Friday Homestead Dispatch

A New Decade

Today I join the ranks of my friends who are in their 70s. Seems strange as I think back on my perception of my grandparents, aunts, and uncles in their 70s…and man, they seemed OLD!

My Grandfather Mackender (William) in the middle, Aunt Belle Mackender on the left, Aunt Leda on the right with my Great-Grandparents, both who died before I was born. On the right is my maternal Great-Grandmother Sophie (L) and her sister Clara.

Besides a few bumps and bruises along the way I’ve been quite fortunate in this journey, and with the luck of the draw at birth. I hope to keep on ranting in this missive, playing music with friends, and making objects in my studio for another decade (or so).

"…The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow."
—The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers (1940)

1.
One of the exhibitions at the AGO (Art Gallery of Toronto) we caught last week was Casa Susanna, an extraordinary look into a small portion of the crossdressing scene of the 1950s and 60s. The snapshots displayed, over 250 of them from the AGO’s holdings, from the personal collection of artist Cindy Sherman, and from the collection of Betsy Wollheim, feature the network of crossdressers who found refuge in the Catskills region of New York State during that time period. As stated on the introductory page on AGO’s website, the images provide insight into this historically significant crossdressing scene, allowing us to develop an understanding of this world and its connection to the lives of trans and crossdressing people today. These affirming photographs circulated among crossdressers by mail, as well as in the pages of Transvestia, a community magazine, copies of which will also be on view.

The video below is a short clip of an interview with Michael Gilbert, a philosophy professor at York University, who has been a life-long crossdresser and is also known as Miqqi Alicia. He stresses the point that the majority of people in daily life have their gender clearly declared, by the way we dress, way we stand, the way we sit, way we talk, and the way we move. He says when you violate these rules, you’re a gender outlaw, an outsider.

Here’s the trailer for Casa Susanna, presented by PBS American Experience, available on Amazon Prime.

Crossdressers are not considered trans, but are non-conformists nonetheless, which still upsets the folks who are interested in sticking their noses into your personal life. LGBTQ issues are a hot topic across the country right now as the ACLU is currently tracking 479 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S. But as some of these MAGA cretins are pushing these agendas, Erin Reed reports that even in South Carolina, a new poll conducted by Mason Dixon Polling & Strategy among registered voters in South Carolina has revealed that an overwhelming majority believes the government should not intervene in medical decisions regarding gender-affirming care for transgender youth, provided parents are involved in those decisions. Even a majority of Republicans oppose government intervention in the new poll. These findings are noteworthy given South Carolina's heavily Republican legislature and its tendency to vote predominantly for Republicans in national elections. With this new poll, a clearer picture is emerging regarding the general public's perception of bills targeting trans youth; South Carolina could enact such a bill imminently.

From the wall at the AGO—EPILOGUE: A DISILLUSIONED ASSESSMENT. In 1970, Susanna wrote her final column for Transvestia and vanished from the scene. Those in her circle assumed she was living full-time as a woman and that she’d transformed Casa Susanna into a hotel for vacationers. No one knew that Marie had become severely disabled because of an accident in 1967, and that Susanna had to live as a man to support them. In 1979, for the 100th issue of Transvestia, Virginia Prince convinced Susanna to write one last column. Her tone is scathing, and her conclusion is clear: crossdressers had not achieved acceptance, much less liberation, and trans identity was still taboo.

“Susanna Says” from Transvestia, vol. 17, #100, pages 2-4, 1979

One hundred years! Or is it one hundred issues of TVia? It really seems like a century ago we started groping in the confusion of our lives for a truth and a self-definition. We followed the same pattern that modern youth seems to have found, the eternal question of “who and I”? We were desperately trying to find ourselves, to see if we could fit somehow, comfortably, in the midst of our society, and we shuddered to think that it might be an impossible task. We seem to have moved forward to a certain extent. A good number of people, many more than there were one hundred issues ago, know about us. The moral “liberation” of our times seems to have helped somewhat, too. But, we ask ourselves, have we really become liberated? Have we really become understood? Accepted?

I get the impression that our “alter egos,” the GG’s (genetic girl), played a nasty trick on all of us. They are forcing the masculine world to accept them in its midst. They are wearing the construction helmets, and buzzing through computers and tearing engines apart while hanging on to their right to wear perfume, lipstick, jewelry and any type of fashion their wonderful minds wish to adopt. And what about us, you may say? Have we walked those million miles of acceptance to do as we wish, to behave as we’d love to have our “girl-within” behave? I am afraid not. The GG’s are winning their revolution. They even defy polarization. We equated skirts with GG’s and pants with the masculine way of life. We hated the GG when she boldly snatched away from us our jeans and our shirts and our neckties. But we did not have the guts to retaliate by snatching away her petticoats and skirts and lipsticks. So she advanced while we stood still. We just (sic) the new Iranian government in the street smoking cigarettes, wearing skirts and make-up in an insatiable urge towards total freedom. Our urge is like a weak kitten’s mewing inside a locked closet. We are still scared to death to be discovered.

Our transexual sisters are willing to meet the cameras, to make the headlines, but we are not quite willing to follow the example of GG’s and transexuals and gays. We are still at the bottom of the acceptance totem-pole, we are still looking for our true identity, caught somehow between our “he” and “she.” The GG’s are telling us that there is no such thing as a purely feminine world…that the world is a blend of all the masculine and all the feminine dreams and that anybody can tread those heretofore forbidden paths. They tell us that it is their “right” as human beings to explore and live as they wish. How come we do not fight for our “right” to do so? I have yet to see one TV in masculine attire wearing red nail polish. That’s a no-no. And like that one, there are thousands of other no-no’s that keep us enslaved in our old, ancient patterns of living. We are letting the revolution pass us by, while we timidly hope that the GG’s, transexuals and gays will win their battle so we can gather a few crumbs from their banquet. We can count with the fingers of one hand the number of TV’s (with Virginia at the head of the list) who have dared a break-through in radio, television, and other organizations. The rest of us sit back silently and do nothing but wish that something, somebody, would do something for our liberation.

I guess I sound rather pessimistic and despondent, but I think that reality backs me up. Still, I must agree that the joys we savored through our 100 issues are a treasure to be held very, very close to our hearts. It is strange to realize how much envy there is in being a TV. Envy for that part of the GG’s life that we are not allowed to invade. The “girl-within” we love so much is really a composite of all those facets of life which GG’s were always allowed to indulge in, but were denied to us. Now that the GG is invading our territory and de-genderizing many masculine attributes, behaviors and trademarks, we are still left with the fact that we are not de-genderizing a multitude of elements that remain strictly the exclusive domain of the GG. And that is why we envy them. They are the ones who are gaining. They are enriching their sphere of action, while ours remains static, unchanged, perhaps smaller in the degree that they are de-genderizing our world. Perhaps in our envy we distorted reality. We wanted the GG to remain the GG that WE dreamed about. We wanted the old (sic) turned the other cheek. So she was liberating herself while we with­ drew into our "envy-world” and dreamt of our girl-within always in skirts, always in the feminine frame where we wanted to keep her.

Yes, our revolution still has a long way to go, perhaps it will never materialize. As the GG de-genderizes our world, there will be nothing left for our girl-within, except the envy of things as they were in a past era, rapidly fading away just as crinoline, and silks and satins seem farther and farther away from reality. And we will continue to envy the GG because she took it all, spread her wings and flew high, very high, leaving behind a pitiful band of TV's who can only dream of a GG that no longer exists. The prospects for a TV liberation are indeed gloomy, but that is no reason to give up. Perhaps with persis­tence, with truly feminine wiles, we might yet salvage something from this debacle, and prove that our concept of the girl-within is still the closest thing to heaven that the human mind may conceive. For the time being let us rejoice with TVia over 100 beautiful issues which put color, and light, and hope where there was nothing but drabness, fear and despair before.

Love,

Susanna Valenti

Thanks, Susanna. As usual you are right on target. TVs are unique in that we cannot publicly organize like women and gays to publicize our position. Neither can we expect society to come around to our point of view voluntarily.

TV liberation can only come individually when we can educate those around us to a broader concept of humanness—of wholeness in which our way of life is understood simply as a means to that end. I've done what I could through books and appearances in a general way. Each of you must utilize material presented in these 100 issues and the Understanding book to clear your own concepts first and then go on to parents, wives and others when this becomes necessary or desirable.

Virginia

2.
Some things never change. Once again, check out Erin Reed’s Legislative Risk Assessment Maps, including both adult and youth. She writes that right now bills targeting trans adults have become far more common than those affecting youth. For transgender adults, the primary legislative concerns include adult gender affirming care bans, bathroom bans, prohibitions on drag specifically aimed at trans people and pride events, restrictions on changing birth certificates and drivers licenses, and laws that end legal recognition for trans people entirely.

Earlier this week far-right praying extremist Georgia state senators passed House Bill 1104 that consolidated several anti-transgender policies into a single piece of legislation. Both bills were attached to entirely unrelated legislation as a strategy to circumvent rules that mandate bills pass at least one chamber by a specific deadline, effectively rendering that deadline meaningless for anti-trans legislation.

Isabelle Philip from the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition stated, “Yesterday, HB 1104, a bill to support the mental health of athletes was overwritten to ban trans youth from playing on their school’s sports team and from using the correct bathroom, endangering some of our most vulnerable young Georgians, alongside a slew of other anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions. No substantial notice was given for public comment, which was stacked with far-right extremists, a tactic to exclude us from deliberation that directly impacts us."

Democratic Senator Elena Parent said, “It is not particularly material to the policy, but it is extraordinarily galling nonetheless and indicative of the hubris that exists within this building, that this legislation requires two public hearings to be put on by the school board… they then have to publicly notice it at least two weeks before they adopt a sex ed curriculum… then they on lines 135-138 have to have the curricula be available and accessible for public comment for at least 45 days before approval of any sex education curricula. Well… this bill popped up in committee with no notice, no 45 days, no opportunity for review, no opportunity for public input, and it wasn’t even online by the time we were voting on it. It is outrageous that we are busy mandating these things for school boards across the state while behaving in the complete opposite way.”

House Bill 1170 is still slated for a vote in the Senate. Should it pass, both it and HB1104 will go to the House for final concurrence, whereupon they will need the Governor’s signature for final passage into law.

Why is it that the far-right extremists espouse FREEDOM all while pushing the most legislation to restrict your freedoms?

3.
And in abortion rights, Texas U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, is the one who ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone in a decision that overruled decades of scientific approval. The case finally came before the Supreme Court this week and the argument was so weak, even the conservative justices rejected it. During oral arguments, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — two pivotal votes in the case — expressed doubts about the harms anti-abortion physicians claimed they’ve faced when treating patients who have taken abortion pills and needed follow-up care. The two justices also questioned whether curtailing access to the drug nationwide would be an overly broad remedy. Bwwaaahaahaaaaaaa.

“We’re not putting all our chips on this one case,” said Jesse Southerland, the federal policy director for Americans United for Life. “Since chemical abortion is making up the majority of abortions, it has to be a priority.” Some of the movement’s other plans depend on former President Fuckleroy returning to the White House in 2025. Others depend on Republicans winning majorities in the House and Senate. But some can advance regardless of the outcome in November — leaning on GOP state attorneys general, right-leaning judges and the grassroots pressure that abortion opponents credit for gradually eroding Roe’s protections over the last 50 years.

Once again the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, of which I ranted against earlier this month, is preparing executive actions for a potential second Fuckleroy administration. Heritage’s Project 2025 manifesto suggests many ways to “institutionalize the post-Dobbs environment,” including directing the FDA to rescind its two-decade old approval of mifepristone. Should there be delays on that front, the coalition urges the interim step of moving to “eliminate dangerous tele-abortion and abortion-by-mail distribution” — essentially having a potential Trump administration do what the Supreme Court might not.

And if you live in Louisiana, you are shit out of luck. A study from Physicians for Human Rights, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Lift Louisiana, and Reproductive Health Impact chronicles the bleak terrain that Louisiana's pregnant people and medical personnel must negotiate in the scorched post-Dobbs reproductive health landscape. Its conclusion couldn't be more stark: "The findings contained in this report are alarming: the research shows how Louisiana’s abortion bans violate federal law meant to protect patients, disregard evidence-based public health guidance, degrade long-standing medical ethical standards, and, worst of all, deny basic human rights to Louisianans seeking reproductive health care in their state." The report is filled with the words of doctors, nurses, and others who live constantly with the fear that they will lose their careers or their freedom if they are accused of violating the statute. It's also got the words of women, who fear they will lose their ability to have children or their lives if they don't receive the care they need.  It's beyond a confusing mess. It's a catastrophe in slow, but quickening, motion. 

This has been a long and precise road, years of planning, of ripping away the rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, and people of color. Take the time and read up on what could be in store if ‘Republicans’ win any more offices. And I just have to add that Fuckleroy is hocking $60 "God Bless The USA" Bibles to once again con the rubes. Sheesh.

JUST VOTE THE FUCK BLUE!

And now…