Letter to the Editor, Out Magazine: Response to Biberpeople (1995)

©1995, 2013 by Dallas Denny

Source: Denny, Dallas. (1995,11 May). Letter to the editor: Biberpeople. Out Magazine.

I’m not sure if this was published.

11 May, 1995

Out Letters
101 Greene St., Ste. 600
New York, NY 10012

Dear Editor:

Elizabeth Cohen’s article “Biberpeople” in the May, 1995 issue of Out reminds me of nothing so much as a 1920s National Geographic piece in which white North American journalists try to convey the essence of being African to other North Americans. My goodness!

These natives speak English, and include some mightily talented writers. Why didn’t Out let transexual people speak for ourselves?

The article fuels the popular American fascination with genitals as the demarcation line between men and women. Most transexual people do not have genital surgery, but nonetheless identify in a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth, or as a third sex. Why didn’t Out focus on that, or on transexual activism instead of a 70 year-old surgeon in a little town in Colorado?

More seriously, Cohen’s piece is full of factual errors, misspellings, and errors of interpretations, not to mention being a rehash of an article by J. Tayman in the December, 1991 issue of Gentlemen’s Quarterly.

Face it, Out. The straight press did it first, and better.

Sincerely,

Dallas Denny

p.s. In the future, please keep in mind that AEGIS is an information clearinghouse for information about transgender and transsexual issues. We could have set Ms. Cohen straight (well, perhaps not straight, but we would have been happy to supply her with up-to-date and factual information.

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