Sunday, November 25, 2007
Trans Columnist Celebrates 100th Anniversary
Jacob Anderson-Minshall
11/22/2007
By Chrys Hudson
When author Jacob Anderson-Minshall wrote his first TransNation column for the San Francisco Bay Times he had no idea how popular it would become. Now, as he releases his 100th column, the weekly, syndicated article appears in LGBT publications from San Francisco to New York—and on GayWired Media's portals Gaywired.com, 247Gay.com and LesbiaNation.com.
"It's been an amazing two years," says Anderson-Minshall. "I've interviewed some of the most renown trans people in the world-from actors like Candis Cayne (from ABC's Sexy Dirty Money) and Calperina Addams, to authors Kate Bornstein and Jamison Green, musicians like The Cliks, Katastrophe and Joshua Klipp, porn star Buck Angel, former Las Vegas showgirl Jahnna Steele, and literally dozens of other activists, politicians, artists, scholars, athletes, filmmakers and folks from every walk of life. I feel incredibly honored to have spoken with these remarkable individuals."
Kim Corsaro, the publisher and editor of the San Francisco Bay Times, says that TransNation has been "an important voice in the paper," and has sparked numerous letters to the editor. GayWired's L.A. Vess concurs, "We've gotten great feedback on the column."
Unlike most columns, which tend to be personal essays or opinion pieces, Anderson-Minshall—who transitioned from female to male less than a year before TransNation debuted—has positioned the weekly column as a space to profile remarkable individuals from the trans community. In doing so, he says, "I try to let my subjects speak for themselves-even when that means setting my personal opinions aside."
Anderson-Minshall formatted TransNation this way so he could increase coverage of the trans and genderqueer communities and illustrate the great diversity of gender expressions that are often lumped under a transgender umbrella.
"There's a significant population of people who were assigned one sex at birth, and now live as a different sex, but do not identify as transgender or transsexual,” he says. “They are men and women. Period. Because they often don't feel like they are a part of the LGBT community, their voices frequently go unheard in queer press. TransNation is a forum willing to share these perspectives."
For his 100th column, Anderson-Minshall profiles activist Donna Rose, a former Human Rights Committee board of directors' member who left her post in protest of the organization's unpopular position on the stripped-down Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA).
"The debate over ENDA and the unparalleled support of transgender rights, from over 300 LGBT organizations, that has come out of it, make this the biggest trans story of 2007," Anderson-Minshall contends. "That makes it fitting as the topic for my 100th column. By my 200th, I hope I'll be celebrating the passage of a gender-inclusive ENDA."
Anderson-Minshall co-authored Blind Leap, the second installment in the Blind Eye mystery series he writes with his wife of almost 18 years, Diane Anderson-Minshall, the executive editor at Curve magazine, with whom he also co-founded Girlfriends magazine. . . .
Miss Gay Missouri America has a long and glorious history
08-08-2007
Photo by Colin Murphy
Miss Gay Missouri 1995, Vicki Valentino
The art of female impersonation has been around for centuries — from the days of Shakespeare when male actors would “Dress Regularly As Girl” or don DRAG to the myriad reviews, show bars and Las Vegas headliners. Indeed the art form and its entertainers are here to stay.
This year marks 35 years of excellence for the Miss Gay Missouri America (MGM) Pageant, which was held July 27-29 in St. Louis. The annual event celebrates the art of female impersonation and is part of the America Pageantry System and a preliminary to the Miss Gay America Pageant which will be held later this fall in Memphis, Tenn.
“This being the second oldest pageant in the America system has a lot of history,” said Joie DiMercurio (a.k.a. Tumara Mahorning, MGM 1992), owner and co-promoter of the pageant. “What this contest is all about is the fact it helps you to meet people from all over the state and to make new contacts for bookings in other communities. The fact that Miss Gay Missouri has turned 35 proves that the art of female impersonation is a part of all our communities. We are the gay entertainment and lend to the existence of our communities.”
The MGM Pageant got its unofficial start at the Mandrake Ball on Halloween night 1973. (The Mandrake Society was an early gay rights organization in St. Louis and would host various events to raise money.) During the evening’s festivities “Julie Tomorrow” was crowned “Miss Mandrake” but would soon officially become known as Miss Gay Missouri 1974 after Ron Davis (a.k.a. Lana Kuntz) was able to acquire a sanctioned state franchise from the fledgling Miss Gay America Pageant System founded by Norman Jones (a.k.a. Norma Kristie.) Although that first competition consisted only of a talent number and walk-on gown category, the die had been cast and the rich legacy of MGM America was born.
“The Miss Gay Missouri pageant was the highest honor any female impersonator in the state of Missouri could attain,” explained Vincent Tucker (Vicki Valentino, MGM 1995), who recently won a national title — Miss International 2007. “Winning it was the one time you could say I have achieved an honor that only few entertainers will ever get to experience. The appreciation for female impersonation in St. Louis is like no other. For 35 years The Miss Gay Missouri pageant remains highly anticipated by many in and around St. Louis and the entire state of Missouri.”
Unlike other contest systems such as Miss Continental and Miss US of A, the America system and its preliminaries demand that all contestants be men in every sense of the word. Hence, no surgical or hormonal augmentation is allowed below the neck.
 Tumara Mahorning |
“I believe it is a celebration of art, creation, and illusion,” said DiMercurio. “How you can take a song; mold it and create talent from it is amazing.”
In 1975 Ron Davis sold the fledgling pageant to his brother, Don (a.k.a. Donna Drag and the River Queens from the Red Bull), who would continue the annual event for the next five years. The pageant remained mainly a local event throughout the 1970s, but the talent being discovered was worthy of national acclaim.
In 1979 Donna Drag sold the promising franchise to a comedy trio known as “Sex, Inc.”—Chuck Attebury (a.k.a. Raquel Welsh), Dean Dingler (a.k.a. Ursula Andress) and Michael Lavin (a.k.a. Elke Sommer) were big, bawdy and brazen “queens” whose comedic performances were packing bars around town. But the trio’s talents were twofold as they soon became the driving forces behind MGM and would, over the next eight years, turn the pageant into one of the best known and better attended preliminaries in the nation. Two Miss Missouri’s crowned under their ownership, Vicki Vincent (MGM 1983) and Charity Case (MGM 1987), went on to become Miss Gay Americas.
When “Sex, Inc.” decided to hand over the reigns of the then nationally known pageant to a successor they couldn’t think of anyone better equipped to run the dynasty then the winners of the title itself. Thus, the “Miss Gay Missouri Alumni Committee” was formed and “the sisterhood” would run the pageant.
“One of my personal reasons for wanting to win was that many of the finest entertainers had already captured the title and I wanted to experience the same,” offered Tucker. “Fallen greats still inspire my interest in what Miss Gay Missouri has meant in the past and competitors of my era, who are now formers, make returning to Miss Gay Missouri each year reunion of winners who had the same goal in mind — becoming a part of the legacy of female impersonation in the State of Missouri.”
Since MGM is a preliminary to Miss Gay America, the responsibilities of the state title-holder mirror those of the national representative. In addition to public appearances and competing at Miss Gay America, the winner must administrate over and attend all preliminaries in the MGM system.
Following MGMs silver anniversary Attebury and Daniel Flier (a.k.a. Vanessa Vincent, MGM 1982) briefly assumed ownership where leadership and interest were raised throughout the state and corporate sponsors, such as Miller Lite were brought on board.
In 2001 the franchise was handed to DiMercurio and Reba Lamkey-Knabe who continue to run the pageant honoring the fine traditions and rich history of those who came before while making the franchise more efficient and its representatives more competitive at the national level.
Victoria DePaula, this year’s reigning Miss Gay Missouri 2006 placed third alternate and won overall preliminary talent at last years national pageant.
An elegant affair
Nineteen of 24 qualified contestants from around the state showed up to compete for the coveted crown and two tickets to the national stage. They joined 12 former title holders as well as the current reigning MGM 2006 DePaula and Miss Gay America 2007, Luscious to mark the 35 Miss Gay Missouri America Pageant. . . .
Opinion: Nothing to be thankful for
Thursday, November 22, 2007
IT’S THANKSGIVING TIME, and I want to be charitable. I’d like to talk about our sometimes divergent GLBT community, sitting down at the table with each other and passing our metaphorical stuffing and yams.
Unfortunately, I find myself feeling something very different from this Norman Rockwell fantasy of community unity.
When the Employment Non-Discrimination Act came up for a vote in the House of Representatives, we got to see just who is and who isn’t among our allies. I was not surprised to see Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) leading the charge to deny rights to transgender people, using the same tired strategy that has plagued transgender people since the early 1970s: “We’ll get ours, and come back for yours.” It didn’t work then, it won’t work now.
I’m also not very surprised that when push came to shove, most GLBT organizations stood by the transgender community, while the Human Right Campaign backed the non-inclusive bill. This has been their stance since I got into transgender activism in the early 1990s, and even though they have claimed to have made some personal progress, they’re still more willing to take this over victory for all.
Yet again, I find myself hoping people remember this the next time HRC sends a cute little fundraising letter claiming to be working for all GLBT Americans.
One thing that did raise an eyebrow for me was a poll done shortly before a trans-less ENDA went to a vote. The result — one that may well be questionable overall — was that 70 percent of the GLBT folks surveyed were perfectly fine with this turn of events.
With one quarter of “GLBT” being transgender, does this mean that 25 percent, coupled with 5 percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, were the ones who were willing to take a more courageous stance, and push for equal rights for all over a bill aimed at a narrower group? If this poll is at all accurate, this seems to leave a large number of people more than willing to leave transgender people out to dry.
SO THIS THANKSGIVING I find myself wondering: Is this my family, my community, welcome at the table with the rest of my siblings or am I the red-headed stepchild of this movement? And if that’s the case, then why am I here?
I suspect there remains a lot of mistrust of trans people and a lot of misconceptions. Maybe it is assumed that we’re not worthy of a place at the table, that our credentials are too thin, or that our goals and needs are too far removed from those of the larger community. Perhaps it’s some sort of latent trans-phobia after years of the mass media foisting transgender characters on the public and calling them “gay.”
THE ISSUE WE need to think about now that a trans-less ENDA has passed the House of Representatives is this: Where do transgender people fit within this community, what do we bring to this movement, and, really, if we aren’t as welcome here as this betrayal shows, then where are we welcome?
None of these are easy questions, and each is that much harder when one considers that we do have our allies in the GLBT community. Other, wiser organizations were willing to stay by our side and focus on the needs of a unified community. Others have also kept a combined front in fights elsewhere, like hate crime bills and other needs. It’s not so simple as “they all hate us, so let’s take our ball and go home.”
But more and more, it seems like a large number would prefer just that.
So what comes next? Do we keep fighting this fight for inclusion — not only within the laws of our country but also within the GLBT community as a whole — or do we seek to blaze our own trail? Is there anything for us here, or are we truly viewed as being simply “partners of convenience,” ready to be sacrificed at the mere hint of trouble?
I hope that somewhere in all this we’ll find a glimmer of hope and we’ll yet see a unified community that welcomes all its members, no matter if they are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender.
Yet right now, it looks as if the transgender community is cast aside, left to swim for ourselves while some sail ahead with their own agendas. I want to be charitable — but really, how can I? . . .
Pollo Del Mar Grabs the Trannyshack Crown
MC Sister Roma, winner Pollo del Mar, and hostess Heklina at the Trannyshack Pageant; above right: Jim Strano, Anna Conda and Juanita Fajita staged a Drag Riot outside the Gift Center. Fajita’s altercation with security officers was the only mishap.
By Sister Dana Van Iquity
November 22, 2007
Trannyshack, now in its 12th award-winning year, is San Francisco’s longest-running weekly drag and performance hotspot. Held on Nov. 17 at The Gift Center, the annual Miss Trannyshack Pageant drew hundreds of tranny-loving fans to see who would take the coveted crown. Heklina, draped in gold and in a platinum wig higher and wider than ever before, reminded everyone of “the bad old days of Trannyshack,” and joined Faux Queen Trixie Carr in an original song about Trannyshack, sung live to the music of “Love Shack” by the B-52’s: “Paint your face like a slut, and stick your dick up your butt,” said the lyrics, and concluded: “Bang bang bang on the men’s room door – blow … job … busted!” Following that, Assemblyman Mark Leno presented a certificate of recognition to the stepping down Miss T-shack, Raya Light. A very blonde Juanita More and her chorus boys and girls did a fabulous tribute to Aretha with “Respect.”
Raya gave her final performance as reigning Miss ‘shack, with a video above showing her as the perfect housewife, dusting furniture and snorting coke. She came out in person as the Vita-meata-vega-men girl from I Love Lucy, spooning the liquor-infused potion down her gullet. Suddenly there was a militaristic theme as Queen’s “We Will Rock You” played while warriors, Vikings, terrorists, and Nazis tried to attack her; but she beat them off (no, not THAT beating off) with a giant lollipop. They tore her clothes off and made her stand naked as the day she was born.
The Pageant featured a celebrity performance by superstar comic, actress & singer Miss Sandra Bernhard, who also judged the contestants along with James St. James, klub kid legend and author of Party Monster; Energy 92FM gay deejays Fernando & Greg; Midnight Mass’ Peaches Christ; and Miss Trannyshack 2004 Anna Conda. Brent Smith and the hot, hot, Hot House porn studs entertained, enlivened, and engorged the festivities. The judges were announced and escorted to their seats by Miss Precious Moments playing a dyke security guard. Bernhard tore up the house in her sexy black lingerie doing a whole standup routine about the difference between drag queens and bio girls – mainly in the arms and legs. “How fabulous to be a drag queen,” she said, “with no yeast infections and never getting menopause.” She snapped, “I love the acoustics in here; it’s like speaking through an empty paper towel tube.” She was dead-on right about that. It was extremely hard to hear in that giant echo chamber. Bernhard spoke about her “mother titties,” and how she did everything she could to push them up and out. “Now that I have a child, I expect everyone to nurture me, coddle me, and kiss my ass. I’m a mother, dammit!” She concluded, lauding “the faggots, dykes, and gays: “Thank God for all of you. Gay rights are human rights. You gotta turn this world around and tear this shit up!” She praised San Francisco as the City of love, and broke into the “If You’re Going to San Francisco, Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair” song. The house roared. . . .
Lost/Found Scrutinizes Masculinity
Sean Dorsey
By Sister Dana Van Iquity
The world premiere of Lost/Found came to Dance Mission Theater last weekend, and those who experienced it will never be quite the same.
Author/trans-dancer Sean Dorsey fuses modern dance, storytelling, and theater – meticulously examining and poking with a stick that mysterious enigma called masculinity. To quote Dorsey: a gender-bent look at masculinity’s newcomers, trespassers, runaways, and misfits spilling tales of best friends, diary secrets, teen idols, gender disobedience, bullying, loss, and faith.” As far as I know, Dorsey is the nation’s first transgender modern dance choreographer. He creates vigorous, compelling dances that force the audience to observe transgender “pubescence,” as it were. It is like looking through a microscope to focus on the effects of love, belonging, and place in a patriarchal society on those living on the margins of masculinity.
The show is performed by a stellar cast of dancers: Dorsey, Brian Fisher, James Graham, and Adam Venker, with guest artist writer/performers Kirk Read and Max Wolf Valerio. The concert is the featured culmination of the month-long Tranny Fest co-presented by Fresh Meat Productions and Tranny Fest.
While modern dance sometimes has a reputation of being cryptic and inaccessible, Dorsey’s goal is to make dances that people can actually understand and relate to. All of which is accomplished through a riveting narrative voiceover throughout.
“Bullied” deals with bullies and buddies. Regarding the former, in the narrator’s words: “people who don’t hold the proverbial door wide open for us, but rather slam it in our face.” Dorsey’s “Every-trans-man” grows up in junior high and high school at the mercy of mean-spirited jocks and mindless metal-heads. This is brilliantly illustrated through dance, as “E-t-m” covers his eyes, goes limp, and stoically endures the football player’s rough tackling and the pushing and pulling all around the floor by the tough guy. But at least this is a form of attention. Is that a negative? Which is worse? Being touched against your will or being untouchable? An outcast. The diametric opposite is a nancy-boy pansy homo queer-boy who Dorsey’s character latches onto – misery loves company - choreographed to perfection by the duo’s precise synchronicity of movements.
Next up is Valerio’s first-hand insight to the perils of “Binding” from his moving memoir, The Testosterone Files. He recalls with bittersweet humor both the humiliation and exhilaration of a newly pre-op trans man stealthily purchasing his first improvised binding device (to flatten those bad ol’ bouncing boobies). He desperately and not very successfully tries to fabricate a believable story of his “bad back” needing a posture belt (which he will use much higher up on the body to smash his breasts down) at Eva’s Corset Emporium.
Kirk Read (author of How I Learned to Snap) tells us most of his friends are taking testosterone – trans men, gay men in their ‘50s experiencing male menopause, body builders banging the juice, and guys who can’t grow their beards completely. Read performs “The Rogaine Experiment” that relates his relationship with the beard.com website that suggests smearing minoxydil on the parts of the face where follicles are sparse to nonexistent. Read’s concise and altogether witty explication and exposition on the process gives a beard’s-eye view (ouch, such a fowl pun) of the struggle to achieve that most masculine of facial features.
The final act, “Lost/Found,” is an extremely amusing dance duet of a new trans-man’s discovery of a young straight boy’s diary in a used bookstore. As he pores over the diary to see how it can teach him to grow up as a boy, he is somewhat disappointed that his found idol is somewhat of a nerd. But he finds a strange mutuality in their shared adoration of that hunky Wham singer guy, George Michael. This pas de deux is choreographed with the geeky boy and the diary reader dancing at times together as one and other times apart - “different but the same” as the narrator notes - finding a kind of brotherhood as the imagined pages turn and the boy’s daily notations are revealed, contrasted, and compared.
It could really change the world, helping to rid it from prejudice, discrimination, and harassment, if Lost/Found found its way into the hearts of mankind – gay, straight, bi, and trans – to show that we all share a vulnerability and insecurity when it comes to identifying our masculinity. . . .
Transgender student elected king
PASADENA - For Andrew Gomez, the month of November was one of firsts.
First, he broke the news to his mother that he was transitioning from a female to a male. Then the 24-year-old transgender student was elected Homecoming King at Pasadena City College.
Neither event came easily, but the second milestone nearly did not happen. PCC's homecoming committee initially ruled Gomez ineligible because of his pierced ear.
But after students complained, lodging charges of discrimination, the committee relented and reversed its decision. Gomez said his election earlier this month as Homecoming King surprised him, even though he initially ran hoping to become a source of inspiration for other gay, lesbian and transgender students.
"I wanted them to feel like they could do something like this, instead of having them feel, `I am not straight so I can't do this,"' Gomez said.
As child, Gomez was a tomboy, he said, always piling his long hair into a baseball cap.
"My mom would get really mad when I did that," he said.
Two years ago, he cut his hair short.
But Gomez is still in a transitional period. He hopes to have surgery, but acknowledges it will not happen for some time. There are still specialists to see, male hormones to be prescribed and a myriad of other changes before Gomez's transformation can be complete.
For now, he has taken simpler steps. Gomez binds himself, although "it is unnecessary, since I am nearly flat-chested," he said.
"He is a low-key person," said Sue Talbot, advisor to the United Rainbow Alliance, a PCC support and advocacy group for gays, lesbians and transgender people.
Of the latter group, Brian Kraemer, who heads Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a support group not affiliated with PCC, said he has seen more transgender individuals and their families attending the group's meetings.
Gomez, a creative-writing major, said getting his family to accept his decision has been difficult. Last summer, he posted a message on his Facebook page declaring his intention to become a man. Yet it was only earlier this month that he actually revealed it to his mother. . . .
One Laptop Per Child
Consider donating money and your talents to this project.
. . . there are jobs, too.
One Laptop Per Child by David Pogue
