Letter to Editor Jack Pelham, Etc. Magazine (1995)

©1995 by Dallas Denny

Source: Denny, Dallas. (1995, 11 June). Letter to editor Jack Pelham. Etc. Magazine (Atlanta).

I’m unsure of the issue in which this letter appeared.

11 June, 1995

Jack Pelham, Editor
Etc.
P.O. Box 8916
Atlanta, GA 30306

Dear Jack:

I was disappointed by the use of female pronouns to describe Brandon Teena, a female-to-male transsexual, in the New Blips section of the 9 June Etc.  It is the more unfortunate since Brandon Teena was murdered for living as a man.

Brandon Teena as not “posing as a man.” He was a man, despite having been born with a female body.

There is an unfortunate tendency for female-to-male transsexuals to be reclaimed as lesbian after their deaths. In Brandon Teena’s case, as in Billy Tipton’s, who was discovered to have a female body only after his death, there is no room for doubt that they identified as men. It does them, and all transsexual people, a grave disservice to dishonor them after death by turning them back into women.

I hope Etc. will be more sensitive to this issue in the future.

Sincerely,

Dallas Denny
American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.