Please Help Kate

Today I'm going to ask you to help one of my heroines.

  

At the very beginning of my transition--just as I was about to start living full-time as a woman--I met Kate Bornstein, albeit briefly.

I was working on a media project at the LGBT Community Center in New York.  At the time, I was just learning about LGBT culture and some of its luminaries.

Meeting her was like seeing a supernova just as you've risen beyond the cloud cover.  All right, I can't tell you exactly what that's like, as I've risen beyond the clouds but have never seen such a bright celestial object.

However, Kate not only lit up the room; she filled the people in it--including me--with light.  In a way, she's what I imagine Ellen DeGeneres would be if she were a trans woman--only better.  Like Ellen, she is literate and funny but uses neither of those traits to demean or bully others.  What makes Kate even better, though, is that she is one of the few--perhaps the only--person I've ever met who can be tender, corny and ironic all at the same time.

I realized, then, that if she could keep such a perspective after making her transition, and having her surgery, in an environment even less hospitable than what I imagined I would face, I would be all right.  Things wouldn't be easy, I knew.  But somehow, meeting Kate helped me to realize I would, or at least could, make it.

And now I hope she makes it through her cancer.  The doctors say she can, but she'll, of course, need treatment.  

You can donate through the site her friend Laura Vogel has set up.      

A Cis Ally And A Trans Panel On MSNBC

Yesterday, Melissa Harris-Perry presented a panel on MSNBC to discuss transgender issues. 

She was motivated to do this--and, in her words, to become "a better cis ally for the work of trans communities"--after seeing a video of the now-infamous beating of a trans woman in a suburban Baltimore fast-food restaurant. 

The fact that Ms. Harris-Perry is using her position to make herself such a visible ally is most welcome.  So is her presentation of the panel.  Part of me says that they tried to cover too many topics in the time they had.  However, one thing I have learned is that, even at this late date, I or any other trans person might be the "first impression" many people have of us.  And any time any of us talks about issues related to our identities and lives, there is a good chance that we will end up giving whoever is listening to, or reading, us a "primer" on what it means to be transgendered.

That is exactly what the panelists, who included Kate Bornstein, from whom I got some of my early education and encouragement.  I met her, albeit briefly, just as I was starting my life as Justine.  If she doesn't inspire you to live as your true self--whatever that means for you--there aren't very many other people who can. 

I am glad that MSNBC, which has such a large and wide audience, aired the panel--and that we're getting allies like Melissa Harris Perry as well as cis people who aren't nearly as well-known.