A Word from the Editor (Chrysalis, 1991-1998)
Here are the Word From the Editor/Publisher columns from the various issues of Chrysalis.
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Giving Christianity a Bad Name (2005)
This American Taliban, these Western-Mullahs will not stop even when they have succeeded in packing the courts with judges who will not punish those who intimidate, harass, and kill us. They won’t stop when they’ve passed laws forbidding our behavior and mode of dress and outlawing our expressions of sexuality and gender. They won’t stop even when they have robbed us of the very freedoms for which our forefather fought and died.
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Plain Vanilla (2005)
The transgender community is filled with kinky people. I just don’t happen to be one of them. And you know what? It took a while, but these days I’m happy being plain vanilla.
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The Last Time I Dropped Acid (2006)
And so I proposed an experiment to a pre-op friend with whom I often talked gender theory—or she proposed the experiment to me, I forget which. We would drop the acid, and while we were peaking, we would look at ourselves, naked, in a full-length mirror. If we were frauds, fakes, creatures of artifice or perversion, “really” men, covert homosexuals, sinners, mockeries or stereotypes of women, if we were mentally ill or unnatural or self-deluding in any way, we would instantly know it; with our egos dismantled by the LSD, we would see ourselves as we really were.
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The Naughties (2005)
It’s high time the decade was give a title, and I propose to propose one. Why me, you ask? Why not me? It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
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About the Front Cover of Tapestry No. 106 (2004)
This issue’s cover generated considerable discussion among those responsible for this magazine: myself, Art Director Dave Bryant, IFGE Executive Director Denise Leclair, and Board Chair Hawk Stone. We knew the photograph we were considering would evoke strong responses in some of our readers— after all, it had had that effect on each of us. We asked ourselves a number of questions, ranging from “What is the scope and purpose of Transgender Tapestry?” to “What will this cover say about transgender issues in general, and Tapestry in particular?” Ultimately, we decided to use it.
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Pronoun Trouble (2004)
Pronouns are powerful. Speaking from experience, I know they can feel like little barbed arrows when they misidentify me. However, I that most pronoun misattributions are done innocently. We should get mad when pronouns are misused deliberately, but there’s no reason to get angry when people happen to make an unfortunate guess. They are, after all, merely reacting to what they see.
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Editorials on J. Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003-2004)
If Michael Bailey had purposefully set out to write a book that deliberately demeaned its subjects; if he had set a goal of eroding any respect he might have had as a scientist; if he had intended to subject himself to scorn and derision, he could hardly have done better than producing the inappropriately subtitled The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.
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But It All Seems So Normal! (2004)
I forget sometimes that according to whom you ask, I am immoral, debased, sinful, mentally ill, a fraud, a pervert, a repressed homosexual, or— my favorite—a tool of the patriarchy. I forget I am all this.
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The Man Who Would Write About Queens (2003)
This year has seen the release of a book that is destined to have the gay and transgender communities up in arms. It’s called The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science and Psychology of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. The imprint is Joseph Henry Press, a division of the National Academies Press, and the author is one Michael Bailey, a sexologist.
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Trankila (2003)
Our community is about nonconformity to gender stereotypes. We chafe when those stereotypes are applied to us. We must not show the same lack of sensitivity and compassion to those who don’t meet our own expectations.
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The Day the World Changed (2002)
This is the issue of Tapestry of which I am most proud. We finally had an art director who was able to create what I envisioned. I loved the page layout.
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The Ross Fireproof Hotel (2002)
The Ross is gone now, and I don’t even have a photo— but forever more, when I think of Nashville, I’ll smile, knowing the Batman-like outline of the BellSouth tower stands as a monument to my almost-girlhood at the Ross Fireproof Hotel.
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The Flip-Flopping Crossdresser (2002)
I firmly believe that when the world is safe for flip-flopping crossdressers, the world will be safe for me.
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9/11: Please Take Precautions While Traveling (2001)
To our readers who have lost loves ones, our deepest sympathies.
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Pine Lake
I live in the tiny municipality of Pine Lake, Georgia, population 621, the smallest city in the world with a nondiscrimination ordinance. And I didn’t even have to ask for it.
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Nons
Think about the term: nontranssexual. It says everything, doesn’t it? There are transsexuals, and then there are those who aren’t transsexual. The center, the norm, is the transsexual, and everyone else is not transsexual. It works for all of us: crossdressers and non-crossdressers, transgenderists and non-transgenderists, lesbians and non-lesbians, intersex and non-intersexed.
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GenderPAC’s Implosion (2001)
GenderPAC has exited stage left from the transgender theater— but it still wants our money. What say, let’s not give it to them.
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Fools Rush In (2000)
Bottom line, there are no guarantees in this world, and certainly none for transfolk. Consequently, it’s important that we proceed carefully along our transgender paths, pacing ourselves, burning as few bridges as possible, testing the waters whenever possible, and doing whatever we can to minimize disruption. I’m not saying “don’t transition”— certainly I’m not saying that— I’m merely saying transition can be a mine field. Only a fool would rush into a mine field.
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A Word from the Editor, Tapestry No. 90 (2000)
Editing this magazine is and always has been a balancing act. Transgender Tapestry is, as its name implies, a blend of human experience. Our contributors are a diverse lot. Some are crossdressers, some are transsexual, some are intersexed, some identify as both genders, and some as neither. Our readers are gay, straight, bisexual, and asexual, young, old, rich, poor, politically conservative, politically liberal, politically disinclined, black, white, Asian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, atheist, pantheistic, Wiccan, and every shade in between. Some are mental health professionals, some are ministers, and some are partners, spouses, family, significant others, or supportive others. Those interested in gender expression come from all walks off life.
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A Word from the Editor (Tapestry #89) (2000)
I would like Transgender Tapestry to be of interest to anyone who has ever questioned any aspect of their gender role, from desiring a job that isn’t “gender appropriate” to being ridiculed for wearing hair that’s “too short” or “too long” to having a voice that’s “too high” or “too low” in pitch to loving someone of the “wrong” gender.
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Never Give Up… (2000)
One Saturday afternoon in late July I was wakened from a nap by the telephone. It was my mother. By the time I was fully awake, we were chatting as if it had not been eleven years since we had spoken.
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My Female Brain (2004)
Maybe it’s time for us to quit claiming we have female brains or male brains and just be honest— we identify as members of the non-natal sex. We have every right to do so. Let’s stop using our brains as justification.
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A Word from the Editor: HBIGDA (2002)
In this postmodern age in which more and more of us are strong and sure of ourselves, I’m no longer sure of the appropriateness of the Standards of Care, and I’m becoming more and more certain that it’s unethical to apply constraints to a class of people without solid evidence that they are needed.
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