Upcoming
Group Meetings
Tennessee Vals
Newsletter APRIL 2001
Upcoming
Group Meetings
In This Issue:
Vals Special Events:
Saturday April 28
Night in White 2001, Loews Vanderbilt Plaza
Tickets start at $35. Get more
info at www.nightinwhite.org
The Queens Throne by Marisa
Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
The March meeting is one that I hope will prove useful to many. The visit by Dr. Eugene Schrang was very informative for all who may be contemplating genital surgery. Far too often, people collect only limited amounts of information before making important decisions. His willing to meet with us and discuss his work will go a long way towards helping those considering surgery make an informed decision.
This month, April means many things, like Opening Day and Income Taxes, but here it also means our annual board elections. Groups like the Tennessee Vals are totally run by volunteers. The commitment that people make is what the word support is all about. Of course, the past year has been full of trials and tribulations as we bounce from event to another, sometimes with few problems, and at other times with many. The seven people who have comprised the board over the past year are not Bad to the Bone, but are just trying to make the experience of being transgendered easier for all of us. This past year has been an especially eventful one for us.
In previous years, we had been bouncing around nightclubs in Nashville and elsewhere gaining quite a reputation for ourselves. Many were surprised to discover that such an out and fun-loving group could actually exist here. They just assumed we were from Atlanta. One night, while we hanging out in our favorite nightclub, Tricia Anne came up to us and said that if we submitted to her, she could make us all stars. She arranged an audition with one company, but we were told that lip-synching transies were passé. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Finally, one company agreed to give us a chance although we were told we needed one more blonde, so we agreed to invite Holly Storm of the Hurricanes. She said “Whazzup?” After buying her several Purple Hooters, she finally said yes. So our lineup was complete.
Our first home video was titled Oh Please, Oh Please. It was a smash hit. Our subsequent efforts were also big hits and Nashville was swept by Valmania. The big time still eluded us, however, so we hopped a plane to New York to make our national television debut on Live With Regis. Valmania now swept the nation. We decided to take advantage of the momentum and do a full length motion picture about our lives and experiences called Hard Up All Night. It featured us sitting in bars with a bunch of portly, middle aged, balding men who bought us cocktails and tried to stick their hands up our skirts. It was very realistic.
As Valmania continued to grow, we quickly began work on a second film. It featured us trying to save Holly from a guy with a strange accent (Brooklyn, I think), who wanted to do all sorts of deviant things to her. It was titled Don’t Help Me! We followed it with a full nationwide tour which included our now legendary performance at New York’s Mary Kay Ballroom.
At this point, we could do no wrong, but our luck was about to run out. When we released the video Is It Yesterday or Today? It featured the controversial Blue Eye Shadow cover. We were accused of promoting tackiness, so it was replaced with a less offensive cover. The original, in mint condition, is now a valuable collector’s item. We then took a tour of the east. At one nightclub called Imelda’s, the resident top queen starting screeching at us saying that we had insulted her by wearing sexier shoes than her. We hightailed it out of there in a hurry only to discover that Kelly Lynn, who was driving, had locked the keys in the trunk, so we had to wait nervously on the sidewalk until some hunk came along and rescued us.
When we returned home, yet another problem awaited us. It seems Julie had been quoted in a magazine interview saying “I’m perkier than Kathie Lee!” Fans were outraged and began to burn our videos and picket our performances. So after a final show in San Francisco, we agreed to concentrate on videos alone.
Our next video was going to be about our lives in Nashville, but as we began work, the production company got impatient waiting, so we gave them Strawberry Daiquiris Forever and $20 Alley. Many fans were upset that we had moved away from our teenybopper-ish, schoolgirl image to assume a grittier, sluttier look. They did not do as well as our previous projects, so many claimed that we were now washed up. Since we no longer had the theme of Nashville, we decided to assume alter egos as we completed the project with a new theme: Tammy Faye Bakker’s Original Cosmetology All Star Team. It was immediately hailed as our masterpiece. Many had fun identifying the diva role models in the scene behind us although the production company was worried some might sue us. Fortunately, that never happened. It was only after the release that they realized we had slipped in a bunch of product endorsements at the bottom for which we had received under the table payments. (Memo to IRS: I never saw any money. ). We then did a special worldwide broadcast of All You Need is Hairspray.
Looking for new adventures, Stephanie Sands (the quiet Val) invited us to go on retreat with her in order to bang drums, and consume mass quantities of dark beer and roasted Ravens. We all agreed to go. But Stephanie was late. Once she did show and we hit the road, we got an emergency phone call. It seems our scheduling manager, Chrysis, had been arrested for prostitution, so we had to turn around to bail her out of jail. While we were sitting around, we decided to self produce our own home video. We rented a bus and drove out to Dickson County doing makeovers. We called it Mystical Makeup Tour. It did not get a lot of good reviews although it was highlighted by Julie’s classic, I Am the Lioness.
After that, we finally did get to go on retreat where we spent a lot of time analyzing Al Del Greco’s form. His kicking style, too. When we returned home, we were full of fresh ideas. As we were hard at work, we agreed to the production of a full length animated film of ourselves: Yellow Bikinis. I never look so svelte in my entire life. When we finished work, we went with just the group’s name, Tennessee Vals, although it became popularly known as “The Lavender Collection” because of the simple, solid-colored cover. Many had a hard time understanding Julie’s contribution, Regis Was a 9, which consisted of a lot of moaning sounds.
This was about the same time that Julie introduced us to the new love of her life, although many fans were upset and wanted to know how a delicate Carolina flower could bring herself to date....a Yankee!
We were then informed that Yellow Bikinis did not meet the terms of our movie contract. We had to make one more live action film, so we decided to make it as a documentary of the making of a Vals’ video. In one scene, Kelly and I get into a vicious catfight over who got to look the sluttiest, which quickly turned into a mudwrestling match. Finally, in order to complete the project, we decided to go up on the roof of the studio where we mooned passerbys until the cops came and told us to quit or they would throw us into jail with a gang of Brooklyn thugs. Once we dragged Holly out of jail kicking and screaming, she gave us the semi-autobiographical The Ballad of Holly and Vinnie.
Unhappy
with the previous effort, we knew we needed to give it one last try before
we broke up. The result was Skid Row, one of our best ever videos.
However, an interesting phenomenon occurred after its release. Many claimed
it contained clues suggesting I was having an illicit love affair with a
controversial film actor, and these clues dated all the way back to Tammy
Faye Bakker. It was even rumored that if you played Regis Was a 9
backwards, you can clearly make out the words “Marisa is Jar Jar’s
main squeeze.”
So there you have it, A Year in the Life of the board of the Tennessee Vals. Nobody knows what the next year has in store, but you should make a commitment to being a part of whatever does happen.
A
Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead
byJulie
Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
And your name would be....???
I’ve always felt sorry for the kids who are cursed with stupid-sounding names. Their parents have virtually guaranteed their child a fate almost worse than death—having their name snickered about and rhymed with impolite words.
Most of us in our community eventually get to choose a name by which we wish to be known, whether legally or socially. That’s a very cool treat for anyone, but especially someone who’s been stuck with a lousy boy name that somehow could be rhymed with bathroom activities or feminine hygiene products. A chance to right a wrong, you might say—albeit in a different gender.
I think every TG’s name choice reveals a lot about our individual personalities, about who we are—or perhaps about the person we WANT to be.
Since we are in many ways our own creation, what with clothing, hairstyle, hair color and makeup choices all playing a factor in the personality we’re presenting to the world, we have the honor of choosing the name that best fits us.
In my case, I knew I wanted a friendly name; a name that sounded youthful and came with a little bit of class— but not a lot of pretension. Not that there’s anything wrong with choosing Imelda Trump or Zsa Zsa Porsche. I, however, wanted friendly and simple, so feel free to call me Julie.
I know a lot of girls chose names from their family for sentimental reasons. That’s really quite sweet if you have a good selection of names to work from. But with aunts and great-aunts and great-great aunts named Beulah, Bertha, Fern and Petunia, you might want to go looking elsewhere for inspiration. After all, TG girls are almost as good as school-yard bullies when it comes to rhyming names.
My absolute favorite names in the world are the ones chosen by drag queens. They often go for broke, opting for the most glamorous combination of names possible or the worst puns since Vaudeville.
If you interested in performing and want a high-glamour stage name, here’s a tip I’ve discovered: put the word “St.” between your first and name names. It always sounds classy, no matter what the names are that surround it. Go ahead, test it out…. Tiffany St. Monroe….Amber St. Croix…. See, it always works!
Beulah St. Pappenfuss…..Bertha St. Thermos….Minneapolis St. Paul...Well, perhaps “always” is too strong a word to use.
The intentionally goofier sounding names are the best though. My current fave is the drag queen who hosts Gay Bingo in Philadelphia: Carlotta Ttendant. That is a tough name to beat!
Another favorite belonged to a girl who used to perform camp drag in Nashville. (I hope it was camp! The fact that her sideburns were showing out from under her wig led me to believe it was.) Her name was Iona Trailer.
The one time I saw Iona Trailer perform was at a pageant held at the classy Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Holding true to her name, she took the stage in a dress made from a Confederate flag and proceeded to lip-sync to all eight minutes and 42 seconds of Tom T. Hall‘s classic, “Harper Valley PTA.” No drag pageant has been held at T.P.A.C. since.
Traveling around the southeast, I’ve noticed the last name “Cox” coming up quite often. Lotta Cox, Shomea Cox; you get the idea. I know I’ve personally seen two different Sofonda Coxes—er, Coxs—uh, Coxi?
Other honorable mentions in my list of great drag names include Helena Handbasket and Ginger Vitis.
I take to the stage myself once in a while, but I’m not interested in coming up with yet ANOTHER name to keep track of. Geesh, I’m confused enough as it is. I could see me sitting backstage, the emcee announcing my name, and me just sitting there. “What? She called me? Are you sure I’m me? I mean, her? That sounds like my song they’re playing.”
I guess there’s a little bit of drag queen in a lot of us, even if we aren’t performers. We do like to be showy, even if it‘s in a low-key way. A good example is the way some spell non-exotic names in very exotic ways. I took note of this after a snippy exchange with an attendee at Southern Comfort. For this story, let’s call her Misty Sue Smith. Misty and I were going to exchange addresses so we could keep in touch. I proceeded to write her name down, spelling it “Misty Sue Smith”. Stop your writing Julie, you’re not even close! It turned out she spelled it along the lines of “Mys-tee Tszu Smythe.” I commented, harmlessly, that it was an unusual spelling. She shot back with something about Julie being a funny sounding name that no one could spell, and then stormed off in a huff.
That’s just how personal and important our chosen names are to us. They’re so personal that even a casual, non-rhyming remark can get someone’s panties all in a wad. (By the way, it’s much easier to walk in a huff if your panties were wadded—but that’s another story for another adult video.)
Pick a name that’s reflects the glamorous and fabulous person you feel, or one that’s as down to earth and real as you are . Just try not to get upset if I misspell it.
Until next month
Peace,
Jewel-lee Fillipp-zuh
My Closet by Leslie Louise DuPaix lldupaix@hotmail.com
Good morning, Daddy!
Ain't you heard
the boogie-woogie rumble
of a dream deferred?
Langston Hughes
I imagine the boogie-woogie rumble of a dream deferred sometimes would seem to be a good choice for the background music for most of the scenes in a "T" person's life story. To move to a scenario where more tranquil background music is appropriate requires accepting and understanding the dream deferred and then taking it off of "hold."
Understanding the dream deferred along with the search for balance, acceptance, self forgiveness and just basic understanding quickly focuses on the inner self. I may be able to fool the outside world but I am too smart to fool myself for very long and there is always the boogie-woogie rumble in the background to keep me stirred up. This search for basic understanding has led me into a lot of things. Past life regression through hypnotherapy; divination and the fringes of the so-called "occult," conventional mainstream psychotherapy, journaling and lots of reading.
One of the more sustaining "reads" is Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore (Harper-Collins, 1992). It is not a one-read book. It is the sort of book that the first reading leaves you with enough insights to keep your mind going for quite a while, and then, later on a feeling that you missed most of what it really had to say. So, in search for some thoughts on another idea for a future column I returned to Care of the Soul and found enough for a whole lifetime of columns. A quick summary of what this all about and where I am going with it is that soul ". . . has to do with genuineness and depth, as when we say certain music has soul or a remarkable person is soulful." (p. x, introduction). He continues: "When you look closely at the image of soulfulness, you see that it is tied to life in all its particulars - good food, satisfying conversation, genuine friends, and experiences that stay in the memory and touch the heart."
What really jumped out at me was when he said (still on the first page of the introduction!): "When soul is neglected, it doesn't just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions violence and loss of meaning." On page 18 he discusses Care vs. Cure and points out that "cure" implies an end to trouble and worry, whereas "care" implies ongoing attention.
"Shallow therapeutic manipulations aimed at restoring "normality" or "tuning a life according to standards" reduces - shrinks - that profound mystery to the pale dimensions of a social common denominator referred to as the adjusted personality." (P. 19-21, emphasis by " " are mine - lldp). When he talks about caring for the soul requires a different language that goes beyond the limitations of the language of therapy and academic psychology and lists the arts, mythology and dreams he at once anticipated the whole underlying theme of all of my columns and validated what I am trying to say in this one.
One of the cheapest and sometimes most rewarding tools for understanding and caring for your soul is paying attention to your dreams ("dreams" in the more limited sense of what goes on in your head when sleeping, rather than the broader sense of the word as used by Langston Hughes). Paying attention to the nocturnal dreams will probably help in understanding the other kinds of dreams.
In theory we dream several times every night. In most cases we don't know that we did. Sometimes the dream is so vivid that we remember snatches of it for days. The theory behind dream reading is that at night the sub-conscious has free rein over the brain and its language is the language of symbols, not words. Another key point is that with the possible exception of a very close loved one, everyone in your dream is an aspect of you. So a male dreaming of a female should think in terms of his female self trying to say something. A coupling between a male and female could very well mean that the male sub-self is willing to connect with the female sub-self.
My current waking life is full of lots of changes in just about every aspect of it. These columns trigger and are triggered by a lot of internal churning and movement which in turns triggers changes in external attitudes and behavior and so it goes. Nature does not seem to like long naps.
I dreamed that I had just bought a new mini-van. Actually it was physically new, but design wise it was an old VW split window "hippie" type van current in the ‘60s. I wrote this all down in the spiral notebook I keep next to the bed for this purpose and reflected on my feelings during the dream and what I thought it meant. I consulted my dream symbol book (The Dream Book, Betty Bethards, Element Books, 1995). I thought some more.
Vehicles mean movement. A large capacity vehicle mean carrying lots of stuff. So I saw this as meaning that I was taking steps to start a journey. The choice of vehicles indicated that I was going to proceed in a slow and practical manner and that the journey would include a lot of spirituality, relaxation and happiness (things that I personally associate with old style VW busses). I thought a bit why I would choose the older style split-windshield model. There were plenty of other vehicles in my mental symbol file that could have expressed all of the above. I decided that on this trip I am preparing for I will continue to see the world through two different windows. It is important that I continue to maintain my "split view" of the world on this journey. The split-two-paned view of the world is of course the two ways a twin-spirited "T" person is.
Left
of Center by Pamela DeGroff
All the Pretty Horses Part Two of Two
One of the interesting things about writing is that people send you ideas, and sometimes they even send you...well, stuff. A while back, I received in the mail a copy of a CD entitled “Ruin”, by the band All The Pretty Horses. It came as part of their press kit, and the photo on the back of the CD looked intriguing. So did the rest of the material, for that matter.
All The Pretty Horses is the brainchild of transgendered performance artist Venus, who formed the band in 1996, in Minneapolis. Venus, on guitar and vocals, is also a painter, filmmaker, poet, and the recipient of a McKnight Artist’s Fellowship for 2000-01. They are described in their press materials as an “all-Amazon glam rock band with a dark side...their image blends glam, fetish, and goth...”. Of course, there are the comparisons to David Bowie and Black Sabbath.
They have
three CD’s: “Ruin” (Skindog 2000), “Queens and Angles”
(TRG 1998), and “All The Pretty Horses” (self 1997). They have
played venues in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, and San Diego, as well as
Minneapolis. During 2000, All The Pretty Horses hosted the La Belle
Epoque fetish costume balls in Minneapolis and St. Paul to celebrate and
embrace fetish imagery and fashions.
With the help of a generous portion of cassette and video tape, the members of All The Pretty Horses (Venus, guitar/vocals; Jendeen, drums; Pandora, bass; and newest member Emily on harmony vocals) sat down to talk about their music, themselves, and many, many other issues...
PAMELA DeGROFF: You are heavily influenced by the glam rock era. When most people think of glam rock, acts such as David Bowie, KISS, Gary Glitter, come to mind. Perhaps even performers such as Lou Reed, Marc Bolan of T.Rex could be included. What exactly do you feel glam rock is? Who are your main influences?
VENUS: That’s a good question. Actually, we’ve been thinking about what glam rock is. I think we’re not from that era, so we’re not going to sound like it, and we really didn’t set out to write music to make it glam rock. We just wrote music and we’re a live band. We don’t have pre-recorded drums or synthesizers, or anything like that. It’s just bass, guitar, and drums. We just kind of defaulted to the classic rock and roll sounds. We also pay attention to our look on stage, so we have that costume and appearance...trying to make something a little bit interesting for people to come see us perform live. Because we’re a live band, we default to the glam style of music.
PANDORA: I think it’s rather an intuitive or natural thing for us to do. It’s natural to kind of call it glam because we enjoy that music, although as musicians, we’re not from that era, obviously.
JENDEEN:You can play powerful music without being angry. I think the Horses have a lot to offer in that sense, as far as kick ass rock and roll, but not having to be pissed off all the time.
PANDORA: There’s a lot of energy and angst that’s involved.
EMILY: There’s a good balance in the songs.
JENDEEN: Over time, the band has changed a little bit, because the players are different. Each player brings their own touch. When the glam scene was going on, in those days, I was a jazz Nazi. I didn’t listen to rock and roll at all. This is sort of new to me. My rock and roll thing is from a Zeppelin point of view.
VENUS: Vocally, I love David Bowie. His vocal ability, the melody. Yeah, he’s a big influence. Like Velvet Underground a lot. Lou Reed...I like the intensity. I like Iggy Pop. I like a lot of people from that era. That kind of defaults the style of singing that I do. But I also like new music. I like a lot of the industrial stuff. I like that energy.
JENDEEN:I was a Beatles child. That was the first band that got me totally excited about music, and then playing instruments. Then Zeppelin, then The Who. Then I basically went to Yes, Mahavishnu, also Count Bassie, Duke Ellington, early jazz. I still like that. There’s so many other things...
PANDORA: It not even a rock and roll music thing, it’s a MUSIC thing. To me, influences in my life and music have always been not necessarily the genre, but if they have enough soul to raise the hair on the back of your neck, that’s always been my test.
EMILY: I sort of agree with Pandora. I grew up listening to my brother’s albums. He’s about six years older. He’s a huge fan of Joni Mitchell, Elton John, David Bowie. Joni Mitchell’s lyrics and voice, pretty much like Pandora said, raise the hair on the back of your neck. There’s so many bands...it could go on forever.
PAMELA: Does All The Pretty Horses want to known as a glam rock band, or a transgendered band, or does any of that even matter to you?
VENUS:We don’t want to be known as a transgender band. I just want to be known as a band. We happen to be transgender, but our focus isn’t to try and create that, it just happens to be.
PAMELA: Any thoughts on the current state of the music industry?
VENUS: As far as the music industry, I think the Internet and the whole Web thing is really good...it kind of brings back that do-it-yourself possibility that the punk era had. I think it’s making the bigger record labels nervous. As far as financial help from the record industry, I don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen.
PANDORA: It’s the commercial mainstream radio stations that define that. They want someone to buy this crap and all they’re marketing is hate and cuteness. I think that defines the state of the music industry...as bulls**t.
VENUS:The bands that are being created (now) are being created for a specific male/female audience. We’re bringing in this whole trans issue. What are you attracted to? What do you like? What do you think that person is? What are you prepared to take on? I’m something different. I have a male voice when I sing...I guess that what I’m trying to say is that maybe there is more to it than the short cropped, sports guys, and the real cute girls...maybe there’s more to it. Maybe there’s more to life. We don’t know that, ‘cause we’re just watching TV, we’re listening to the big radio stations. We don’t know, but I’ll bet you there’s a lot of groups like us out there, and there’s a lot of audience who wants to hear what we’re doing.
JENDEEN: The other thing is, they don’t know what they’re missing until they see it.
VENUS: We’re challenging a lot of traditions on that, because the audience has to deal with who we are. Pandora:...and it makes them think. They can’t just be complacent in the traditional roles of things that have gone on. What they’re seeing is going to cause them to think. It’s a very personal thing.
JENDEEN: It’s kind of ironic, in a sad way, that some of the rock and roll attitude is very similar to the redneck attitude that the original rock and rollers, when they were younger, were speaking out against. Those young people that used to be the pioneers are now the rednecks saying to us, “What the f**k is this?” They’re so tied up in this little, teeny perception of what they as people can be comfortable with.
VENUS:I think what we’re doing is the real spirit of rock and roll, of challenge, or making people question and think about what is going on.
PAMELA: The lyrics to the tune Black Leather on the new CD are the only reference to anything relating to transgender themes. I haven’t heard the previous two CDs, but do you have any other songs that are specifically transgender in nature?
VENUS: ‘Angel’, off our second CD, is about trans. ‘Wired’ is about trans issues. Generally, my lyrics are all coming from me, and they have an element of a trans perspective, on everything that I write about. If you listen to it and think about it, it’s my perspective. The songs are personal, so they do reflect some trans issues.
PAMELA: How closely do you pay attention to transgender issues such as the fight for inclusion in ENDA legislation, hate crimes, discrimination issues, etc., that affect the gender community?
VENUS: I try to stay up on them, as often as I can access the print media. I’ve gone through some of those same struggles. Minnesota, where we’re based, is the only state that has protection specifically tailored for trans people. It’s a long process, we have a lot to do.
JENDEEN: Even though we have the Human Rights Act of 1993, which gives equal rights...you can’t be discriminated against because of the way you present yourself, whatever gender. The state says you can’t be discriminated against. It’s constant vigilance...the far right is always thinking of ways to undermine the 1993 Human Rights Act. This vigil never stops. The good about people who want to take away this common courtesy of human rights is that it forces people who are going to be affected by that directly to galvanizing, to making sure that doesn’t happen. You are forced to act or be taken to task for not acting. Once you get out of the closet, if you’re ever in one in the first place, there’s no way you’re ever gonna go back.
PAMELA: How do you feel about the way transgendered people are represented in the media?
VENUS: Well, growing up, there was nothing. Everybody was like a murderer, or a freak, or deviant or comic relief.
JENDEEN: Except Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny was cool.
VENUS:I think it will eventually change if we keep going in the direction we are. But for now, the trans people are always represented as somehow tragic and damaged in the best sense of their presentation. At this point, the best we can hope for is that they are a tragic figure who can get empathy from an audience. That’s not the reality. Not everybody is a tragic figure. A lot of people in the trans community have everything together, and are doing just fine. It’s unfortunate that the entertainment industry has to present them as a tragic figure at best, in order to find a place for us in films, TV , or whatever.
PAMELA: In you press materials, you also talk about your involvement in an event called the La Belle Epoque, a fetish costume ball. Care to elaborate about this event? How long has it been going on? How often are you involved with it?
VENUS: The concept of a fetish festival for us to do in the city has been going on for about a year...two years. I got inspired when we toured out to New York...very excited about the way they did things out there with theme nights, and the bars themselves were more shows for promoters to put together a theme event within. It was the promoter’s decision. I took that idea, brought it back here to Minneapolis, and decided to go one step farther and make it the bands decision to become the promoter of the evening. We’re trying to invite the audience to come in costume, to dress up as outrageously as possible, as flamboyant as possible.
PAMELA: What is the McKnight Artists Fellowship?
VENUS:It’s a fellowship to help support a performance artist or a multi disciplinary artist, to create a performance which would reflect their interest in multi-disciplinary work. I did get one this year (in 2000), and I’m looking at doing a performance next year, and I would like to include the band in that, and try to get a hybrid of what the rock and roll venue has to offer as well as what the art venue has to offer. The intent of the support money is given to help offset the cost and the time to create that performance.
PAMELA: In the press materials, it says, “...began HIS artistic career...” and “...sings in HIS own voice...” Why the use of the masculine pronouns? Some transgender people get really upset with the use of the wrong pronoun. You obviously don’t care, or is that an assumption on my part?
VENUS: Actually, I prefer to try to get the in-between slang which is hi/r, as often as possible. I like to keep that ambiguity. I do care, that was an oversight. I’ll have to go and find those things now.
JENDEEN: That’s an interesting point, though, because when people say that to specifically mess with you, it’s a very social discourtesy. Sometimes people say stuff because they don’t know, sometimes they say, ‘Hey, you guys.’ Some trans people, when they’re adopting a female persona, get really irritated by that, when in fact, they’re not really helping the situation. They’re just sort of showing their own insecurity at the moment for an honest mistake. ‘Guy’ is sort of a term that applies to men AND women anyway. But someone says, ‘Hey, buddy’, you know they’re messing with you because you can tell. You just ignore that person...who cares what they say? Some trans people, in that regard, get a little bit anal about it, so just relax.
VENUS: Something that I’m beginning to understand is that I will be seen as a trans person no matter what. I could spend all the money in the world, I could do all the surgery in the world, I could do everything possible, and I’m still going to be a trans person, and people will se me as that. So, at a certain point, I have to begin to understand that my identity is of someone with a unique upbringing and a unique present tense. That’s not going to be just easily dismissed by making everyone say that they have to call me by the gender that I’m trying to appear as. That’s not gonna happen. They’re still going to be thinking that I’m a trans person that wants to be addressed as that. Why not find the strength and the uniqueness of being a trans person, whether that be male to female, or female to male? We should be proud of who we are, and we should not be embarrassed by it.
JENDEEN: Worry about what shoes you’re gonna wear. That’s more important.
news, media mentions, etc...
Killer of TG Youth Gets 15 Years to Life
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced the killer of a transgender youth to 15 years to life in prison after a tearful speech by the victim's mother who told the defendant: "I hope you never forget what you've done . . . you've torn my family apart and I cannot forgive you."
Kozi Santino Scott was convicted in January of strangling 19-year-old Alina Marie Barragan -- a biological male who dressed as a woman and legally changed his name from Manuel Reyes Eredia -- after they had sex and Scott realized Barragan was a male. Scott hid the body in the trunk of a car.
Scott, a 22-year-old hotel worker who sat shackled several feet from Linda Barragan, Alina's mother, looked away as she directed her comments to him.
Barragan said she was disappointed that Scott did not receive a life sentence, but, she told him: "By your being in prison for several years, this can prevent one more person from getting hurt by you."
Scott could have drawn a first-degree murder conviction for the crime, which would have ended in a 25-years-to-life sentence. But the jury on Jan. 19 returned a second-degree murder verdict. Jurors also determined that the crime was not a gender-based hate crime, as prosecutors had argued...
Before Judge John T. Ball sentenced Scott, the 22-year-old's attorney, Charles Gillan, asked the court to set aside the verdict, saying it was unfair. Ball said the evidence supported the verdict and denied his motion.
Gillan, a deputy public defender, plans to appeal the case. He contends that Scott did not intend to kill Barragan and that the strangulation was an accident. At trial, Gillan had argued that Scott used a wrestling choke hold during a scuffle with Barragan, intending only to temporarily disable his larger, more powerful opponent...
Barragan said: "The thing that hurt so much was having to sit and hear what he did to my baby, shoving her in the trunk of a car like she was trash. She was a human being, she had a family, and we accepted her for what she was."
Scott was charged with killing Barragan during a scuffle in Scott's studio apartment on Hester Avenue in San Jose in January 2000. The prosecution had argued that Scott became enraged after discovering that Barragan, who he originally thought was a woman, was male, and that the scuffle started because Barragan refused to acknowledge his biological masculinity, as Scott demanded.
Source: by Connie Skipitares San Jose Mercury News 03/03/01
Sheriff Backs Deputy's Transitioning/ Barney Fife Uncharacteristically Feels Unthreatned
A high-ranking Bexar County deputy undergoing a transformation from man to woman got public support Monday from Sheriff Ralph Lopez as well as deputies he supervises.
"I support Lt. (Brian) Lunan's constitutional right to make individual choices," Lopez told reporters at a news conference at Bexar County Jail.
"As sheriff, I have to support everyone's constitutional rights," said Lopez, citing provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Lopez said the federal law required his office to make a "reasonable accommodation" regarding Lunan's decision.
Minutes later, on the sidewalk in front of the jail, a circuslike demonstration featuring two men preaching that God hates homosexuals attracted scant attention, except from reporters, news camera crews and Christie Littleton, a San Antonian who underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1979.
Lopez said Lunan would be the first Bexar County deputy to undergo a sex change while keeping a law enforcement job.
Elsewhere across the county, sex changes among law officers go back at least to the late 1970s.
Lunan is the highest-ranking officer in the sheriff's traffic unit, which comprises 16 deputies within the patrol division and is headquartered at the Windsor Park substation.
On duty Monday afternoon at the substation where Lunan works, Sgt. Ronald Dale Bennett said he supports his supervisor and believes other officers stand behind him.
Lopez told reporters he had asked Lunan, a 15-year veteran, to attend the news briefing but Lunan declined.
Instead, Lopez circulated a written statement that he said Lunan had initialed.
"I have been diagnosed as having gender identity disorder," the statement began, adding, "I will be receiving treatment to correct this problem."
Lunan's statement said he was grateful for backing he got from top administrators.
Among the rank and file, Bennett said Lunan's revelation was a "complete shock to all of us."
At the same time, Bennett said, "He's a damn good lieutenant and a damn good supervisor, fair to everybody."
Bennett said he expects to maintain the same professional relationship with Lunan that they established when the lieutenant took command of the traffic unit several months ago.
Reflecting back on the mid-1980s, when both he and Lunan got into law enforcement, Bennett said he doubted a deputy then could have kept his badge in Bexar County if he elected to undergo a sex change.
Lopez said Lunan has three children but declined to say anything else about the deputy's family. Lopez told reporters: "The society is changing. You have to be responsive."
In past years, officers who were openly gay or who underwent sex changes left law enforcement, Lopez said.
The sheriff said Lunan first revealed his intentions Feb. 21, when he went to Chief Deputy Roland Tafolla seeking permission to grow his hair longer than regulation length for male officers.
Lopez said the department granted Lunan's request, adding that when the lieutenant's hair grows longer than regulation length, he'll be required to work in plain clothes...
Lopez, who last November won re-election to another four-year term as sheriff, said the department will continue accommodating Lunan's transformation, a process he said takes about three years.
Source: by Bill Hendricks San Antonio Express-News 03/05/01
SHOWBIZ: Billy Bob's TS Murder Movie
Billy Bob Thornton will star in Propaganda Films' Behind the Sun for writer-director Robby Henson. Budgeted at about $6 million, the thriller is slated to begin shooting the third week of March in Louisiana. Sun is about a police officer (Mr. Thornton) in a small town that is rocked by the death of a transsexual. The officer learns that some of the highest-ranking officials in the city and state may be involved in a cover-up.
source: Dallas Morning News/Hollywood Reporter 03/06/01
Ann Landers Rules!!
Dear Ann:
I read with interest the letter
from "Heartache in Santa Cruz, Calif.," whose mother stopped speaking to
her two years ago because she thought the grandchildren "had no manners."
You said "Heartache" should tell Mom she wants to try again, and you couldn't
imagine a mother who would not agree to keep the door open. Well, don't be
so sure, Ann. My parents want absolutely nothing to do with me, and I have
extended the olive branch twice.
Seven years ago, I came out of the
closet and informed my parents that I was a transsexual and planned to have
surgery to become a female. I know this was a shock to them, but since my
confession, they have treated me like dirt. When I asked them to please call
me by my female name, "Madeline," they said they could never do that. When
I tried to see them after my sex-change operation, my father slammed the
door in my face. They have made it clear they will never accept me as a female.
My parents do not miss me, they
miss the person I used to be, and that is who they want to see. But it is
not possible. I have decided to stop trying. I live a thousand miles away
and am attractive and successful. I know they read your column, Ann. Perhaps
they will see this and realize how wrong they are to exclude me from their
lives. -- Estranged and Hurting in Denver
I feel sad for you and truly regret
that I cannot offer some sort of viable solution. I hope that you, on the
other hand, will try to understand how difficult it is for parents who had
a male child and were asked to call that child "Madeline."
The organization PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays) offers transgender assistance and may be able to help
you bridge the gap with your parents. Please write to T-Net, c/o
PFLAG, 1726 M St. NW, Suite 400, Washington,
D.C. 20036.
Good luck.
source: Ann Landers' Syndicated Column 03/04/01
Source: by The Advocate 03/15/01
Presbyterians
Can Continue Blessing Couples
A proposal to ban same-sex commitment
ceremonies in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been defeated, according
to ballot tabulations published Wednesday on Presbyweb.com. The measure to
ban the ceremonies was passed at the national assembly last June and sent
to the 173 regional legislatures, known as presbyteries, for majority approval.
According to the most recent count, 87 presbyteries have voted against the
proposal, and 63 in favor, effectively dooming the measure even though voting
continues through next month. Hans Cornelder, who runs the nonpartisan Presbyweb
site, said most Presbyterians oppose same-sex rituals but are suspicious
of intrusions on local clergy. Very few people in the presbytery debates
have spoken in favor of blessing same-sex unions, he said.
Source: by The Advocate 03/15/01
Enter Your Films in Trannyfest 2001
Tranny Fest: Transgender and Transgenre Cinema, in San Francisco, is calling for entries for films and videos. There is no entry fee and our deadline is August 1, 01. Tranny Fest will be held Mid-November, TBA Entries must be submitted with their official entry form. 2001 Guidelines and entry form can be downloaded from their website: http://members.aol.com/trannyfest They are also looking for donations and volunteers. Their volunteer form is also on the website. Tranny Fest is a week-long celebration of the sweet complexities of the Transgender experience. The festival theme this year will be "Tranny Fest 2001:Gender Armageddon!" Trans and fans will participate in our Multi-galaxy of performance, panels and parties ending in a glamorous marathon of "Finger-Snappin, groin-bumpin, tear-jerkin, heartwarming, gut-bustin mix of experimental, documentary, drama and pornographic films!" Our event proudly boast diversity and an array of cultures.
source: press release from Trannyfest 2/01
Indian officials have aroused the anger of the country's eunuchs by insisting they be categorised as males in the ongoing census, a report said Tuesday.
The Asian Age reported that one official in New Delhi had to beat a hasty retreat after he listed a eunuch in the "male" box on the census form during his rounds on Monday.
The eunuch reportedly refused to carry on answering questions and he was later joined by other eunuchs who insisted there should be a special category for them between male and female on the census questionnaire.
New Delhi census chief Vimala Jingdir later confirmed that all eunuchs should be listed as males and she warned that it was an offence not to cooperate with census officials.
India's eunuchs have faced centuries of oppression and derision. Their traditional sources of income are prostitution, begging, and singing and dancing for money at weddings, christenings and housewarmings.
Many eunuchs, or "hijras" as they are known in India, are not actually castrated, but rather transexuals, transvestites or hermaphrodites who enter the community after being rejected elsewhere.
India launched its first census in nearly a decade last week. Some two million officials are currently fanning out across the country to count the huge population estimated at more than one billion.
Source: Yahoo! Asia 03/13/01
Marine biologists believe they have reversed a rash of transsexual sea snails which was endangering the environment in parts of Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay.
The Marine and Freshwater Resources Institute discovered in the late 1980s that a boat-cleaning chemical, tributylin, was causing female marine snails in the bay to grow penises.
TBT changes the hormonal balance of the female snails, causing them to grow the male organs and making them infertile.
In 1989, vessels less than 25 metres long were banned from using TBT.
MAFRI director Dr David Smith says a survey by the institute shows where use of the chemical has declined, female snails have stopped growing penises.
Dr. Smith said: "The results suggest that the continued occurrence of imposex is associated with the intensity of commercial shipping activity in the bay and that TBT is still present in the sediments of some marinas.
"The results of this survey are good news because it is now unlikely that TBT will pose a threat to fish habitat in the bay, although busy commercial ports may still have a problem."
source: Ananova 02/16/00
Letter from SCC Board Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001
Dear Riki,
We intend to honor our pledge to
award GenderPAC $1,000 of the money we raised at SCC, just as soon as our
cash flow allows. However, we expect you to honor your pledge to be in direct
service to the Transgender Community, a community that has supported you
and GenderPAC from the beginning. We are convinced that GenderPAC's mission
has widened to a point that no longer addresses the urgent needs of the
Transgender Community, and that we have been misled and betrayed. The SCC
attendees donated their money in good faith, at our urging and instruction,
that it be used in direct service to Transgender people. In order for our
pledge to our attendees to be honored, we must ask you to designate another
more suitable organization than GenderPAC, and pass the $1,000 along to them.
Only in this way will you be honoring your original pledge, and our faith
in you.
Most sincerely,
The Unanimous Board of Directors
of SCC
The New Frontier of Voice Feminization
Voice feminization is an emerging field designed to help male-to-female transsexuals overcome the last obstacle to their new identities -- their own voice.
Female hormones can give them breasts. Surgery can chisel their facial features and sculpt their defining organs from outies to innies. But the voice, that primordial expression of selfhood, remains stalled at the starting gate.
Voice therapy completes the transformation, enhancing both the satisfaction and the personal safety of going "contragender."
"Because," one transsexual notes, "we are controversial people."
Seattle, like most cities, has only a handful of speech pathologists who offer this service. Voice feminization is not covered by insurance, and the field is so new, there are no standards of practice -- a situation Mordaunt and others are trying to rectify. Despite these hurdles, the specialty has opened exciting possibilities for transgendered people.
"It never occurred to me that one could change their voice -- I thought it was a given, in a way that fingerprints are a given," says Katherine Eckhardt, 48, a Metro bus driver who successfully completed voice-feminization therapy at UW more than a year ago.
Katherine, nee Kurt, has worked hard to craft a feminine identity...
Eckhardt says, "I found that the voice work was more demanding than making a physical change in presentation. I think it has to do with the intimacy of the voice. It's as close as the breath."...
Some male-to-female transsexuals undergo surgery to stretch the vocal cords to a higher pitch, but the procedure is not without risk. Over-correction can leave a patient with an irreversible Minnie Mouse voice.
Voice-feminization therapy avoids that risk and addresses a whole spectrum of vocal qualities and unconscious mannerisms that go more to the heart of what makes us "sound" like a woman or a man.
Surprisingly, pitch is not the most important factor. Our gestures, inflection, word choice and -- most important -- where our voices resonate within our bodies create a whole gestalt that says "man" or "woman." Within this broad framework, transgendered clients learn to develop their own personal style.
"It's very delicate work," says Mordaunt, a UW lecturer and clinical supervisor, "because you need to know what the client wants. Some clients want to be more flamboyant, some clients want to be more demure. What defines female is very subjective."
Mordaunt started a voice-feminization program at UW four years ago. Since then, nearly 30 clients have enrolled in the program, which has only a few openings each quarter.
Mordaunt has addressed the American Speech and Hearing Association twice in the past two years. For this year's conference, she is organizing a panel of voice-feminization experts to share their treatment methods asa step toward drawing up standards of practice.
"Everyone's been doing it on their own for years and not talking about it," she says. "We're in such infancy -- we have so many areas to investigate."
"There's very little written," agrees Deena Rueveni of the Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center in Seattle. The center recently got a $5,000 PRIDE Foundation grant for new computer equipment to assist in voice-feminization therapy.
"It's really an important piece in the gender reassignment," says Rueveni, director of speech and language services. "I think there's a need to put out the word that it exists and that it's helpful."
Seattle is a natural setting for this pioneering therapy.
"This is the best city in the world to be transgender," says Judy Osborne, whose participation in the UW voice program capped a lifelong quest to become female. "I think it's a city where people do appreciate diversity and have a lot of tolerance."
Osborne has some basis for comparison. She sits on the national board of Soulforce, a transgender activist group…
Although no one can cite figures, Seattle is believed to have a relatively large transgender population -- a category that includes cross-dressers, the androgynous and people who change their sexual identity, with or without sex-reassignment surgery.
One draw is the Ingersoll Gender Center on Capitol Hill, which offers support to clients and families dealing with gender issues.
The center scored 21,000 Web hits last year and drew 2,700 clients to support meetings, according to office manager Kate Williamson, another of the clients in UW's voice-feminization program.
"We all want to be as good as we can," says Williamson, 54, who struggles to overcome the raspy quality known as "glottal fry."
"I sound like a frog with a bad throat," she says. "I'm trying to bring up the pitch. It takes lots of work."
Voice feminization came along too late for Marsha Botzer, who founded the center in 1977 and now co-chairs the Seattle Commission for Sexual Minorities.
Botzer, a psychotherapist, sounds decidedly male, with the clear, pleasant timbre of a young man. But she believes her voice has grown subtly less masculine over the years.
"The world will teach you," Botzer says. "You simply can't exist in culture without responding to some of its demands."...
The emergence of voice-feminization therapy signals that attitudes are changing. For that, many transsexuals thank the gay-rights movement.
"We're now at the point," Botzer says, "where a real science is developing that will serve this community."...
As clinical supervisor, Mordaunt rotates between labs -- offering pointers to the therapy group, helping with the intake evaluation of Client X. Both labs are visible through one-way mirrors in a darkened control room, where three of Mordaunt's graduate students are taking notes.
Voice makeovers don't come cheap. At $75 to $90 an hour, one-on-one vocal therapy by a private practitioner is beyond the reach of many transsexuals…
As a teaching institution UW offers bargain rates -- $15 an hour for individual therapy with graduate student clinicians -- but there's a one-year waiting list. Group therapy, which is more accessible, is a common entree into the UW program.
Mastering the vocal choreography to "pass" in the outside world ultimately takes six to nine months of hard work in an individual setting. Maintaining those skills takes years of practice.
Individual therapy puts clients in the driver's seat of a sophisticated computer that gives visual and auditory feedback of their progress.
As they speak into the microphone, the computer maps every note in a visual display that seems as random as a spray of buckshot. Patterns become apparent as the computer translates the display into numerical measures of pitch and loudness.
Auction fever sets in as clients begin to see their readings climb closer to the female range. Mordaunt has to continually remind them to keep their eye on the larger goal.
"The goal is not to get up to 200 (Hz)," she tells them. "The goal is to sound feminine."...
Voice feminization is a whole-self endeavor. Clients must learn to use "female" words like "cute" and develop a comfort level with "female" phraseology such as, "It's a nice day, isn't it?"
These so-called "tag questions" stick in the craw of some clients, especially high-octane business owners and former military types. Mordaunt assures them there's a happy medium besides sounding passive and simply sounding like a woman.
Subtle differences in body language can make or break a carefully crafted vocal image. One client's success was compromised by her exaggerated, finishing-school posture. Until she saw herself on videotape, the client was unaware of how unnatural she looked as she sat primly erect, hands in lap.
"When she saw the videotape," Mordaunt says, "she cried. She said, 'That looks horrible!'"
Video replay helped Osborne tone down her tendency to reflectively rest an index finger on her chin. Although the gesture is genuinely female, it became apparent she was overdoing it.
Two years after graduation, Osborne has it down cold. Tall, with the rangy elegance of a model, she looks younger than her 67 years. She wears her auburn hair in a classic pageboy that suits the simple lines of her navy jumper. Her hazel eyes glow amber in the sunlight streaming into her Capitol Hill apartment.
Her most striking feature, however, is her air of dignity. Head tilted to one side, she speaks with gravitas, flashing an occasional semaphoric smile as if to ask, "You with me so far?"
She enjoys these little flourishes.
"It's fun speaking as a woman," she says. "It's so much more expressive."
That kind of real-life success is what Mordaunt seeks for all her clients. So as they progress within the clinic, she ups the ante. To test their voice under pressure, she stages mock job interviews and has clients field-test their skills at a nearby coffee house, where a clinician rates their performance.
One client who had sounded fine in the lab broke into a high-pitched, ditzy voice in the intimidating presence of the unfamiliar man who conducted her mock interview.
Sandy Hirsch, a Seattle speech pathologist in private practice, takes the process one step further. She uses her theater and singing background to teach new ways of moving, sounding and inhabiting a role.
"Right now all of my clients are transgender," says Hirsch, whose home-based practice includes corporate and performance coaching.
Several times a year, Hirsch offers intensive gender-authenticity workshops that include literature readings, mirror exercises, Method-acting techniques and touch exercises. She says the goal of the two-day, $200 workshop is to raise the bar from "passing" as female to "true authenticity."...
A strange thing happens as clients approach the finish line. More than half hit a psychological wall -- what Hirsch calls "very unconscious resistance."
Mordaunt and Hirsch, who have puzzled over it together, believe the problem lies in the inherently personal nature of the voice.
"To hear yourself consistently sounding different is pretty freaky," Hirsch says. "Your voice, ultimately, is the place you come home to."
In addition, maintaining the new voice is like maintaining weight loss. It takes constant vigilance.
"Every day," Hirsch says, "there is the possibility of a 'male hook' drawing you back to your male voice."
Male hooks can be ridiculously subtle. In one case, a transgendered woman unconsciously shifted back to a male pitch when she started talking about a pair of pants she'd worn as a man...
The answer lies with the successful graduates who have used their new vocal skills to channel their true nature.
"In some sense it was almost like painting," Eckhardt says. "It became an expression of who I want to be."...
source: by Cecelia Goodnow Seattle Post-Intelligencer 02/12/01
Jealousy over transgendered girlfriend may have led to teen’s death A Buffalo, N.Y., teen who was beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted with a broomstick may have been murdered because of his relationship with a transgendered girlfriend, The Buffalo News reports. The charred body of James J. Mack was found behind a Catholic church on January 22. Authorities say that five teens lured Mack to an apartment, where they hit him with beer bottles, kicked him, dropped a television set on him, stabbed him, sexually assaulted him with a broom handle, strangled him with an electrical cord, and then put his unconscious body facedown in a bathtub filled with water. They then set the lifeless body on fire in a large trash container. Autopsy results concluded that Mack died of drowning in addition to blunt-force trauma and strangulation. Erie County district attorney Frank Clark said that Mack’s relationship with a transgendered teen known as Tashia was at the heart of the motive for the crime. “Mack’s relationship with Tashia appears to be a motive for at least two of the five actors,” Clark said. “I think 'jealousy' is the right word for it.” He refused to elaborate further. Four young men and one young woman, ages 18 to 20, have been charged with the crime. Friends and relatives apparently believed that Tashia, a biological male, was a woman.
Source: The Advocate 03/07/01
Trinidad TG Finally Wins False Arrest Suit
The Trinidad and Tobago government was ordered to pay a transsexual woman $4,762 in damages for an unlawful arrest and illegal conduct by police officers who were eager to search her, the Caribbean News Agency said on Tuesday. Jowell Taylor De Souza said her constitutional rights and freedom were violated and that she was discriminated against because of her gender. De Souza, 30, a hairstylist, was born a male and changed her name from Joel after a sex-change operation. De Souza was arrested in 1997 on a charge of assaulting and battering a newspaper photographer who she said was harassing her by putting his camera close to her face and taking her picture after she had repeatedly asked him to leave her alone. She said that while the photographer was taking pictures, he stepped on her foot, causing him to lose his balance and grab onto her left hand, breaking one of her gold bracelets. De Souza said a policeman who was nearby did nothing to stop the photographer but arrested her when she attempted to leave. At the police station, “a number of male police officers came into the CID [interrogation] room and insisted they wanted to search me,” she said in court documents. A policewoman informed the male officers that they were not supposed to search De Souza, chased them out, and then conducted the search herself. Afterward the arresting officer came back into the room and asked De Souza if she was a man or woman, according to court records. The assault and battery charge was dismissed in 1997, and De Souza then sought damages. The policeman who arrested De Souza has since died, and the state agreed to a court order to pay the settlement on Monday.
Source: The Advocate 03/08/01
Iowa Jury Finds Calling Names and Throwing Things at Drag Queens Isn't a Hate Crime
A Polk County, Iowa, jury determined Friday that two men accused of jeering at two drag queens last summer are not guilty of a hate crime, the Des Moines Register reports. The jury convicted Jeremy Hughes and Lucas Edward Floyd of criminal mischief for hitting a car with a stick. But the jury decided there was inadequate evidence that the men shouted “faggot” at Joshua Farrell and Casey Forrester. Farrell and Forrester allege that a crowd yelled and threw cans at them while they were dressed in drag. “We weren’t sure who said it,” said juror L.R. Voigts. “It was not a simple resolution.” Hughes and Floyd face the possibility of up to 30 days in jail and a $100 fine for damaging Forrester’s car but could have faced up to a year in jail if convicted of a hate crime. “Once again Iowa can say, ‘Hey, we are the Corn State, we’re a bunch of bigots,’” Forrester said. “Criminal mischief—that is such a joke. I think the court system and the jurors should be ashamed.”
source: The Advocate 02/27/01
NYC Mayor Performs with the Rockettes
Rudolph
Giuliani, the Mayor of New York, likes to wear fancy dress. Every year, he
appears at the Press Club banquet in extravagant garb. Once he was Saturday
Night Fever disco king. Another time, he turned up in drag like Dame Edna.
Now approaching the end of his final term, the former Mafia prosecutor indulged
his ultimate wish-fulfillment this week when — despite his policy of
zero tolerance — he appeared as the Godfather, from his favorite film.
Dropping his pinstriped trousers, he then performed the can-can with a chorus
line of the world-famous Rockettes. The mayor’s silky-smooth thighs
excited a lively discussion about whether he had shaved his legs.
“I’m not going to tell you,” he said. “You’re going
to have to come and watch me play golf this summer and see.”
Source: The Times (London) 03/10/01
QUICK HITS: Media Mentions
Nashville Scene / 03/08/01
The cover story “Where Do They Get These People?“ details three Nashvillians’ experience on Jerry Springer... "Things got more bizarre by the minute. First, the makeup artist at the studio was a drag queen..."
USA Today / 03/08/01
Freddie Prinze, Jr. is starring as Fred in the live-action remake of the Scooby-Doo cartoons. Discussing his transformation from the dark haird heart-throb into the blonde Freddie, he says... ..."I get my roots done now...It's not very manly."
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