(The Stranger In My Pants...)

N., I think that I could spend hours replying to what you wrote (about the cover article - Creative Loafing Vol. 30 No. 6). My thoughts are very similar, if not identical, about most of the issues. I really did try to read the article with an open mind. I tried to stop myself from ripping it to shreds and tried to keep telling myself that articles like this are necessary right now, but like you... I wish that they weren't. I wish that everyone just didn't even think about it... that there was no such thing as "Transsexual" or "Transgender" or "Intersexed" or any other label like that... that people were simply seen as people, and what a person has in their pants or chooses to wear is not worthy of a tv show or newspaper article.

Over the past week or so, I've participated in a discussion on Rape and Hate Crimes, happened to catch The Brandon Teena story on tv, and also stumbled onto an episode of American Justice Files which focused on Hate crimes and spent some time on the Matthew Shepard murder. In my world, even if I was "normal", I'd be constantly surrounded by these issues.

On this (my) board, I've heard members complain about the constant discussion about these issues. Yes, I know that it's my board, and that I can talk about anything I want, and etc. etc., but I often forget the real reason behind why I'm constantly "deconstructing" everything people post when it comes to sex and gender. There was a clip of Kate Bornstien in the Brandon Teena movie that reminded me why, yesterday. The trial was going on, I think it was Lotter's, and the Menace was there in full force. Kate had just come out of the court room, and was in tears. The locals were up in arms about the fact that there were activists present, and thought the whole thing was a load of horse shit.

Kate said that she moved to San Fran, and then Seattle to escape the hate and live in an environment that was safer. Seeing the trial, and the anti-gay/trans protesters brought it all back to her... why it was necessary to keep talking, and to keep supporting... to stay "active". After a while, when you're in a safer, more understanding environment, you forget what the rest of the world is actually like.


There is a good reason for articles like this one... the most important reason for it is simply... because articles like this one can still exist and sell soap. I only wish that the article was printed in bumfuck, Iowa or something. True, Atlanta still needs them, but Atlanta is about the safest space in the South. Maybe one day I'll see one that was printed in some small town in Nebraska.

Maybe one day (anything is possible), all these issues will be "old fashioned" and the kids will laugh at how closed minded their folks were when they stumble across old copies of articles like this.

One can hope.