I really enjoyed doing this podcast with Josh & Sara, so I’m pleased to say it’s up on their website as an MP3 now.
Not Mine
I just found out that my publishers missed the deadline to nominate my book She’s Not the Man I Married for a Lambda Literary Award. Considering that it’s probably the only award that has a Transgender category at all, I’m – well, beyond words about how shitty this is.
It’s like the last kick in the ass from 2007 arriving a little late.
But congrats to all my friends & fellow writers on the list: Reid Vanderburgh, Eli Clare, Julia Serano, Mattilda, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott. May the best person win.
Gone Betty Gone
Betty just left in the Shitwaffle, driven by Megan to Milwaukee Airport, to return to Brooklyn, for at least a month.
Feh.
She’s Still Right
I hope Hillary Clinton calls Gloria Steinem to say thank you.
Illogic
A Romney staffer on MSNBC said, just now, in one sentence, how we need a Republican president who isn’t establishment, who will get the 12 million illegal immigrants out of the country and cut taxes to make government smaller.
Astounding. Because I’m sure, when asked, those 12 million illegal immigrants will leave without any government personnel there to “encourage” them.
I wonder too how they’re going to keep the homosexuals from marrying and the women from having abortions if they shrink government so much.
Teaching Trans
I’ve already team-taught my first class in Gender Studies 101, and later today I get to teach my first session of Transgender Lives. It’s a 200-level course, and I opted to allow trans people to speak about their own lives instead of focusing on what other people have said about trans lives. How? I used books written by trans people: Jenny Boylan’s, James Green’s, Kate Bornstein’s, some of Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl, Leslie Feinberg, and… a lovely little book by The Lady Chablis called Hiding My Candy. Plus a few chapters from my own My Husband Betty in order to represent the crossdressers.
I figure as a non-trans person teaching trans, I’ll already be there as a kind of lens, so getting as much primary reporting from trans people themselves was important.
Top Ten of 2007
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.
Appleton
Well, we’re here in Appleton; we’ve done grocery shopping; we’ve had dinner at a local pub, and I’ve met with the professor with whom I will co-teach the Gender 101 class I’ll be teaching. My first class is tomorrow, and I’m both excited and nervous about starting the term. Mostly excited.
It’s cold here, but not so cold; still, I appreciate having my boots and my very cozy coat. For now, I have Betty to keep me warm at home, but she’s leaving in the next week to head back to NY and start working herself. (But don’t worry, she’s coming to visit for Valentine’s Day, when she’ll also speak to my classes.)
Voting Guide for T Voters
NCTE has put out a guide for trans people & voting that’s sure to be useful no matter what obstacles you, as a trans person, might face at the polls: http://nctequality.org/Resources/votingobstacles.pdf
Greetings From Kenosha, Wisconsin!
We’re nearly there. Not quite. It’s been a lot of driving – just crossing Pennsylvania takes a day, after all. We’re in Kenosha now after driving today though the end of PA, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, & then just the first tip of Wisconsin. It’ll be a few more hours to Appleton, tomorrow.
For those of you who have asked, or guessed, where I’ll be teaching: Lawrence University is the answer. I’m only teaching for a term, which is three months.
So, the trip. We started later than we were supposed to (of course). Betty forgot her license & her phone. We drove & drove & drove through Pennsylvania, & I finally convinced Betty to stop in a little town near the Ohio border called Barkeyville, PA. Ah, what a town! We found a Comfort Suites, checked in, & then went out to find dinner & beer. We checked one place that didn’t have any. We checked another. & Then, finally, I asked someone who said, “Oh, this is a dry county.”
So much for beer.
But the boys have been fantastic, absolutely lovely, the brilliant kittoi I’ve always known them to be.
Another highlight was that someone clever, instead of writing the usual WASH ME on a dirty truck, wrote I WISH MY WIFE WAS AS DIRTY AS THIS TRUCK instead. That was somewhere in Ohio, I think.
We have eaten way too much fast food.
We have sat way too long in a minivan.
We are very excited about arriving tomorrow.
& With that, I’m off for a bath, & a toast to Barack Obama for his Iowa Caucus victory, & bed.