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The Chatsubo, or simply The Chat, is the bar made famous by William Gibson in his 1984 cyber-punk masterpiece NEUROMANCER. The Chat is where the cyberjocks, razorgirls and joeboys came to gather information and kick back. Please feel free to do the same here.
by JoAnn Roberts - CyberQueen
"He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes
himself the accomplice of liars and forgers." -- Charles Peguy
 It is now two and a half months since the GenderPAC mobilization meeting was held in King of Prussia and already the fledgling organization is having major problems.
As of this writing, the only organization to fulfill the requirements for membership verification was Renaissance and the only other organization to apply for formal membership was AmericanBoyz, an FtM group. As of the last week of January, GPAC did not yet formally exist and may never get to that state.
As for me personally, I have dissociated myself from GPAC completely. I believe if you say you agree to a certain set of rules, then you damn well ought to abide by them. Such was not the case over the Christmas holidays with GPAC.
A subset of the GPAC reps decided they could conduct GPAC business better than the full board and convinced the president to create an Executive Committee. As author of the GPAC Articles of Association, I pointed out: (a) this committee was formed improperly according to the Articles, and (b), in my opinion, the committee's only purpose was to keep information away from the other board members. I was told by one member of the new committee that the board just wasn't working and this committee was the expedient thing to do to get GPAC moving.
Excuse me?
Here is an organization that is supposed to be working for gender rights and one half of the board proceeds to trash the rights of the other half. Can you say hypocritical? Call me silly, call me naive, call me a dreamer, but the end never justifies the means. I could not convince the new committee to disband, and it was obvious that I was ineffective in my role as policy advisor to the GPAC board, so I resigned. I am not willing to compromise my principles for political gain. So, while the GPAC kids futz around, the community is still without a coherent political voice, as seen below...
I owe the good folks working for It's Time Oregon! an apology. Last month I repeated a claim that ITO! was working to eliminate t-people's rights under Oregon's disability laws. Well according to Jessica Xavier, one of the national directors for Its Time America!, nothing could be farther from the truth. Ms. Xavier believes the source of the news item was duped and that we were both ill-used. No one in ITO!, she says, is working to abolish any trans-rights in Oregon, nor are they working to abolish Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID) as reported. The GID issue will be the great divider for the transgender community in the coming year. I think its a grave mistake to remove GID from the Diagnostics And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). It will do far more harm than good. But there are transactivists, including the Executive Director of GenderPAC, determined to get it expunged no matter the cost to our people.
Other transgender activists have been cozying up to gay/lesbian organizations in the hope that some of the g/l/b political cachet will rub off on them. For the most part, it has worked and we're certainly being taken more seriously than many expected. However, all is not hunky-dory with the g/l/b community and trans-people.
Michelangelo Signorile, a columnist for OUT magazine recently wrote:
"[W]ithout consulting the rest of us mere mortals, the [National Gay & Lesbian Task Force,] suddenly rename[d] us the 'gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered' movement or, as one of NGLTFs leaders recently said in a press release, the g/l/b/t community. Sounds like a sandwich... NGLTF's often dated and unrealistic political dogma will be cast off by the gay masses in due time."
Meanwhile, Phyllis Frye has been working in the opposite direction trying to get g/l/b organizations to add the "t." Personally, I think hanging onto the g/l/b coattails like this is a mistake. Yes, we have a lot to learn from them, but we have to stand on our own. It does us no good to get drowned in a sea of voices where we have to fight just to be heard.
It looks like it's going to be an uphill battle all the way for transgender rights. Transactivists visited members of Congress who supported the gay-positive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) bill last year. They were told by each member visited that if transgendered people were added to the ENDA language the bill would never pass because some of the moderate supporters would defect. In fact, one staffer warned that we could be added to the bill in an unfriendly way like we were in the Americans With Disabilities Act. What we need to do is keep visiting Congress and keep educating the members on transgender issues.
So how about mixing a little politics with a lot of fun? The 11th Annual Charity/Coronation Ball produced by the Imperial Court of New York, the fantastic Night of a Thousand Gowns is set for Saturday, March 22, 1997 at the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton & Towers at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. Dress is formal/Black Tie. Tickets range in price from $75 each to $5000 for a Diamond Table of 10, all deductible of course. The $75 tickets get you in at 10:00 pm for dancing to a live orchestra, the full awards ceremony and Coronation, plus the fabulous dessert buffet at 12:30 am (worth the $75 alone). Gold Tickets at $125 include a full four course dinner at 8:00 pm. For more information call the Imperial Court at 212-724-0973 or 212 807-8767. Credit card orders can call CIRCUIT TIX at 800-429-3433. Ill see you there!
Gender bending and blending continues to fascinate the public and no less than the Guggenheim Museum in New York City is host to the latest infatuation. Rrose Is a Rrose Is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography is an exhibition organized by Jennifer Blessing, a curator at the museum. Ms. Blessing has collected 80 photographs from 24 artists, from Man Ray to Marcel Duchamp to Andy Warhol, each asking some question about the gender of the subject. The title of the show is a play on Duchamp's feminine alter-ego Rrose Selavy (pronounced, Eros c'est la vie, or Eros is life), and Gertrude Stein's famous paraphrase of Shakespeare. The show is gaining high praise and one reviewer said, "...it is especially powerful... it teaches nearly as much about life as it does about art." The show runs through April 27, 1997. The Guggenheim is at 1071 Fifth Ave at 89th, New York City.
Holiday Inn took a daring step when it compared sex reassignment surgery to upgrading their hotels in an ad that showed a very sexy and sultry woman at a college reunion. The voiceover tics off the costs of breast implants, nose job, etc. Turns out the hot babe used to be good old Bob. The subtext of the ad that ran during the Super Bowl XXXI was "she" became a better person for the change and so would the "new" Holiday Inn. In my opinion, the ad was tasteful. The downside of this story is that just three days after the game and tons of kudos in the press for the ad, Holiday Inn pulled the ad from television because of negative feedback. A lot of people called and said the ad was sinful and distasteful. When asked if people objected to the overt sexuality of the ad or the transsexual, a spokeswopman for Holiday Inn said it was both. A sampling of viewers before the broadcast indicated the public would like the ad. Now, we can't let a small group of crumudgeons take away this small but very important victory for our community. Here's Holiday Inn's email address hiwsprt@mindspring.com. It's now up to you to make your voice heard. Let them know that transgendered people travel on business and they may now have one less hotel to choose from. And, by the way, contrary to reports in the press, the model in the ad was not a transsexual.
Time for the serious news =8-)! The hot buzz for Spring is Evita Fashion. Turns out the real Evita was a clothes horse and would have made a respectable transvestite. But everyone will be trying to emulate the look Madonna brings to the silver screen as Eva Perone. The easiest look to copy is Evita Lips. The key is a clean face with porcelain skin, simple eye makeup and classic red lips. Evita lip color is a neutral to warm red so don't go too blue or too brown. To copy Evita's lips, carefully trace the outline of your lips with a red lip liner and then fill in with Dior Rouge Mysore, or Revlon Empire of Fire. Other good options are M.A.C. Russian Red, or L'Oreal no 106. Estee Lauder has released an Evita makeup kit.
Im sitting her typing this with a nasty razor burn on my thigh (its Renaissance night tonite). Razor burn happens most of the time because your skin is too dry, even if you shave in the shower as I do. If this happens to you frequently try applying a light oil like Avedas Calming Nutrients, and put a few drops on damp skin before shaving. The oil helps protect the skin from razor burn, and the blade sticks to the skin better, thus preventing nicks and cuts. It will also help cut down on ingrown hairs.
I mentioned a couple of times that I finally quit smoking after 35 years, but I'd added almost 20 pounds to my frame. (Hey, I'm just short for my weight.) I've managed to dump half those pounds in four weeks by getting my body in the Zone. A Zone-favorable diet is a revolutionary concept that seeks to keep hormone and insulin levels in your body in balance. By considering food as a drug, Barry Sears, Ph.D., has developed a set of guidelines for the proper amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrate each of us needs to have a healthy body. All I can say is -- it works. I'm not starving, and I get to eat a lot of food that I really like. The proof is on the scale, however. You can find out more about Dr. Sears Zone diet in Enter The Zone, ISBN 0-06-039150-2, Harper Collins, 1995.
Okay, forget about the runways. The fashions seen there have about as much relevance to our everyday life as finding ice on the Moon. Sheer madness seems to have invaded the fashion consciousness and models have been spied in flimsy, gauzy nothings displaying their underwear. This is fashion? Goddess give me strength! Your best bet to get fashionable ideas is to roam the upscale department stores in your local mall and look for labels like Jones of New York (I am in love with all their stuff), Dana Buchman (when I win the lottery, I will only wear her clothes), and St. John by Marie Gray (gorgeous knits).
Here is what the more sane voices of fashion are saying is coming for Spring... dresses are back, big time, especially for evening, but for daytime as well. The evening styles combine one of more of the following elements: strapless, asymmetrical, fishtail hemlines, and ruffles, all in soft, fluid fabrics. The drop-dead gorgeous essential buy for the season is a strapless dress in a stretch fabric with an asymmetrical hem. Oh, yes, if it has a slash taken out of the torso, that's even better.
Skirts and pants, however, have not been abandoned. Pants should be slim and tight (meaning you better have the bod for it), while skirts are once again, pencil thin with a side slit (been a while since weve seen that). Whats missing from this season is the structured, tailored office jacket. So what do you wear? A knit cardigan or twin sweater set.
The trend on the horizon is translating dancewear into high fashion. Designers like Isaac Mizrahi and Michael Kors have taken ballet tops and leotards and reformed them into stretchy, swirly dresses and unitards. Dance clothes are about mobility and comfort, said Kors, "two things that translate well into real life." Danskin watch out. Meanwhile, Lycra, that miracle of stretch, has been blended with just about every fabric imaginable to create stretch cotton, satin, lace and more.
Playing on the fame of Hollywood superstar Marilyn Monroe, Warners has introduced a Marilyn Monroe line of lingerie. The first ads show a bra, brief and robe in a jaguar print. Very sexy!
So, those are my opinions, but, hey, what do I know? I agree with Gandhi, the truth can never hurt a just cause. Comments? Write care of this publication or email them to CyberQueen@cdspub.com.
© 1997 by JoAnn Roberts
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