Politics and Opinion

Radioactive Drag Queens from the Year 3000

I laughed; I cried.  It was entertaining; it was touching; but it was misguided. Such a drag!

We have an amateur festival of plays here aptly called the Fringe Festival – performances that are often off the wall, sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful, but always under and hour and cheap.

The title of this post is the title of the performance I took in tonight.  Apparently, by the year 3000, drag queens will be the most respected people in society.

There were plenty of laughs and some heartfelt performances in this story about an aging wanna-be drag queen waitress in a drag bar, whose performance of a lifetime ends up being a celebration of her drab self.

“It takes a lot of courage to put on a dress; it takes even more courage to be yourself.”

Hmmm…  there’s a mouthful…

…but so disappointing…

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total lack of consideration for the trans community

Mad Mad World – No Consideration for Others

Has common sense gone out the window?  Have people no sense of decorum, or consideration for others?

I could do no better than to shake my head in disappointment and shame after reading a story published by SF Weekly (their blogs section @  /thesnitch/2011/06/crossdressing_man_us_airways.php) late last month.  It concerned the denial of boarding privileges to a black football player who was wearing sagging baggy pants that exposed his underwear, while, in a separate incident, allowing a white man in his 60s to board wearing only a bra and panties. (Click here for the original story. ed. note: link removed due to security concerns about originating site.)

This whole episode offends me on so many levels. 

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Invisible

I am not accustomed to the political side of transgender life, so my attendance at today’s Trans March was a new thing for me.

As you can see from the photos, in the course of my participation, I happened to lend a hand to a couple of girls who were carrying a banner, and was photographed doing so.

Not a good idea for someone whose family and friends don’t know about my alter-ego. I had some concern I would end up on the front page of the newspaper and so made a point of checking the headlines and video.

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Pride Goeth Before the Summer

Being Pride Week hereabouts, I thought a post on Pride would be appropriate.  The title of this post is, of course, a play on the well-known biblical phrase from Proverbs.

So, what is Pride?  Well, depends who you ask.

These days, you are most apt to hear about it being a celebration of GLBT (+ an alphabet soup of other letters that have been appended thereto) rights, achievements, solidarity, community.

And, we have much to celebrate, and much awareness still to bring to the community at large; we have come far but have far to go.

But, much about the Pride parade has always made me uncomfortable. 

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the language of discrimination

I’ve Heard That Somewhere Before

The victims are different but the language of discrimination stays the same.

California is considering providing protections that would allow crossdressers to wear whatever they want to work.

One news source quoted a commentator on this issue, as follows:

“It will inherently cause customers to be uncomfortable and not want to do business…  This is about employers having to deal with employees who dress in a way that employers know will cost them either in terms of customers, employer morale, or employee operational efficiency…  If you have a mother taking her son to a store for back-to-school shopping and the retail clerk is a man dressed like a woman, the mother is going to take her son and go to another store.”

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Section 8

I read things once, and then again… not sure I understand it even now…

In Thailand, where 21 year-olds must report for military conscription, being a crossdresser gets you out of duty.  Permanently.

It also gets you a certificate that you must present to every employer, stating that you have a “permanent psychological abnormality.”

Interestingly, those who have had breast implants or SRS are not immediately exempt, and must report for 3 years before gaining their exemption.

My inference:  if you’re wearing women’s clothes but not transitioning, you’re a state-certified nut.

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pejic dossier cover topless controversy

Barnes and “No Balls”

The latest brouhaha on tap is over U.S. bookstore Barnes and Noble’s decision to treat as pornographic the cover photo of a topless man because he is effeminate and has curlers in his hair.

I understand the corporation’s desire to avoid problems, but bookstores, specifically, do have a certain obligation to support the freedoms of speech and expression.  To their (small) credit, they didn’t refuse to stock it, they just masked the cover.

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Live and Let Live

Live and Let Live – what a simple concept.

polis1

The victim of this hatred, 22 yr. old Chrissy Lee Polls

What provokes someone to lash out in violent hatred at another person just because they are different?

An incident in a Maryland McDonald’s reminds us of the simmering nastiness that lurks in people’s hearts.

As reported in the Huntington Post:

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Topless

A few of the girls coming to our Las Vegas fete are hell-bent on invading a topless swimming pool at one of the other hotels.

One is tempted to the reaction that this was much ado about nothing… to state it bluntly: take the top off a bikini-wearing crossdresser, and you have a man in a speedo!

Ok, ok, that’s not exactly right, I know.  With wigs and makeup, it would certainly have a different flavor, and those of the girls who are on hormones or who have implants would obviously have a completely different experience.

But, it struck me how, in a way, it is all coming full circle… to go through all these changes only to end up doing something we could have done any time without a second thought as guys, and making a big deal about it.

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Here’s to Airport Screeners

Traveling to Las Vegas, I opted out of the scary big machine scanner thingy, and took the pat-down instead.

The guy quickly radioed, “Female assist needed,” and within a few seconds, a female screener appeared.

The airport security authority has clearly bent over backwards to accommodate the most sexually sensitive people out there, from providing a same-sex screener for the pat-down, to instituting procedures requiring them to describe exactly how they are going to touch each part of your body.

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