On the MHB Boards, Emilia posted a link to an essay by trans educator Raven Kaldera that I thought more people should see. It’s called A Letter to Would-Be Transsexuals, and points up twenty areas of change that will impact your life if you transition. I thought it was accurate and not sugar-coated – the kind of essay I like best.
More of Raven Kaldera’s writing on trans issues can be found on his website: www.cauldronfarm.com.
He’ll also be presenting at Dark Odyssey, where Rahne Alexander, me, Joe Samson, and other transpeople who will be talking about the many aspects of trans sexuality. (Dark Odyssey is not a trans conference, but an all-kink inclusive sex conference.)
The essay is also being discussed on the MHB Boards.
SRLP Fundraiser: Gender Splendor
Next Saturday at 7pm, after Wigstock, Betty and I will be going to a fundraiser @ Starlight for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. We’d love to see a good crowd, since SRLP is a great org that does good work.
I’ll be reading as part of the entertainment, and drag king Johnny Kat will be closing the show.
Here are more details straight from the organizer:
Gender Splendor:
A Hot Summer Benefit for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project @ Starlight
Saturday, August 27, 7-9pm
Silent Auction / Drink Specials
Performances that deconstruct gender in all its sexy, dirty, angry, funny glory.
Cover: $5 minimum, more accepted
All Door and Auction proceeds to benefit the work of the SRLP
You can also donate to SRLP online, if you can’t make it.
Still No Condom Ads
The other night I was watching something during primetime – I don’t know which show, I was flipping channels – and suddenly a KY commercial came on. KY! Apparently they’ve got a new product they’re marketing for women, something that could have been the next product in the old SNL dessert topping/floor wax spoofs: it’s part massage oil, part personal lubricant, and all of it is self-warming. It’s called Touch Massage. The commercial features an attractive couple, suggests sexual arousal tastefully, and shows the man rubbing her shoulders with the oil. Certainly tame enough.
Another day, I saw a commercial for Cialis, which is the new, improved version of Viagra.
Personal lubricant and erectile dysfunction during not-late-night viewing hours.
And yet there’s still no ads for condoms, are there? And you know why? The American Family Association and other groups of their ilk have protested the possibility with the usual arguments (key words: promote promiscuity) even though a quarter of the million+ people in the US who are infected don’t even know it.
I’m sure keeping those condom ads’ll off TV will help out with preventing teen pregnancy, right? Uh, no. Right now the US has a higher percentage of pregnant teens than countries with condom ads on TV.
Ah, the American Family Association: keeping your family pregnant and infected. Thanks guys.
For My Cous
I just got the crap news today that my cousin in the Navy is going to Iraq, after which he’s being shipped to Afghanistan. So today’s cat picture is for him.
May he keep himself safe.
Five Questions With… Loren Krywanczyk
Loren Krywanczyk is an undergraduate at Yale where he first organized Trans Issues Week in 2004, as a sophomore. The 2nd Annual Trans Issues Week took place in 2005, and Krywanczyk is currently planning the 3rd in the series.
< Loren (left) with his partner Vera
1) What encouraged you to start Trans Issues week at Yale?
I founded Trans Issues Week through my capacity as Special Events Coordinator of the Yale Women’s Center my sophomore year, a job that entailed putting together a speaker series during the spring semester. I was at the time purely woman-identified, and yet for some reason which I am still not entirely sure of I decided that it would be a good idea to devote the week to an exploration of intersections and tensions between feminism and trans/gender issues. I met with Jonathan D. Katz of the Larry Kramer Initiative for some direction in potential speakers, since I had very little knowledge of trans/gender issues or theory, let alone key visible figures in the field. Through contacting speakers and getting closer with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Yale, I received a one-month crash course in gender while throwing together what became the first annual Trans Issues Week at Yale. The week itself inspired me personally as well as academically, and shortly after the series my sophomore year I began incorporating genderqueerness and fludity into my own everyday life and intellectual pursuits. I guess you could say that a personal interest and activist/education-buildling initiative sparked my organization of the series, but even so I don’t know exactly where that personal interest stemmed from at the time.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Loren Krywanczyk”
Recommended Reading list (website update)
Some of you might notice that my former list of “Required Reading” (which listed 10 books with their amazon.com links) has been changed to a “Recommended Reading” link, instead.
It looks simpler on the main page (good thing #1) and provides me with more flexibility to update the list (good thing #2). By creating a page – instead of just links – I was able to add more information (good thing #3), like links to discussions in the Reader’s Chair Forum and to interviews with authors originally posted on this blog.
I hope, in time, this will grow into a valuable resource and bibliography. I’m not listing books I didn’t like, since my mom taught me not to say anything when I didn’t have anything nice to say.
Please Donate
If you have the means and the intention, please donate to help affray our costs this month.
Thank you,
Helen & Betty
Gloria Anzaldua
I just found out – when looking up a reference – that writer Gloria Anzaldua died last year. Her essay “Speaking in Tongues” was an important one for me (it’s in the collection This Bridge Called My Back) and I’m sorry we have lost such a firebrand.
There’s a good interview with her from 2000 that appeared in the journal MELUS.
Blogging Betty
My lovely partner has decided to start a blog in order to rant about the innumerable things she thinks and reads. My best guess is that little will be trans-related, but it’ll be a great resource for interesting reading, especially political notes.
I suppose this means I have to start acting.
http://bettoi.blogspot.com/
Keeping Cool with Aeneas
