out that for the first time since March, I will have missed my target weight. That’ll be a blast, really.

Does Gingko Biloba Count?

As a substance, I mean? Because if so, I’m going to wind up with a major substance abuse problem I’ll develop in the next week.
Knowing you’re reviewing the final drafts for the copyeditor is nerve-wracking. The feeling that I will not be able to make any changes at a later date is enough to shut my brain down entirely. But at the same time, the book is already in good shape, it feels done, and only this nit-picky stuff needs doing. Still, it burns your eyeballs out.
Betty may regret ever having married a writer after this week.

The Photo Shoot

I’m not putting up any of the possible book cover photos – that would be cheating! – but there are some other shots that we took that I thought I’d share. Last time around media folks seemed to want photos of us together, so for publicity’s sake I had our photographer take some of us together.
It was a pretty nutty experience all around, and almost nothing like the shoot for the MHB cover. For starters, we already knew the photographer (she was our wedding photographer, actually) and she took my author headshots not long ago. It was all around less tense, with fewer wardrobe changes, and with no art director on hand. It seems important to point out that these are not the best of the lot; I’m saving those.
So there you go. Our next job is to pick our favorites that were shot for the cover & send them on to the design team at Seal. As soon as there’s a cover, I’ll be putting it up here so you can all get a look-see.

Photo Betty

Today we went to our favorite photographer’s studio and took a bunch of photos – one of which will become the cover of She’s Not the Man I Married. I don’t have any previews just now – we’ll get some of the photos tomorrow – but it was a very interesting experience. Our favorite salon here in Brooklyn did hair and makeup, and quite wonderfully: even my flat, straight hair seemed like it had body. Betty looked truly beautiful.
At one point when we were nearly done, and Betty was still in the make-up chair, and a few other women were waiting around, the makeup artist said something (accidentally) about “Jason,” clearly indicating she was talking about the woman in her makeup chair, and I watched the double and triple takes on the parts of the awaiting ladies.
But I do want to confirm that Betty does not enjoy having her picture taken. The photographer and I had our work cut out for her us trying to get her to relax. Afterwards, when we were going to dinner, I laughed at how obviously physical her tension had been, because her jaw was in a different place than it has been for days.
Betty tried three outfits; I tried two. We’ll see: fingers crossed.

Boys' Dolls

According to this week’s Harper’s Weekly Review,

British scientists found that playing with dolls can help improve Alzheimer’s patients’ communication abilities.

So maybe we should let the boys have a shot at them, too, no?