Band of Thebes

Trans Man Wins Authors' Club Best First Novel of the Year

"...Thrillingly erudite and infectiously entertaining, completely compelling and morally unsettling. The voice never falters, and the execution is masterful. What a marvellous book – a tour de force," said judge Isabel Wolff of Jack Wolf's debut The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones [and Kindle], which just won the Authors' Club Best First Novel award in London. Previously, Wolf's novel was a finalist for the Polari First Book Prize. According to TLC,

"Jack Wolf, who wrote the novel as a woman and has since transitioned to being a man, has fully embraced both the language and ideas of eighteenth-century England to create a beautiful and startling novel that contemplates questions of good and evil, faith and science, that are still relevant today. Moreover, while it does not explicitly deal with issues of gender identity, Wolf’s experience of transitioning from female to male is reflected in the writing, in particular in its focus on identity and what it feels like to be uncomfortable in one’s own skin.

"The year is 1751 and Tristan Hart, a precociously talented student of medicine is studying under the legendary Dr. William Hunter in London. Tristan is fascinated by the nature of pain and preventing it; the relationship between mind and matter and the existence of God. He is a product of the Enlightenment, a rational man on a quest to cut through darkness and superstition with the scientific method.

"But that is just one side of Tristan. Tristan is also a psychopath and a deviant, obsessed with

Lambda Announces Mid-Career, Emerging Winners

   

Lambda this morning announced the winners of their annual prizes for Mid-Career Novelists Who Have Used 'Tides' in Romance Titles, Radclyffe and Michael Thomas Ford, known for his many humor collections and many novels like Suicide Notes, What We Remember, and The Road Home.

Lambda's two Emerging Writers are familiar to readers of Thebes queer lit poll: Charles Rice-Gonzalez, author of Chulito [Kindle], and Imogen Binnie, whose Nevada [Kindle] inspired Michelle Tea to say, "This book blew my mind. It’s everything – personal, political, funny, raw, hyper-brainy and down to earth. I want to stay in Maria’s brain forever as she rides her bike through the streets of Brooklyn, doggedly hashing out her existence with humor and befuddled honesty. A really powerful new literary voice."

Gender Failure

After six story collections including Missed Her, the novel Bow Grip, and the nonfiction Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, Ivan Coyote now collaborates with Rae Spoon for their new book Gender Failure. Inspired by their joint live show that toured the U.S. and Europe, the book gathers Coyote's and Spoon's struggles against a binary-ordered world, with multiple blurbers calling the result both heartbreaking and hilarious. Michelle Tea says it's "a dynamic, beautiful and important piece of literature."

Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water, says "This book profoundly changed my life; I will step into the word and lexicon of 'gender' differently, I will never be in my body in the same way, I am a different reader forever, and I am grateful. Gender Failure will take you apart and put you back together—I laughed my ass off, I cried my heart out, I yelled my head off, and I ended up in the only place that matters: love, compassion, with our whole bodies."

Born December 15: J. Jack Halberstam

USC professor and trenchant pop culture queer critic, J. Jack Halberstam's four most important books are:

Female Masculinity (1998). Library Journal says it "makes a compelling argument for a more flexible taxonomy of masculinity, including not only men, who have historically held the power in society, but also women who embody qualities that are usually associated with maleness, such as strength, authority, and independence. Fleshing out her argument by drawing on a variety of sources -- fiction, films, court documents, and diaries -- Halberstam calls for society to acknowledge masculine lesbian women and value them."

In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives [Kindle] (2005) examines trans representations and influences in fiction, art, music, and movies ranging from Boys Don't Cry to The Full Monty and Austin Powers.

The Queer Art of Failure [Kindle] (2011). PW calls it, "A lively and thought-provoking examination of how the homogenizing tendencies of modern society might be resisted through the creative application of failure, forgetting, and passivity, actions generally deemed of little value within today's capitalist models of success. . . . [A]s a close reader of popular culture, she is exemplary, and as a valiant attempt to find value in positions and attitudes such as negativity that our modern success-oriented society disdains, this study is never less than thrilling.”

Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal [Kindle] (2012). Ariel Levy says, "Jack Halberstam—the king of feminism—has managed to make sense of pregnant men, Lady Gaga, gay marriage, and the advent of the bromance in this provocative and pleasurable romp through contemporary gender politics. Gaga Feminism is as fun as it is illuminating."

Halberstam is 52 today and lives in Los Angeles with Marcarena Gomez-Barris.

Team 6 Navy SEAL Vet Transitions to Female, Releases "Warrior Princess"

This Purple Heart, Bronze Star vet of twenty years and thirteen combat deployments, Chris Beck, was once on the super elite Team 6 and quit the military months before they killed Bin Laden in May 2011. Twice married, he was the father of two sons. Now she's a Tampa-based Pentagon consultant named Kris, three months into her hormone treatments. No surprise, her SEAL mates thought she was joking when she came out to them. There is not any part of this journey that could have been easy. She's just published her memoir, Warrior Princess: A Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming Out Transgender [Kindle].

(The book is co-authored by Anne Speckhard, who has seen some things: Her husband was ambassador to Belarus appointed by Clinton, then with NATO, then in Iraq, and more recently was ambassador to Greece appointed by Bush. Before all that, Anne served on the legal team that successfully defended Lorena Bobbit who cut off her husband's penis.)

The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell did not lift the ban on trans servicemembers. More shocking, the SEALs still exclude women. 

Queer Adventures in Victorian London

Author of the exceptional The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, Neil McKenna returns today with another 19th century queer biography, Fanny & Stella [Kindle], his study of two gay young men, Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park, who swanned around Victorian London dressed as women.

The Sunday Times:

"...rich and absorbing... McKenna has done a tremendous job of recreating Victorian London's gay subculture, weaving newspaper reports, police documents and contemporary diaries into a jolly and rollicking narrative... open a page at random, and you find yourself in a world of prostitutes, crossdressers and hermaphrodites...a cracking read."

The Evening Standard:

"You would need to be a very dull — or prim — dog indeed not to find this a terrifically entertaining story. Neil McKenna has thrown himself into it with unfettered glee. If the opportunity arises to describe an anal fistula — and it does, frequently — he does not shirk it. Every so often the campness threatens to tilt out of control, but he’s a sufficiently crisp, colourful and funny writer for it not to matter."

  The Guardian:

"What makes this book such a startling read is the way that McKenna recreates the affective world of Stella, Fanny and their "sisters", a loose cohort of half a dozen young gay men, some of whom stood trial." 

Faber explains:

"28th April 1870. The flamboyantly dressed Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton are causing a stir in the Strand Theatre. All eyes are riveted upon their lascivious oglings of the gentlemen in the stalls. Moments later they are led away by the police. What followed was a scandal that shocked and titillated Victorian England in equal measure. It turned out that the alluring Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton were no ordinary young women. Far from it. In fact, they were young men who liked to dress as women. When the Metropolitan Police launched a secret campaign to bring about their downfall, they were arrested and subjected to a sensational show trial in Westminster Hall. As the trial of 'the Young Men in Women's Clothes' unfolded, Fanny and Stella's extraordinary lives as wives and daughters, actresses and whores were revealed to an incredulous public. With a cast of peers, politicians and prostitutes, drag queens, doctors and detectives, "Fanny and Stella" is a Victorian peepshow, exposing the startling underbelly of nineteenth-century London. By turns tragic and comic, meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, "Fanny and Stella" is an enthralling tour-de-force." 

 

Born January 1: Forster, Hoover, Haines, Béjart, Hormel, Orton, De la Iglesia, Stefano

E.M. Forster (1879-1970) After you've finished the novels (Howards End, A Passage to India, A Room With a View, Maurice), and his openly gay story collection The Life To Come, your mandatory reading is Wendy K. Moffat's NYT notable A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster [Kindle]. Biographer Tripp Evans wrote: "Not only is this a truly groundbreaking study of Forster's life and work -- and an eye-opening read for any student of twentieth-century gay social history -- but it's also beautifully written.  Moffat is one of those rare writers able to combine elegant prose with a style that engages the reader in an intimate conversation (she is, in other words, the very best sort of company).  By illuminating the previously underexamined terrain of Forster's private life, Moffat has restored an important figure, along with his era, to a deeply satisfying wholeness.  It is a remarkable achievement."

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) American FBI director and closet case of unsurpassed twistedness.

William Haines (1900-1973) Hollywood hero, one of the top five grossing movie stars annually from 1928 - 32 for charming films like The Smart Set, The Duke Steps Out, and Just a Gigolo. In 1933 he was busted for picking up a sailor and taking him to a YMCA, prompting his studio to demand a sham marriage to a woman. Haines refused to betray his partner of seven years Jimmie Shields that way, and quit films for a very successful career as an interior designer. Read William Mann's extraordinary biography, Wisecracker.

Maurice Béjart (1927-2007) French-Swiss choreographer who directed maverick ballets and all-male homoerotic dances long before Matthew Bourne. Watch this at least until 2:20.

James Hormel (1933 -) The grandson of SPAM, American philanthropist, ambassador, gay rights activist, and current political hot potato is 80 today. His partner Michael P. Nguyen graduated from Swarthmore in 2008.

Joe Orton (1933-1967) randy British playwright of explicitly gay hits like Entertaining Mr. Sloane and What the Butler Saw, murdered by his unstable lover. Subject of Stephen Frears' fine biopic Prick Up Your Ears starring Gary Oldman and Vanessa Redgrave.

Eloy de la Iglesia (1944-2006) Spanish writer - director of the gay festival favorites like Bulgarian Lovers [right].

Joey Stefano (1968-1994) Porn superstar. After you've satisfied yourself with his film acting, read Wonder Bread & Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stefano.

50 People Who Came Out in 2012

Yesterday Towleroad compiled "The 50 Most Powerful Coming Outs of 2012," including many long-postponed announcements from Anderson Cooper, Kristy McNichol, Sally Ride, Mika, Sam Champion, Jim Parsons, and the director of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. You might toggle between enjoying the diversity and questioning the veracity: Nate Silver and Andrew Rannells are two of several listees who were already out; aging opportunist Gillian Anderson isn't queer. I was happy about Omar Sharif Jr., Matt Bomer, Ezra Miller, Wade Davis, Orlando Cruz, and Shaun T [in white trunks, with his husband Scott Blokker in blue].

Many folks were wowed by Lana Wachowski's October speech, which I never posted, so here goes.

Born December 15: J. Jack Halberstam

USC professor and trenchant pop culture queer critic, J. Jack Halberstam's four most important books are:

Female Masculinity (1998). Library Journal says it "makes a compelling argument for a more flexible taxonomy of masculinity, including not only men, who have historically held the power in society, but also women who embody qualities that are usually associated with maleness, such as strength, authority, and independence. Fleshing out her argument by drawing on a variety of sources -- fiction, films, court documents, and diaries -- Halberstam calls for society to acknowledge masculine lesbian women and value them."

In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives [Kindle] (2005) examines trans representations and influences in fiction, art, music, and movies ranging from Boys Don't Cry to The Full Monty and Austin Powers.

The Queer Art of Failure [Kindle] (2011). PW calls it, "A lively and thought-provoking examination of how the homogenizing tendencies of modern society might be resisted through the creative application of failure, forgetting, and passivity, actions generally deemed of little value within today's capitalist models of success. . . . [A]s a close reader of popular culture, she is exemplary, and as a valiant attempt to find value in positions and attitudes such as negativity that our modern success-oriented society disdains, this study is never less than thrilling.”

Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal [Kindle] (2012). Ariel Levy says, "Jack Halberstam—the king of feminism—has managed to make sense of pregnant men, Lady Gaga, gay marriage, and the advent of the bromance in this provocative and pleasurable romp through contemporary gender politics. Gaga Feminism is as fun as it is illuminating."

Halberstam is 51 today and lives in Los Angeles with Marcarena Gomez-Barris.

Sassafras Lowrey's Roving Pack

For a side of queer Portland ignored by mainstream indie icons like Gus van Sant, read Sassafras Lowrey's debut novel pubbing today Roving Pack. Ze is editor of the award winning anthology Kicked Out and the forthcoming revisionist story collection Leather Ever After. Hir site says "Roving Pack is set in an underground world of homeless queer teens. The stories follow the daily life of Click, a straight-edge transgender kid searching for community, identity, and connection amidst chaos. As the stories unfold, we meet a pack of newly sober gender rebels creating art, families and drama in dilapidated punk houses across Portland, Oregon. Roving Pack offers fast-paced in-your-face accounts of leather, sex, hormones, house parties, and protests. But, when gender fluidity takes an unexpected turn, the pack is sent reeling."

Already the book has been praised by S. Bear Bergman, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Kate Bornstein, Zoe Whittall, Cristy C. Road, and Kristyn Dunnion who writes, "Fucking A. Sassafras Lowrey takes ‘queer punk’ to a whole new level of insidious drama. Roving Pack cracks out the microscope to examine this Portland-based scene circa 2002 – whether or not the rest of the world can take it. My guess? Hella no!"

Sassafras will read at Bluestockings on October 12.

Kate Bornstein on Village Voice Cover for 'Queer & Pleasant Danger'

Yesterday Kate Bornstein released her new book A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today [Kindle] and the Village Voice gives her a massive cover story:

"There's a whole new generation of radical trannies coming up who won't let me use the word 'tranny,'" she says with a laugh.

"Kate ruffled feathers when she would write that even though she had gender-reassignment surgery, she's still not a woman. "This was a big blow to trans people—trans women mostly—whose identity was legitimized by all those medical hoops. So what I said was taken as a direct attack on the validity of their identities as real women," she says.

"I got hit by lesbian feminists, then trans feminists hit me." For years, Kate says, queer and trans activists tried to separate sex from their activism in the post–AIDS epidemic era. But that's changing. "The scene has changed. It's not who's fucking whom; it's how cool can you be about people fucking each other."

Much of her memoir describes her changing ideas about her own body and the sexual politics she encountered as she transitioned. But this is not just another one of her books about gender.

"The number-one reason she wrote the book (and she's clear about it in the book itself) was for her daughter and grandchildren. "I want them to see if they want to look. Writing the book has allowed me to let go of the need to reach out to them," she says.

"Kate hasn't seen her daughter, Jessica, since 1980. She has never seen her two grandchildren. She's hoping that her book is popular enough that a copy will fall into their hands and provide them with a detailed explanation of how she got to be who she is today—a transsexual, Jewish, lesbian, bipolar, masochistic cutter.

"I told her that it did seem like an odd strategy—that in order to reach out to a daughter who has shunned her for more than 30 years, she would do so with graphic descriptions not only of her gender transformation, but also of her s&m adventures.

"She nodded, knowingly, and smiled. "It's not the transgender issue she would have a problem with—it's that I left Scientology."

A hefty portion of the article, and apparently the book, deals with his experience in the cult in the 70s (when he was Al) and its ongoing strict rules now. You get kicked out for, among other things, being queer, and members are not allowed to have any contact with anyone who's been kicked out. Kate, of course, has triumphed post-Scientology. She met her girlfriend Barbara Carrellas through Annie Sprinkle in 1997. Last year she won a Publishing Triangle award and was a Lammy finalist for Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.

Born March 15: Kate Bornstein

Pioneering trans activist Kate Bornstein rejects the gender binary and favors fluidity with the authority of first hand experience. Born a male in 1948, Albert Bornstein was in 1969 the first person to earn a degree in theater arts from Brown University. Joining Scientology soon thereafter, Bornstein was highly successful for the organization in sales and as a spokesperson (qualities that may have contributed to three quick marriages) before breaking with the cult in 1981. Five years later, Bornstein fully transitioned to female and still loved women, becoming active in San Francisco's lesbian community. Bornstein came to the realization that neither male nor female was an adequate identification, prompting popular performance pieces like The Opposite Sex Is Neither and the now classic book, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. Following that success came the interactive My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely and another honest book in a differently neglected area Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws. In 1998, the NYT balked at Bornstein's use of "transgender movement" in an essay because the paper had never before employed the phrase and, as her editor worried, "if we print it that means there is one." Last year, she and S. Bear Bergman won Lambda Literary and Publishing Triangle awards for their anthology Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. She and sex educator/performance artist Barbara Carrellas are longtime partners. Bornstein's next book is the memoir A Queer and Pleasant Danger.

Wildness by Wu Tsang

You know it's a good night when you feel you've stepped into a Maira Kalman drawing. MoMA's Documentary Fortnight crowd showcased crazy style for the world premiere of Wu Tsang's Wildness about a pivotal year in the life of an aging gay bar, the Silver Platter, serving the queer Latinos in a poor corner of Los Angeles. Race, gender, sexuality, safe spaces, anti-trans crime, community, gentrification, and the fear of hipster popularity mingle with even more amorphous issues like the essence of beauty and the passage of time. "Original" is an understatement. For starters, the bar narrates. She speaks in a wise, melancholy, semi-magical voice that would be at home in an Isabel Allende novel. At precisely the moment when the interviews with Mexican men, in L.A. legally and otherwise, who like "to dress" [as women] run their course, the outsider djs/artists who run Tuesday night's renegade party surprise you by deciding to start a free legal clinic next door to assist the trans ladies in their dealings with the law. The shocks continue with a fight with L.A. Weekly and a death that leaves the club padlocked and coworkers of 22 years suing each other. Wildness screens at SXSW in March and Wu Tsang's installation recreating the bar will appear in the Whitney biennial in May.

"Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?"

    "As backrooms are shut down to make way for wedding vows, and gay sexual culture morphs into 'straight-acting dudes hangin’ out,' what are the possibilities for a defiant faggotry that challenges the assimilationist norms of a corporate-cozy lifestyle?" 

Who wouldn't want 232 pages exploring the downside of gay mainstreaming? The subject is so crucial I wish the entire book was written by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, but I'm still intrigued by the anthology she's pulled together. Reviewing Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, PW said, "A distinctive collection of essays by gay and transgender activists, performance artists, and scholars embraces the subversive aspects of queer identity and rails against its “sanitized, straight-friendly version.” Some essays are personal observations of lives on the margins, such as Ezra RedEagle Whitman’s attempts to reconcile his homosexuality with Native American conceptions of manliness, or Booh Edouardo’s experiences as an autistic transgender man interacting with mainstream gay peers. Others focus more on general trends in gay culture, such as Michael J. Faris and ML Sugie’s discussion of racial preferences and prejudices on hookup sites, or George Ayala and Patrick Hebert’s examination of the role of the arts in building community among HIV positive men. Some stories are disheartening, like Matthew Blanchard’s reflections on his hospitalization and disfigurement after many years of drug-fueled indiscriminate, unsafe sex. Others are much more hopeful, like Kristen Stoeckeler’s observations on drag queen and king performers and their playful yet serious blurring of the lines between male and female. Just as the battle for LGBTQ civil rights continues, these essays—alternately moving and sprightly, contemplative and outraged—display the power of presenting an alternative to the mainstream: a world of greater tolerance, acceptance, support, and creativity." 

Samuel Delany blurbed it:"These essays come like a plunge into a forest pool of revitalizing joy, honesty, and common sense. Read them. Now. No—not tomorrow. Now!"

Edmund White wrote,"You may have thought you understood human nature before you read this book; after reading it you will be humbled by all you failed to grasp until now. America invented identity politics but here those identities have been multiplied and articulated as never before."

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots continues the themes of another anthology Mattilda edited, That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation [Kindle].

The new book comes from AK Press which is literally run by anarchists. In that light, the confusion over its publication is cool. Their site lists the release as Jan 12, 2011 [sic?]; Amazon and B&N have it as Jan 31, 2012 but both retailers are already selling it online; and Mattilda's blog says the book will be released Feb 14, 2012. Worse, none of the sites offers a list of contributors or the table of contents. See Mattilda's massive west coast tour if you can.

Elle Puts a Trans Model on Its Cover

 

 
 

One of these models is different from the others. Click to enlarge. After the jump, a surprise of sorts...

Latino Trans Teen Film Opens Today in Manhattan, Bronx

  

You might not guess from its butch-as-hell title that Gun Hill Road is about a sixteen year-old Latino trans, and, according to critics' raves, you definitely wouldn't guess this is its young star Harmony Santana's first time acting. Ever. During filming, she was just beginning her own transitioning, now completed. Critics have complained the feature focuses on the least interesting character, the disapproving father just home from prison, and the plot is "borderline-contrived," or "overwrought and cliched." Last week the NYT did a story on Harmony and other trans actresses, of whom they could only find two. Laverne Cox [right] said casting directors tell her she looks too feminine to play convincingly someone who was born male, as she was. Harmony, in her "early 20s," still lives at the nonprofit Green Chimneys group home in Harlem for LGBTQ youth. (Photo: Béatrice de Géa NYT)

Wladimiro Guadagno moved from Foggia to Rome in 1985 when he was twenty, and twenty years later she ran for a seat in the Italian Parliament. Now Vladimir Luxuria, she won, becoming the world's second trans MP, after New Zealand's Georgina Beyer. Prior to her victory she had been an actress, cabaret entertainer, and party promoter, organizing Rome's first gay pride in June 1994. A member of the Communist Refoundation Party, she lost her re-election bid in 2008 and bounced back from defeat by appearing on "the Italian answer to Survivor," a celebrity reality tv contest show called L'Isola dei Famosi which took place in Honduras. Faced with fierce competition from this supermodel dating this soccer star, Luxuria triumphed, winning the hearts of Italy in the decisive public poll. Required to make a charitable contribution of fifty-percent of her 200,000 euro winnings, she did not choose a T, B, G, or L nonprofit but instead selected UNICEF because she won't have children herself. Although she exclusively uses the feminine pronoun, has had rhinoplasty and partial breast construction, and "lives as a female," she has chosen not to have sex reassignment surgery and "remains physically and legally male." She lost her re-election bid in 2008 and has written three books, most recently romance/fantasy.

Nick Krieger's Memoir "Nina Here Nor There"

While the mainstream heaps attention on Chaz Bono's memoir, pride yourself on knowing this month's more indie trans autobiography, Nick Krieger's Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender [[Kindle]]. His website identifies him as "author/travel writer/yogi/queer dude." The pleasure deepens when you realize his is not going to be the angsty, tearful, self-loathing, suicidal trans tale you've heard so many times before. Subtract all that from the equation and add humor. Nick's bio begins: "A native of New York, Nick Krieger realized at the age of twenty-one that he’d been born on the wrong coast, a malady he corrected by transitioning to San Francisco."

In his blog post about his qualms with Bono's narrative and the media circus, he says:

"Why do we, as trans people, need to keep proving how awful our lives are in order for people to accept us? What if we modified our bodies, not “amputated” parts of them as Wilson so crudely states, because we thought our lives were so beautiful that we wanted to experience them in a vehicle that allowed us our deepest comfort and truest self-expression?"

Beacon published his memoir last week. PW reviewed the "candid if uneven" book in February:

"Though the early part of Krieger's journey feels like a standard primer on gender identity, didacticism and clunky prose give way to a beautifully rendered and personal account that feels like a fresh addition to trans literature: making a break with the typical transgender narrative, Nick did not feel like she was the trapped inside the "wrong" body; her discomfort with her female identity came much later and was often at odds with her staunch feminism. The narrative especially gathers confidence and momentum in Kreiger's recounting of his parents' efforts (and at times, inability) to understand his transition. And the final discussions of occupying a place somewhere not quite on either extreme of the gender binary are fascinating."

Booklist called it a "humorous, moving, and engagingly authentic journey." Praise from K. M. Soehnlein, Thea Hillman, and Kate Bornstein can be read on Nick's site.

Tomorrow night is Nick's release party at Castro Books Inc in San Francisco, with subsequent northern California events on June 1, 14, and 18. He will read in Philadelphia on June 4 and in NYC on June 7.

Chaz Bono Reads from Transition, Stars in "Becoming Chaz"

In her 1998 book Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming-Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, & Their Families Chastity Bono says she knew she was a lesbian since she was 13, was outed by tabloids at 20 in 1990, and came out publicly five years later. Now a year into his transition to male, Chaz Bono told Anderson Cooper in March, "I was never really a lesbian. I just looked like one." His journey has been a learning moment for America with an enormous media blitz, including Oprah and a documentary "Becoming Chaz" which screened last night on Oprah's network OWN. I didn't see it as I was in Tribeca listening to him read from his new book, Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man. Click here for the full prologue, which ends:

"I was blindsided by the full realization that I'm transgender. I felt completely helpless and paralyzed with fear—at an emotional ground zero. Finally summoning the courage to act on the essential truth about myself was a deep, dark and often ugly struggle. I had to relive moments of shame, embarrassment and pain. And yet, though the struggle to start my transition was as frightening and challenging as climbing Mount Everest, I have written this book to show and share with the world something even more remarkable: Ever since my first dose of testosterone, I have never felt so whole, so complete, so happy in my life. And this triumph is what Transition is all about."

Matching Chaz's sincerity, the audience posed many questions similar to that of the older woman seated behind me who said, "I think you're the most honest person I've met, so I'm glad to meet you." Another handful of questions were along the lines of, "I always loved it when you came out at the end of the show with your parents and I want you to know your fans wish you the best." So there is not much to report, other than Chaz was gracious, and Yes, he has been told that he sounds like his father but he doesn't hear it himself. He does some work with a small Los Angeles trans support network and he is still with his girlfriend Jen who has handled the transition well because she had previously dated men and women and identifies as bi. (She is currently finishing her own book proposal on the experience.) But there was this: Asked about surprises in the transition, Chaz said now that he's male "my brain is sharper, crisper, more linear. And I have a harder time listening."

The Washington Post's Hank Stuever reviewed the "stirring yet unsatisfying documentary," saying,

“Becoming Chaz” is one thing — and it’s occasionally fascinating to watch — but being Chaz gets old pretty fast. As his longtime (and long-suffering) live-in girlfriend observes, Chaz’s change has also meant that she [Jen] has become a lesbian with an overweight, temperamental, 42-year-old boyfriend who sits on the couch and plays video games all day. He’s become “a real dick,” she says. Which, to Chaz, sounds like high praise indeed.”

Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack found it “powerful” and “riveting,” noting that early in the film Chaz says, “I’ve hated my body since puberty,”...So, it’s incredibly moving to watch him finally become comfortable in his own skin.”

It's Not Just Kurt: LA Times Looks at LGBT Characters on Teen Shows

Today's Los Angeles Times has a story about all the LGBT characters coming out on teen television shows and for once LGBT actually means L, G, B, and T. Degrassi features a high school trans character named Adam played by the actress Jordan Todosey. Pretty Little Liars has a fulltime lesbian and some questioning girls. Beyond Glee, queer characters can also be found on Hellcats, Gossip Girl, Greek, Skins, Ugly Betty and 90210 whose Teddy (played by Trevor Donovan, pictured) broke up with a girl, hooked up with a guy as a rebound, and realized he's gay. Several producers discussed their desire to break stereotypes, for example by making the gay boys jocks.

Happily, there's no backlash from viewers. Says Pretty Little Liars producer Oliver Goldstick, "I'm often delightfully surprised at how unshocked young people are. They just move on. It's like: OK."