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

"We have sat on the river bank and caught catfish with pin hooks. The time has come to harpoon a whale."
-- John Hope

Last month I asked the question: "What do you think about how GenderPAC is representing us?" The resounding answer to that question is that you don't care about GPAC at all and I am not surprised. One respondent, Anne Casebeer (Tenn. Vals) had this to say, "To be perfectly honest, [GPAC's] Lobby Days was a badly organized event, as you have likely heard by now. Worse than that, Riki Anne [Wilchins] and Dana Priesing both claimed there were more than 100 lobbyists present. No way! -- try 45 at the outside." Anne put down more of her thoughts on Lobby Day in an article which can be read here at Transgender Forum. However, I think it is a terrible reflection on the GPAC staff that they felt they had to lie to make the event seem more successful than it actually was. To my mind, they've stopped being activists and have become politicians. Meanwhile, the tg community is still looking for an organization to represent its interests.

The Louisiana transgender boycott against Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is still generating heat. Here's a smidgen of responses appearing in the local press: "I find the HRC boycott one of the most infantile actions I have seen in quite some time. Any community has boundaries and those boundaries can be fuzzy." And I love this next one the best. "As I understand the facts, the New Orleans transgender and transsexual community wanted their group to be included in the [HRC] mission statement as a special class. Because this request was denied a boycott was instituted against the HRC... I believe this to be a very childish and self-serving stance... What's next? Should we mention the overweight people in the city, or those who embellish with body piercing, or people with tatoos...? These groups are all discriminated against for their choices!" Choice!?! What choice? We have a lot of work to do to educate all people, not just "straights." And this writer was an M.D., who should have known better but obviously didn't.

However, there is some good news about gay/transgender community relations. Jane Fee, from Minnesota, reports that she and B. J. Metzger, from St Paul, attended the organizing meeting of the new National Federation of Lesbian and Gay Democrats chaired by Congressman Barney Frank in Kansas City, Missouri. Jane says they were successful in getting the organization's mission statement changed to include Bisexual and Transgender and the name of the organization changed to National Stonewall Democratic Federation. Now that's the kind of tg community advocacy we need.

It seems that HRC (like one of our own institutions) has hard time staying out of controversy and hot water. HRC is a co-sponsor of the proposed Millennium Rally for Equality planned for April 30th of the year 2000. A huge number of local g/l/b/t activists and many national-level activists are opposed to the planned rally in Washington, D.C. Congressman Barney Frank has said it's "a diversion of resources" and "not a good idea." One former planner of the 1993 March on Washington said, "Too many people are wondering how they can become the Martin Luther King, Jr., for our movement when we are in desperate need of a million Rosa Parks. We're mistaking style for real substance." Billy Hileman, an activist from Pittsburgh and another 1993 MOW organizer says, "In spite of lofty words of inclusion, there is no public Millennium Rally organizing structure. However, what we do have are: a theme 'Faith and Family;' a date, April 30, 2000; a title - 'Millennium March for Equality;' logistics - a rally, no march; a platform - no demands; a merchandising plan - T-Shirts, etc.; an official travel agency; and 10,000 rooms booked in Washington. This is why they aren't in any hurry to open up the [planning] process. They don't need to except for PR purposes." In response to the Millennium Rally, the Federation of Statewide G/L/B/T/ Organizations has called for a unified 50 state action which calls for aggressive lobbying efforts, marches and rallies in all 50 state capitals. I've tried to contact this Federation several times with no luck. If anyone out there knows someone in the Federation, please let me know.

Dallas Denny wrote in an article On The Future Of The TGF Community, "I'd like to end with a call to the transgender community... to form... organizations which are not dependent upon personalities, which are financially stable, which serve the entire community, and which meet the actual and not the imagined needs of the community." That's a great sentiment, but Ms. Denny seems to have missed the fact that such an organization already exists. It's called the Renaissance Transgender Association, Inc. It actually has a written operational policy that prevents the organization from becoming a personality cult. It also is financially stable and, by supporting the development of local support groups, it meets the actual needs of the local community members. What this community doesn't need is a new national organization. I still think the idea of merging two or more of the nationals is the way to go and the merged organization should have its HQ in Washington, D.C. I've bounced this notion off several of the people in community leadership positions and they seem to like it. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. It will all depend on the right people getting fed up with the "Us" vs. "Them" attitude that is so prevalent right now.

Fashion news coming up... but first a history lesson. Kalina Isato wrote in her column last month, "...there is often a stream of cars that drive endlessly from one end of the long street to the other back and forth all night long (this procedure is called "cruising" in East Coast guido parlance)." As if! Crusin' has been around since before she was born. I used to "cruise" the Hot Shoppe in West Philly back in '64. But cruisin' originated on the West Coast in the late 40's, early 50's. Go rent American Graffiti to see what it was like. And watch the "guido" slurs.

You're going to be seeing a great photo shoot in the next coming LadyLike. Angela Gardner and I had "celebrity" makeovers by Devon Cass in New York City. Devon is the author of the book Double Take - The Art of the Celebrity Makeover. I tell you this because Devon used M*A*C Studio foundation on both of us and we loved it! The air conditioner quit during the last 45 minutes of the photo shoot and even under the hot lights on the hottest day of the year we didn't sweat off the foundation. Devon also used L'Oreal Color Endure lipstick on me and I fell in love with the color Ruby.

One of the latest trends for lips is liquid lip color. The first one I saw was called Lip Ink, but I'm not sure who makes it. Nevertheless, you can now get a creamy, high shine lip color from Maybelline called Lip Polish, or try L'Oreal's Rouge Pulp lip color.

I promised a report on those 90-second drying nail polishes. My experiment did not yield positive results. I bought Revlon's Top Speed for my trip to NYC last May. I knew I'd be rushed that morning before we left and the fast drying polish would be a big help. Well, as it turned out, not really. The polish goes on thick and lumpy. Because it tends to dry quickly from the top down, it is difficult to get a smooth coat on your nails. But worst of all, it didn't dry in 90 seconds as advertised. In fact, it didn't dry in three minutes as evidenced by the smushed polish on three nails after I reached into my purse. I'm not giving up yet since the polish ain't cheap ($5 a bottle). I'm going to try again and give it 5 minutes to dry. I'll let you know how that works out.

Pink is the palette for summer. Here are tips for choosing the "right" pink for you. Professional... light, beige-toned pinks, like M*A*C Plume eyeshadow, Dior blush in Naive Rose, and Lancome lip lacquer in Bebe. Romantic... soft, pale rosy pinks like, Jane Pretty In Pink eyeshadow, Bobbi Brown Pink lipcolor, and Trucco blush in Flirt. Daytime... pale to deep metallic pinks, like Hardy Candy Pink Eye eyeshadow, Il Makiage Venus lipcolor, and Hard Candy Blush in BabyDoll. Evening... intense, vivid pinks, like Make Up For Ever Star Powder 913, Lancome lipcolor in Magenta Lumiere, and Tish & Snooky's powder blush in Pussycat Pink.

I've been going to the nail salon with my wife every two weeks to get a manicure. Thing is... I've been going as Joe, not JoAnn. The Asian women there don't seem to have a problem with a male getting a manicure. In fact, they tell me that lots of men are getting manicures these days. The first time I went was right before going to Cal Dreamin' and my nails were quite long. I told them not to cut my nails and they didn't. I bring this up because I didn't go with my wife yesterday to the salon and she came home saying they were all asking for me! Maybe it's time for JoAnn to get her nails done.

The buzz in the print arena is about a book called Bitch by Elizabeth Wurtzel author of Prozac Nation. In Wurtzel's latest tome she profiles the lives of women who've been judged too wild, or too sexy, or too outspoken by our patriarchal culture, women such as Sharon Stone and Hillary Clinton. Critics say that Wurtzel is less interested in exploring women's status than in hyping her own status. Wurtzel appears nude on the cover of the book. She ain't bad lookin' either. (I can be such a pig at times!) Bitch is published by Doubleday.

The new motif du jour for eyemakeup is rhinestones. Yes, Kevin Aucoin started this new trend using it on several stars for Oscar night. Basically he put a dab of spirit gum on the back of very small rhinestones and glued them into the inside corners of the eye and/or under the lower lashes. You can get small rhinestones at any craft shop, but be careful with glue that close to your eyes. Best to use eyelash glue rather than spirit gum (no alcohol).

Summertime is for cool light clothing and the T-shirt top is numero uno for summer comfort. But not all Tees are made the same and you should be conscious of which style flatters your body. Believe it or not, wide shoulders are flattering (assuming a smaller waist to go with them), so look for a sleeve that falls right on your natural shoulder line... If you like being big busted (or just are) look for a high neck and below the belt length, or a sleeveless style that draws eyes off the chest or a boatneck that makes shoulders look wider and bust smaller. Avoid horizontal stripes that make bust look bigger... For heavy arms look for half sleeves and a scoop neck, or three-quarter sleeves, or long sleeves fitted to the body. Avoid any sleeve details at all. Finally, save the really baggy tees for sleeping. They don't look good on anyone.

According to Mademoiselle magazine, the "in" thing is to dress like a girl (that's women dressing like younger girls, not crossdressing guys). Anyway, here's the low-down... Lacy tops and jeans, like a pink camisole and tight black jeans (altho I only know like maybe two CDs who look great in jeans)... Little cap sleeves and Capri Pants (see my comments re: jeans. Goes double for Capri Pants)... Disco dresses (yawn!).... Flowers and Chocolate, i.e., a floral skirt with a chocolate brown camisole top. What grown woman wants to dress like this?

So, those are my opinions, but, hey, what do I know? Comments? Write care of this publication or email them to CyberQueen@cdspub.com.

© 1998 by JoAnn Roberts